Korean Tea Classics

Literary Nonfiction. Southeast Asia Studies. Poetry. Translated from the Korean by Brother Anthony of Taizé, Hong Keong-Hee, and Steven D. Owyoung. Three ancient texts expressing the essence of the Korean Way of Tea are here translated into English for the first time. The oldest, ChaBu Rhapsody to Tea, by Hanjae Yi Mok (1471-1498), is a sophisticated and delicate celebration of tea. The author was a scholar of considerable attainments who died far too early. The 19th century saw a tea revival among Korean literati. Its main guide was the Venerable Cho-ui (1786-1866). The first of his tea texts, ChaSinJeon Chronicle of the Spirit of Tea, he copied from a Ming Chinese work to serve as a practical guide to tea. The great poem, DongChaSong Hymn in Praise of Korean Tea, for which Cho-ui is chiefly celebrated, is a set of formal poetic stanzas celebrating tea with notes by the author to elucidate the references.