The Discovery of tea

The beginning of tea culture could be traced back to the time when tea was used as a beverage. For thousands of years, tea drinking customs have been fostered in Chinese life. Tea was a plant discovered and used in ancient China. Nowadays, towering tea trees can still be seen in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan.

The origin of tea and Shennong himself were recorded in the book”Shennong Ben Cao Jing” written in the Han Dynasty. Shennong was the God of agriculture and was believed to have an ox head on a human body- an image of ox-ploughing technique at the time.

Shennong, as agricultural god, was also the inventor of Chinese medicine. He discovered the five cereals as well as various herbals which could cure human diseases. It was said that Shennong tasted various herbals so as to master the characteristics of herbal medicines and was poisoned 72 times a day but was detoxified by accidentally eating tea leaves.

This was the earliest description and written record about our forefathers’ understanding of tea.

The spreading of tea

Tea was spread to the ancient Bashu states through river transportation from the place of origin Yun-Gui Plateau in Southwest China. It then developed quickly in Bashu. Bashu district was the earliest tea producing area and was called cradle of Chinese tea. In the earliest local chronicles”Hua Yang Guo Zhi”, it was recorded that people in Bashu states had begun to plant tea about 3000 years ago and they used tea as a local product to pay tribute to Emperor Zhou Wu Wang.

In the Han Dynasty, tea drinking was very popular in Bashu district and tea began to be a commodity in commercial circle. Wang Bao, a Sichuan celebrity of the West Han Dynasty wrote in his document ”The contract with servant” about “brewing tea and preparing tea utensils” as well as “buying tea from Wuyang Town”. “The contract with servant” was then a document for selling servants and has now become an important historical document about tea.

Tea was spread along the Yangtze River and found roots in the lower reaches areas of the Yangtze River. The focal point of tea civilization then began to be transferred. The ancient record ”Dialects” says that people of the Han Dynasty went to Yangxian (now in Jiangsu) to buy tea. Teas which were buried with the dead were unearthed from the tombs of the Han Dynasty in Hubei, Jiangling and Mawangdui of Hunan Changsha. An intact celadon jar unearthed from a tomb of the late East Han Dynasty in tea town Huzhou was identified to be tea container used in the Han Dynasty because a character “茶“ was engraved on the shoulder of the celaden jar. Huzhou is now located in Taihu lakeside of lower reaches of Yangtze River, where the “Yangxian tea” was produced in ancient times.

It was recorded in the ancient book “Guang Ya” that the plucked tender tea leaves were directly made into cake shaped tea and the old tea leaves were mixed with rice gruel and then compressed into cake tea. The cake tea was baked to be deep brown in color and ground into powder. Then the tea powder was cooked with shallot, ginger and tangerine peel; a thick soup cooking method.

Although the people’s understanding of tea remained primitive, there was a tea manufacturing method at that time. The methods of cake tea processing and drinking were followed until the Tang and Song periods. The only change was that the processing was more careful and the drinking more meticulous.

According to historical records, there were a lot of tea scholars who were celebrities in ancient times, such as Yang Xiong and Sima Xiangru of the Han Dynasty. In the West Jin and South-North dynasties, people used tea to keep themselves from luxurious practices. In the most famous story, Lu Ne served tea to his guests.

Flourishing period of Tea Culture

Historical literature reads that tea became popular in the Tang Dynasty and was in vogue in the Song Dynasty. It took about 600 years from the Sui Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty; the most flourishing period of tea culture. Tea production was greatly promoted because of the development of the feudal economy and the increase in social productivity. Tea as a major commodity entered in the daily life of common people. A lot of famous teas and tribute teas appeared then. It was in this period that there appeared the character “茶“ for tea, books on tea, dealing in tea and taxes on tea.

Tea drinking customs and techniques began to take shape in the Tang Dynasty and they had great influence on the later ages. The publication of the “Tea Classics” written by Lu Yu had an epoch-making significance on the development of Chinese tea culture. During the Tang Dynasty, tea drinking customs spread quickly in the north of China on the basis of development in the south of China. Many people studied Buddhism and practiced meditation. They were required neither to sleep nor to eat at night, but all of them could drink tea. So tea brewing and drinking could be seen everywhere. It gradually became a custom in the Buddhist circle.

Another important factor for the flourishing of tea affairs was the appearance of tribute teas for imperial court use. Tea drinking was popular in the imperial court of the Tang period and there were many forms of tea ceremonies and tea parties. The imperial court attached great importance to tea production. In the Dali fifth year of Tang (A.D.710), Emperor Tang Daizong had Guanpei (Government baking) established on Guzhushan Mountain in Changxing of Zhejiang ( a special production base for plucking and processing tea for imperial court use) and he instructed governors of Huzhou and Changzhou states to supervise the processing of tribute teas and to be in charge of transporting the Zisun tea, Yangxian tea and Jinsha spring water to the court.

