Wabi-sabi
In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty, "imperfect and incomplete", it is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence impermanence and emptiness or absence of self-nature. Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, simplicity, austerity, modesty and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes. According to Leonard Koren, wabi-sabi can be defined as "the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of traditional Japanese beauty and it occupies the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the far West." Whereas Andrew Juniper notes that "If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing that object could be said to be wabi-sabi." For Richard Powell, "Wabi-sabi nurtures all, authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, nothing is perfect."The words wabi and sabi do not translate easily.
Wabi referred to the loneliness of living in nature, remote from society. Around the 14th century these meanings began taking on more positive connotations. Wabi now connotes rustic simplicity, freshness or quietness, can be applied to both natural and human-made objects, or understated elegance, it can refer to quirks and anomalies arising from the process of construction, which add uniqueness and elegance to the object. Sabi is beauty or serenity that comes with age, when the life of the object and its impermanence are evidenced in its patina and wear, or in any visible repairs. After centuries of incorporating artistic and Buddhist influences from China, wabi-sabi evolved into a distinctly Japanese ideal. Over time, the meanings of wabi and sabi shifted to become more hopeful. Around 700 years ago among the Japanese nobility, understanding emptiness and imperfection was honored as tantamount to the first step to satori, or enlightenment. In today's Japan, the meaning of wabi-sabi is condensed to "wisdom in natural simplicity".
In art books, it is defined as "flawed beauty". From an engineering or design point of view, wabi may be interpreted as the imperfect quality of any object, due to inevitable limitations in design and construction/manufacture with respect to unpredictable or changing usage conditions. Although the kanji characters for "rust" is not the same sabi in wabi-sabi, the original spoken word is believed to be one and the same. A good example of this embodiment may be seen in certain styles of Japanese pottery. In the Japanese tea ceremony, the pottery items used are rustic and simple-looking, e.g. Hagi ware, with shapes that are not quite symmetrical, colors or textures that appear to emphasize an unrefined or simple style. In fact, it is up to the knowledge and observational ability of the participant to notice and discern the hidden signs of a excellent design or glaze; this may be interpreted as a kind of wabi-sabi aesthetic, further confirmed by the way the colour of glazed items is known to change over time as hot water is poured into them and the fact that tea bowls are deliberately chipped or nicked at the bottom, which serves as a kind of signature of the Hagi-yaki style.
Wabi and sabi both suggest sentiments of solitude. In the Mahayana Buddhist view of the universe, these may be viewed as positive characteristics, representing liberation from a material world and transcendence to a simpler life. Mahayana philosophy itself, warns that genuine understanding cannot be achieved through words or language, so accepting wabi-sabi on nonverbal terms may be the most appropriate approach. Simon Brown notes that wabi-sabi describes a means whereby students can learn to live life through the senses and better engage in life as it happens, rather than be caught up in unnecessary thoughts. In this sense wabi-sabi is the material representation of Zen Buddhism; the idea is that being surrounded by natural, unique objects helps us connect to our real world and escape stressful distractions. In one sense wabi-sabi is a training whereby the student of wabi-sabi learns to find the most basic, natural objects interesting and beautiful. Fading autumn leaves would be an example. Wabi-sabi can change our perception of the world to the extent that a chip or crack in a vase makes it more interesting and gives the object greater meditative value.
Materials that age such as bare wood and fabric become more interesting as they exhibit changes that can be observed over time. The wabi and sabi concepts are religious in origin, but actual usage of the words in Japanese is quite casual because of the syncretic nature of Japanese belief. Many Japanese arts over the past thousand years have been influenced by Zen and Mahayana philosophy acceptance and contemplation of the imperfection, constant flux and impermanence of all things; such arts can exemplify a wabi-sabi aesthetic. Examples include: Honkyoku Ikebana Bonsai design features such
Japanese tea ceremony
The Japanese tea ceremony called the Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered green tea. In Japanese, it is called chanoyu or sadō, chadō, while the manner in which it is performed, or the art of its performance, is called temae. Zen Buddhism was a primary influence in the development of the Japanese tea ceremony. Much less Japanese tea practice uses leaf tea sencha, in which case it is known in Japanese as senchadō as opposed to chanoyu or chadō. Tea gatherings are classified as a formal tea gathering chaji. A chakai is a simple course of hospitality that includes confections, thin tea, a light meal. A chaji is a much more formal gathering including a full-course kaiseki meal followed by confections, thick tea, thin tea. A chaji can last up to four hours. Chadō is counted as one of the three classical Japanese arts of refinement, along with kōdō for incense appreciation, kadō for flower arrangement; the first documented evidence of tea in Japan dates to the 9th century, when it was taken by the Buddhist monk Eichū on his return from China.
