FIRST SATURDAY PDX
  • "For Here or To Go?" - A Conversation with Curtis Chin, June 28, 2025
  • Season 2024 - 2025
    • Quick Preview of Season 2024 - 2025
    • Season Schedule (2024 - 2025)
    • Lesser and Well Known Chinese Species at Hoyt Arboretum 14 September, 2024
    • OCTOBER DIM SUM/ YUM CHA BRUNCH, 12 October, 2024
    • Heroism and Survival: Women’s Daily Lives in Japanese-occupied Shanghai (1937-1945), 2 November, 2024
    • Collecting Stories: Chinese Art through the Historians' Lens​, 7 December, 2024
    • Imperialism, Architecture, and Oberlin College: A Brief History of the "Golden Temple" , 4 January, 2025
    • 2 Feb 2025: Spring Banquet - Year of the Snake 4723
    • ​Down the Cultural Crosswords: The Chinese Dialect of Xining, 1 March, 2025
    • Chinese "Paintings of Beautiful Women" and their Global Circulation in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, 5 April, 2025
    • Remembering the Dead in Late Medieval China (7th–10th c.), 10 May, 2025
    • "For Here or To Go?" - A Conversation with Curtis Chin, June 28, 2025
  • About First Saturday PDX
  • THE FIRST 20 YEARS
  • PAST SEASONS & PROGRAMS
    • Past Seasons & Program Highlights >
      • Season 2023 - 2024 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2023 - 2024
        • Season Schedule (2023 - 2024)
        • * DIM SUM/ YUM CHA BRUNCH!! 9 September, 2023 *
        • A Question of Hu, 7 October 2023
        • "Mother of all Technologies": Accumulating Culture Through Chinese Textiles, PART 1 - November 4, 2023
        • "Mother of all Technologies": Accumulating Culture Through Chinese Textiles PART 2 - December 2, 2023
        • Xu Bing: Beyond the Book from the Sky, 6 January, 2024
        • Spring Banquet: Year of the Dragon 4722, 17 Feb, 2024
        • Year of the Dragon 4722
        • Making Hakka Women Visible: 6 April, 2024
        • Well Known and Lesser Known Chinese Species at Hoyt Arboretum - 4 May, 2024
        • Celestial Bridges: An Introduction to Architecture Over Water and Space From China's Past, Part One, 8 June, 2024
      • Season 2022 - 2023 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2022 - 2023
        • Season Schedule (2022 - 2023)
        • A Visit to the Soreng Gallery of Chinese Art ​at the ​Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art​, 10 September, 2022
        • ​China’s Last Imperial Frontier: Late Qing Expansion in Sichuan’s Tibetan Borderlands 15 October, 2022
        • Girls with Big Ideas: Gidget and Song of Youth 5 November, 2022
        • * DIM SUM/ YUM CHA BRUNCH!! 19 November, 2022 *
        • Following the Thread: China Along the Road of Silk 3 December, 2022
        • The Chinese Massacre in Hells Canyon 7 January 2023
        • Year of the Rabbit 4721
        • Spring Fundraiser Banquet Lunch/ Auction 18 FEB, 2023
        • "Model Letters" and the Audiences of Calligraphy in Early Modern China , 4 March, 2023
        • Women in the History of Tea in in China, 1 April, 2023
        • Tea and Wine: A New Look at the Song Dynasty Poetry of Li Qingzhao (李清照), 13 May, 2023
        • Summer Tour of the Garden of Awakening Orchids: 3 June, 2023
        • 2 Feb, 2025 - Spring Banquet: Year of the Snake 4723
      • Season 2021 - 2022 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2021 - 2022
        • Season Schedule 2021 - 2022
        • The Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project, 2 October 2021
        • Connecting to our Natural World: The Portland Botanical Gardens, 6 November 2021
        • Lan Su Chinese Garden: ​The Vision of a Classical Chinese Garden, 4 December 2021
        • ​Re-visioning ​Chinese History, ​900-1350: ​The New Look of Song and Yuan, 8 January, 2022
        • Chinese New Year 2022/ Year of the Tiger 4720, 5 February, 2022
        • Auspicious Seals and Chops, 5 February 2022
        • The Erhu and Erhu Music, 5 March, 2022
        • Pictorial Naturalism and "Truth": Contextualizing the Eleventh-century Luohan Sculptures of Lingyan Temple in China, 2 April, 2022
        • Celebrated Stories in Sichuan Shadow Theater,7 May, 2022
        • The Daode Jing's Forgotten Forebear: The Ancestral Cult 4 June, 2022
      • Season 2020 - 2021 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2020 - 2021
        • Season Schedule 2020 - 2021
        • Collecting Under Socialism: Philately in 1950s China, 12 September, 2020
