The Book of Tea | Page 2

of Death which makes our soldiers exult
in self- sacrifice; but scarcely any attention has been drawn to Teaism,

which represents so much of our Art of Life. Fain would we remain
barbarians, if our claim to civilisation were to be based on the
gruesome glory of war. Fain would we await the time when due respect
shall be paid to our art and ideals.
When will the West understand, or try to understand, the East? We
Asiatics are often appalled by the curious web of facts and fancies
which has been woven concerning us. We are pictured as living on the
perfume of the lotus, if not on mice and cockroaches. It is either
impotent fanaticism or else abject voluptuousness. Indian spirituality
has been derided as ignorance, Chinese sobriety as stupidity, Japanese
patriotism as the result of fatalism. It has been said that we are less
sensible to pain and wounds on account of the callousness of our
nervous organisation!
Why not amuse yourselves at our expense? Asia returns the
compliment. There would be further food for merriment if you were to
know all that we have imagined and written about you. All the glamour
of the perspective is there, all the unconscious homage of wonder, all
the silent resentment of the new and undefined. You have been loaded
with virtues too refined to be envied, and accused of crimes too
picturesque to be condemned. Our writers in the past--the wise men
who knew--informed us that you had bushy tails somewhere hidden in
your garments, and often dined off a fricassee of newborn babes! Nay,
we had something worse against you: we used to think you the most
impracticable people on the earth, for you were said to preach what you
never practiced.
Such misconceptions are fast vanishing amongst us. Commerce has
forced the European tongues on many an Eastern port. Asiatic youths
are flocking to Western colleges for the equipment of modern
education. Our insight does not penetrate your culture deeply, but at
least we are willing to learn. Some of my compatriots have adopted too
much of your customs and too much of your etiquette, in the delusion
that the acquisition of stiff collars and tall silk hats comprised the
attainment of your civilisation. Pathetic and deplorable as such
affectations are, they evince our willingness to approach the West on

our knees. Unfortunately the Western attitude is unfavourable to the
understanding of the East. The Christian missionary goes to impart, but
not to receive. Your information is based on the meagre translations of
our immense literature, if not on the unreliable anecdotes of passing
travellers. It is rarely that the chivalrous pen of a Lafcadio Hearn or that
of the author of "The Web of Indian Life" enlivens the Oriental
darkness with the torch of our own sentiments.
Perhaps I betray my own ignorance of the Tea Cult by being so
outspoken. Its very spirit of politeness exacts that you say what you are
expected to say, and no more. But I am not to be a polite Teaist. So
much harm has been done already by the mutual misunderstanding of
the New World and the Old, that one need not apologise for
contributing his tithe to the furtherance of a better understanding. The
beginning of the twentieth century would have been spared the
spectacle of sanguinary warfare if Russia had condescended to know
Japan better. What dire consequences to humanity lie in the
contemptuous ignoring of Eastern problems! European imperialism,
which does not disdain to raise the absurd cry of the Yellow Peril, fails
to realise that Asia may also awaken to the cruel sense of the White
Disaster. You may laugh at us for having "too much tea," but may we
not suspect that you of the West have "no tea" in your constitution?
Let us stop the continents from hurling epigrams at each other, and be
sadder if not wiser by the mutual gain of half a hemisphere. We have
developed along different lines, but there is no reason why one should
not supplement the other. You have gained expansion at the cost of
restlessness; we have created a harmony which is weak against
aggression. Will you believe it?--the East is better off in some respects
than the West!
Strangely enough humanity has so far met in the tea-cup. It is the only
Asiatic ceremonial which commands universal esteem. The white man
has scoffed at our religion and our morals, but has accepted the brown
beverage without hesitation. The afternoon tea is now an important
function in Western society. In the delicate clatter of trays and saucers,
in the soft rustle of feminine hospitality, in the common catechism

about cream and sugar, we know that the Worship of Tea is established
beyond question. The philosophic resignation of