The entry in the Nihon Kōki states that Eichū prepared and served sencha to Emperor Saga, on an excursion in Karasaki in the year 815. It was practiced by Japanese nobles. By imperial order in the year 816, tea plantations began to be cultivated in the Kinki region of Japan. However, the interest in tea in Japan faded after this. In China, tea had been known, according to legend, for more than a thousand years; the form of tea popular in China in Eichū's time was "cake tea" or "brick tea" —tea compressed into a nugget in the same manner as pu-erh. This would be ground in a mortar, the resulting ground tea mixed together with various other herbs and flavourings; the custom of drinking tea, first for medicinal, largely for pleasurable reasons, was widespread throughout China. In the early 9th century, Chinese author Lu Yu wrote The Classic of Tea, a treatise on tea focusing on its cultivation and preparation. Lu Yu's life had been influenced by Buddhism the Zen–Chán school, his ideas would have a strong influence in the development of the Japanese tea.
Around the end of the 12th century, the style of tea preparation called "tencha", in which powdered matcha was placed into a bowl, hot water added, the tea and hot water whipped together, was introduced to Japan by Eisai, another monk, on his return from China. He took tea seeds back with him, which produced tea, considered to be the most superb quality in all of Japan; this powdered green tea was first used in religious rituals in Buddhist monasteries. By the 13th century, when the Kamakura Shogunate ruled the nation and tea and the luxuries associated with it became a kind of status symbol among the warrior class, there arose tea-tasting parties wherein contestants could win extravagant prizes for guessing the best quality tea—that was grown in Kyoto, deriving from the seeds that Eisai brought from China; the next major period in Japanese history was the Muromachi Period, pointing to the rise of Kitayama Culture, centered around the gorgeous cultural world of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and his villa in the northern hills of Kyoto, during this period, the rise of Higashiyama Culture, centered around the elegant cultural world of Ashikaga Yoshimasa and his retirement villa in the eastern hills of Kyoto.
This period 1336 to 1573, saw the budding of what is regarded as Japanese traditional culture as we know it today. The use of Japanese tea developed as a "transformative practice", began to evolve its own aesthetic, in particular that of "sabi" and "wabi" principles. "Wabi" represents the spiritual, experiences of human lives. Its original meaning indicated quiet or sober refinement, or subdued taste "characterized by humility, simplicity, profundity and asymmetry" and "emphasizes simple, unadorned objects and architectural space, celebrates the mellow beauty that time and care impart to materials." "Sabi", on the other hand, represents the outer, or material side of life. It meant "worn", "weathered", or "decayed". Among the nobility, understanding emptiness was considered the most effective means to spiritual awakening, while embracing imperfection was honoured as a healthy reminder to cherish our unpolished selves and now, just as we are—the first step to "satori" or enlightenment. Murata Jukō is known in chanoyu history as an early developer of tea as a spiritual practice.
