Pioneering English Translation of Chinese Tea Studies Terminology, 5th Lu-Yu Tea Studies Journal
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Apr 15, 2011, 11:44:15 AM4/15/11
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Pioneering English Translation of Chinese Tea Studies Terminology, 5th
Lu-Yu Tea Studies Journal
http://teaarts.blogspot.com/2010/04/5th-lu-yu-tea-studies-journal.html
5th Lu-Yu Tea Studies Deliberation of Papers Published Journal
Conference
李瑞河(published by Lu-Yu Tea Culture Institute)
2010.04
ISBN 978-986-84204-1-0
Pioneering English Translation
of
Chinese Tea Studies Terminology
首創如此英譯的中文茶學術語
_________________________________________________
Steven R. Jones 瓊斯史迪芬
__________________________________________________
Mar. 8, 2010
Tea is our bridge and language is our road to this bridge.
Fig1
摘要Abstract:
激動人心之論文發表會尚稱是大家的潤滑劑,能夠從中得到更多有益的啟發。哲學家說:沉默是一種成熟;思想家說:沉默是一種美德;科學家說:沉默是一種發
明;教育教說:沉默是一種智慧;藝術家說:沉默是一種魅力。一項茶文化或歷史背景、茶葉製造方面以及對茶學最基本性認識等等之英文茶學術語,並不是只說
得一口尚稱流利的國際英語就夠地。俗語說;學以致用,現在我將這段時間所學的翻譯成英譯茶學術語,也希望能傳遞荼學術語遍及全球。
Where’s my tea terminology dictionary?
To the reader; some of this writing has tea terminology that in not in
the dictionary or has a different definition, then we have defined, in
many cases while reading this paper, you might notice some Chinese
terms adjacent English terms, these are translations and in most cases
the Chinese-English Tea Term which gives both terms have the same
definition and are interchangeable depending on the language needed C-
E or E-C. The main purpose of this paper is to show some of the
motives and background for determining tea terms, and to show some
working examples, and in a style that accommodates Chinese and English
together for us to immediately see and pinpoint the translation. Also
the writings, examples, diagrams, and charts, used are for the reader
to explore. If you are thinking, “I wish I could read Chinese”. If
it was true one thing is, you would know exactly what the meaning is
for the Chinese term but you might neglect more in considering the
English term. This brings up an interesting factor, that could lead to
some biases or thinking too much Chinese and that the English part
might seem unacceptable. Since many of these English terms are new in
this lexicon or rediscovered from another area of study for use here.
Also even if you do understand Chinese one still needs to think more
about the English situation, since there is already so much Chinese
tea info out there, actually too much. What we are trying to do here
is not just translate Chinese-English Tea Terminology but make a never
before made Standard Terms of Tea Studies. I will also discuss my own
hopes and goals for the furthering the growth and promoting this much
needed Tea Terminology in the English language. Because I am well
aware that my own mother tongue English or should I say American
English, well it does not matter, because the English language now in
today’s world does not belong to me or a country. It has become not
through planning and rules but from a matter of circumstances the
international language of most professional studies and seems to be
continuing on this route. So even by translations and teachings I
must be accommodating of the cultural needs of the source Chinese
term and not be set in an unbending traditional English language rules
mode. Because the goal of this whole project is for people to be able
to use, write, or speak about tea studies to some extent, and for the
reader or listener to be able to understand.
Not just a city that has tea, this is a city with a tea culture.
This is where I fell in love with tea. Taipei’s culture is from China
and China’s culture is rooted in Tea. Remember Chinese Tea Arts is
also one of the high classical arts from ages ago that was studied by
the literati also know as scholars in the West. Times here have not
changed that much, for the brilliant minds of Taipei still enjoy the
power of tea. It is rare to see a meeting without cups of tea or a
sole master alone at work without the company tea. I have a saying,
“Tea is our bridge”. And you can see those tea bridges or should I
say tea bonds very clearly here.
Every street, every lane, every alley, and every park, there is tea;
tea for buying, tea for public drinking, like water is to some, tea
for ceremonies, tea for arts, tea for truly anything. Anyone who has
been to Taipei has sampled Taiwan teas, from the airport, hotel or a
gift shop. And when I am served a cup of tea, even if it is just a
small free sample, I am always humbled by the care and skill that goes
in to that preparation. Many teas are enjoyed using Gongfu Tea
Ceremony. Using small cups and special practiced and intuitive skills
to make each round of brewed tea taste its best, from the first round
to the last. Most tea masters don’t keep track of the numeric
parameters of brewing they just know, a pinch here a time there and
presto! Sounds like magic huh?
Many Westerners find Gongfu Tea complicated at first, therefore, we
need to make it easy for new comers. There is something I call the 3-
Ts which is Tea amount, Temperature, and Time.
泡茶表 Brewing guidelines
泡茶三要素 The Three Ts
3-Ts = tea, temperature, and time
茶量 Tea 茶量 amount of tea leaf
溫度 Temperature 水溫 water temperature
時間 Time 浸泡時間 steeping period
Getting these related parameters in balanced is an Art. And the
variety is vast with oolong teas, green teas, black teas, etc., with a
wide range of qualities and prices too. Taiwan is most known for its
oolong teas, which are partially fermented putting them on the tea
spectrum between non-fermented green teas and completely fermented
black teas. The Japanese travelers are especially fond of the ginseng
oolong. Taiwan is also famous for its roasted oolong teas, to get the
right degree of fermentation and the right degree of roasting is no
easy task.
The long history of Taiwanese tea in America started with Formosa
oolong. Americans were taken by Taiwan’s tea. The first cargo left a
port north of Taipei and entered New York in 1869 it was called
Formosa Tea. In the following years, Formosa (Taiwan) Tea was usually
more expensive than other teas coming from the orient. Today many
Chinese teas are greatly in demand and it is hard to keep up with the
ever growing populations of tea drinkers. Today, in America white tea
is all the craze, white tea comes from China and they are busy trying
to keep up with demand, white tea is made from the scarce young fuzzy
tips.
Overall, Asian teas are not just brewing in Asia; they are on the rise
in America as well as in Europe. Examples of popular teas are Chinese
Puer teas, Japanese green teas, Indian black teas, and of course,
Taiwanese oolongs. And with each tea that travels to a land afar,
some of its culture is tucked inside the tea leaf and awaits to be
brewed and then it will awake. So please read all the descriptions on
the labels to learn as much about that tea as possible; and remember
as you read that most are translated which in not a simple task. I
tell our students at “Tenfu Tea College” in the “Tea Studies
Terminology class”, if they later are in the situation and asked to
write a description for a tea or tea ware, first do their homework and
find out as much as possible. And be as correct and clear on the ideas
and write it in English first using the knowledge and terminology they
have learned and then the easy part for them since most speak and
write Chinese, is to then write the Chinese translation with the
proper terminology and description. And then back-check both ways.
These small writings become very important steps for Westerners
learning more about tea culture.
From the other side of the world to find love.
