Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. In China, in the eighth century, it entered the realm of poetry as one of the polite amusements. The fifteenth century saw Japan ennoble it into a religion of aestheticism – Teaism. Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order.
('The Book of Tea’, p. 6)
In this little book of seventy-seven pages we have a wonderful guide to the philosophy of Teaism, as exemplified in the famous oriental tea ceremony. The author eloquently weaves this wonderful beverage's history as it mixed with Taoism and Zen Buddhism, inspired the creation of the tea-room, the lives of the great tea masters, and its relationship to the artistic appreciation of life itself. Reading it is sheer pleasure, and, if like the reviewer, you are already an appreciator of cha, it will only deepen your love for it. Put the kettle on!
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Wikipedia: The Book of Tea