The great tea art master

一套干净利落的动作结束，一条细长的开水柱从铜壶长嘴流出，顺势倾入盖碗茶杯中，杯中形成流动小漩涡，青绿的茶叶随水涡挤压不断旋转、翻腾、绽放……此时水柱断开停下，一壶热茶沏好——这是川人喝茶前的“小仪式”。

A seriesof beautiful actions, a column of boiling water from the copper pot's long sprout is poured into the cup, a small vortex of flow was formed in the cup, with green tea leaves in the cup rotating, tossing, blooming… Just after the column disconnected, a pot of hot tea steeped - this is the "ceremony" before the Sichuan people sampling tea.

从服务员到茶艺师，苦练功夫技艺精进

如今，在成都的各大露天茶馆里，偶尔能见到茶倌的身影，他们穿梭于茶客的桌椅之间，手悬铜长壶，接待茶客掺茶吆喝“控场”，过去这类人被别称为“茶博士”，他们是四川茶文化不可缺少的部分。

Sometimes, we can find tea waiters (or "tea doctors") in the tea houses in Chengdu. Holding a pot with a long sprout, they are busy in serving tea. They are an indispensable part of Sichuan culture.

1999年，曾小龙从达州来到成都一家餐馆做服务员。有一天，他无意间在报纸上看到一则茶艺师招聘启事，便跃跃欲试。

In 1999, Zeng Xiaolong went to Chengdu from Dazhou to work as a waiter in a restaurant. One day, he found a piece of recruitment advertisement for a tea specialist in a newspaper and decided to have a try.

0.8米至1米左右不等的铜壶壶嘴，能让茶倌以自己为圆心，扩大掺茶的面积。有了长嘴，不用靠近茶客就能掺好茶，既避开了拥挤的人群，也不会打扰客人摆龙门阵，保留了恰到好处的“距离感”。

With the 0.8 to 1-meter-long sprout of the pot, the tea waiters can serve the tea without approaching the customers. In this way, they don’t have to squeeze the crowd or disturb the customers.

勤学苦练掌握了茶艺的传统招式，曾小龙并不满足，他思忖：能不能加入更多元素，让成都茶艺在实用性的基础上，更具有艺术性？

Having learned the basic skills, Zeng wanted to do something artistic.

热爱武侠片的他，将武侠动作融入茶艺表演，研究出“太极揉壶”、“缠腰”、“投壶”、“踢壶”等茶艺动作，大受欢迎。他也因此成为四川长嘴壶花式茶艺的重要开拓者和领头人之一，2006年他获得全国茶艺大赛四川赛区的冠军。

As a kungfu film lover, he integrated the kungfu actions in the films into the tea art, and created a great number of actions for the tea art performance, winning people’s praise and becoming one of the founders and leaders of the tea art in Sichuan.

带着长壶走世界，艺术性和功能性都不能少

在曾小龙的茶艺中，你能看到茶水变色的“魔术”，也能见他用铜壶在地上写逑劲有力的“书法”……凭借开拓的视野和扎实的基本功，曾小龙还参加了央视中秋晚会电视节目表演茶艺。

The audience can enjoy the magic that the tea changes its color or the calligraphy work by the teapot sprout in Zeng’s performance. He was once invited to perform at CCTV Mid-Autumn Evening Party.

这几年曾小龙还借助川剧的灵感，独创了“火壶”——他把铜壶里抹上油，壶嘴和壶身烧得发红，他转身移步完成一系列戏曲动作，最后他对着壶嘴一喷，一道道绚丽的火焰喷涌而出。

Inspired by the Sichuan Opera, Zeng created the “fire pot”art performance. Adding oil to the pot, burning the pot and sprout, he makes some opera actions and blows the sprout, there came brilliant flames.

2013年，曾小龙随国家领导人前往俄罗斯访问，在克林姆林宫表演茶艺。为了让动作没有一点差错，他提前半年不断练习以求流畅，每天都练到手臂发酸，最终圆满地完成了任务。

In 2013, Zeng visited Russia with the country’s leaders and performed at Moscow Kremlin. He started to practice it a half year ahead and had a perfect performance.

一次，曾小龙带着成都茶艺去日本表演时，恰好赶上漫天飘雪，他连演了几天，每天都能看到一位白发苍苍的日本老人前来观看，让台上的他感动不已。

Once when he was performing in Japan, it had been snowing for days and there was an old Japanese man who visited every day to enjoy their performance. He was touched greatly.

近年来，许多外国友人也慕名而来，向曾小龙学习茶艺。目前，他已培养了全球各地400余名弟子。

In recent years, a great number of foreigners have come to study from him and hehas over 400 students around the world now.

“我希望成都铜壶茶艺以后能更唯美，更具有艺术性。”曾小龙坦言，成都铜壶茶艺不能远离老百姓的生活，不能失去它倒茶服务人的这个功能。但他同时也希望，以后能在越来越多的茶馆里，看到充满艺术性的成都铜壶茶艺。

"I hope the Chengdu tea art will be more beautiful and artistic," said Zeng. In his opinion, tea art should never be far away from its function: serving tea. Meanwhile, he hopes that creative tea art can be seen in more tea houses.