There was a saying that various herbals had no courage to bloom before the emporer could taste the Yangxian tea. Once the new tea was plucked and processed, it should be transported around the clock to the capital city Chang’an for hosting a Qingming Banquet”. It was reflected in the poem of Li Ying of the Tang period that “walk four thousand li, be sure to catch the Qingming Banquet.”

Lu Yu and his “Tea Classics”

“People have learnt new tea knowledge since Lu Yu was born in the world”. The publication of Lu Yu’s “Tea Classics” in the middle of Tang had an epoch-making significance and consequently the tea culture was then promoted to an unprecedented height.

Lu Yu(A.D. 728-804). Also named Ji, was born in Jingling, Fuzhou of Tang (now Tianmen of Hubei Province). He was once an abondoned boy and his life was full of frustrations. He was adopted later by a Buddhist monk Zhi Ji, who was proficient in conducting ceremony. When Lu Yu was young, he was in the good graces of Li Qiwu and Cui Yuanfu who were demoted to Jingling and Lu was trained by them.After the upheaval of An and Shi, Lu Yu moved to Huzhou and later dwelled in Zhaoxi in seclusion. He got acquainted with poet and monk Jia Ran and Yan Zhenqing, the Huzhou governor and great calligrapher. He sought quietness in the time of turmoil. He dedicated himself to practice tea growing and production, and travelled Jiangnan tea producing area to investigate tea growing. Based on his tea knowledge and tea tasting experience as well on the basis of summarizing the forefathers’ experiences, he wrote the “Tea Classics”, the first book on tea in the world.

Lu Yu was respectively called Lu Zi by the later generations of tea scholars. The system of Lu’s scientific tea theory was called Lu’s Science” and the tea merchants worshipped him as a “tea god”.

“Tea Classics” was a special book on tea. It summarized and reviewed the popular tea customs at that time and discussed the origin, history, production, manufacture, brewing and tasting of tea as well as various humanistic and natural factors, which made the tea science a special discipline.

The “Tea Classics” consisted of ten chapters, including chapter one “The Origin of Tea”; chapter two “The Utensils”; chapter three”Preparation of Tea”; chapter four “Implements of Brewing; chapter five ”Brewing”; chapter six “Drinking”; chapter seven ”Historical Records”; chapter eight ”Producing Districts”; chapter nine”General Summary” and chapter ten ”Memo Regarding Plates.”

Tea Culture in the Tang Dynasty

The cake tea processing method was the major tea manufacturing method in the Tang Dynsaty. The tea soup cooking with dressings was changed into pure tea brewing because of Lu Yu’s advocation after the middle Tang. The plucked tea leaf was steamed in a steamer, ground in a mortar, compressed into cake, dried and strung with rind of reed or bamboo. The cake tea was ground into powder, sieved and cooked in a caldron before drinking.

A series of tea sets used by the imperial family were unearthed in the underground palace of Famen Temple pagoda in Fufeng of Shanxi in May 1985. It confirmed the existence of LuYu’s tea ceremony.

“30% for thirst quenching and 70% for tasting”. The greater contribution of Tang’s tea men whom Lu Yu represented was that they advocated technical skills of tea tasting and transformed the tea drinking culture from a purely thirst-quenching routine to a refined and artistic tasting activity.

In his “Tea Classics”, Lu Yu advocated a tea theory, from emphasis on cooking to emphasis on tasting, including the utensils and the complete procedure he wanted a tea drinker to have a realm of calmness, to concentrate on the tea , to tea tasting activity becomes a medium of cultivating one’s behavior and moral character as well as molding one’s temperament. It created a precedent for Chinese tea ceremony and set a model for the development of tea culture in later ages.

Spreading of Tea in the Tang Dynasty

In the fifteenth year of Tang Zhenguan (A.D.614), tea was introduced into Tibet as the dowry of Princess Wencheng.

Tea had become a staple of border trade commodities in the Tang Dynasty. The new Tang’s book “Lu Yu’s Biography” recorded that Huihe people traded horses for tea in the morning. This was the beginning of tea-horse trade which lasted for more than one thousand years through the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Tea was then introduced into the Northwest, Southwest, Mongolia and Tibet.

In the first year of Tang Zhengyuen period (A.D. 804), the Buddhist Saicho returned from Buddhism studies in Guoqing Temple on Tiantai Mountain of Zhejiang with a quantity of tea seeds from Tiantai Mountain and Siming Mountain, which he then planted in Shiga Province, Japan.

In the following year, Kobo Daishi, a student of Saicho came to China and brought home tea seeds and tea processing implements ( a stone mortar). Since then, the method and customs of Chinese tea drinking have been spread to Japan. Tea culture became an important part of the Oriental culture.

Prosperous Song Dynasty Tea

The Song Dynasty was historically an important period during when tea culture was highly developed.

