London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

LKL book database logo

Korean Tea Classics by Hanjae Yi Mok and the Venerable Cho-ui

Publisher description:

Three ancient texts expressing the essence of the Korean Way of Tea are here translated into English for the first time. The oldest, ChaBu (Rhapsody to Tea), by Hanjae Yi Mok (1471-1498), is a sophisticated and delicate celebration of tea. The author was a scholar of considerable attainments who died far too early. The 19th century saw a tea revival among Korean literati. Its main guide was the Venerable Cho‐ui (1786-1866). The first of his tea texts, ChaSinJeon (Chronicle of the Spirit of Tea), he copied from a Ming Chinese work to serve as a practical guide to tea. The great poem, DongChaSong (Hymn in Praise of Korean Tea), for which Cho‐ui is chiefly celebrated, is a set of formal poetic stanzas celebrating tea with notes by the author to elucidate the references.

This volume offers an English translation of these three remarkable works, with explanatory notes and biographies of the two great masters of Korean tea. It gives readers who are unfamiliar with Classical Chinese access to the essential texts of the Korean Way of Tea.

LKL says:

An essential companion piece to Brother Anthony’s and Hong Kyeong-hee’s The Korean Way of Tea. Seoul Selection has done us a great service by bringing out these translations, which come with helpful introductions and the original texts in Chinese script.

LKL rating: score-2score-2score-2score-0score-0

Entry on Goodreads.com here.

* Where the book is available from a number of sources, they are prioritised as follows: (1) Amazon UK site, or Bookshop.org for the more recent uploads (2) Amazon US site (3) Other sites in US or Europe, including second-hand outlets (4) LTI Korea, where the title is advertised as available from there (5) Onlines stores in Korea. Links to Bookshop.org and Amazon UK site contain an affiliate code which, should you make a purchase, gives a small commission to LKL at no additional cost to you.