Intertextuality of Tea Classics and Linguistic Memes' Inheritance: A Case Study of Translating Ode to Tea and The Classic of Tea

Intertextual association and linguistic memes' inheritance are closely related to each other, under whose influence, new expressions and terms get accepted and reproduced into new texts. As a result, some linguistic memes are shaped and evolved. Oriented from the same register category, Chinese tea classics share a special feature of strong intertextuality. The core memes in them help to demonstrate the connotation of tea culture. Such a view is illustrated in this paper with the translation process of Ode to Tea written in the Jin Dynasty. It explores how the intertextual clues in The Classic of Tea written in the Tang Dynasty contribute to the version's consistency and coherence with the valid memes in tea culture. It suggests that proper regulations should be made to enlarge the core's periphery, updating the memes in the new body of the version to better spread the traditional tea culture across the world.