原文
中国人爱喝茶,中国的茶文化源远流长。福建省北部的将乐县至今保留着一种古老而独特的饮茶习俗——喝擂茶。
擂茶是客家先人的一种创造。汉晋唐宋以来,大批中原人南迁。在迁徙的过程中,不仅要饱受风吹、日晒、雨淋之苦,还要遭追兵袭击、疾病之难。于是,客家先人创造了既能解渴、消暑、防病,又能充饥的擂茶。时至今日,擂茶在许多地方都消失了,可将乐还保持了这一“古代茶文化的孑遗”,并使之富有浓郁的地方风情。
喝擂茶既能提神醒脑、充饥益体,又可祛暑清热、消累解乏,在炎热的夏天,每家每户一日不可无此物。农闲季节,农家妇人爱聚在一起喝擂茶,今天你家请,明天到我家喝,“男客酒女客茶”,端上一碗,或坐,或站,边吃边聊,好不亲切、热闹。
请喝擂茶已成为将乐招待客人最普通、最隆重的礼节。每逢婚嫁寿诞、乔迁之喜、亲朋聚会,常以擂茶待客。
译文
Chinese people have a penchant for drinking tea, as Chinese tea culture enjoys a long history. Today, an old and unique tea-drinking custom is still preserved in Jiangle County of northwest Fujian, where people there drink pestled tea.
Pestled tea or mashed tea is an invention of the ancient Hakkas. From Han dynasty onwards, a great number of people living in Central Plains moved south. In their long journey south, people went through ordeals of not only exposure to the weather but also attacks by bandits as well as diseases. Consequently, the Hakka ancestors invented pestled tea which could not only quench thirst and satisfy hunger, but also help avoid sickness of heat and prevent diseases. Nowadays, pestled tea is no longer extant in many places, but it is still preserved by people in Jiangle County who have added a rich local color to this “remnants of the ancient times”.
Refreshing and good for health, pestled tea can also help avoid sickness of heat and get over fatigue. In hot summer days, every household in Jiangle drink pestled tea every day. In the slack season, farm women would invite each other to their own houses to drink pestled tea together. While wines and liquors are for male guests, it is customary to entertain female guests with pestled tea. Relaxed and friendly, the host and the guests would sit or stand and chat over a cup of fragrant tea.
Treating guests with pestled tea has become the most popular and hospitable way to entertain guests in Jiangle. On joyful occasions such as weddings, birthday receptions, house-warming parties and family get-together, pestled tea is often served.