The Book of Tea

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It is much to be regretted that so much of the apparent enthusiasm for art at the present day has no foundation in real feeling. In this democratic age of ours men clamour for what is popularly considered the best, regardless of their feelings. They want the costly, not the refined; the fashionable, not the beautiful. I suppose I share the same meticulous approach – although I don’t ever have sugar or milk with my tea, I prefer it to be in a large mug and, when making at home, a teapot is essential to place the lid over the steeping teabag and trap in those healthy oils, nutrients, and ghosts of Teaists from days gone by.

bu Çay Kitabı'ndan bir sonraki macerada Erns Jünger'in Cam Arılar'ına nasıl ulaştığımdan bahsedeyim; 1800'lerin sonu 1900 lerin başında gezinmeye devam ediyorum bir hafiye gibi... Kakuzo Okakura yaşadığı dönemde birçok insanı etkilemiş. Sadece edebiyatta da değil üstelik. Okakura etkisine kapılanlardan biri de Martin Heidegger.. Ve Heidegger'in yakın arkadaşlarından, mektuplaşıp onun etkisi ile felsefi metinler de kaleme alan Ernst Jünger nam-ı diğer Cam Arılar'ın yazarı.So it's pretty exiting, in that everyone is basically afraid for their lives and trying to both survive, but make sure that their respective sides end up on the throne. Here's the thing: While I absolutely appreciated this, I didn't feel a sense of actual danger? Like sure, I knew that cognitively the characters were technically in danger, running for their lives and from their foes, but... I just didn't actually feel it? First, we are given points of view from both Ning and Kang- one from first person, one from third, which is a trend I am seeing a lot of lately, and plan to write a post about sooner than later. Anyway, because they are split up, this makes sense. Ning is on the run, because of some political shenanigans from the last book which I won't get into, and Kang is being groomed as the next leader of the kingdom. Not the rightful leader, mind, but the leader nonetheless. Taoism accepts the mundane as it is and, unlike the Confucians and Buddhists, tries to find beauty in our world of woe and worry. Those of us who know not the secret of properly regulating our own existence on this tumultuous sea of foolish troubles which we call life are constantly in a state of misery while vainly trying to appear happy and contented. Tea – unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

The friendship of a despot is ever a dangerous honour. It was an age rife with treachery, and men trsuted not even their nearest kin. One of favourite quotes is "But I am not to be a polite Teaist. So much harm has been done already by the mutual misunderstanding of the New World and the Old, that one need not apologize for contributing his tithe to the furtherance of a better understanding." I wholeheartedly agree with this! Additionally, "we have developed along different lines, but there is no reason why one should not supplement the other." Hear, hear!Luwuh’s book consists of three volumes and 10 chapters – some people really take their tea seriously. It does become a way of life, to the extent where robbing me of my daily cups of tea would be a great insult and would leave me feeling out of sorts. I simply cannot fathom life without it and cannot remember the last day I went without any. First of all, this cover is devastatingly stunning, just as much if not more than the first book. That's probably my favorite thing about this series, which might seem trivial, but I truly enjoy how gorgeous these books look together. I remember giving the last book five stars, but not remembering everything that happened in it. Unfortunately, this book didn't completely live up to the high expectations I had for it, but I think it was still a nice story. In The Book of Tea, from 1906, the author follows the cultural impact of the beverage on the culture of Japan. From history, being a Chinese invention, moving from cakes of ground leaves, to be heated with ginger, lemon and even onion at first to what we now would call Matcha (powdered tea, curiously boiled with salt) towards the leaves we boil nowadays, there is a lot of interest. Still I would have liked a bit more on the actual mechanics, as opposed to the feel and idea behind the tea ceremony. The illustrations give you a feel, but I missed something nonetheless.

The ancient sages never put their teachings in systematic form. They spoke in paradoxes, for they were afraid of uttering half-truths. They began by talking like fools and ended by making their hearers wise. Laotse himself, with his quaint humour, says, "If people of inferior intelligence hear of the Tao, they laugh immensely. It would not be the Tao unless they laughed at it." Let us stop the continents from hurling epigrams at each other and be sadder if not wiser by the mutual gain of half a hemisphere.

II. The Schools of Tea.

Also, kang's pov chapters?? Literally so bland. I was so excited when I saw this was dual pov so that was a big bummer... 🙈🙈 The Americans, having been so influential during the Industrial Revolution, were technologically far in advance and the Japanese knew it. When the Americans returned a year later to hear the reaction to the ultimatum, there was unity and Japan made the bold step towards modernisation. Another POV was introduced out of the blue, which also confused me. The narrative is told from Ning's and Kang's perspectives, and aside from Kang's perspective being told in the third person, both perspectives sounded the same. Actually, almost all of the characters shared a similar sound. It was challenging to get engaged in the story because the entire thing was told in a detached, mass manner. This story felt drawn out and repetitive because Ning's thoughts and emotions were constantly described rather than actually demonstrated, a flaw I was willing to ignore in the first book. Another thing that Lin does very well is the tension between Ning and Kang, both in the previous book and in this one. They went from having a blooming connection in the last one, to it being very complicated because of the betrayals that happened in the palace. Obviously, this affects how they view one another and react to one another. I think the tension they still had between them was very well done, both of them were affected by what happened but still wanted to be close to the other person. Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal CC0 1.0 https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode External