茶的佛文化：菩提老祖解乏的妙药

　　当中国的僧人开始巡游日本时，茶的文化也开始了传送。当葡萄牙人航海去了中国后，茶的文化开始在世界各地广泛流传了……

As Buddhist priests start to move around China and Japan, the spread of cultivation and tea drinking follows them. Tea drinking catches on.

The Indian and Japanese legends both attribute it to Bodhidharma the devout Buddhist priest who founded Zen Buddhism. The Indian legend tells how in the fifth year of a seven year sleepless contemplation of Buddha he began to feel drowsy. He immediately plucked a few leaves from a nearby bush and chewed them which dispelled his tiredness. The bush was a wild tea tree.

The first mention of tea outside China and Japan is said to be by the Arabs in 850 AD and it was they who were reputed to have brought it to Europe via the Venetians circa 1559. However, it is the Portuguese and Dutch who claim the credit bringing tea and tea drinking to Europe. 　

The Portuguese opened up the sea routes to China, some say as early as 1515. Jesuit priests travelling on the ships brought the tea drinking habit back to Portugal, while the sailors manning the ships encouraged the Dutch merchants to enter the trade. Subsequently a regular shipment of tea to ports in France, Holland and the Baltic coast was set up in 1610.

England entered the trade via the East India Company, or the John Company as it was known, in the mid to late 17th Century.

重点词汇

catch on v. 流行 Bodhidharma n. 菩提达摩(印度僧人,中国佛教禅宗的始祖)

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