He studied Zen under the monk Ikkyū, who revitalized Zen in the 15th century, this is considered to have influenced his concept of chanoyu. By the 16th century, tea drinking had spread to all levels of society in Japan. Sen no Rikyū and his work Southern Record the best-known—and still revered—historical figure in tea, followed his master Takeno Jōō's concept of ichi-go ichi-e, a philosophy that each meeting should be treasured, for it can never be reproduced, his teachings perfected many newly developed forms in architecture and gardens and the full development of the "way of tea". The principles he set forward—harmony, respect and tranquility —are still central to tea. Sen no Rikyū was the leading teamaster of the regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who supported him in codifying and spreading the way of tea as a mea
Roji
Roji, lit.'dewy ground', is the Japanese term used for the garden through which one passes to the chashitsu for the tea ceremony. The roji cultivates an air of simplicity. Sen no Rikyū is said to have been important in the development of the roji. At his Myōki-an, the'sleeve-brushing pine' gained its name from the garden's diminutive size. For his tea house at Sakai, he planted hedges to obscure the view over the Inland Sea, only when a guest bent over the tsukubai would he see the view. Rikyū explained his design by quoting a verse by Sōgi. Kobori Enshū was a leading practitioner; the roji is divided into an outer and inner garden, with a machiai. Typical features include the tsukubai, tōrō, tobi ishi, wicket gate. Ostentatious plantings are avoided in preference for moss and evergreens, although ume and Japanese maple are found. Sadler argues that the roji, with its small size, harmonious proportions, and'simple suggestiveness' served as a model for domestic Japanese courtyard gardens. Chashitsu Japanese garden Japanese tea ceremony Tea garden
Mudra
A mudra is a symbolic or ritual gesture in Hinduism and Buddhism. While some mudras involve the entire body, most are performed with the fingers. A mudrā is a spiritual gesture and an energetic seal of authenticity employed in the iconography and spiritual practice of Indian religions. In hatha yoga, mudras are used in conjunction with pranayama while in a seated posture, to stimulate different parts of the body involved with breathing and to affect the flow of prana, boddhicitta, amrita or consciousness in the body. Unlike older tantric mudras, hatha yogic mudras are internal actions, involving the pelvic floor, throat, tongue, genitals and other parts of the body. Examples of this diversity of mudras are Mula Bandha, Viparita Karani, Khecarī mudrā, Vajroli mudra; these expanded in number from 3 in the Amritasiddhi, to 25 in the Gheranda Samhita, with a classical set of ten arising in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. The Chinese translation is yinxiang. Both these Chinese words appear as loanwords in Japanese and Korean.
Two other Chinese-based compounds, 印契 and 密印, are used. In Japanese, the former compound may be used with the order of the characters reversed. Mudra is used in the iconography of Hindu and Buddhist art of the Indian subcontinent and described in the scriptures, such as Nātyaśāstra, which lists 24 asaṁyuta and 13 saṁyuta mudras. Mudra positions are formed by both the hand and the fingers. Along with āsanas, they are employed statically in the meditation and dynamically in the Nāṭya practice of Hinduism. Hindu and Buddhist iconography share some mudras. In some regions, for example in Laos and Thailand, these are distinct but share related iconographic conventions. According to Jamgotn Kongtrul in his commentary on the Hevajra Tantra, the ornaments of wrathful deities and witches made of human bones are known as mudra "seals". In Indian classical dance, the term "Hasta Mudra" is used; the Natya Shastra describes 24 mudras, while the Abhinaya Darpana of Nandikeshvara gives 28. In all their forms of Indian classical dance, the mudras are similar, though the names and uses vary.
There are 24 in Kathakali and 20 in Odissi. These root mudras are combined in different ways, like one hand, two hands, arm movements and facial expressions. In Kathakali, which has the greatest number of combinations, the vocabulary adds up to c. 900. Sanyukta mudras use both hands and asanyukta mudras use one hand; the classical sources for the mudras in yoga are the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika states the importance of mudras in yoga practice: "Therefore the goddess sleeping at the entrance of Brahma's door should be aroused with all effort, by performing mudra thoroughly." In the 20th and 21st centuries, the yoga teacher Satyananda Saraswati, founder of the Bihar School of Yoga, continued to emphasize the importance of mudras in his instructional text Asana, Mudrā, Bandha. The yoga mudras are diverse in the parts of the body involved and in the procedures required, as in Mula Bandha, Viparita Karani, Khecarī mudrā, Vajroli mudra. Mula Bandha, the Root Lock, consists of pressing one heel into the anus in a cross-legged seated asana, contracting the perineum, forcing the prana to enter the central sushumna channel.
Mahamudra, the Great Seal has one heel pressed into the perineum. Viparita Karani, the Inverter, is a posture with the head down and the feet up, using gravity to retain the prana; the time spent in the posture is increased until it can be held for "three hours". The practice is claimed by the Dattatreyayogashastra to destroy all diseases and to banish grey hair and wrinkles. Khecarī mudrā, the Khechari Seal, consists of turning back the tongue "into the hollow of the skull", sealing in the bindu fluid so that it stops dripping down from the head and being lost when the yogi "embraces a passionate woman". To make the tongue long and flexible enough to be folded back in this way, the Khecharividya exhorts the yogi to make a cut a hair's breadth deep in the frenulum of the tongue once a week. Six months of this treatment destroys the frenulum. After six years of practice, which cannot be hurried, the tongue is said to become able to close the top end of the sushumna channel. Vajroli mudra, the Vajroli Seal, requires the yogi to preserve the semen, either by learning not to release it, or if released by drawing it up through the urethra from the vagina of "a woman devoted to the practice of yoga".