        • Myriad Treasures: Celebrating the Reinstallation of the Soreng Gallery of Chinese Art Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, 3 October, 2020
        • The Real Mulan? Tales of a Female Rebel in 18th century China 7 November, 2020
        • Spice it Up! ​How the Chile Pepper Flavored Chinese Culture 5 December, 2020
        • A Century of Collecting Chinese Painting at Oberlin College 9 January, 2021 ​
        • Chinese New Year 2021/ Year of the Ox 4719
        • Artistic Exchange Between China and Europe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 6 March, 2021
        • For Here or To Go : A Conversation with Curtis Chin, June 7, 2025
        • The Scholar’s Retreat: Loss and Resilience in the Chinese Landscape and Garden 3 April 2021
        • Simmering, Whisking, Steeping: Methods for Preparing and Consuming Tea in Premodern China
        • Silk and Sericulture: Beauty Inspired by a Social Contract
      • Season 2019 - 2020 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2019 - 2020
        • Season Schedule 2019 - 2020
        • Mawangdui: The Tomb of China’s Sleeping Beauty, 7 December 2019
        • Field Notes from Sichuan: Learning To Be a Foreigner, 5 October 2019
        • In Search of Korean Liberation in China, 2 November 2019
        • From an Architect's Perspective: 3, 5, 7, 9 Column Halls: Status and Hierarchy in a Confucius Society, 7 December 2019
        • China Under the Covers - ​A Bookbinder’s Journey to the Roots of Books 11 January, 2020
        • Lunar New Year Lunch, 1 February, 2020
        • Early Phonetic Rendering Schemes for Chinese Characters, 7 March 2020
        • The Garden of Elk Rock at Bishop's Close, 4 April 2020
      • Season 2018 - 2019 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2018 - 2019
        • Season Schedule 2018 - 2019
        • Notable Women of Portland, 8 September 2018
        • Mooncakes: A Hallmark of Tradition of the Mid-Autumn Festival, 6 October 2018
        • Music: A Universal Language for Healing and Touching the Soul, 3 November 2018
        • China: In the Pursuit of Happiness, 1 December 2019
        • Babur's Gardens: An Illustrated Introduction, 5 January 2019
        • Chinese New Year Lunch 2 February, 2019
        • ​​Living with Penjing: Three Dimensional Poetry - Mark Vossbrink March 2, 2019
        • Discovering the Intellectual and Sensory Essences of Chinese Literati Gardens, 6 April 2019
        • Sino-Japanese Cultural Connections in the Yuan Dynasty, 4 May 2019 ​​
      • Season 2017 - 2018 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2017 - 2018
        • Season Schedule 2017 - 2018
        • Developing Patronage: Chinese and Asian Pacific Heritage, 9 September 2017
        • Every Plant Has a Story to Tell: Bamboo, 7 October 2017
        • Wonders to Enjoy: Chinese Snuff Bottles, 4 November 2017
        • Sichuan Shadow Theater: Messages from Hell Courts, 2 December 2017
        • Legacy of the Qing Manchu Culture: The Sibe of Northwest China, 6 January 2018
        • Chinese New Year Brunch, 3 February 2018
        • Classical Tradition: Ancient Musical Instruments of China, 3 March 2018
        • Ancient Traders of the Silk Road: The Uyghur People of Xinjiang, 7 April 2018
        • "Poetic Exposition on Heaven and Earth": A Third-Century Chinese Verse on How the Cosmos Began, 28 April 2018
        • Word Play: The Art of Xu Bing, 2 June 2018
      • Season 2016 - 2017 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2016 - 2017
        • Season Schedule 2016 - 2017
        • Contemporary Chinese Society: A View from the Films of Zhang Yimou, 6 May 2017
        • Chinese New Year Brunch, 4 February 2017
        • The Uyghurs: History of a People at the Center of Asia, Part 1, 4 March 2017
        • Creating a Tea Aesthetic ​in Tang Verse, 3 June 2017
      • Season 2015 - 2016 >
        • Season Schedule 2015 - 2016
        • Guzheng and Erhu: A Dialog Between the Strings, 2 April 2016
      • Season 2014 - 2015 >
        • Season Schedule 2014 - 2015
      • Season 2013 - 2014 >
        • Nurture and Healing:​Chinese Medicine for Summer - Dr Elise Wong, 14 June, 2014
      • Season 2012 - 2013
      • Season 2011 - 2012
      • Season 2010 - 2011
      • Season 2009 - 2010
      • Season 2008 - 2009
      • Season 2007 - 2008
      • Season 2006 - 2007
      • Season 2005 - 2006
  • Videos
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​​2016- 2017 Season    