There were many events that have led me from the other side of the
world to Asia for over twenty years and counting, mainly in Taipei. I
am an American, but my grandmother was from England and drank tea, and
both my parents did not drink coffee, but tea. So of course I drank
tea. When I came to Taipei, I was amazed how they made such a big
deal just to make a little cup of tea. One event that sticks in my
mind is that of being in a tea shop and having a tea master seated at
a tea cart in front of me, and shows me some beautiful loose tea and
begins the act of making tea. The loose tea went from the tea holder
to the teapot sitting on the tea boat to catch any splashes. And the
water kettle poured water in the teapot and the teapot was then
emptied into the tea pitcher where it was poured into a scent cup and
lastly transferred into a teacup. I thought to myself, “Wow, all that
for a little cup of tea?” But my “wow?” turned into an “oh yes!” once
I drank the tea, that was the point I fell in love with tea, almost
twenty years ago. By the way, the tea was Oriental Beauty also called
White Tip Oolong. White Tip Oolong is from Taiwan, and is a tip-type
tea which is made of many tips and some young leaves, it is not
roasted and heavily fermented, with a rich and refined character and a
honey scent and ripe fruity flavor and an orange-red liquid color. I
also found the love of my life here, my lovely wife, and still happily
married.
First things first, for every tea book in English; there are hundreds
of tea books in Chinese.
Not to say that there is not a sophisticated tea terminology in
English already out there. Yet most of the tea terminology and
written materials are usually centered on just black tea. Now the
Chinese language is rich and very detailed on tea and so much
information; there are 10s of tea magazines and 100s of tea books,
ranging from arts, science, philosophy, cooking, and much more.
Remember every basic type of tea is also made in China: green tea,
yellow tea, white tea, oolong tea, black tea, green Puer, and dark tea
(including dark Puer). Many of these teas are exclusively from China
while others are also grown around the world. Also each one of these
major tea types have their origins in China, so between the growers,
producers, merchants, brew artists, tea masters and tea teachers, and
connoisseurs, the tea terminology is very developed and diverse. Tea
has been part of Chinese civilization for thousands of years,
(documented: over a thousand years). Also ages ago many Asian
Cultures used Chinese as their written language, creating an influence
on many cultures, some of these surviving ancient works can be read
today.
Right place at the right time.
The main reason I started learning more and more about tea was that
this was a product of circumstance. Living in Taiwan and liking tea.
Not just living here, but learning and living the culture
simultaneously. Persuading my wife to studying tea culture and
sharing with me was easy. Because for years I had been making tea for
her, without any kind of tea education and she knew I was very
interested. We also became involved with many tea social groups. And
I was happily busy learning Chinese and tea at the same time. It was
essential that I first learn some Chinese by taking a few Chinese
language classes at a language school. She continued her tea studies
and I remain somewhat involved at her tea school, I was a volunteer to
help with the activities.
When my wife began taking classes I would take her to and pick her up
from school and sometimes I would hang around, at first it was all
Greek to me, or should I say Chinese to me, because even though I
could speak some Chinese the topic at the school was "tea as in tea
studies", and everyone including my wife were using words I never
heard of and when we used a Chinese to English (C-E) dictionary my
wife would say that is strange the tea term is not in here, so we
would pull out the big fat C-E dictionary and again it was not there.
These were great dictionaries but not tea specific. I already had
some tea books in English but it was not working. So she would
explain to me in English what they learned and what the terms were in
Chinese. Well after several years, it finally happened, my wife
graduated and was a certified Tea Master, I felt so proud of her. She
wound up with three major degrees as well as some others. And she
started teaching some tea ceremony.
And now her attention including our tea friends turned in to me and
they said rather abruptly and often, “hey why don’t you take some
classes?” At first I was not only shocked but intimidated because my
Chinese at the time was not sufficient enough and my tea knowledge was
fair at best. Therefore, I wanted to put this off, I was not in any
rush to take classes in a foreign language, but if I did want to learn
more, the opportunity in America to learn and take classes for years
on tea is unheard of. Except for one and that would be Japanese Tea
Ceremony. So here I was in Taipei, in the middle of tea culture,
surrounded my brilliant instructors, and at a great school with lots
of classes including mostly Chinese but some Japanese, Korean, and
even British tea culture. I began slowly taking classes.
At first, I thought of using my English language tea books to help me
with my classes, but I found it a hindrance, since the classes were in
Chinese. There are some great English materials on tea, but some
have very shallow topics and by using different words for tea studies
terminology and definitely no standard of usage, so I gave up the
English books for awhile and focused on my classes and my Chinese tea
books, and many dictionaries English-English, Chinese- English,
Chinese-English and Chinese-Chinese, and used the internet, but the
most important help was from my guiding wife. I am an advocate for
using the internet for language and culture interaction without having
to leave home; also there are a lot of great people and websites on
tea. And I'm sure you already know there is a lot of junk to navigate
through on the internet as well.
After a few years of classes, again wife, instructors, and friends,
the question started coming up about when was I going to take the
tests (certification exams)? I smiled and laughed calmly and said
quite clearly, no way! Why should I be the first Westerner to attempt
this act? Those tests are in C-H-I-N-E-S-E; to me it felt like
debating rather or not to build the China Wall, by myself! A long
story short, I finally did past the certifications as my wife before
me did, and I have gray hair now too. After that, what I was finding
out was I knew so much about tea, but did not know how to clearly
express it in English. I felt frustrated. I had written some things
before about some of the tea ceremonies. And Director Tsai and I
began slowly at first to translate some simple tea names and tea
production processes, and we kept this up until we had a small working
vocabulary. And now five years later we have over a thousand terms.
And I now teach at the first Tea College in the world, “Tenfu Tea
College”, in English and Chinese about tea. This has not only been
satisfying, but has helped me much because instruction and practice is
the greatest teacher of all.
Those long meetings in his office.
Sometimes I look back thinking when we first started to translate tea
terminology, sometimes I would stay up late and finally after a week
of searching for an English term to fit the Chinese, I would finally
find it! Master Tsai and I had weekly meetings for this, and I would
go in to his office smiling and show him my skimpy little list that
too me days to complete, and he would calmly look though it and
usually slowly pick it a part. I could tell in his tone of voice
something was wrong, he would say can you show me the Chinese
definition of this word. And we would look through language
dictionaries. The silence was deafening and I would say something
like "it’s not that good… I think I should think of a better term".
And he would say, “Yes I agree”. And after hours of going over each
term, I would walk out of the office with my list of let’s say thirty
terms and twenty agreed upon. But those last few terms which would be
my homework, sometimes was a pain in the…..neck. I would get
inspiration in the strangest places so working or on vacation I always
carried my new list of Chinese terms that I needed to translate, some
terms reminded me of putting a square peg in a round hole.
Pioneering work.
English being the internationally accepted language and having a great
amount of professional terminology with many foreigners also working,
reading, and writing in the English language, has made it possible to
expand many specific terminologies as well as having input from many
sides to keep a standard usage. This is not the case where the
specialized subject is in a language that is not spoken by many
outside the country, and the subject does not have a large common
ground of topics outside the country of origin. The problem most
common to tea studies English terms is that most don’t exist and tea
studies Chinese terms are usually difficult to translate into an
English world that does not grow, produce, hardly understands brewing
tea, yet does drink it, and few ceremonies except for British teatime
culture as well as some others.
What we have tried to accomplish is to make a working vocabulary of
English Tea Studies Terminology. Like any translating, in the ideal
situation, it is usually best to have the following; an expert with
their mother tongue in the language of the source specific
terminology. And to have an expert with knowledge and understanding
of the specific terminology in both the source and target language,
and with the target language as their mother tongue. And of course the
two experts must be able to communicate perfectly. But of course this
is only in an ideal situation and this would have to be in a perfect
world. But my situation is not ideal and my world is far from
perfect. But we have tried to do the best possible given the
knowledge and resources we have.
Translation is a broad and much discussed and debated field, therefore
we have mostly discuss the translating of tea studies for Chinese and
English. Another thing we will discuss is the creation of a working
vocabulary of tea studies terminology; this list of terms is large and
we still are increasing this pioneering work.