The Abhayamudra "gesture of fearlessness" represents protection, peace and the dispelling of fear. In Theravada Buddhism it is made while standing with the right arm bent and raised to shoulder hei
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of art and taste and with the creation or appreciation of beauty. In its more technical epistemological perspective, it is defined as the study of subjective and sensori-emotional values, or sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste. Aesthetics studies how artists imagine and perform works of art, it studies how they feel about art—why they like some works and not others, how art can affect their moods and attitude toward life. The phrase was coined in English in the 18th century. More broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as "critical reflection on art and nature". In modern English, the term aesthetic can refer to a set of principles underlying the works of a particular art movement or theory: one speaks, for example, of the Cubist aesthetic; the word aesthetic is derived from the Greek αἰσθητικός, which in turn was derived from αἰσθάνομαι (aisthanomai, meaning "I perceive, sense" and related to αἴσθησις. Aesthetics in this central sense has been said to start with the series of articles on “The Pleasures of the Imagination” which the journalist Joseph Addison wrote in the early issues of the magazine The Spectator in 1712.
The term "aesthetics" was appropriated and coined with new meaning by the German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten in his dissertation Meditationes philosophicae de nonnullis ad poema pertinentibus in 1735. Aesthetics, a not tidy intellectual discipline, is a heterogeneous collection of problems that concern the arts but relate to nature. Even though his definition in the fragment Aesthetica is more referred to as the first definition of modern aesthetics. Aesthetics is for the artist; some separate aesthetics and philosophy of art, claiming that the former is the study of beauty while the latter is the study of works of art. However, most Aesthetics encompasses both questions around beauty as well as questions about art, it examines topics such as aesthetic objects, aesthetic experience, aesthetic judgments. For some, aesthetics is considered a synonym for the philosophy of art since Hegel, while others insist that there is a significant distinction between these related fields. In practice, aesthetic judgement refers to the sensory contemplation or appreciation of an object, while artistic judgement refers to the recognition, appreciation or criticism of art or an art work.
Philosophical aesthetics has not only to speak about art and to produce judgments about art works, but has to give a definition of what art is. Art is an autonomous entity for philosophy, because art deals with the senses and art is as such free of any moral or political purpose. Hence, there are two different conceptions of art in aesthetics: art as knowledge or art as action, but aesthetics is neither epistemology nor ethics. Aestheticians compare historical developments with theoretical approaches to the arts of many periods, they study the varieties of art in relation to their physical and culture environments. Aestheticians use psychology to understand how people see, imagine, think and act in relation to the materials and problems of art. Aesthetic psychology studies the creative process and the aesthetic experience. Aesthetics examines our affective domain response to an object or phenomenon Judgments of aesthetic value rely on our ability to discriminate at a sensory level. However, aesthetic judgments go beyond sensory discrimination.
For David Hume, delicacy of taste is not "the ability to detect all the ingredients in a composition", but our sensitivity "to pains as well as pleasures, which escape the rest of mankind." Thus, the sensory discrimination is linked to capacity for pleasure. For Immanuel Kant, "enjoyment" is the result when pleasure arises from sensation, but judging something to be "beautiful" has a third requirement: sensation must give rise to pleasure by engaging our capacities of reflective contemplation. Judgments of beauty are sensory and intellectual all at once. Kant observed of a man "If he says that canary wine is agreeable he is quite content if someone else corrects his terms and reminds him to say instead: It is agreeable to me," because "Everyone has his own taste"; the case of "beauty" is different from mere "agreeableness" because, "If he proclaims something to be beautiful he requires the same liking from others. Roger Scruton has argued similarly. Viewer interpretations of beauty may on occasion be observed to possess two concepts of value: aesthetics and taste.
