Reserch On Mei Yaocheng’s Tea Poems

Although the tea poems do not account for a large proportion among all the poemsof Mei Yaochen, they do reflect all the facet of life with tea during the period ofEmperor Ren in Northern Song Dynasty. For quite a long time, scholars have focusedtheir studies on the styles of Mei’s poems, but they have paid little attention to thecontends of his poems, especially of his tea poems. During his long-term official travel,Mei Yaochen’s experience of being local official, such as the subordinate of eachdepartment’s chief and the county magistrate, made him familiar with the commonpeople’s life and know well about the influence of the tea trade on people’s life.Meanwhile, the scholar-bureaucrats who made friends with Mei all were importantsenior officials of the court. Among them, there were Qian Weiyan, Xie jiang at first,and then there were Ouyang Xiu, Cai Xiang and Fu Bi. That’s why there were scholar’ssentiment and literati’s character in him. He was excellent in poetry, pursing seemlyplain but actually meaningful works. He was so good at tea-tasting that he couldrecognize the different levels of the tea. Therefore, his tea poems touched upon life withtea during the period of Emperor Ren and even during the whole period of NorthernSong Dynasty, reflecting the functions of tea and the mature process of tea culture in aunique perspective.This thesis is mainly divided into four chapters, and it develops from literaturereview to Mei Yaochen and his poems, and then to the three social functions of Mei’stea poems, and lastly it moves to the life in Song Dynasty reflected in Mei’s tea poems.In Chapter One, the thesis makes a literature review of the studies on tea poems inSong Dynasty and of the studies on Mei Yaochen. Firstly, it specifies the definition oftea poems, and therefore determines the scope of the study on Mei’s tea poems. Then, itmakes a summary of the general accomplishments of the studies on tea poems and ofthe studies on Mei Yaochen, which have been made since the founding of the People’sRepublic of China.In Chapter Two, the thesis briefly presents the life of Mei Yaochen and his official travel. The key point of this chapter is that the reason why Mei decided to compose teapoems is because tea was closely related to his life, and the job of being a governmentofficial laid a foundation for his later pondering on culture of the tea economy. Besides,his poems’ characteristic and his personal character, being the same as the characteristichas been given to tea, has been highly appreciated. His high moral standards and theseemly ignorant but actually enthusiastic attitude of being a government official can bemirrored by his tem poems.In Chapter Three, the thesis discusses the three social functions of Mei Yaochen’stea poems. Based on the discussion of the three functions of tea–Bestowing, Tradingand Presenting, it makes a summary on the function of tea in people’s life in the periodof Northern Song Dynasty. Tea can be a gift bestowed by the royalty, and can also beserved as the bridge through which literati express their emotions. Besides, tea can beused as both a political and economic means in diplomacy. What is more, tea is also amaterial insurance to people’s life.In Chapter Four, the thesis explained that the life in Song Dynasty can be reflectedin Mei’s tea poems. Mei’s tea poems are signs for the accomplishment of tea culture ofJian Zhou during the period of Emperor Zen, and also reflecting the general affectionfor tea in Song Dynasty. Mei’s tea poems are mirrors of life in Song Dynasty, and heuses tea poems as the tools, trying to picturing a vivid life state.