『東茶頌』과 中國茶論의 受容과 傳承

Abstract

The history of traditional tea culture in Korea is more than 1000 years old. As early as Koryo(高麗), some famous tea lovers (李奎报，李齐贤，懒翁禅师…) published some poems about tea. And then in the Chosun Dynasty(朝鮮), the tea lovers (金时习, 徐居正, 丁若镛, 金正喜…) also wrote these kind of poems. There are many poems, which are in regard of tea, written by Korean ancient scholars. However, it’s hard to find the original tea theory of Korea. In this case, Zen priest Choui(草衣禅师: 1786-1866)’s ‘Eastern Tea Eulogy(東茶頌)’, a collection of poems, which includes 17 seven–character cut short poems. He also includes some comments on it. The primary coverage in the first half of this poetry anthology is introducing Chinese tea theory books, such as Lu Yu(陸羽)’s《Chajing(茶经)》 and Zhang Yuan(張源)’s 《Chalu(茶錄)》. For instance, ‘9–difficulties of tea(九難)’ which is a part of 《Chajing(茶经)》 that was written in the Song Dynasty and ‘4–smells of tea(四香)’ which is quoted from 《Chalu(茶錄)》 that was written in the Ming Dynasty are mentioned in this book. It also introduces some kind of ancient Chinese cozes and well–known tea in the Song Dynasty(雪花, 雲腴, 雙井, 日注, 白芽茶…). The latter half of ‘Eastern Tea Eulogy’ emphasizes the forte of eastern tea plantation, tea leaf and tea and also points out the spirit of fair which is Zen priest Choui’s core spirit of tea ceremony. Otherwise, it is observed that he carries on the tea science from Confucianism and Buddhism on account of having intercommunication with Jung Yak-Yong(丁若鏞) and Kim Jung-hee(金正喜), two exiled scholars, who have a great ability to rule the country. They always get together to drink some tea and talk over the study of Confucian classic and poetics. To sum up, ‘Eastern Tea Eulogy’ is a significant literature that could represent the eastern tea theory at the end of the Chosun Dynasty.