The ways of translating tea studies terminology from Chinese to
English. First deciding what are the specialized tea studies terms
and first setting out an initial list of Chinese terms with proper
accepted definitions, then and accurately translate each term’s
Chinese definition accurately in to English. Then reevaluate and
research any traditional common translations and usage. Sometimes
there would already be one exact English term the matched the Chinese
term and the job for that term would be done. Other times there would
be several very similar terms but not an exact one, and then the task
would be choosing one using some agreed standards and a logical
system. But at times we also have incorporated some Chinese terms by
using one of several Romanization spelling systems and then, if needed
spelling it using the modern English alphabet and rules. Also being
open to suggestions, and trying not to be bias. And taking into
account we are not trying to teach the Chinese language but under some
circumstances we have incorporated some Chinese terms. In all that
hopefully will make sense in the larger scope of the tea studies
English language.
I have taught English for many years; and would like to bring
attention to the modern English language for a moment. One important
thing to understand is that there is many different regions that speak
English around the world, therefore it is good to try to adapt to
English the universal language, and one thing that must be done is to
make and keep English dynamic and simple as possible, this is what
some call International English, the language that is owned by all.
In almost every country they learn to some degree a form of English,
this is the dynamic international English. At this time it is
pointless to argue how important International English is. As a
Teacher of English as a Second Language, what is important is how we
mother tongue English speakers can try to learn some of the English
terms used in other countries as well as accents, and understand there
is a need for an international language. And as for second language
English speakers please continue to use your English and don’t be shy
when making mistakes, not any one person is always correct, and do not
feel your English is wrong. Nobody is perfect and you can use English
to speak to others, not only first language English speakers, but also
second language English speakers, using English as a common ground.
Keep more concern on getting your point across using the explanation
or correct terminology and less on minor grammar issues.
Is it black tea or red tea? To ponder too much, can be life
changing.
Let's look at the consequences of retranslating a term. Here we will
examine why the Chinese see black tea as red in color, and why
Westerners see black tea as black in color. Before beginning, for
those who are not aware, the Chinese term “black tea” is what we call
“dark tea” in English, and the Chinese term “red tea” is what we call
“black tea” in English. To get a better perspective of tea and color,
let’s go back in time. In the beginning tea was “green tea”. Much
later in time black tea was made. When this “black tea” was new and
not well known, it must have been shocking to see the fresh leaves
that have turned from green to copper-red during the fermentation
(oxidation) process. And then the tea leaf turning to black after the
drying process, then while being brewed (steeped), the black leaf
created a red liquid. In Chinese this tea was named “red tea”. Now
most agree it is because the liquid is red, but as another thought
there is the possibility the tea producers which were aware of this
very important process of the leaves reddening and perhaps called it
“red tea”. But to the early Western merchants busy in Chinese ports
selecting and purchasing loose leaf tea, and no time for tea breaks to
observe the teas liquid color and definitely never going to a tea
plantation and seeing this reddening fermentation process, they only
were concerned with the color of the tea product or dry leaf, and at
that time there were two colors or kinds, green tea and black tea.
Below is an exercise on the effect and comparison of changing
translated terms.
Example:
Below is a table of translations:
Chinese term English term
literal translation 直譯 standard translation 意譯
red tea 紅茶 black tea
black tea 黑茶 dark tea
rooibos tea 路依保斯茶 rooibos tea or red tea
Now just as an exercise let’s try to fix this red/black tea.
Below is an “alternate 模擬測試” table of these translations:
Chinese term English term
literal translation 直譯 alternate translation
red tea 紅茶 red tea
black tea 黑茶 black tea
rooibos tea 路依保斯茶 rooibos tea
Is this clarification or confusion?
In modern times this is a Pandora's Box; by trying to reconcile the
translation of black tea to what in Chinese is called red tea, and
would then lead to another turn on the Pandora’s Box and that is what
we call dark tea which in Chinese is black tea. In other words black
tea would be called red tea and dark tea would be called black tea.
One last thing is rooibos tea is not a tea, it is tisane and yet
sometimes referred too as red tea. Therefore one point is not every
English word needs or should be translated to the Chinese tea term
equivalent. Even though the tea term “black tea” seems that is was
misinterpreted in the past, since then there has been so much use the
word, that it is very common. It would not be worth the effort to
change this tea English term “black tea”.
Tracing back the roots of when Western culture learned of “black tea”
by the Chinese who called it “red tea”; I will admit when I think in
Chinese and first glance it looks logical and correct to change it
"back so to speak" to red. And if we actually went ahead and did this
change, there would be many actions that would have to be performed to
do to this correction, like document and refer back to this change of
when it took place and changes should be made in dictionaries, new tea
books, tea products and common language and such. And for a period of
time a notation next to the new term every time, the old term should
in some form be amended, in this way it will help future historians
and researchers to trace the roots our words today. I feel in the
above example the most important factor missing is the heritage of the
term “black tea”. To make the word more logical, much heritage and
connotation to the term would be at stake.
When translating we need to try to keep things as stable as possible,
not only for convenience but for future researchers that might be
translating and trying to trace a word’s origin. As I have been on
this quest of compiling a tea studies terminology, I have come to this
crucial point, every time you create a term it is very important to
give a background check and list the other terms that are also used or
have been used. This is vital to the authenticity and comprehension
of historical facts. Much of histories events unfortunately have been
lost due to creditability issues due to blatantly translating the
source terms and not using the standard target terms.
A widely used English language grading system for black tea of the
Western world.
Here we have a detailed and well used black tea terminology that has
been in use for many years in the Western world. There are some
grading discrepancies in the particular regions and teas: areas of
India, Assam, Darjeeling, and also in Sri Lanka. For the following
this is a general basic example of the grading system in India for
black teas:
But some of the terms(in full capital letters) are not so self-
explanatory. For example there are no flowers in FLOWERY and no
oranges in ORANGE, but there is broke in BROKEN and tips in TIPPY.
The main term’s origin is a mystery but there are a few theories for
ORANGE PEKOE. The first word ORANGE this could have come from the
citric fruit orange, with two possibilities, maybe orange oil was
added to the tea or perhaps orange blossoms were added to the tea, in
either case the black tea would have been a scented or spice tea
originally. In the next theory and excepted by most, ORANGE could
have been named after the royal family “House of Orange” which was
powerful in tea trade at that time, therefore, using this family name
“Orange” implying a royal connection with the tea. Now for the next
term PEKOE this comes from the Chinese word written as “ 白毫 ” meaning
“white fuzz” that can be found on the young tips of tea plants, and
when spoken in one of the many different sounding dialects and written
in English to mimic the sounds “pek-hoe” was written as PEKOE. There
are two more terms used that are also derived from Chinese, one is
SOUCHONG from Chinese “ 小種 ” and the other is CONGOU from Chinese “ 工
夫 ”, these last two terms are also names of Chinese black teas. Even
in our Western black tea grading system we still have Chinese words.
Whatever the origin or history of these words, they are now terms used
as a leaf grading system for black tea. It should be noted that this
grading system is not used in China.
Example IV: In this table we have the tea leaves types and the
relationship to the kind of tea with the fermentation levels.
