In China: The Venerable Old Lady, Goddess Meng, presides over the Terrace of Oblivion. As she did during her life in the Han Dynasty, Goddess Meng (Dream) collects herbs and waters from all over to prepare the Five-Flavored Tea of Forgetfulness. High class souls drink the Sweet; those less exalted, the Bitter, the Pungent, the Sour or the Salty, thereby cleansing them of all memories of their former lives, preparing them for entry into the Tenth Hell, from whence they will be reborn as——something. (135)
Tea is also known as liquid jade, or an elixir of immortality. It is made from the dried leaves of the Camellia sinensis, an evergreen plant of the Camellia family. Gold flower tea is made from the Camellia Chrysantha. The International Camellia Society calls her the Empress of Winter. She rules the paradise Xian Jing with the Emperor of Summer but is invaded by Hei: Lord of the Dark. Her courts are the Seelie Yang Gong and the Unseelie Yin Gong. (136)