“Just Tea?”

“Just Tea?” Is tea, just tea?
@Yaya linked to this “Just Tea?” video clip on f/b recently, and I remembered I’d seen it before in German, but hadn’t talked about it. It’s pretty interesting to watch, see if you agree or disagree. For me, it fits my thinking. With a few exceptions; notably most tea in teabags. As tolerant as I’d like to be, those chopped up leaves don’t quite make the cut. Pun intended.

While the English language clip can’t be embedded, here’s the dialog. It’s an extract from the movie “Huo Yuan Jia” (aso known as Jet Li’s Fearless.) Huo Yuan Jia (1869-1910) was a martial arts expert, and the founder and spiritual guru of the Jin Wu Sports Federation. What’s all this got to do with tea? Read and watch. In this clip he’s sharing tea with Tanaka, a Japanese martial arts expert, just before they face an important competition:

Tanaka: Mr. Huo, according to what you say, you don’t really know the
nature of tea.
Huo: It’s not that I don’t know. I don’t really want to know. Because I don’t care about evaluating teas. Tea is tea.
Tanaka: But each tea has its own character and properties.
Huo: What is the purpose of grading? These many teas are grown in nature, all of them.
Is there a discernible difference?
Tanaka: Yes, once you learn this, you can tell the difference between
teas.
Huo: What you say may be right, but the way I see it is, the tea doesn’t judge itself. It’s people that judge its grading. Different people choose different things. As for me, as far as I’m concerned, I just don’t want to make any choice.
Tanaka: – Is that so?
Huo: – Drining tea is a mood, really. If you are in a good mood, the grade of tea doesn’t matter.
Tanaka: I never looked at it like that. I understand that there are many wushu fighting styles. Are you saying that no style is greater than another?
Huo: That’s what I’m saying.
Tanaka: If that is true, I want to ask you, if wushu does not differ in any way, why do we fight each other?
Huo: I believe for all the styles of wushu, there is no single one that is superior. All of those who practice different styles of wushu, they would naturally have a different level of skill. Through competition, we can discover ourselves.
Tanaka: What you just said makes me have more respect for you.
Here’s the vid in German – @lahikmajoe for you! For everyone else, just click the English link .
http://youtu.be/KOaTNAUHXpc