分成而與或葉茶類芽茶類
Tip or Leaf Type 茶之分類
Classification of Tea 發酵程度
Degree of Fermentation
葉茶類
leaf-tea type 烏龍茶
oolong tea 部分發酵
partial fermentation
芽茶類
tip-tea type 白茶
white tea 部分發酵
partial fermentation
芽茶類
tip-tea type 綠茶、黃茶
green tea , yellow tea 不發酵
no fermentation
芽茶類
tip-tea type 紅茶
black tea 全發酵
complete fermentation
芽茶類
tip-tea type 普洱茶 、 黑茶
Puer tea, dark tea 後發酵
post-fermentation
*Exceptions: White Tip Oolong is a “ 芽茶類 tip-tea type” and Liuan
Leaf green tea is a “ 葉茶類 leaf-tea type”, also some of the “ 芽茶類 tip-
tea type” teas are actually “全芽心 all-tip”.
The Western derived models for teas have not had such a specific and
detailed tea terminology on this very simple topic of just fresh tea
leaves and the relation to the kinds of tea. With the table above we
can observe the spent leaves and determine what type of leaves and if
we recognize the color due to the fermentation we can further
determine the classification of tea.
Name that pot and write it down.
Another great void in the tea culture world is personal character
descriptors that stem from the ceramic artists of tea ware; these
creators make something that is first needed and practical and
beautiful. But remember these potter craftsmen that fulfill the need
of tea ware for us to utilize, at the same time produce useful art. I
usually spend much of my translating of products centered on brewing
vessels like teapots or cover bowls.
Here Lin “Li-shrue 林麗雪” with her very conscientious and ongoing work
together with me to translate tea ware descriptions, a very good
application of using our tea studies terminology. Many of the new tea
ware products will pass through her expertise. First she consults
with the ceramic artist and writes in Chinese the name and a
meaningful and a beautiful description of the piece. Once I see the
title and description of the piece, she will also show me a picture or
a real prototype and she will begin the task of explaining what the
artist is trying to convey and also the name of the tea ware. For me,
this is where it begins, first pondering naming the art ware and then
describing with a balance of precise English translation while keeping
within the bounds of comprehension. In such a way that an English
reader could read the product description and find the name of the
artistic tea ware appealing and understand the description meaning.
These are consumer items so the name and description should make the
person feel interested and maybe puts them in a good mood or gives
them a feeling of “yes I can see what the ceramic artist is
conveying”.
Anyway, like many business tasks fulfilling a need, in this one we
wish to please the consumer to some extent that they will buy the
product. But for me this is not that difficult or far from how I
usually translate in the education field, because I always stay aware
the target audience, and it is important to make the translation
smooth so it does its purpose, as simple as possible without adverse
language that is destructive to the advancement of tea studies and the
translation itself.
These “Product Description Sheets” are also printed on cards and
placed together with the tea ware. This project is great not only for
the Chinese reader, but for the English reader to get the background
and character of the particular tea ware. Below is a reprint of one
of the tea ware sheets written in the year 2009.
An example below:
***
陸羽產品說明書
Lu-Yu Product Description Sheet
火苗單壺 Flame single pot
進階說明 Detailed Description
質地：瓷器 Material: Porcelain
組件：壺（容積約125cc）x 1 Component: Teapot (approx. vol. 125ml)x 1
生產時間：2009年秋開發 Issue Date: 2009 Autumn
〝點燃希望火苗〞為設計理念。以象形之火苗為紐為之造形；
"Hope flame" design. A flame is a pictograph for the lid knob;
壺把亦是火焰之勢，整體亦如燭台，
the teapot handle is shaped like a blaze, the entirety is shaped like
a candlestick as well,
配以火紅的紅釉，散發著燃燒的熱情，並傳遞著希望的光芒。
matched with the fiery red of red glaze, the distribution of the
ardent enthusiasm, and light transmission of hope.
***
These Description Cards are wonderful for letting the buyer know that
it is a work of art with a theme and has a personal character. In the
above example it lets the owner immediately understand the artist’s
goal and builds a closeness to this particular teapot “Flame”. As in
any language the name has to be catchy, there is a delicate balance of
translating direct word for word, by phases, or by being flexible and
using similar meanings to achieve similar results. Then the
description should echo the name “Flame”, and also use the above
strategy to translate and also try to give the writing a flowing
rhythm without gaps. Again there is a fine line of being accurate and
interesting at the same time.
My life has become intertwined together with tea and my goal of this
pioneering project is not to finish it, but to give this English Tea
Studies Terminology to the tea community to use and build on and even
improve it. Because this task is far from done. There are so many
kinds of teas and so many people wanting to drink tea, but they do not
understand how to communicate about tea. There is no official tea
studies terminology in any language, but I am certain with everyone’s
interest in tea and becoming more familiar with the basic terms put
forth in our book “Chinese-English Terminology for Tea Studies”,
published this year, that we are now able to begin the task of sharing
and promoting tea culture together. Remember tea is our bridge and
language is our road to this bridge.
Have a cup of tea!
Acknowledgments:
My tea master Prof. “Tsai Rong Tsang 蔡榮章”, a brilliant man who has
become my mentor that I respect as my lifelong teacher. He has worked
hard creating a tea terminology and classification of the various tea
topics. I am grateful to my wife “Chang, Li-Hsiang 張麗香” for her
patience in helping me to understand tea and Chinese and even more
important Chinese Culture, and helping me with my teaching and
translating. Also to my teachers “Lin, Rai-Hsian 林瑞萱”, “Tu, Kuo-Juey涂國
瑞”, this list is too long, so I will just say thanks to all my
teachers for their knowledge, advice, and support. Also to my
classmates, students, and tea friends for all their help and
understanding that I still am a foreigner learning.
Profile
關於我自己
◎天福茶學院茶文化系客座講師
* Adjunct Instructor, Department of Tea Culture, Tenfu Tea College
◎陸羽茶藝中心講師
* Instructor, Lu-Yu Tea Culture Institute
◎天仁茶藝文化基金會翻譯人
* Writer and translator, Ten Ren Teaism Foundation
著有, 出版著作
Published Works
◎《茶文化系專業英語》 ( 天福茶學院 ，2008 ，控制號：zyk0014462)
* “Specialized English for Tea”, (2008), Tenfu Tea College, Ctrl No:
zyk0014462
◎《中英文"茶學術語"》 ( 天福茶學院 , 2009 )
* “Chinese-English Tea Studies Terminology”, (2009), Tenfu Tea College
◎《中英文茶學術語》 ( 陸羽茶藝股份有限公司 , 2010 )
* “Chinese-English Tea Studies Terminology”, (2010), Lu-Yu Tea Culture
Institute, Co., Ltd.
---the end---
Some of the terms used in the above:
茶青類 Fresh Leaf Type
芽茶類 tip-tea type:
全芽心 all-tip
一心二葉 one-tip two-leaf
葉茶類 leaf-tea type:
對口葉 terminal facing-leaf
對口三葉 terminal facing three-leaf
Black Tea Leaf Grading (Note: only used for black tea, in India and
nearby.)
Flowery Orange Pekoe 花橙白毫
Orange Pekoe 橙白毫
Pekoe 白毫
Souchong 小種
Pekoe Souchong 白毫小種
Congou 工夫
Bohea 武夷
Fresh Tea Leaf Classification (Note: for all teas, not just black
tea.)
