Awesome! I've been waiting for you guys to do a focused series on Gongfu for years. I'm really glad it's a long in-depth video. Can't wait for the next one!
Just discovering gong fu cha. Thank you so much for a wonderful dive into they history and why. Theres so many 'how to videos. This one stands out. Now a fan.
Fascinating information! I never thought of it that way before, but I can see how oolong represents great skill while puerh represents pure nature (while recognizing that both teas require both factors).
it's very popular to invite friends to home or home of tea to share it, just like drink coffee wit friends, but with more atention for the manner and more respect to the friends.
Loved the video and all the knowledge! Can you recommend some good books in english tor ead and understand mroe about the history of tea and history of china too?
This video is already 2 years old and you probably don't read this, but this was an amazing and interesting video. I'm wondering if there is a part 2, because I didn't really find it. Like, whats the traditional gong fu method and what changed over time. Why do you practice gong fu like you do and not with different changes? Its just such an interesting topic and I feel like, if I want to really be better, I need to understand why people do certain things and then ask myself, if they apply to me
We are thinking of doing a gongfu course at some point. Hopefully that will happen and we can explore these topics together. Our December issue of GTH is all about these topics as well, and goes into great depth. Maybe if you contact the guys they would send you a copy. Use our site to do so.
@@globalteahut Yes please! For years I have been wanting to learn gong fu! I have more-or-less taught myself through reading and watching videos, but that's not the same as the warmth of spirit and connection through person-to-person learning.
They started out very similar, but over time have evolved to be different. The changes between the three are very modern though. They were identical until the 70s and 80s
These are great articles: www.kyarazen.com/chaozhou-gongfu-tea/ www.kyarazen.com/anxi-brewing-method-tea/ www.kyarazen.com/shao-brewing-method-tea/ www.kyarazen.com/yixing-taiwanese-brewing-method-tea/
one your discussion at ~11 minutes about the extremes of forgoing tradition and becoming stuck in formula: i am truly sympathetic to the notion of tradition and how forms have evolved and been in a way selected by gong fu practitioners of the past for reasons, but I reject formlessness as the mirror extreme of what you call "hollow method". instead what you call traditionless or hobby or maybe even formless, i call the present selection of gong fu practice by today's practitioners. evolution and new selection not as the abandonment of tradition but the expression of tradition through finding their way
Thanks for the insight! I think I was more talking about the lack of a teacher who had a teacher, etc. Lineage is important to me/us. Traditions have memory. Also, with the growing recreationalization and commoditization of tea, brewing methods have evolved along those lines, meaning that many tea brewers are influenced by teaware and brewing methods invented partially or completely by vendors who are aiming to make things more convenient or to get us to use more tea, etc. Traditional methods flow along different lines, like what makes the best tea, self-cultivation or other deeper reasons... There is also the foo-foo nonverbal energy transmitted through lineage as well, but that's another story altogether.
I also fully agree that either/or, black/white teachings always leave out the gray, and while they can be insightful, they can also mislead. I would say that any adaptation/innovation that is intentional, skillful and that happens with informed awareness is the tradition finding its way. I was more warning about unconscious adaptation, which doesn't happen in a living tradition with teachers who had teachers...
good answer, it makes me think of the ways the concept of teacher has changed. for instance, learning from videos online: having sometimes many teachers, who know and don't know different things, and who may disagree, and even mislead, and cannot hear or see the effects of their teaching. thanks for your time
sometimes I like tea though I've got to say when people list off 10+ scents of a tea instead of drinking it I start to feel like it's too much, another collection hobby, I'm working on enjoying life and I want NOT to hoard and store stuff so I got out my tea stash and I'm trying to really use it up instead of prizing it, I really think it's somewhat wrong to keep, hoard, and prize, how about use and enjoy and move on
Yes, tea is to be shared, not hoarded. To be enjoyed, though, why not prize it? I think it can be appreciated deeply without attachment, no? Are deeper exploration, appreciation and nuance mutually exclusive with non-attachment and freedom from materialism?
@@globalteahut Um I'd say that if a person wants to make tea they have to have tea and a cup and a way to brew tea and there you have some kind of attachment already. I love materialism everything IS material. Water is material. :) Well, one winter I got interested in tea. It's a good hobby for winter. I ended up with a box of about 10-14 oolongs and I think I've decided I'm not a fan of Oolong because most of the Oolong I have is light and floral. There is a heavy flavored rock Oolong. There are two Puerh in there one just a fragment and old the other is a whole cake of it. Not sure what I am saving it for though that future time that never comes. Maybe I will try it and then take it over to a neighbor who only drinks Japanese tea so she can try it. Tea is sort of effort to do it right though I feel like there are too many accoutrements. I have a teapot in a box and for a moment I thought I should just throw it away. I feel like what am I doing with all this clutter. Anyhow not your problem lol. I am using it slowly and I guess that is all I can hope for is to do something with it. My hobbies live in boxes. My hobbies live in boxes. My hobbies live in boxes. Sigh. I will sort it out. Maybe it's best to find one favorite tea and stick with it. It does annoy me a bit that Japanese tea, Indian tea, Chinese tea all have different tradition that involves peculiar tea pots and so forth. I know I'm complaining outloud here. My neighbor studied Japanese tea ceremony when she lived in Japan but even she doesn't have all the chinese tea pots etc. This is what happens when I try to clean and organize I realize I have things I need to use. I'll figure it out. I brought my neighbor Mochi and now she feels guilty about not doing the tea ceremony since she studied it. :P What DO people DO when they are not doing the things they intended to do because they enjoyed or appreciated it. Wasting time? idk
