Sociologist's Tea House. Issue 10

Author: Zhang Lisheng, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: In Japanese folklore, there are many legends about the tea master Sen no Rikyu. It is said that once, the master asked his child to clean the tea garden. The child not only washed the stone steps three times, leaving them spotless, but also swept away all the dry twigs and leaves on the ground. Yet Sen no Rikyu still found it insufficiently clean. His child, puzzled, asked his father for an explanation. The master did not answer, but slowly walked to a tree in the garden and gently shook its trunk. In an instant, numerous golden and deep-red leaves drifted down slowly to the ground. These red and yellow leaves dotted the garden, making it more vibrant and, paradoxically, cleaner and more tranquil. Only then did his child suddenly realize. The water of the Tiger Running Spring and Sen no Rikyu’s fallen leaves both instilled into tea ceremony the same spirit—the highest of tea ceremony is harmony. And the essence of harmony is the coexistence of nature and humanity. Broadly speaking, what applies to the way of a person, the way of society, is it not the same?