Tip 芽
First Leaf 第一葉
Second Leaf 第二葉
Third Leaf 第三葉
Fourth Leaf 第四葉
Fifth Leaf 第五葉
Sixth Leaf 第六葉
首創如此英譯的中文茶學術語
瓊斯史迪芬
Pioneering English Translation of Chinese Tea Studies Terminology
Steven R. Jones (Mar. 8, 2010)
http://teaarts.blogspot.com/2010/04/5th-lu-yu-tea-studies-journal.html
Lu-Yu Tea Studies Journal
http://teaarts.blogspot.com/2010/04/5th-lu-yu-tea-studies-journal.html
5th Lu-Yu Tea Studies Deliberation of Papers Published Journal
Conference
李瑞河(published by Lu-Yu Tea Culture Institute)
2010.04
ISBN 978-986-84204-1-0
Pioneering English Translation
of
Chinese Tea Studies Terminology
首創如此英譯的中文茶學術語
_________________________________________________
Steven R. Jones 瓊斯史迪芬
__________________________________________________
Mar. 8, 2010
Tea is our bridge and language is our road to this bridge.
Fig1
摘要Abstract:
激動人心之論文發表會尚稱是大家的潤滑劑,能夠從中得到更多有益的啟發。哲學家說:沉默是一種成熟;思想家說:沉默是一種美德;科學家說:沉默是一種發
明;教育教說:沉默是一種智慧;藝術家說:沉默是一種魅力。一項茶文化或歷史背景、茶葉製造方面以及對茶學最基本性認識等等之英文茶學術語,並不是只說
得一口尚稱流利的國際英語就夠地。俗語說;學以致用,現在我將這段時間所學的翻譯成英譯茶學術語,也希望能傳遞荼學術語遍及全球。
Where’s my tea terminology dictionary?
To the reader; some of this writing has tea terminology that in not in
the dictionary or has a different definition, then we have defined, in
many cases while reading this paper, you might notice some Chinese
terms adjacent English terms, these are translations and in most cases
the Chinese-English Tea Term which gives both terms have the same
definition and are interchangeable depending on the language needed C-
E or E-C. The main purpose of this paper is to show some of the
motives and background for determining tea terms, and to show some
working examples, and in a style that accommodates Chinese and English
together for us to immediately see and pinpoint the translation. Also
the writings, examples, diagrams, and charts, used are for the reader
to explore. If you are thinking, “I wish I could read Chinese”. If
it was true one thing is, you would know exactly what the meaning is
for the Chinese term but you might neglect more in considering the
English term. This brings up an interesting factor, that could lead to
some biases or thinking too much Chinese and that the English part
might seem unacceptable. Since many of these English terms are new in
this lexicon or rediscovered from another area of study for use here.
Also even if you do understand Chinese one still needs to think more
about the English situation, since there is already so much Chinese
tea info out there, actually too much. What we are trying to do here
is not just translate Chinese-English Tea Terminology but make a never
before made Standard Terms of Tea Studies. I will also discuss my own
hopes and goals for the furthering the growth and promoting this much
needed Tea Terminology in the English language. Because I am well
aware that my own mother tongue English or should I say American
English, well it does not matter, because the English language now in
today’s world does not belong to me or a country. It has become not
through planning and rules but from a matter of circumstances the
international language of most professional studies and seems to be
continuing on this route. So even by translations and teachings I
must be accommodating of the cultural needs of the source Chinese
term and not be set in an unbending traditional English language rules
mode. Because the goal of this whole project is for people to be able
to use, write, or speak about tea studies to some extent, and for the
reader or listener to be able to understand.
Not just a city that has tea, this is a city with a tea culture.
This is where I fell in love with tea. Taipei’s culture is from China
and China’s culture is rooted in Tea. Remember Chinese Tea Arts is
also one of the high classical arts from ages ago that was studied by
the literati also know as scholars in the West. Times here have not
changed that much, for the brilliant minds of Taipei still enjoy the
power of tea. It is rare to see a meeting without cups of tea or a
sole master alone at work without the company tea. I have a saying,
“Tea is our bridge”. And you can see those tea bridges or should I
say tea bonds very clearly here.
Every street, every lane, every alley, and every park, there is tea;
tea for buying, tea for public drinking, like water is to some, tea
for ceremonies, tea for arts, tea for truly anything. Anyone who has
been to Taipei has sampled Taiwan teas, from the airport, hotel or a
gift shop. And when I am served a cup of tea, even if it is just a
small free sample, I am always humbled by the care and skill that goes
in to that preparation. Many teas are enjoyed using Gongfu Tea
Ceremony. Using small cups and special practiced and intuitive skills
to make each round of brewed tea taste its best, from the first round
to the last. Most tea masters don’t keep track of the numeric
parameters of brewing they just know, a pinch here a time there and
presto! Sounds like magic huh?
Many Westerners find Gongfu Tea complicated at first, therefore, we
need to make it easy for new comers. There is something I call the 3-
Ts which is Tea amount, Temperature, and Time.
泡茶表 Brewing guidelines
泡茶三要素 The Three Ts
3-Ts = tea, temperature, and time
茶量 Tea 茶量 amount of tea leaf
溫度 Temperature 水溫 water temperature
時間 Time 浸泡時間 steeping period
Getting these related parameters in balanced is an Art. And the
variety is vast with oolong teas, green teas, black teas, etc., with a
wide range of qualities and prices too. Taiwan is most known for its
oolong teas, which are partially fermented putting them on the tea
spectrum between non-fermented green teas and completely fermented
black teas. The Japanese travelers are especially fond of the ginseng
oolong. Taiwan is also famous for its roasted oolong teas, to get the
right degree of fermentation and the right degree of roasting is no
easy task.
The long history of Taiwanese tea in America started with Formosa
oolong. Americans were taken by Taiwan’s tea. The first cargo left a
port north of Taipei and entered New York in 1869 it was called
Formosa Tea. In the following years, Formosa (Taiwan) Tea was usually
more expensive than other teas coming from the orient. Today many
Chinese teas are greatly in demand and it is hard to keep up with the
ever growing populations of tea drinkers. Today, in America white tea
is all the craze, white tea comes from China and they are busy trying
to keep up with demand, white tea is made from the scarce young fuzzy
tips.
Overall, Asian teas are not just brewing in Asia; they are on the rise
in America as well as in Europe. Examples of popular teas are Chinese
Puer teas, Japanese green teas, Indian black teas, and of course,
Taiwanese oolongs. And with each tea that travels to a land afar,
some of its culture is tucked inside the tea leaf and awaits to be
brewed and then it will awake. So please read all the descriptions on
the labels to learn as much about that tea as possible; and remember
as you read that most are translated which in not a simple task. I
tell our students at “Tenfu Tea College” in the “Tea Studies
Terminology class”, if they later are in the situation and asked to
write a description for a tea or tea ware, first do their homework and
find out as much as possible. And be as correct and clear on the ideas
and write it in English first using the knowledge and terminology they
have learned and then the easy part for them since most speak and
write Chinese, is to then write the Chinese translation with the
proper terminology and description. And then back-check both ways.
These small writings become very important steps for Westerners
learning more about tea culture.
From the other side of the world to find love.
There were many events that have led me from the other side of the
world to Asia for over twenty years and counting, mainly in Taipei. I
am an American, but my grandmother was from England and drank tea, and
both my parents did not drink coffee, but tea. So of course I drank
tea. When I came to Taipei, I was amazed how they made such a big
deal just to make a little cup of tea. One event that sticks in my
mind is that of being in a tea shop and having a tea master seated at
a tea cart in front of me, and shows me some beautiful loose tea and
begins the act of making tea. The loose tea went from the tea holder
to the teapot sitting on the tea boat to catch any splashes. And the
water kettle poured water in the teapot and the teapot was then
emptied into the tea pitcher where it was poured into a scent cup and
lastly transferred into a teacup. I thought to myself, “Wow, all that
for a little cup of tea?” But my “wow?” turned into an “oh yes!” once
I drank the tea, that was the point I fell in love with tea, almost
twenty years ago. By the way, the tea was Oriental Beauty also called
White Tip Oolong. White Tip Oolong is from Taiwan, and is a tip-type
tea which is made of many tips and some young leaves, it is not
roasted and heavily fermented, with a rich and refined character and a
honey scent and ripe fruity flavor and an orange-red liquid color. I
also found the love of my life here, my lovely wife, and still happily
married.
