Sending Lu Hongjian Off to Pick Tea at Qixia Temple
眠雲臥石
Huangfu Ran of the Tang
Sending Lu Hongjian Off to Pick Tea at Qixia Temple
Gathering tea is not plucking greens:
Far, far away rises the rim of the cliff.
Leaves cloaked by a warm spring wind,
Baskets filled by sunrise.
Old friends on the temple path,
Now and then spending the night with the recluse.
On our sad parting I ask,
Whenever shall we meet again for a brimful bowl of floral tea…
唐·皇甫冉
送陸鴻漸棲霞寺採茶
採茶非採菉
遠遠上層崖
布葉春風暖
盈筐白日斜
舊知山寺路
時宿野人家
借問王孫草
何時泛椀花
Commentary
The harvesting of fine tea is very different from the gathering of garden vegetables. Unlike cultivated greens and kitchen herbs, superior tea plants grow wild among high cliffs, and the climb to them is difficult. In springtime, tea is fostered by sunshine and warm winds. Its leaves, however, are collected in the cool dark hours of the early morning, the baskets filled before dawn.
Lu Yu 陸羽 (ca. 733-804) once traveled to Nanjing where he resided at Qixia Temple, a monastery renowned for its tea gardens. During his brief residency at the monastery, Lu Yu lived in a hermitage where he received Huangfu Ran 皇甫冉 (ca. 714-765), a friend who came to visit with him. On his departure, Huang recalled their farewells in his poem. Taking Lu Yu’s hand, Huangfu Ran wondered when they would meet again and have the pleasure of drinking bowls overflowing with hua 花, the frothy floral essence of tea.
Source
Huangfu Ran 皇甫冉 (ca. 714-765), Song Lu Hongjiang Qixia si caicha 送陸鴻漸棲霞寺採茶 in Cao Yin 曹寅 (1658-1712 A.D.) and Peng Dingqiu 彭定求 (1645-1719 A.D.) et al., comps, Quan Tangshi 全唐詩 (Complete Poetry of the Tang Dynasty, 1705), juan 210.