End of Season Program
3 June, 2017  
9:30 - 11:00 am


Creating a Tea Aesthetic
​in Tang
 Verse



​Presenter:  James A. Benn PhD
Professor, Buddhism and East Asian Religions
McMaster University

​

map of venue
season schedule (2016 - 2017)
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Creating a Tea Aesthetic in Tang Verse
James A. Benn, PhD

3 June 2017      
9:30 am - 11:00 am  

Join First Saturday PDX  for the last program of the 2016 - 2017 Season  as we focus on some of the more significant poets of China and their representative works to see the creation of a new culture of tea drinking. 
 
Drinking tea became an empire-wide custom only in the Tang dynasty (618-907).  Before that, tea was more of a regional speciality. But what did Tang people think about this new beverage.  Why drink it?  What were its qualities?  Chinese medical writers in the Tang had already identified the key benefits of tea:  it is diuretic, it promotes digestion, and it keeps you awake. But, today, when we think about tea, we do not just consider it healthy, we think it has a host of “spiritual” qualities.  Where did we get those ideas?
 
In this talk, our visiting speaker,  Professor Benn will show how the creation of a tea aesthetic was something undertaken by Tang dynasty poets.  The writing of verse was the most important expression of culture during the period when tea drinking emerged;  reading poetry can tell us a great deal about the trajectories of the practice.  As the most highly regarded and prestigious form of cultural expression in Tang times, verse not only expressed ideas but actually shaped attitudes.  To some extent, then, poets told people what and how to think about tea.  The values associated with tea today—that it is natural, health-giving, detoxifying, spiritual, stimulating, refreshing, and so on—are not new ideas, but ones shaped in Tang times, by poets.
 
In tea poetry we can catch a glimpse of the cultural synergy created by literati, poets, and monastics gathering to share and construct new standards of connoisseurship and creativity, as well as to develop new themes and imagery.  Questions about how tea was to be drunk, how it was to be appreciated, and its range of symbolic meanings were often worked out or elaborated on, in verse.  A sizable amount of tea’s value was expressed in verse using religious terminology or imagery.  As for the quantity of poems about tea, what started as a trickle in the mid-Tang became, by the end of the dynasty, a full flood of tea-related verse.  Tang poets addressed a range of topics in their verses on tea.  Surviving poems describe the colour, aroma, and taste of the beverage; methods for preparing tea; the shape of teaware; settings for drinking tea; appreciation of the various aesthetic, medicinal, and psychoactive qualities of the beverage; as well as—to a lesser extent—the world of tea growing, picking, and preparation.  Poets, as the cultural engineers of Tang times, had to invent a new world for tea to inhabit.  Rather than create just a single cultural space, they made many, all of them interconnected to some degree.  
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James A. Benn  was trained primarily as a scholar of medieval Chinese religions (Buddhism and Taoism), receiving his PhD from UCLA in 2001 and is Professor of Buddhism and East Asian Religions at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where he was Chair of the Department 2011-2016. He received his undergraduate degree from University of Cambridge and MA from School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.  A published author, his current research is aimed at understanding the practices and world views of medieval men and women, both religious and lay, through the close reading of primary sources in literary Chinese.  An upcoming book project will discuss religion within the military during the Tang dynasty.   More about his work is available here: http://jamesabenn.ca/​
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Our educational program series has been developed in collaboration with PSU’s Institute for Asian Studies, and is free and open to the public.​  First Saturday PDX  full season schedule and descriptions available HERE

View our regular monthly location by clicking on the address below for directions:  
Portland State University, Academic & Student Recreation Ctr (ASRC),  Room 230
1800 SW 6th Ave, Portland OR 97201