First things first, for every tea book in English; there are hundreds
of tea books in Chinese.
Not to say that there is not a sophisticated tea terminology in
English already out there. Yet most of the tea terminology and
written materials are usually centered on just black tea. Now the
Chinese language is rich and very detailed on tea and so much
information; there are 10s of tea magazines and 100s of tea books,
ranging from arts, science, philosophy, cooking, and much more.
Remember every basic type of tea is also made in China: green tea,
yellow tea, white tea, oolong tea, black tea, green Puer, and dark tea
(including dark Puer). Many of these teas are exclusively from China
while others are also grown around the world. Also each one of these
major tea types have their origins in China, so between the growers,
producers, merchants, brew artists, tea masters and tea teachers, and
connoisseurs, the tea terminology is very developed and diverse. Tea
has been part of Chinese civilization for thousands of years,
(documented: over a thousand years). Also ages ago many Asian
Cultures used Chinese as their written language, creating an influence
on many cultures, some of these surviving ancient works can be read
today.
Right place at the right time.
The main reason I started learning more and more about tea was that
this was a product of circumstance. Living in Taiwan and liking tea.
Not just living here, but learning and living the culture
simultaneously. Persuading my wife to studying tea culture and
sharing with me was easy. Because for years I had been making tea for
her, without any kind of tea education and she knew I was very
interested. We also became involved with many tea social groups. And
I was happily busy learning Chinese and tea at the same time. It was
essential that I first learn some Chinese by taking a few Chinese
language classes at a language school. She continued her tea studies
and I remain somewhat involved at her tea school, I was a volunteer to
help with the activities.
When my wife began taking classes I would take her to and pick her up
from school and sometimes I would hang around, at first it was all
Greek to me, or should I say Chinese to me, because even though I
could speak some Chinese the topic at the school was "tea as in tea
studies", and everyone including my wife were using words I never
heard of and when we used a Chinese to English (C-E) dictionary my
wife would say that is strange the tea term is not in here, so we
would pull out the big fat C-E dictionary and again it was not there.
These were great dictionaries but not tea specific. I already had
some tea books in English but it was not working. So she would
explain to me in English what they learned and what the terms were in
Chinese. Well after several years, it finally happened, my wife
graduated and was a certified Tea Master, I felt so proud of her. She
wound up with three major degrees as well as some others. And she
started teaching some tea ceremony.
And now her attention including our tea friends turned in to me and
they said rather abruptly and often, “hey why don’t you take some
classes?” At first I was not only shocked but intimidated because my
Chinese at the time was not sufficient enough and my tea knowledge was
fair at best. Therefore, I wanted to put this off, I was not in any
rush to take classes in a foreign language, but if I did want to learn
more, the opportunity in America to learn and take classes for years
on tea is unheard of. Except for one and that would be Japanese Tea
Ceremony. So here I was in Taipei, in the middle of tea culture,
surrounded my brilliant instructors, and at a great school with lots
of classes including mostly Chinese but some Japanese, Korean, and
even British tea culture. I began slowly taking classes.
At first, I thought of using my English language tea books to help me
with my classes, but I found it a hindrance, since the classes were in
Chinese. There are some great English materials on tea, but some
have very shallow topics and by using different words for tea studies
terminology and definitely no standard of usage, so I gave up the
English books for awhile and focused on my classes and my Chinese tea
books, and many dictionaries English-English, Chinese- English,
Chinese-English and Chinese-Chinese, and used the internet, but the
most important help was from my guiding wife. I am an advocate for
using the internet for language and culture interaction without having
to leave home; also there are a lot of great people and websites on
tea. And I'm sure you already know there is a lot of junk to navigate
through on the internet as well.
After a few years of classes, again wife, instructors, and friends,
the question started coming up about when was I going to take the
tests (certification exams)? I smiled and laughed calmly and said
quite clearly, no way! Why should I be the first Westerner to attempt
this act? Those tests are in C-H-I-N-E-S-E; to me it felt like
debating rather or not to build the China Wall, by myself! A long
story short, I finally did past the certifications as my wife before
me did, and I have gray hair now too. After that, what I was finding
out was I knew so much about tea, but did not know how to clearly
express it in English. I felt frustrated. I had written some things
before about some of the tea ceremonies. And Director Tsai and I
began slowly at first to translate some simple tea names and tea
production processes, and we kept this up until we had a small working
vocabulary. And now five years later we have over a thousand terms.
And I now teach at the first Tea College in the world, “Tenfu Tea
College”, in English and Chinese about tea. This has not only been
satisfying, but has helped me much because instruction and practice is
the greatest teacher of all.
Those long meetings in his office.
Sometimes I look back thinking when we first started to translate tea
terminology, sometimes I would stay up late and finally after a week
of searching for an English term to fit the Chinese, I would finally
find it! Master Tsai and I had weekly meetings for this, and I would
go in to his office smiling and show him my skimpy little list that
too me days to complete, and he would calmly look though it and
usually slowly pick it a part. I could tell in his tone of voice
something was wrong, he would say can you show me the Chinese
definition of this word. And we would look through language
dictionaries. The silence was deafening and I would say something
like "it’s not that good… I think I should think of a better term".
And he would say, “Yes I agree”. And after hours of going over each
term, I would walk out of the office with my list of let’s say thirty
terms and twenty agreed upon. But those last few terms which would be
my homework, sometimes was a pain in the…..neck. I would get
inspiration in the strangest places so working or on vacation I always
carried my new list of Chinese terms that I needed to translate, some
terms reminded me of putting a square peg in a round hole.
Pioneering work.
English being the internationally accepted language and having a great
amount of professional terminology with many foreigners also working,
reading, and writing in the English language, has made it possible to
expand many specific terminologies as well as having input from many
sides to keep a standard usage. This is not the case where the
specialized subject is in a language that is not spoken by many
outside the country, and the subject does not have a large common
ground of topics outside the country of origin. The problem most
common to tea studies English terms is that most don’t exist and tea
studies Chinese terms are usually difficult to translate into an
English world that does not grow, produce, hardly understands brewing
tea, yet does drink it, and few ceremonies except for British teatime
culture as well as some others.
What we have tried to accomplish is to make a working vocabulary of
English Tea Studies Terminology. Like any translating, in the ideal
situation, it is usually best to have the following; an expert with
their mother tongue in the language of the source specific
terminology. And to have an expert with knowledge and understanding
of the specific terminology in both the source and target language,
and with the target language as their mother tongue. And of course the
two experts must be able to communicate perfectly. But of course this
is only in an ideal situation and this would have to be in a perfect
world. But my situation is not ideal and my world is far from
perfect. But we have tried to do the best possible given the
knowledge and resources we have.
Translation is a broad and much discussed and debated field, therefore
we have mostly discuss the translating of tea studies for Chinese and
English. Another thing we will discuss is the creation of a working
vocabulary of tea studies terminology; this list of terms is large and
we still are increasing this pioneering work.