Aesthetics is the philosophical notion of beauty. Taste is a result of an education process and awareness of elite cultural values learned through exposure to mass culture. Bourdieu examined how the elite in society define the aesthetic values like taste and how varying levels of exposure to these values can result in variations by class, cultural background, education. According to Kant, beauty is universal. In the opinion of Władysław Tatarkiewicz, there are
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that serves coffee, related coffee drinks, – depending on country – other drinks including alcoholic. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks such as iced tea. A coffeehouse may serve some type of food, such as light snacks, muffins or other pastries. Coffeehouses range from owner-operated small businesses to large multinational corporations. While café may refer to a coffeehouse, the term "cafe" refers to a diner, British cafe, "greasy spoon", transport cafe, teahouse or tea room, or other casual eating and drinking place. A coffeehouse may share some of the same characteristics of a bar or restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. Many coffeehouses in the Middle East and in West Asian immigrant districts in the Western world offer shisha, flavored tobacco smoked through a hookah. Espresso bars are a type of coffeehouse that specializes in serving espresso and espresso-based drinks. From a cultural standpoint, coffeehouses serve as centers of social interaction: the coffeehouse provides patrons with a place to congregate, read, entertain one another, or pass the time, whether individually or in small groups.
Since the development of Wi-Fi, coffeehouses with this capability have become places for patrons to access the Internet on their laptops and tablet computers. A coffeehouse can serve as an informal club for its regular members; as early as the 1950s Beatnik era and the 1960s folk music scene, coffeehouses have hosted singer-songwriter performances in the evening. The most common English spelling, café, is the French and Spanish spelling, was adopted by English-speaking countries in the late-19th century; as English makes little use of diacritics, anglicisation tends to omit them and to place the onus on the readers to remember how it is pronounced without the presence of the accent. Thus the spelling cafe has become common in English-language usage throughout the world for the less formal, i.e. "greasy spoon" variety. The Italian spelling, caffè, is sometimes used in English. In southern England around London in the 1950s, the French pronunciation was facetiously altered to and spelt caff; the English words coffee and café derive from the Italian word for coffee, caffè—first attested as caveé in Venice in 1570—and in turn derived from Arabic qahwa.
The Arabic term qahwa referred to a type of wine, but after the wine ban by Islam, the name was transferred to coffee because of the similar rousing effect it induced. European knowledge of coffee came through European contact with Turkey via Venetian-Ottoman trade relations; the English word café to describe a restaurant that serves coffee and snacks rather than the word coffee that describes the drink, is derived from the French café. The first café is believed to have opened in France in 1660; the translingual word root /kafe/ appears in many European languages with various naturalized spellings, including. Coffeehouses in Mecca became a concern of imams who viewed them as places for political gatherings and drinking, they were banned for Muslims between 1512 and 1524. The Ottoman chronicler İbrahim Peçevi reports in his writings about the opening of the first coffeehouse in Istanbul: Until the year 962, in the High, God-Guarded city of Constantinople, as well as in Ottoman lands coffee and coffee-houses did not exist.
About that year, a fellow called Hakam from Aleppo and a wag called Shams from Damascus came to the city. Various legends involving the introduction of coffee to Istanbul at a "Kiva Han" in the late-15th century circulate in culinary tradition, but with no documentation; the 17th century French traveler and writer Jean Chardin gave a lively description of the Persian coffeehouse scene: People engage in conversation, for it is there that news is communicated and where those interested in politics criticize the government in all freedom and without being fearful, since the government does not heed what the people say. Innocent games... resembling checkers and chess, are played. In addition, mollas and poets take turns telling stories in verse or in prose; the narrations by the mollas and the dervishes are moral lessons, like our sermons, but it is not considered scandalous not to pay attention to them. No one is forced to give up his conversation because of it. A molla will stand up in the middle, or at one end of the qahveh-khaneh, begin to preach in a loud voice, or a dervish enters all of a sudden, chastises the assembled on the vanity of the world and its material goods.