Excellent MAX and bus transportation is right by the venue; plan your Trimet trip HERE.   There is also a nearby parking structure at SW 6th and Harrison with an entrance on 6th Avenue is also available.
View PSU Parking info:  

https://www.pdx.edu/transportation/hourly-visitor-parking​
​
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​© 2014 - 2025  First Saturday PDX
  • "For Here or To Go?" - A Conversation with Curtis Chin, June 28, 2025
  • Season 2024 - 2025
    • Quick Preview of Season 2024 - 2025
    • Season Schedule (2024 - 2025)
    • Lesser and Well Known Chinese Species at Hoyt Arboretum 14 September, 2024
    • OCTOBER DIM SUM/ YUM CHA BRUNCH, 12 October, 2024
    • Heroism and Survival: Women’s Daily Lives in Japanese-occupied Shanghai (1937-1945), 2 November, 2024
    • Collecting Stories: Chinese Art through the Historians' Lens​, 7 December, 2024
    • Imperialism, Architecture, and Oberlin College: A Brief History of the "Golden Temple" , 4 January, 2025
    • 2 Feb 2025: Spring Banquet - Year of the Snake 4723
    • ​Down the Cultural Crosswords: The Chinese Dialect of Xining, 1 March, 2025
    • Chinese "Paintings of Beautiful Women" and their Global Circulation in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, 5 April, 2025
    • Remembering the Dead in Late Medieval China (7th–10th c.), 10 May, 2025
    • "For Here or To Go?" - A Conversation with Curtis Chin, June 28, 2025
  • About First Saturday PDX
  • THE FIRST 20 YEARS
  • PAST SEASONS & PROGRAMS
    • Past Seasons & Program Highlights >
      • Season 2023 - 2024 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2023 - 2024
        • Season Schedule (2023 - 2024)
        • * DIM SUM/ YUM CHA BRUNCH!! 9 September, 2023 *
        • A Question of Hu, 7 October 2023
        • "Mother of all Technologies": Accumulating Culture Through Chinese Textiles, PART 1 - November 4, 2023
        • "Mother of all Technologies": Accumulating Culture Through Chinese Textiles PART 2 - December 2, 2023
        • Xu Bing: Beyond the Book from the Sky, 6 January, 2024
        • Spring Banquet: Year of the Dragon 4722, 17 Feb, 2024
        • Year of the Dragon 4722
        • Making Hakka Women Visible: 6 April, 2024
        • Well Known and Lesser Known Chinese Species at Hoyt Arboretum - 4 May, 2024
        • Celestial Bridges: An Introduction to Architecture Over Water and Space From China's Past, Part One, 8 June, 2024
      • Season 2022 - 2023 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2022 - 2023
        • Season Schedule (2022 - 2023)
        • A Visit to the Soreng Gallery of Chinese Art ​at the ​Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art​, 10 September, 2022
        • ​China’s Last Imperial Frontier: Late Qing Expansion in Sichuan’s Tibetan Borderlands 15 October, 2022
        • Girls with Big Ideas: Gidget and Song of Youth 5 November, 2022
        • * DIM SUM/ YUM CHA BRUNCH!! 19 November, 2022 *
        • Following the Thread: China Along the Road of Silk 3 December, 2022
        • The Chinese Massacre in Hells Canyon 7 January 2023
        • Year of the Rabbit 4721
        • Spring Fundraiser Banquet Lunch/ Auction 18 FEB, 2023
        • "Model Letters" and the Audiences of Calligraphy in Early Modern China , 4 March, 2023
        • Women in the History of Tea in in China, 1 April, 2023
        • Tea and Wine: A New Look at the Song Dynasty Poetry of Li Qingzhao (李清照), 13 May, 2023
        • Summer Tour of the Garden of Awakening Orchids: 3 June, 2023
        • 2 Feb, 2025 - Spring Banquet: Year of the Snake 4723
      • Season 2021 - 2022 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2021 - 2022
        • Season Schedule 2021 - 2022
        • The Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project, 2 October 2021
        • Connecting to our Natural World: The Portland Botanical Gardens, 6 November 2021
        • Lan Su Chinese Garden: ​The Vision of a Classical Chinese Garden, 4 December 2021
        • ​Re-visioning ​Chinese History, ​900-1350: ​The New Look of Song and Yuan, 8 January, 2022
        • Chinese New Year 2022/ Year of the Tiger 4720, 5 February, 2022
        • Auspicious Seals and Chops, 5 February 2022
        • The Erhu and Erhu Music, 5 March, 2022
        • Pictorial Naturalism and "Truth": Contextualizing the Eleventh-century Luohan Sculptures of Lingyan Temple in China, 2 April, 2022
        • Celebrated Stories in Sichuan Shadow Theater,7 May, 2022
        • The Daode Jing's Forgotten Forebear: The Ancestral Cult 4 June, 2022
      • Season 2020 - 2021 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2020 - 2021
