Tea, which has a drinking history of thousands of years in China, is also one of the symbols of Chinese traditional culture.
When people drink tea, they have also derived a lot of tea culture, and there are many particulars in brewing, tea sets, and tea tasting.
Among them, it also includes the exquisiteness of the water for brewing tea.
Lu Yu once said in the "Tea Classics" that he considered the best choice: "The water uses mountains and rivers, river water, and wells. The mountains and rivers hold the milk springs, stone ponds, and those who overflow."
However, how can common drinking water, such as spring water and well water, satisfy people's curiosity?
Therefore, the water from the sky-rain, dew, and snow water that the ancients bothered to collect, all added romance and poetry to the cup of tea in the hands of the ancients.
Among them, Xueshui is the most elegant.
Miaoyu’s tea is boiled with the snow collected from plum blossoms
In the 41st chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions", "Wei Cui'an Tea, Plum Blossom, Xueyi, Red House Jie Yu Mother Locusts", even Lin Daiyu, who couldn't taste the snow-cooked tea, was laughed at by Miaoyu. "You are such a person. Ladies, you can't even taste water."
Miaoyu is a layman with hair and self-proclaimed lofty and arrogant.
Because I disliked that Grandma Liu was a vulgar person, even the small colorful cover clock of the Cheng Kiln that Grandma Liu had drunk just didn't want it. Grandma Liu walked along and wanted someone to wash it.
During this time, Jia's mother and his party came to Weicui'an to drink tea. Miaoyu cooked the tea personally, and what he took was the "rain water of juān", which means cleanness. Laojun eyebrows from Wuyi Mountain have high fragrance and sweet tea taste.
Mother Jia ate half a cup of tea, then handed it to Grandma Liu.
Grandma Liu drank it all in one fell swoop, and the above story came up.
As for the two of Chai and Dai, Miao Yu naturally treated them differently.
She quietly pulled the skirts of the two of them, led them to the cabin, and Baoyu followed.
The three ate "Tiji Tea".
Daiyu asked, "This is also the rain of the old years?" Miaoyu sneered and said, "You are such a person, you are a layman, you can't even taste the water. This is when I lived in the Panxiang Temple of the Xuan Tomb five years ago. The snow on the plum blossoms I harvested got the ugly flower urn and the urn. I was always reluctant to eat it and buried it underneath. It only opened this summer. I only ate it once, and this is the second time." Zai Miao In Jade’s words, even the rain in the following year was not good enough. It was the snow collected from the plum blossoms in the temple five years ago, and the snow collected in the urn for five years before it started to open. People like Chai Dai and Baoyu eat tea.
Snow water, rain, dew, and frost are all called rootless water, and also called sky falling water.
The ancients believed that this kind of water was unpolluted and not contaminated with earthly atmosphere, so it was mostly used as a material for medicine or medicine.
In "A Dream of Red Mansions", Xue Baochai needs to take "cold fragrant pills" to cure the febrile toxin brought by the fetus.
This cold incense pill specifies the use of "the twelve coins of rain on the day of rain", "the twelve coins of dew on the day of white dew, the twelve coins of frost on the day of frost, and the twelve coins of snow on the day of Xiaoxue", plus Put on the many flower stamens, honey, and sugar to make longan balls, which can be made by burying them under the roots of the flowers.
This kind of cumbersomeness, isn't it "nothing to do"!
The ancients used snow-cooked tea for its clean and clear quality
Ming Gao Lian said in "Sweeping Snow, Cooking Tea and Playing Painting": "The tea is cooked in snow, the taste is clearer, and it is the same for a long time. It is free from dust and dirt, and the quiet person sips it enough to break the cold." It can be seen that the ancients said Snow cooking tea is based on its clean and clear quality.
The snow on the plum blossoms, orchids, and pine is even more elegant and elegant than snow.
Cooking snow and making tea does not only exist in books. It has been mentioned in the writings of poets of various dynasties, which also shows the authenticity of its existence.
Lu You wrote in "Xuehou Sencha": "Snowy liquid is clear and sweet and springs up well. I bring my own tea stove to cook and fry. If there is no concern, it is worth living in the world for a hundred years." Bai Juyi wrote in "Gin Yuan Lang Zhong Baixu" Poetry, Drinking Snow Water Tea, Because of the Inscription on the Wall," wrote: "Singing frosty wool sentences, leisurely tasting snow water tea. In the city, where the eyebrows are stretched, there is only the Yuan family." The poet is drinking snow water tea with his friends and chanting poems. At that time, Xueshui tea was also written into his poems, which shows the reality of its existence.
In addition, in Bai Juyi's "Late Rising", "melting snow and frying tea, mixing crispy and boiled chyle" in Bai Juyi's "Late rise" can not help but make people sigh, or Bai Juyi can enjoy life.
We probably won’t know what it is like to make snow-cooked tea.
The snow piled on the ground cannot be eaten directly.
Snow is white, but it is actually composed of 10% moisture and 90% cold air and impurities. Therefore, after the snow is hydrated, it is not transparent and clean water.
I don’t know if the environmental pollution in ancient times was not so serious, or the ancients had their own magical methods to deal with it. Anyway, the artistic conception of making snow and cooking tea and watching the snow through a window is impossible for modern people to appreciate.
Cover news reporter Liu Kexin