Research On Chinese Tea Culture Of Ming Dynasty From Historical Perspective Of Health Promotion

Long history, extensive content, trait of comprehensiveness and far-reaching impact are all shared by science of health promotion of TCM and Chinese tea culture,which are the spectacular miracles in oriental traditional culture treasure. From ancient times,tea always has wide attention and enduring popularity as a classical healthy drink. Lots of across and confluence can be found between health preserving and Chinese tea culture in history, such as in the process of development, social and human connotations, embodiment of the value. In the Ming dynasty, Chinese feudal society has been in a ripe period.the microcosmic expression of health preserving from Chinese tea culture showed a unique epoch style. Based on widely gathering and structuring existing herbal literature(including comprehensive, dietotherapy, famine relieving one), monographs of tea, pictures and documents in Ming dynasty, for the first time and purposefully,I dug deep into the ways to keep good health in the development and feature of Ming dynasty’s tea culture,with the professional perspective of health preserving’s history. Order to dig the value of health preserving in Chinese tea culture, the study is in larger subject area and at more professional level. Meanwhile, investigations into the history helped to explore disputed Tea-washing’s origin,distinguish Cha-guo,Cha-cai and Cha-shi. To reasonably and authoritatively research,this paper firstly adopted the historic study method of "double Evidence Act"."Health promotion"first appeared in the inner chapters of Chuang-Tzu.It is an integrated activity to improve health and promote longevity, through a variety of methods including spiritual care,diet medication, exercise,health preservation of sexual activities, comply with the weather and so on. It could be said that the field of health promotion should include all concrete behaviors for the purpose and effect of body maintenance, improving life’s quality, preventing or reducing diseases, promoting longevity. Science of health promotion of TCM as a narrower definition is guided by the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine, greatly influenced by culture of Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism.Historical records about"tea"are all-embracing.So,the "tea" involved in this paper refered to bud leaves of Camellia Sinensis (L.) O.Kuntze.now grouped into green tea,black tea,white tea.yellow tea,dark tea and oolong tea.I gave some discussions to Pu’er tea(Camellia Sinensis (L.) O.Kuntze var.assamica(Mast.)Kitamura) also.Chinese tea culture,so does culture,has its broad and narrow sense.As a kind of utilitarian pursuit,health preserving belongs to spiritual content of Chinese tea culture, namely in its narrower sense.According research thought and concepts, the research contents of this thesis mainly refered to tea-drinking history, sociology on tea culture,tea-drinking folklore,cultural communication and cultural function of tea,within the scope of ancient Chinese areas of mainstream tea culture diffusion during the Ming Dynasty(A.D.1368-1644).Out of necessity,the situation of other historical periods was discussed also.The Ming dynasty is the last feudal dynasty ruled by Han people in Chinese history,which has great development and prosperity of social politics,economy,cultrue and traditional Chinese medical science. From the infancy in primitive society, foundation in pre-Qin period, formation during the Qin and Han dynasties, perfection during the Wei-Jin and Tang dynasties, to the breakthrough during the Song and Yuan dynasties,development of health promotion’s history has been got mature theoretical system and variety of ways in the Ming dynasty. Under unique background of the Ming dynasty, many scholars and officials, calligraphers, dramatists as famous health experts threw themselves into study and application of health preserving,not just doctors. Various of books about the health preserving were published,with abundant quantities and contents. There were also thoughts of health preserving in some other medical literature. With inheriting and innovating based on the research in history, science of health promotion had many new characteristics in Ming dynasty,including emphasis on the sense of initiative of self care, support from theoretic research of medicine, emphasis on various of integrated approaches and more attention paid to spreading availability. China has the long history of tea-making,tea-drinking and relevant studies.From the infancy before the Wei-Jin dynasty, the brewing between Wei and Tang dynasty, formation in Tang dynasty to leisure culture during the Song and Yuan dynasties, ancient Chinese tea culture faced the pathbreaking ways of tea drinking as an epoch-making reform in Ming dynasty, entered the mature and dominant stage of development. In Ming dynasty,repealing cake tea and promoting loose tea effectively impelled spread of loose tea and relative Yue drinking style,development of types of tea’s process technology,also including teapots’. This period laid the fundamental foundation for modern mode of tea-drinking. Existing monographs of tea in Ming dynasty had the largest number of all dynasties’. As the distinctive scenery in tea cultrue of Ming dynasty, royalty, scholars and civilians displayed their own epoch characteristics.As the material base of health promotion, healthy and therapeutic function and use of tea in ancient times mainly included nature and flaour and channel tropism, effects and indications,concrete application and related taboos, according to generations of herbal literature.In Ming dynasty,the summary and use of tea’s healthy and therapeutic function have been already complete basically. Besides,some doctors’arguments and thoughts,which affected by complex personal and time backgroun,could be typically seen in Li Shizhen’s "Compendium of Materia Medica" and Lu Zhiyi’s"Bencao cheng ya ban ji".In addition to the basic function of tea,monographs of tea in Ming dynasty also paid special attention to influence factors of tea’s quality, drinking water’s safety and hygiene, notes during tea-drinking for health consideration.In historical context of tea-drinking’s infiltration and popularization,as well as opportunity of health maintenance’s ages characteristics, elements of keeping good health hidden in tea cultrue of Ming dynasty highlighted and flourished.Regimen blossoming throughout the tea culture in Ming dynasty mainly laid in items about healthy living habits, healthy diet, mental hygiene and leisure health,which concentrated expression in voluntary lifestyle of people.Healthy living habits presses close to daily life.In Ming dynasty,it involved the details of routine health care,balance between work and rest with links to tea;especialy raising the value of the tea drinking environment by scholars,such as natural environment and exclusive teahouse. Healthy diet contained in tea cultrue of Ming dynasty was basically reflected in dietetic hygiene and diet therapy about tea-drinking. For example,having insisted on health-care details around tea-drinking,firstly set up Tea-washing as one of tea-drinking procedures with a special tool; more spread of health knowledge and simple dietotherapy relative to tea; folk custom of adding other things to tea,which has enriched the dietotherapy content. Mental health among tea people of different levels lay in fostering morality, calming mind, choosing a carefree life and expecting less, regulating mood and relieving pressure, pleasing themselves. Health preservation value in the related entertainment, mainly focused on civilians’leisure life in teahouse culture,and scholars’way of life related to Xingling culture.Tea cultural factors in Ming dynasty mainly have cultural background of Han nation.They didn’t keep a flourishing momentum on development in Qing dynasty.After all, effect of tea cultural in Ming dynasty and related ways of keeping good health,has been got a close relation intricately woven together, between it and routine customs and final piritual pursuit of Chinese people since the Qing dynasty.The ancient and modern science of health promotion of TCM appeals to both cultured and popular tastes of all ages,so does Chinese tea culture. The popularity and influence of them could wield crushing power in China and throughout the world. The intersection of them is full of great research value and good application prospect,which is worth exploring. The regimen blossoming everywhere throughout the tea culture in Ming dynasty, represents a perfect merge of science of health promotion and Chinese tea culture. It would provide precious resources and development space for the future further research in relative areas.