Tea Drinking for Health and Longevity (吃茶養生記)

About 喫茶養生記

by 榮西著

10,202 · about 34 min

The Record of Drinking Tea for Nourishing Life is a Buddhist scripture written in 1191 by the Japanese Rinzai Zen master Eisai, and is also Japan's earliest specialized work on tea culture. Master Eisai traveled to Song Dynasty China twice to seek the Dharma, introducing both Zen Buddhism and the Way of Tea to Japan. This book systematically introduces the cultivation of tea, its benefits, and methods of consumption, emphasizing tea's advantages for health and spiritual practice, integrating tea drinking with Buddhist cultivation and laying the theoretical foundation for the development of the Japanese Way of Tea. As an important Zen text, it not only promoted the spread of tea culture in Japan but also embodies the Buddhist principle of "Zen and tea as one." It has profoundly influenced Japanese Buddhism, the Way of Tea, and health culture, and remains to this day an essential text for studying the culture of Zen and tea in Japan.