The Pre-Loved edit from Shopbop
To share your reaction on this item, open the Amazon app from the App Store or Google Play on your phone.
Add Prime to get Fast, Free delivery
Amazon prime logo
$28.00
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Sunday, January 26 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or Prime members get FREE delivery Friday, January 24. Order within 6 hrs 18 mins.
In Stock
$$28.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$28.00
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day refund/replacement
30-day refund/replacement
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History Paperback – February 28, 2015

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 19 ratings

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$28.00","priceAmount":28.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"28","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"FtaJREsOEjPhzizLdQdSji2AKosfxPLaKrcABADL8ux1blXAdaNEHW8Y3u88QMpL%2BfF%2B%2B%2FZqWjhR08ldfb9IaX6E69%2F2EnRoHxJMB4AE21lNMRbhLvpTJN1GFzkk6%2BpH3Z4jAgNMKu3uAE8%2FeTSd%2Bg%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Tea in China explores the contours of religious and cultural transformation in traditional China from the point of view of an everyday commodity and popular beverage. The work traces the development of tea drinking from its mythical origins to the nineteenth century and examines the changes in aesthetics, ritual, science, health, and knowledge that tea brought with it.

The shift in drinking habits that occurred in late medieval China cannot be understood without an appreciation of the fact that Buddhist monks were responsible for not only changing people's attitudes toward the intoxicating substance, but also the proliferation of tea drinking. Monks had enjoyed a long association with tea in South China, but it was not until Lu Yu's compilation of the
Chajing (The Classic of Tea) and the spread of tea drinking by itinerant Chan monastics that tea culture became popular throughout the empire and beyond.

Tea was important for maintaining long periods of meditation; it also provided inspiration for poets and profoundly affected the ways in which ideas were exchanged. Prior to the eighth century, the aristocratic drinking party had excluded monks from participating in elite culture. Over cups of tea, however, monks and literati could meet on equal footing and share in the same aesthetic values. Monks and scholars thus found common ground in the popular stimulant―one with few side effects that was easily obtainable and provided inspiration and energy for composing poetry and meditating. In addition, rituals associated with tea drinking were developed in Chan monasteries, aiding in the transformation of China's sacred landscape at the popular and elite level. Pilgrimages to monasteries that grew their own tea were essential in the spread of tea culture, and some monasteries owned vast tea plantations. By the end of the ninth century, tea was a vital component in the Chinese economy and in everyday life.

Tea in China transcends the boundaries of religious studies and cultural history as it draws on a broad range of materials―poetry, histories, liturgical texts, monastic regulations―many translated or analyzed for the first time. The book will be of interest to scholars of East Asia and all those concerned with the religious dimensions of commodity culture in the premodern world.

The%20Amazon%20Book%20Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

This item: Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History
$28.00
Get it as soon as Sunday, Jan 26
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$23.07
Get it as soon as Sunday, Jan 26
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
$18.55
Get it as soon as Sunday, Jan 26
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
spCSRF_Treatment
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The book contains a wealth of material on the social and intellectual interchange between the Buddhist clergy and wide sections of the educated laity. It deserves the attention of all whose interest lies in the role of religion in the life of the Chinese elite. ― Religious Studies Review

James A. Benn's new book is a history of tea as a religious and cultural commodity in China before it became a global commodity in the nineteenth century. . . . the book makes not only a great read, but also a very useful pedagogical resource! ―
New Books in East Asian Studies

ln terms of scholarship, Benn 's
Tea in China (hereafter TiC) is Sinologically and Buddhologically generally adequate. By and large, Benn's translations are up to snuff, and his references to and annotations for early texts, for the most part, are reliable. . . . There is much we can learn from TiC. ― Journal of Chinese Studies

Tea in China makes an important contribution to the study of religion in China by using a single commodity to demonstrate how religion–specifically Buddhism–is not cut off from the aesthetic, economic, and culinary worlds, but exists in connection to them. It will certainly become a foundational work for future studies of tea’s religious and cultural significance in China. ― Studies in Chinese Religions

About the Author

James A. Benn is professor of Buddhism and East Asian religions at McMaster University.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Hawaii Press (February 28, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0824839641
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0824839642
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.9 x 8.9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 19 ratings

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
19 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2015
    I can only agree 100% with Matthew London's review (the only other one so far). This is a major work. It covers tea in China from the beginning through the Ming Dynasty; it is best on Tang and Song. It draws on a vast range of Chinese sources, almost none of them previously mined in any detail by western writers. It does indeed, as London says, avoid the tired myths; it breaks new ground and provides us new translations throughout. Benn shows that tea was closely associated with Buddhism from the beginning through Song. He provides details on differing ways of brewing the stuff over the centuries. He has some fun with the incredible lengths of tea connoisseurship, which resemble wine snobbery today. For anyone interested in tea, or in the history of Chinese consumption, this is an indispensable book.
    15 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2016
    excellent book - well researched, and full of fascinating details
  • Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2016
    great book
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2015
    James Benn has written a scholarly masterpiece which has earned a prominent place of honour among my exhaustive collection of tea books. Dispensing with the usual (and quite sad) tendency to repeat the tired myths about tea as if they were absolute truths, he has dug down deep into the sources and refreshingly returned with clarity and eruditness to not only dispel the false, but more so, to paint a new picture of the evolution of tea and tea culture in China. This is a very valuable book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

    - Matthew London - Photographer and Author of THE SPIRIT OF TEA: An Offering to Tea Lovers
    16 people found this helpful
    Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
  • RL
    4.0 out of 5 stars Rare quotations
    Reviewed in Italy on March 19, 2018
    An important essay for those who are interested in chinese poetry and tea culture as well. Full of quotations. A useful bibliography.
  • Maxime Arsenault
    3.0 out of 5 stars Extensively researched, but an academic bore / Très fouillé, mais trop didactique
    Reviewed in Canada on February 13, 2016
    Maybe I was hoping to finally have found a book giving information on the Chinese origins of the Japanese tea ceremony, but this book has left me dissatisfied. The author has visibly done extensive research on the subject of tea consumption in China, but his essay is much too academic; it is too factual for its own good and the interplay between different buddhist, taoist and literati sensibilities for drinking tea gets lost in the unending gallery of anecdotes to support the author's not so clear thesis.

    J'avais espoir d'avoir enfin trouvé un livre pouvant m'informer sur les origines chinoises de la cérémonie de thé japonaise, mais ce livre m'a laissé insatisfait. Visiblement, l'auteur a fait beaucoup de recherche sur le sujet de la consommation de thé en Chine, mais son livre est beaucoup trop universitaire; les éléments factuels s'empilent au détriment de l'analyse sur l'interaction entre les sensibilités des bouddhistes, des taoïstes et des lettrés, qui se perd dans une galerie sans fin d'anecdotes servant à soutenir la thèse un peu confuse de l'auteur.