Why Chinese people love to raise tea and pet auspicious animals
## Spiritual creatures at the tea table: the oriental auspicious code in the auspicious animal tea pet
On the tea table, the purple clay teapot exhales clouds and mist, the celadon cup is filled with moonlight, and in the small space carefully arranged by the tea drinker, there is always a magical creature lying quietly on the tea tray, looming in the mist of tea. This is the auspicious animal tea pet - a unique cultural symbol in the oriental tea ceremony, which melts ancient myths, folk beliefs and the elegant taste of tea drinkers in a small space.
### 1. The thousand-year echo in bronze patterns The Taotie patterns on the bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties awaken on the tea pets, and the four gods patterns on the tiles of the Han Dynasty become the guardians of the tea table. The craftsmen hold the carving knife and move on the purple clay. Each arc is in line with the outline of the Kui Niu in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" that "its shape is like a cow but naked", and each undulation of the texture reproduces the blue phoenix wings in the Dunhuang murals that are like hanging clouds. When the tea soup soaks these sleeping spirit beasts, the fierce beauty of the Bronze Age becomes warm and friendly in the fragrance of tea.
When Suzhou teapot master Lu Minghua created the Pixiu tea pet, he went to the British Museum to observe the bronze urns of the Shang Dynasty, and perfectly integrated the majesty of the Taotie pattern with the secular wishes of attracting wealth and fortune. This dialogue spanning three thousand years has made the tea pet no longer a simple desk ornament, but a flowing cultural gene bank.
### 2. Auspicious philosophy in the circulation of the five elements The tea table constitutes a microcosm: the iron kettle belongs to gold, the pottery furnace contains fire, the purple sand contains soil, the tea soup is water, and the auspicious animal tea pet corresponds to the vitality of wood. The dragon turtle carries the Luoshu and lies quietly in the tea sea. The pattern on the tortoise shell secretly matches the numerology of the river map; the unicorn spits out auspicious clouds and steps on the eight trigrams, and its horn points to the Li position to help the tea fire. The trajectory of the water flow when the tea master pours it is just like interpreting the five elements cycle of "gold produces water, water produces wood".
Wuyishan tea master Chen created the "Four Symbols Tea Formation": the Green Dragon Incense Holder guards the east, the White Tiger Incense Burner guards the west, the Vermillion Bird Tea Leak hangs in the south, and the Black Tortoise Tea Pet lies in the north. This set of teaware, certified as a national intangible cultural heritage, transforms the wisdom of the Book of Changes into a tangible tea aesthetic.
### 3. How to nurture a pet during the patina period A true tea pet needs ten years of nurturing. Yixing purple clay gradually glows with the infusion of Pu'er tea soup, and Jianyang black porcelain reveals golden and iron lines after being nurtured by rock tea. On the desk of Mr. Li, a Suzhou tea master, sits a jadeite Pixiu that has been passed down for five generations. Amber tea stains have formed on its surface, and a closer look reveals seven layers of patina of varying depths, each of which records memories of tea affairs from different eras.
The secret to raising a pet is to "water it three times and nourish it three times": pour tea in the morning to awaken the spirit, nourish it slowly in the afternoon to promote breathing, and moisturize it at dusk to nourish the mind. The Ming Dynasty gilded Qilin tea pet collected by the Hong Kong Teaware Museum was tested to find that the tea stains on its surface contained 28 trace elements, forming a natural antioxidant protective layer.
In this era of mechanical reproduction, the auspicious animal tea pets, with their unique patina, guard the warmth of the handmade era. When your fingertips touch the warm back of the tea pets, you can feel not only the texture of purple sand, but also the auspicious code that has been circulating for thousands of years. These little animals squatting on the tea table are telling the most profound fable in oriental aesthetics in a silent manner - the so-called auspiciousness is nothing more than turning ordinary years into poetic practice.