It happens that two or three people talk at the same time, one on one side, the other on the opposite, sometimes one will be a preacher and the other a storyteller. In the 17th century, coffee appeared for the first time in Europe outside the Ottoman Empire, coffeehouses were established, soon becoming popular; the first coffeehouses appeared in Venice in 1629, due to the traffic between La Serenissima and the Ottomans. The first coffeehouse in England was set up in Oxford in 1650 by a Jewish man named Jacob at the Angel in the parish of St Peter in
Chinese tea culture
Chinese tea culture refers to how tea is prepared as well as the occasions when people consume tea in China. Tea culture in China differs from that in European countries like Britain and other Asian countries like Japan, Vietnam in preparation and occasion when it is consumed. Tea is still consumed both on casual and formal occasions. In addition to being a popular beverage, it is used in traditional Chinese medicine as well as in Chinese cuisine; the concept of tea culture is referred to in Chinese as chayi, or cha wenhua. The word cha denotes the beverage, derived from Camellia sinensis, the tea plant. Prior to the 8th century BCE, tea was known collectively under the term 荼 along with a great number of other bitter plants; these two Chinese characters are identical, with the exception of an additional horizontal stroke in the Chinese lettering 荼, which translates to tea. The older character is made up of the radical 艸 in its reduced form of 艹 and the character 余, which gives the phonetic cue.
There are several special circumstances in which tea is consumed in Chinese culture. A sign of respect In traditional Chinese society, members of the younger generation show their respect to members of the older generation by offering a cup of tea. Inviting their elders to restaurants for tea is a traditional holiday activity. In the past, people of a lower social class served tea to the upper class in society. Today, with the increasing liberalization of Chinese society, this rule and its connotations have become blurred. Sometimes parents may pour a cup of tea for their children to show their care, or a boss may pour tea for subordinates at restaurants to promote their relationship. Family gatherings When sons and daughters leave home for work or marriage, they may spend less time with their parents; every Sunday, Chinese restaurants are crowded with families during the holiday season, for this reason. This phenomenon reflects the function of tea in Chinese family values. To apologize In Chinese culture, tea may be offered as part of a formal apology.
For example, children who have misbehaved may serve tea to their parents as a sign of regret and submission. To show gratitude and celebrate weddings In the traditional Chinese marriage ceremony, the bride and groom kneel in front of their respective parents and serve them tea and thank them, a devout way to express their gratitude for being raised. On some occasions, the bride serves the groom's family, the groom serves the bride's family; this process symbolizes the joining together of the two families. Light finger tapping is a customary way to thank the tea tea server for tea. After one's cup is filled, the bent index and middle fingers are knocked on the table to express gratitude to the person who served the tea; this custom is common in southern Chinese cultures, like the Cantonese. In other parts of China, it is only acceptable if the person wishing to express gratitude is preoccupied with conversation or cannot say "thank you" when the cup is filled; this custom is said to have originated in the Qing dynasty when the Qianlong Emperor traveled in disguise throughout the empire and his accompanying servants were instructed not to reveal their master's identity.
One day in a restaurant, after pouring himself a cup of tea the emperor filled a servant's cup as well. To that servant it was a huge honor to have the emperor pour him a cup of tea. Out of habit, he wanted to kneel and express his thanks to the emperor, but he could not do this since that would reveal the emperor's identity. Instead, he knocked the table to express his gratitude and respect. In this sense, the bent fingers signify a bowing servant, one finger representing the head and the others the arms. In formal tea ceremonies nodding the head or saying "thank you" is more appropriate; the different ways of brewing Chinese tea depend on variables like the formality of the occasion, the means of the people preparing it, the kind of tea being brewed. For example, green teas are more delicate than oolong black teas; the most informal method of brewing tea is to add the leaves to a pot containing hot water. This method is found in households and restaurants, for example, in the context of dim sum or yum cha in Cantonese restaurants.
Another method for serving tea is to use a small lidded bowl called a gaiwan. The Hongwu Emperor of the Ming dynasty contributed to the development of loose tea brewing by banning the production of compressed tea. Gongfu cha, meaning "making tea with skill", is a popular method of preparing tea in China, it makes use of small Yixing teapots holding about 100–150 ml, the size being thought to enhance the aesthetics and to "round out" the taste of the tea being brewed. Brewing tea in a Yixing teapot can be done for private enjoyment as well as to welcome guests. Depending on the region of China, there may be differences in the steps of brewing as well as the tools used in the process. For example, Taiwanese-style gongfu cha makes use of several additional instruments including tweezers and a tea strainer; the procedure is applicable to oolong teas, but it is some used to make pu'er and other fermented teas. Tea has had a major influence on the development of Chinese culture, Chinese traditional culture is connected with Chinese tea.
Tea is associated with literature and philosophy and is conn