        • Season Schedule 2020 - 2021
        • Collecting Under Socialism: Philately in 1950s China, 12 September, 2020
        • Myriad Treasures: Celebrating the Reinstallation of the Soreng Gallery of Chinese Art Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, 3 October, 2020
        • The Real Mulan? Tales of a Female Rebel in 18th century China 7 November, 2020
        • Spice it Up! ​How the Chile Pepper Flavored Chinese Culture 5 December, 2020
        • A Century of Collecting Chinese Painting at Oberlin College 9 January, 2021 ​
        • Chinese New Year 2021/ Year of the Ox 4719
        • Artistic Exchange Between China and Europe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 6 March, 2021
        • For Here or To Go : A Conversation with Curtis Chin, June 7, 2025
        • The Scholar’s Retreat: Loss and Resilience in the Chinese Landscape and Garden 3 April 2021
        • Simmering, Whisking, Steeping: Methods for Preparing and Consuming Tea in Premodern China
        • Silk and Sericulture: Beauty Inspired by a Social Contract
      • Season 2019 - 2020 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2019 - 2020
        • Season Schedule 2019 - 2020
        • Mawangdui: The Tomb of China’s Sleeping Beauty, 7 December 2019
        • Field Notes from Sichuan: Learning To Be a Foreigner, 5 October 2019
        • In Search of Korean Liberation in China, 2 November 2019
        • From an Architect's Perspective: 3, 5, 7, 9 Column Halls: Status and Hierarchy in a Confucius Society, 7 December 2019
        • China Under the Covers - ​A Bookbinder’s Journey to the Roots of Books 11 January, 2020
        • Lunar New Year Lunch, 1 February, 2020
        • Early Phonetic Rendering Schemes for Chinese Characters, 7 March 2020
        • The Garden of Elk Rock at Bishop's Close, 4 April 2020
      • Season 2018 - 2019 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2018 - 2019
        • Season Schedule 2018 - 2019
        • Notable Women of Portland, 8 September 2018
        • Mooncakes: A Hallmark of Tradition of the Mid-Autumn Festival, 6 October 2018
        • Music: A Universal Language for Healing and Touching the Soul, 3 November 2018
        • China: In the Pursuit of Happiness, 1 December 2019
        • Babur's Gardens: An Illustrated Introduction, 5 January 2019
        • Chinese New Year Lunch 2 February, 2019
        • ​​Living with Penjing: Three Dimensional Poetry - Mark Vossbrink March 2, 2019
        • Discovering the Intellectual and Sensory Essences of Chinese Literati Gardens, 6 April 2019
        • Sino-Japanese Cultural Connections in the Yuan Dynasty, 4 May 2019 ​​
      • Season 2017 - 2018 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2017 - 2018
        • Season Schedule 2017 - 2018
        • Developing Patronage: Chinese and Asian Pacific Heritage, 9 September 2017
        • Every Plant Has a Story to Tell: Bamboo, 7 October 2017
        • Wonders to Enjoy: Chinese Snuff Bottles, 4 November 2017
        • Sichuan Shadow Theater: Messages from Hell Courts, 2 December 2017
        • Legacy of the Qing Manchu Culture: The Sibe of Northwest China, 6 January 2018
        • Chinese New Year Brunch, 3 February 2018
        • Classical Tradition: Ancient Musical Instruments of China, 3 March 2018
        • Ancient Traders of the Silk Road: The Uyghur People of Xinjiang, 7 April 2018
        • "Poetic Exposition on Heaven and Earth": A Third-Century Chinese Verse on How the Cosmos Began, 28 April 2018
        • Word Play: The Art of Xu Bing, 2 June 2018
      • Season 2016 - 2017 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2016 - 2017
        • Season Schedule 2016 - 2017
        • Contemporary Chinese Society: A View from the Films of Zhang Yimou, 6 May 2017
        • Chinese New Year Brunch, 4 February 2017
        • The Uyghurs: History of a People at the Center of Asia, Part 1, 4 March 2017
        • Creating a Tea Aesthetic ​in Tang Verse, 3 June 2017
      • Season 2015 - 2016 >
        • Season Schedule 2015 - 2016
        • Guzheng and Erhu: A Dialog Between the Strings, 2 April 2016
      • Season 2014 - 2015 >
        • Season Schedule 2014 - 2015
      • Season 2013 - 2014 >
        • Nurture and Healing:​Chinese Medicine for Summer - Dr Elise Wong, 14 June, 2014
      • Season 2012 - 2013
      • Season 2011 - 2012
      • Season 2010 - 2011
      • Season 2009 - 2010
      • Season 2008 - 2009
      • Season 2007 - 2008
      • Season 2006 - 2007
      • Season 2005 - 2006
  • Videos
  • Partners
  • Join our Email List/ Contact Us
  • Volunteer
  • Zoom!
  • Stop Asian Hate Resources