Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Posted by 醉茶生 at 10:02 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Related

There is a tea shop in Singapore, at North Bridge Centre, opposite the National Library. Their name in English is “Tea Joy”, and their name in Chinese is Cháyuè 茶樂. Their name has always confused me, because yuè 樂 means ‘music’, and lè 樂 (same character but different pronunciation) means ‘joy’, which suggests that they can’t read their own name, but that’s probably just me being rude.

The setting is a little cramped (or “cosy”, as they call it in the rental market). The shop conforms to the Chinese stereotype of a xuān 軒, which is a traditional long narrow shop (the word “xuan”, also means corridor), with the shop counter running along one wall and canisters of tea leaves along the other. A selection of tea pots, porcelain and other tea paraphernalia line the shop window. There are four closely placed tables between the two walls each of which seat four, but I have never (thankfully) been to the shop when it was full. Perhaps because I am only ever there in the evening, I am almost always the only person there.

It probably says more about me than it does about the tea house, but the thing that made a lasting impression on me when I first visited the tea house many years ago is this: On the wall, there hangs a scroll with two thin lines of Chinese calligraphy written in one corner of an otherwise empty sheet of silk:

客來茶當酒
kè lái chá dāng jiǔ

閒眠亦如仙
xián mián yì rú xiān

As with all these things, it loses something in the translation, but my attempt reads, “[I serve] tea instead of wine to my guest; and when the time comes to rest, we shall sleep the sleep of the immortals.“

The first line refers to a poem titled 〈寒夜〉 by the Song Dynasty poet, Dù Lěi 杜耒, that speaks of a bamboo stove and plum blossoms on a cold spring evening. The second line is startling, because tea is more usually associated with wakefulness instead of sleep, and is recommended as an antidote to the effects of alcohol. Needing tea as an aid to sleep is therefore probably the sign of a tea addict.

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