物性与品格:宋代饮茶实践中的文化秩序

Materiality and Personality:Social Order in the Tea-Tasting Practice of Song Dynasty

以往对宋代茶饮的研究,倾向于认为点茶是普遍的文人雅玩,器物与茶品的消费是文人士大夫社会地位和精英身份的表征。但这一观点忽视了宋代点茶和煎茶两种茶饮方式相伴共存的事实。点茶和煎茶广泛存在于宋代上层的茶饮实践当中,二者都承袭唐代陆羽对茶饮之清的追求,但对于茶之清的物质展演却大不相同:点茶重物性之实现,煎茶重茶人之品格。前者强调茶器之精良、茶品之精细、茶艺之精湛;后者则看重茶器之精简、茶艺之古意、茶人之追慕。点茶与煎茶的差异表明,物的实践并非仅是社会秩序的再现,即物的意涵并不天然内在于原有文化秩序之中,相反,物的意义经过人的实践而得到确证和更新。

Many researchers have tended to reckon whisking tea method in Song dynasty as the literati’s pervasive practice, believing that the consumption of tea and utensils was the representation of their social status and identity recognition.However, they have failed to notice the fact that both whisking tea method and boiling tea method were practiced by the literati at the same time in Song Dynasty. Though these two methods inherited the spirit of Lu Yu in Tang Dynasty to pursue the purity of tea, but the display of materials was of great difference. The practice of whisking tea valued the realization of materiality, while that of boiling tea thought highly of personality. Therefore, the former tended to lay emphasis on the beauty of tea utensils, the high quality of tea products and the exquisite technique of whisking method;while the latter stressed the simplicity of tea utensils, the unsophisticated skill of boiling method and the admiration of distinguished tea man. The difference between whisking tea method and boiling tea method reveals that the display of things is not just the reflection of social or cultural order. On the contrary, the meaning of things and cultural order are confirmed and renewed through the practice of people.