Chinese Tea - Quotes and Poems

Lu Tung (Chinese poet during T'ang Dynasty) "Tea-Drinking"
The first cup moistens my lips and throat;
The second cup breaks my loneliness;
The third cup searches my barren entrail but to find therein some thousand volumes of odd ideographs;
The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration-all the wrongs of life pass out through my pores;
At the fifth cup I am purified;
The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals.
The seventh cup-ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves.
Where is Elysium? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither.

“Tea is a miraculous medicine for the maintenance of health. Tea has an extraordinary power to prolong life. Anywhere a person cultivates tea, long life will follow.” Eisai, Kitcha Yojoki (1121)

“Even though one studies the tea industry until old age, one can never learn all the names of types of teas.” Fujian saying

The effect of tea is cooling. As a drink, it suits very well persons of self-restraint and good conduct. When feeling hot, thirsty; depressed, suffering from headache, eye-ache, fatigue of the four limbs, or paints in the joints, One should drink tea only; four or five times.” Lu Yu, Ch’a Ching, 780

“A cup or more tea a day, Keep the doctors away" Chinese proverb

“Tea induces lightness of spirit, clarity of mind and freedom from all sense of constriction, whether mental of physical; and it promotes such serenity that mundane cares fall away so that whatever is strident of exacerbating in daily life can be put out of mind for a while.” -The Emperor Song Hui Zong

Seven bowls of tea bring seven advantages:
one, it promotes the production of body fluids and quenches thirst;
two, it refreshes the mind;
three, it helps digestion;
four, it induces sweating to relieve the common cold;
five, it helps fat people reduce weight;
six, it activates thinking and strengthens memory;
and seven, it ensures longevity.”
- Lu Tong, Tang dynasty.

"Better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one."
Ancient Chinese proverb

"Tea tempers the spirit, harmonizes the mind, dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue, awakens the thought and prevents drowsiness."
Lu Yu, The Classic Art of Tea

There’s a Chinese saying that tea is one of the seven basic daily necessities of life – besides fuel, rice, oil, salt, soya sauce and vinegar.