Chapter 44: Final Chapter - Enlightenment through Tea
There's no oracle bone script for "tea." Its original name was "荼," referring to a type of bitter leaf. It wasn't until the tea sage Lu Yu, in his "The Classic of Tea," that he removed one of the horizontal strokes from "荼," formalizing it as "茶."
I often write about "inviting people to have tea" in my novels, and some readers often ridicule me as "uneducated, but indeed a high school graduate." But let me explain: our ancestors did indeed "have tea."
They chewed the slightly bitter leaves and later discovered that tea has four major functions: detoxification, diuresis, digestion, and thirst quenching.
Therefore, if you are bitten by an insect or mosquito, chewing a handful of tea leaves and applying it to the affected area can be a temporary detoxification method. Drinking tea is especially beneficial for patients with high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, and diabetes.
Secondly, tea aids digestion. In regions where meat is the primary diet, the caffeine in tea aids digestion due to excessive beef and mutton consumption. Therefore, in the 18th century, Russia began importing large quantities of tea from China. The border town of Kyakhta became a hub for the Sino-Russian tea trade.
Brewing tea was invented later. It requires the tea leaves to be dried and roasted. That's why we now call it "drinking tea." If it's green tea, I recommend chewing and eating the leaves.
As mentioned earlier, chicken soup has little nutritional value; you must eat the chicken to get its nutritional benefits. Drinking tea merely quenches thirst, while consuming tea leaves provides its medicinal properties. Therefore, the author prefers to "eat" tea, not "drink" it.
There are many times in life when we are not working but having fun, such as playing cards, chess, drinking, chatting, dancing...
So there are card friends, drinking friends, dancing friends, and chess friends.
Playing cards has winners and losers, drinking alcohol harms the body, dancing breeds ambiguity, and chess demands mental effort. Instead, I suggest you have a tea friend in your life. Tea drinking is primarily about conversation. A good tea friend can bring you knowledge, broaden your horizons, and bring you enlightenment.
The author enjoys drinking tea, listening to others' insights, and hearing their life stories. He learns about industries he doesn't know about himself. At one point, he would cross half the city to drink tea with a master and learn about divination from him.
What everyone is interested in is why I know so much, and it all came from chatting over tea.
There's a curious phenomenon in history: top talent always clusters in certain places at certain times. For example, during the Western Han Dynasty, the tiny county of Pei, with a population of only a few thousand, produced dozens of elites, including Xiao He, Cao Shen, Fan Kuai, and Xia Houying.
During the Three Kingdoms period, Liu Bei randomly picked two people from the streets of Zhuo County to become sworn brothers: a butcher and a mung bean seller. It turned out that both of them were outstanding figures hidden in the bustling city.
There are also Zhu Yuanzhang's Huaixi meritorious officials group, Nurhaci's Jianzhou Jurchen group, Zeng Guofan's Xiang Army group. This phenomenon of top talents gathering in a certain place shows that talent has never been a scarce resource.
The above examples are basically about turbulent times, but what about peacetime? The same is true. Don't underestimate the people around you. Many of them are talented, but they are not successful.
You can learn from them. Chatting over tea is the best way to learn.
Truly top talents are not found through exams, but through experience.
This is true for Wan Shanhong in "The Art of Divination" and Lu Haoming in "Promotion and Proof of Truth." They were honed in life. So, in peacetime, the best way to make friends is to drink tea.
Making the right friends, following the right people, finding the right platform, and learning knowledge are the foundation of your success.
Those who invite you to play cards every day are always trying to win some money from you. Those who brag at the wine table are actually not capable. Those who invite you to dance are at least somewhat interested in you.
It’s not that you can’t participate, life needs entertainment.
However, if a person is willing to sit down with you, drink tea, talk about his ancestors, his experiences, his life experiences, how to make money using the Internet, and new things, you will always gain something.
There's a saying that goes, "Gold will always shine." Don't believe it. Throughout history, there's been a lot of gold that hasn't shone. It all depends on the kind of people and friends you make.
Before Ma Ge became rich, he would talk with his Eighteen Arhats every night about how to make money.
At the time, Teng Ge and his five generals also talked about their dreams every day. When QQ was launched, he even disguised himself as a woman and chatted with netizens to test the practicality of this social software.
Find friends who enjoy drinking tea and gain enlightenment through tea.
Anyone who teaches you how to make money is basically a scammer. If there's such a great way to make money, why wouldn't he use it to teach you? Anyone who teaches you knowledge, provides you with information, and makes you think is a true friend.
A cup of tea can clear your mind.
I've almost finished writing the 100,000-word extra chapter for "The Art of Divining Characters." But after chatting with friends, I still have a lot to say. I'm probably going to write a similar book.
I feel very comfortable writing in the first person. Furthermore, my first person perspective is not restricted by time or space, so readers don't feel it's strictly in the first person.
Of course, there are a few who don't like it.
However, I am not one to appease readers.
So, regardless of whether others like it or not, stick to being yourself. My next book might be called "Wanshan Strategy." "Strategy" means chatting, giving advice, and spreading knowledge.
In addition, I may also write a book called "The Charming Ladies of He Village", which is about rural themes. In any case, if you follow the author [Bao Erri], we will be together forever.
Friends, for now, we're reading my new book, "Promotion and Proof of Truth." We'll see you after the New Year with the other two books. The extra chapters total 44 chapters, which add up to 8. They carry my best wishes for you all.
Here is a song I wrote that you can sing to your tune:
In the sunshine, we chase the sun together,
Through wind and rain, we walk hand in hand together.
Spring, summer, autumn and winter, the four seasons change,
You and I, together forever.
The extra chapter of "The Art of Fortune Telling" has officially ended.
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