The ways of translating tea studies terminology from Chinese to
English. First deciding what are the specialized tea studies terms
and first setting out an initial list of Chinese terms with proper
accepted definitions, then and accurately translate each term’s
Chinese definition accurately in to English. Then reevaluate and
research any traditional common translations and usage. Sometimes
there would already be one exact English term the matched the Chinese
term and the job for that term would be done. Other times there would
be several very similar terms but not an exact one, and then the task
would be choosing one using some agreed standards and a logical
system. But at times we also have incorporated some Chinese terms by
using one of several Romanization spelling systems and then, if needed
spelling it using the modern English alphabet and rules. Also being
open to suggestions, and trying not to be bias. And taking into
account we are not trying to teach the Chinese language but under some
circumstances we have incorporated some Chinese terms. In all that
hopefully will make sense in the larger scope of the tea studies
English language.
I have taught English for many years; and would like to bring
attention to the modern English language for a moment. One important
thing to understand is that there is many different regions that speak
English around the world, therefore it is good to try to adapt to
English the universal language, and one thing that must be done is to
make and keep English dynamic and simple as possible, this is what
some call International English, the language that is owned by all.
In almost every country they learn to some degree a form of English,
this is the dynamic international English. At this time it is
pointless to argue how important International English is. As a
Teacher of English as a Second Language, what is important is how we
mother tongue English speakers can try to learn some of the English
terms used in other countries as well as accents, and understand there
is a need for an international language. And as for second language
English speakers please continue to use your English and don’t be shy
when making mistakes, not any one person is always correct, and do not
feel your English is wrong. Nobody is perfect and you can use English
to speak to others, not only first language English speakers, but also
second language English speakers, using English as a common ground.
Keep more concern on getting your point across using the explanation
or correct terminology and less on minor grammar issues.
Is it black tea or red tea? To ponder too much, can be life
changing.
Let's look at the consequences of retranslating a term. Here we will
examine why the Chinese see black tea as red in color, and why
Westerners see black tea as black in color. Before beginning, for
those who are not aware, the Chinese term “black tea” is what we call
“dark tea” in English, and the Chinese term “red tea” is what we call
“black tea” in English. To get a better perspective of tea and color,
let’s go back in time. In the beginning tea was “green tea”. Much
later in time black tea was made. When this “black tea” was new and
not well known, it must have been shocking to see the fresh leaves
that have turned from green to copper-red during the fermentation
(oxidation) process. And then the tea leaf turning to black after the
drying process, then while being brewed (steeped), the black leaf
created a red liquid. In Chinese this tea was named “red tea”. Now
most agree it is because the liquid is red, but as another thought
there is the possibility the tea producers which were aware of this
very important process of the leaves reddening and perhaps called it
“red tea”. But to the early Western merchants busy in Chinese ports
selecting and purchasing loose leaf tea, and no time for tea breaks to
observe the teas liquid color and definitely never going to a tea
plantation and seeing this reddening fermentation process, they only
were concerned with the color of the tea product or dry leaf, and at
that time there were two colors or kinds, green tea and black tea.
Below is an exercise on the effect and comparison of changing
translated terms.
Example:
Below is a table of translations:
Chinese term English term
literal translation 直譯 standard translation 意譯
red tea 紅茶 black tea
black tea 黑茶 dark tea
rooibos tea 路依保斯茶 rooibos tea or red tea
Now just as an exercise let’s try to fix this red/black tea.
Below is an “alternate 模擬測試” table of these translations:
Chinese term English term
literal translation 直譯 alternate translation
red tea 紅茶 red tea
black tea 黑茶 black tea
rooibos tea 路依保斯茶 rooibos tea
Is this clarification or confusion?
In modern times this is a Pandora's Box; by trying to reconcile the
translation of black tea to what in Chinese is called red tea, and
would then lead to another turn on the Pandora’s Box and that is what
we call dark tea which in Chinese is black tea. In other words black
tea would be called red tea and dark tea would be called black tea.
One last thing is rooibos tea is not a tea, it is tisane and yet
sometimes referred too as red tea. Therefore one point is not every
English word needs or should be translated to the Chinese tea term
equivalent. Even though the tea term “black tea” seems that is was
misinterpreted in the past, since then there has been so much use the
word, that it is very common. It would not be worth the effort to
change this tea English term “black tea”.
Tracing back the roots of when Western culture learned of “black tea”
by the Chinese who called it “red tea”; I will admit when I think in
Chinese and first glance it looks logical and correct to change it
"back so to speak" to red. And if we actually went ahead and did this
change, there would be many actions that would have to be performed to
do to this correction, like document and refer back to this change of
when it took place and changes should be made in dictionaries, new tea
books, tea products and common language and such. And for a period of
time a notation next to the new term every time, the old term should
in some form be amended, in this way it will help future historians
and researchers to trace the roots our words today. I feel in the
above example the most important factor missing is the heritage of the
term “black tea”. To make the word more logical, much heritage and
connotation to the term would be at stake.
When translating we need to try to keep things as stable as possible,
not only for convenience but for future researchers that might be
translating and trying to trace a word’s origin. As I have been on
this quest of compiling a tea studies terminology, I have come to this
crucial point, every time you create a term it is very important to
give a background check and list the other terms that are also used or
have been used. This is vital to the authenticity and comprehension
of historical facts. Much of histories events unfortunately have been
lost due to creditability issues due to blatantly translating the
source terms and not using the standard target terms.
A widely used English language grading system for black tea of the
Western world.
Here we have a detailed and well used black tea terminology that has
been in use for many years in the Western world. There are some
grading discrepancies in the particular regions and teas: areas of
India, Assam, Darjeeling, and also in Sri Lanka. For the following
this is a general basic example of the grading system in India for
black teas:
But some of the terms(in full capital letters) are not so self-
explanatory. For example there are no flowers in FLOWERY and no
oranges in ORANGE, but there is broke in BROKEN and tips in TIPPY.
The main term’s origin is a mystery but there are a few theories for
ORANGE PEKOE. The first word ORANGE this could have come from the
citric fruit orange, with two possibilities, maybe orange oil was
added to the tea or perhaps orange blossoms were added to the tea, in
either case the black tea would have been a scented or spice tea
originally. In the next theory and excepted by most, ORANGE could
have been named after the royal family “House of Orange” which was
powerful in tea trade at that time, therefore, using this family name
“Orange” implying a royal connection with the tea. Now for the next
term PEKOE this comes from the Chinese word written as “ 白毫 ” meaning
“white fuzz” that can be found on the young tips of tea plants, and
when spoken in one of the many different sounding dialects and written
in English to mimic the sounds “pek-hoe” was written as PEKOE. There
are two more terms used that are also derived from Chinese, one is
SOUCHONG from Chinese “ 小種 ” and the other is CONGOU from Chinese “ 工
夫 ”, these last two terms are also names of Chinese black teas. Even
in our Western black tea grading system we still have Chinese words.
Whatever the origin or history of these words, they are now terms used
as a leaf grading system for black tea. It should be noted that this
grading system is not used in China.
Example IV: In this table we have the tea leaves types and the
relationship to the kind of tea with the fermentation levels.
