Cao Xueqin is a well-informed and talented novelist. He is proficient in all kinds of piano, chess, calligraphy, painting and poetry, especially in tea. In his encyclopedic Dream of Red Mansions, there are wonderful discussions on all aspects of tea.
In A Dream of Red Mansions, Cao Xueqin mentioned many kinds and functions of tea, including home-made tea, guest-respecting tea, fruit-accompanying tea, tea for tasting tea and medicinal tea.
There are many famous teas in A Dream of Red Mansions, such as Longjing Tea from West Lake in Hangzhou, Pu 'er Tea from Yunnan and its precious daughter tea, Feng Shui from Fujian, Junshan Silver Needle from Hunan and Siam Tea from Thailand. All these reflect the extensive use of tribute tea by the upper class in Qing Dynasty.
Cao Xueqin's life has experienced wealth and poverty, so he has rich social experience and understanding of tea customs, which is vividly reflected in A Dream of Red Mansions.
For example, on the 25th, Wang Xifeng sent Siam tea to Daiyu, who ate it and said yes. Xifeng took the opportunity to tease: "Since you ate our tea, why don't you be our wife?" The folk custom of "drinking tea" has been followed here. "Eating tea" means that women are employed by male families, which is also called "tea setting".
Back to the seventy-eighth, after watching "Daughter of the Lotus", Baoyu burned incense and made tea, offering tea to the deceased and pinning his feelings.
In addition, A Dream of Red Mansions also shows the custom of offering late tea, eating New Year's tea and welcoming guests in temples.
Cao Xueqin is good at combining his poems with tea. There are many witty sentences in A Dream of Red Mansions, such as "Sleeping in a hometown makes a beautiful woman dream long, and a parrot in a golden cage calls tea soup". Write autumn night's "sleepless at night because of thirst for wine, heavy smoke and heavy tea". Written on a winter night, "I like to wait on the children to try tea and sweep the new snow in time to cook."
The expression of tea in Cao Xueqin's Dream of Red Mansions is full of human feelings. Even at the farewell moment of life, the image of tea is still so vivid. Qingwen was dying and asked Baoyu for tea. "Amitabha, it's very kind of you to come. Pour me half a bowl of that tea. I was thirsty for a long time, and half a person couldn't call it out. " Baoyu handed Qingwen tea and saw Qingwen drinking nectar.
When 83-year-old Jia died, he asked for tea with his eyes open and refused to drink ginseng chicken soup. After tea, she sat up. Tea, at this moment, is the greatest comfort to the dying. This also shows Cao Xueqin's love for tea.