"Atmosphere" is a very important concept in the Chinese Classical Aesthetics. It was officially put forward by Wang Changling, a Tang Dynasty poet, in his Poem Personality. He said that "within the atmosphere, see it in heart, put it in hand and then think about it, clear image like this." Developed by Jiao Ran, Sikong Tu and Liu Yuxi and finally Wang Guowei in human words he summarized it as "mind atmosphere". Wang Changling divided poem into three types: "objective mood", "emotion mood" and "mind atmosphere". The Chinese Tea Ceremony believes that savoring tea is the same as writing poems, focusing on the communication of natural scenes and human feelings. The environment beauty of the Chinese Ceremony includes environment beauty, atmosphere beauty, human beauty and heart beauty.
The beauty of environment: refers to the location for tea savoring, including the inner and outside environment. The outside environment mainly has:
Wild spring and smoke under the white clouds, the cliff water fall cutting the snow flower — The deep and remote beauty of the hill forest spring and water.
The cold plum blossom opens near the river,take the Ji river water and burning the Chu bamboo myself-The remote and clear beauty of rivers.The Dragon decorated boat that is so close to the moon, the water waves vibrates the five lakes sky-The remote and grand beauty of lakes and seas.
The birds singing lowly in the Zen rain, the flower falling wind breezing the tea aroma - The remote beauty of the temple forest.
Clouds light, stones steep, late wind clear, broken rosy clouds bright - The secluded and black beauty of the Taoism temple scenery.
To watch the city in the mountains scenery, listen to the music in the water. The green bamboo are growing new buds, the fragrant flower opening under the ceiling. The remote and tranquil beauty of the city gardens.
Wild wind breezes up the new lotus, the clouds and rain coming together on the lake, Yellow earth to contract wall and grass top, a tree of redbud in front of the door-The relaxed and leisure beauty of the farm fields.
Surely, as long as you have a heart for beauty, a spring, a stone, a pine tree, a bine, a few bamboo or a shadow of tree could be the best place for tea savoring.
The inner environment for tea savoring mainly concerns warmth, comfort, simplicity and loftiness.
The beauty of atmosphere:according to the "tea reveals the six arts" text, to assist tea through the six arts, to combine music,chess, book, drawing, poetry and drama, even stone and curio to enhance the art level of tea savoring.
Human beauty: refers to the humanity of the tea savoring environment according to the number, cultivation, charm and presence of people. It is mostly emphasized in the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Quan proposed in Tea Menu that the tea friends should be "no matter scholars or poets,as long as could be distinctive from the social fair and rules". He had a requirement on tea friends but did not define number of tea friends. Zhang Yuan was different, he mentioned in Tea Notes that "the less tea drinkers, the better, if more, it would be noisy, if noisy, the grace and elegance would be damaged. Savoring alone is remote, two would be wonderful three or four would be interesting, five or six would be general, seven or eight would be too many."
Modem tea art thinks tea savoring is a general thing, does not matter the number and type of people. Different number of people savoring tea has a different interest. Savoring alone get the spirit, two get the interest, over three get the wisdom.
The beauty of heart: savoring tea is a relaxation for heart. The place for tea savoring should be a relaxing and resting area for people from the exhaustion of life. It should be like a walk on the grass, release the chained heart, to have a nice bath, wash away the tiredness. To someextent, savoring tea is to savor the good mood and emotion. Good mood or emotion means warmth, comfort and tranquility.
The poems by Yan Zhenqing, Lu Shixiu and Cui Wan, "to brew tea flowers and invite guests, drinking tea is drinking the clear words", which depicted the warm situation of tea drinking.
Poet Lu You, in the Song Dynasty, had "listening to the spring rain in the house during night, hearing the apricots flowers selling in the deep avenue in the next morning. Writing the calligraphy on a short head paper, brewing tea at the window". Yang Wanli had "society is the life, stop the family at the nice place. To take the Song river water by myself, brewing tea in the Chonghong kiosk". Both talking about the poets relaxed mood.
Poet Xu Zhenqing, in the Ming Dynasty, had "burning the cold candles in the quiet yard, the wind breezes the green bamboo under the moon, without accompany I brew tea alone, the nice bronze leaf bamboo roots tea".