分成而與或葉茶類芽茶類
Tip or Leaf Type 茶之分類
Classification of Tea 發酵程度
Degree of Fermentation
葉茶類
leaf-tea type 烏龍茶
oolong tea 部分發酵
partial fermentation
芽茶類
tip-tea type 白茶
white tea 部分發酵
partial fermentation
芽茶類
tip-tea type 綠茶、黃茶
green tea , yellow tea 不發酵
no fermentation
芽茶類
tip-tea type 紅茶
black tea 全發酵
complete fermentation
芽茶類
tip-tea type 普洱茶 、 黑茶
Puer tea, dark tea 後發酵
post-fermentation
*Exceptions: White Tip Oolong is a “ 芽茶類 tip-tea type” and Liuan
Leaf green tea is a “ 葉茶類 leaf-tea type”, also some of the “ 芽茶類 tip-
tea type” teas are actually “全芽心 all-tip”.
The Western derived models for teas have not had such a specific and
detailed tea terminology on this very simple topic of just fresh tea
leaves and the relation to the kinds of tea. With the table above we
can observe the spent leaves and determine what type of leaves and if
we recognize the color due to the fermentation we can further
determine the classification of tea.
Name that pot and write it down.
Another great void in the tea culture world is personal character
descriptors that stem from the ceramic artists of tea ware; these
creators make something that is first needed and practical and
beautiful. But remember these potter craftsmen that fulfill the need
of tea ware for us to utilize, at the same time produce useful art. I
usually spend much of my translating of products centered on brewing
vessels like teapots or cover bowls.
Here Lin “Li-shrue 林麗雪” with her very conscientious and ongoing work
together with me to translate tea ware descriptions, a very good
application of using our tea studies terminology. Many of the new tea
ware products will pass through her expertise. First she consults
with the ceramic artist and writes in Chinese the name and a
meaningful and a beautiful description of the piece. Once I see the
title and description of the piece, she will also show me a picture or
a real prototype and she will begin the task of explaining what the
artist is trying to convey and also the name of the tea ware. For me,
this is where it begins, first pondering naming the art ware and then
describing with a balance of precise English translation while keeping
within the bounds of comprehension. In such a way that an English
reader could read the product description and find the name of the
artistic tea ware appealing and understand the description meaning.
These are consumer items so the name and description should make the
person feel interested and maybe puts them in a good mood or gives
them a feeling of “yes I can see what the ceramic artist is
conveying”.
Anyway, like many business tasks fulfilling a need, in this one we
wish to please the consumer to some extent that they will buy the
product. But for me this is not that difficult or far from how I
usually translate in the education field, because I always stay aware
the target audience, and it is important to make the translation
smooth so it does its purpose, as simple as possible without adverse
language that is destructive to the advancement of tea studies and the
translation itself.
These “Product Description Sheets” are also printed on cards and
placed together with the tea ware. This project is great not only for
the Chinese reader, but for the English reader to get the background
and character of the particular tea ware. Below is a reprint of one
of the tea ware sheets written in the year 2009.
An example below:
***
陸羽產品說明書
Lu-Yu Product Description Sheet
火苗單壺 Flame single pot
進階說明 Detailed Description
質地：瓷器 Material: Porcelain
組件：壺（容積約125cc）x 1 Component: Teapot (approx. vol. 125ml)x 1
生產時間：2009年秋開發 Issue Date: 2009 Autumn
〝點燃希望火苗〞為設計理念。以象形之火苗為紐為之造形；
"Hope flame" design. A flame is a pictograph for the lid knob;
壺把亦是火焰之勢，整體亦如燭台，
the teapot handle is shaped like a blaze, the entirety is shaped like
a candlestick as well,
配以火紅的紅釉，散發著燃燒的熱情，並傳遞著希望的光芒。
matched with the fiery red of red glaze, the distribution of the
ardent enthusiasm, and light transmission of hope.
***
These Description Cards are wonderful for letting the buyer know that
it is a work of art with a theme and has a personal character. In the
above example it lets the owner immediately understand the artist’s
goal and builds a closeness to this particular teapot “Flame”. As in
any language the name has to be catchy, there is a delicate balance of
translating direct word for word, by phases, or by being flexible and
using similar meanings to achieve similar results. Then the
description should echo the name “Flame”, and also use the above
strategy to translate and also try to give the writing a flowing
rhythm without gaps. Again there is a fine line of being accurate and
interesting at the same time.
My life has become intertwined together with tea and my goal of this
pioneering project is not to finish it, but to give this English Tea
Studies Terminology to the tea community to use and build on and even
improve it. Because this task is far from done. There are so many
kinds of teas and so many people wanting to drink tea, but they do not
understand how to communicate about tea. There is no official tea
studies terminology in any language, but I am certain with everyone’s
interest in tea and becoming more familiar with the basic terms put
forth in our book “Chinese-English Terminology for Tea Studies”,
published this year, that we are now able to begin the task of sharing
and promoting tea culture together. Remember tea is our bridge and
language is our road to this bridge.
Have a cup of tea!
Acknowledgments:
My tea master Prof. “Tsai Rong Tsang 蔡榮章”, a brilliant man who has
become my mentor that I respect as my lifelong teacher. He has worked
hard creating a tea terminology and classification of the various tea
topics. I am grateful to my wife “Chang, Li-Hsiang 張麗香” for her
patience in helping me to understand tea and Chinese and even more
important Chinese Culture, and helping me with my teaching and
translating. Also to my teachers “Lin, Rai-Hsian 林瑞萱”, “Tu, Kuo-Juey涂國
瑞”, this list is too long, so I will just say thanks to all my
teachers for their knowledge, advice, and support. Also to my
classmates, students, and tea friends for all their help and
understanding that I still am a foreigner learning.
Profile
關於我自己
◎天福茶學院茶文化系客座講師
* Adjunct Instructor, Department of Tea Culture, Tenfu Tea College
◎陸羽茶藝中心講師
* Instructor, Lu-Yu Tea Culture Institute
◎天仁茶藝文化基金會翻譯人
* Writer and translator, Ten Ren Teaism Foundation
著有, 出版著作
Published Works
◎《茶文化系專業英語》 ( 天福茶學院 ，2008 ，控制號：zyk0014462)
* “Specialized English for Tea”, (2008), Tenfu Tea College, Ctrl No:
zyk0014462
◎《中英文"茶學術語"》 ( 天福茶學院 , 2009 )
* “Chinese-English Tea Studies Terminology”, (2009), Tenfu Tea College
◎《中英文茶學術語》 ( 陸羽茶藝股份有限公司 , 2010 )
* “Chinese-English Tea Studies Terminology”, (2010), Lu-Yu Tea Culture
Institute, Co., Ltd.
---the end---
Some of the terms used in the above:
茶青類 Fresh Leaf Type
芽茶類 tip-tea type:
全芽心 all-tip
一心二葉 one-tip two-leaf
葉茶類 leaf-tea type:
對口葉 terminal facing-leaf
對口三葉 terminal facing three-leaf
Black Tea Leaf Grading (Note: only used for black tea, in India and
nearby.)
Flowery Orange Pekoe 花橙白毫
Orange Pekoe 橙白毫
Pekoe 白毫
Souchong 小種
Pekoe Souchong 白毫小種
Congou 工夫
Bohea 武夷
Fresh Tea Leaf Classification (Note: for all teas, not just black
tea.)
Tip 芽
First Leaf 第一葉
Second Leaf 第二葉
Third Leaf 第三葉
Fourth Leaf 第四葉
Fifth Leaf 第五葉
Sixth Leaf 第六葉
首創如此英譯的中文茶學術語
瓊斯史迪芬
Pioneering English Translation of Chinese Tea Studies Terminology
Steven R. Jones (Mar. 8, 2010)
http://teaarts.blogspot.com/2010/04/5th-lu-yu-tea-studies-journal.html
icetea8
Jan 23, 2013, 1:57:58 AM1/23/13
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