Tea giving is a common good deed in Buddhism. Tea is often placed in wilderness or where the pedestrians might feel thirsty. It is a trivial deed but is a virtuous charity timely for those in urgent needs. The coolness of tea is associated with liberation and coolness and Dharma water and sweet dew. To help others through tea giving is a way to help oneself. In addition to the witticism of Zhao Zhou’s having tea, tea becomes an introduction to witticism and epiphany. Tea giving is thus added with the element of cultivation and Buddhist teaching propagating. Accordingly, the basic philosophy of Buddhist tea giving is developed from the virtue and mercy of giving to the wisdom of emptiness in Buddhism. In the end of Ming Dynasty, Hanshan was banished to serve in an army Leiyang, Guangdong because he encountered trouble during Buddhist teaching propagating. He saw Householder Yi Zhen Tan and others giving tea when passing by Ku Teng Ling, Dianbai. Hanshan recorded this experience and helped the Tea Giving Householder to raise funds to build Tea Giving Convent, named Conjured City Convent. In this way, the philosophy of tea giving with life cultivation of his personal characteristics, with fl esh and blood, and with wisdom and sadness and the course of Buddhist teaching propagating is hence developed. The allusion of “conjured city” is originated from Lotus Sutra, a rest stop on the way to the treasured land of final Buddha. Hanshan regards the place of tea giving as a cool conjured city for two dimensions: philosophy of conjured city and philosophy of the frontier. At the beginning of his cultivation, he admired the fourth patriarch Chengguan. Therefore, he went to Wutaishan, also known as Qingliangshan. The important understanding in his life happened here. It corresponds with the realm of “coolness.” When he was exiled to Lingnan. He moved from the “cool” north to the “fi re residence” in the south. His cultivation or physical and mental conditions underwent great impact. Therefore, the tea giving place became a cool conjured city. He should go from the conjured city to the fi nal “treasured land.” However, he went to the “frontier” without Buddha. Hanshan had already understood this. Starting from one man and one thing, he practiced the way of a worldly bodhisattva in the frontier so that the frontier without Buddha became a treasured land of Buddha. In reality, the frontier is the treasured land.