The major characteristics of the Song’s tea included exquisite workmanship of tribute tea—dragon-phoenix ball tea, elegant tea competition skills and tea serving arts. Tea drinking method of the Song Dynasty was transformed into infusing method from cooking method used by the Tang people. The so-called tea infusing was that ground tea powder was placed in a tea bowl and stirred with boiling water using implements while boiling.

Dragon-phoenix ball tea was a general designation for Song’s North Garden tribute tea, i.e. the Dragon ball tea and the Phoenix cake tea.The North Garden located in Phoenix Mountain of Jian’ou, Fujian Province. The Dragon-phoenix ball tea had already made during Song Taiping Xingguo period (A.D. 976-983). During Xianping period (A.D.998-1003), Ding Wei made “Big Dragon Ball” to pay tribute. During Qingli period, Cai Xiang made “Small Dragon Ball” which got the better of the “Big Dragon Ball”.

The Dragon-phoenix ball tea was the greatest achievement of ancient Chinese cake tea production.

Tea Tasting among Scholars

The greatest development and contribution of Song people to tea culture was reflected in the harmony with tea and related arts, it carried tea tasting toward the perfection of scholar tea.

Scholar tea tasting was very popular in the Song Dynasty.

The first-rate scholars such as Wang Yucheng, Cai Xiang, Fan Zhongyan, Ouyang Xiu, Wang Anshi, Mei Raochen, Su Shi, Su Che, Huang Ting jian, Lu You were all invovled in the tea tasting.

Su Dongpo’s poem reads: “ a fine tea had always been mentioned in the same breath with beautiful women”. It was a mature symbol of Chinese tea culture. The tea tasting procedure was developed from daily tea drinking.

The purpose of tea tasting of scholars, monks and priests of the past dynasties was mainly for intellectual enjoyment. They wrote a lot of poems and prose about tea tasting and they advocated tea banquets, tea ceremonies and tea parties. For them, tea was a precious and noble beverage and tea tasting was an intellectual enjoyment, a means of cultivating moral character and nature, and realm of artistic atmosphere.

Simplified method of drinking in the Ming Dynasty

On the sixteenth day of ninth month in Ming’s Hongwu twenty-fourth year (A.D. 1391), Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang issued an imperial edit that loose leaf tribute tea should be paid instead of the conventional ball tea. It was highly praised by people of the later ages that the Imperial Court fully considered the laboring people and stopped ball tea production, only tender tea buds were picked for paying tribute because the real tea flavor was lost when tea was ground with spice and compressed into small cakes.The people then picked the best leaves, the flushing buds, heated spring water in a tripod or quadripod, then infused and tasted it. The tea tasting system of the ages was found. Tea competition of the South Song period and the North Song period was over and cake tea was replaced by loose leaf tea. The tasting method of grinding and cooking tea was changed into the boiling water and infusing method. The epoch-making changes took place. Pure tea drinking lasting for later ages started.This drinking method was considered by the Ming people to be particularly simple, naturally interesting, and true flavor tasting. In fact, this infusing method was developed on the basis of loose tea drinking method in the folktales of the Tang Dynasty.

The New Pattern of Scholar Tea in the Ming Dynasty

Some scholars of the Ming Dynasty such as Wen Zhengming, Tang Yan, Xu Wei were all great men of letters who had talents but no opportunity to use it. In the fields of music, chess, painting and calligraphy, they were omniscient. They all left lots of excellent works and precious materials for the later generations.They all shared the hobby of tasting tea. They created a new situation in “Scholar tea” of the Ming Dynasty.

Compared with their predecessor, they laid more stress on selection of natural environment and construction of aesthetic temperament and interest during tea tasting, brewing tea, with the harmony of the tinkling of spring, breeze, music, and the sound of boiling water in the tea pot, or sat opposite each other to taste tea in a hatched cottage, or stood alone against verdent hills and watched the river surging.Once tea was involved in the nature, it was not only a physical product, but also a medium for people to respond and to return to nature.

Because the society of the early Ming was not so stable, many scholars who had talent but no opportunity to use it, had to place their feelings mountains and waters and shift their interests to music, chess, painting and calligraphy, with which tea was in harmony. So many tea scholars of the Ming Dynasty were erudite persons. They handed on for ages.

Chen Jiru and Zhu Quan made their original view on pure tea drinking in “Cha Dong Bu” (Complements on Tea Director) and “Cha Pu”(Tea Manual), respectively; Tian Yiheng finished “The Essays on Brewing Tea” based on the predecessors’ works; Lu Shusheng and Zhong Nanshan, and Monk Ming Liang tasted Tianchi (Heaven Pool) Tea together and wrote “Tea Shop Notes” which reflected temperament and interest of great scholars; Zhang Yuan composed the outstanding “Tea Records” according to what he learnt from his long term experience of tea tasting. Xu Cishu was particularly good at tea ceremony and wrote “Tea Reports”; among which Zhu Quan and his “Tea Manual” had a specially important contribution.

Zhu Quan (A .D. 1378-1448), the eighteenth son of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, was considered to have “handsome manner, wisdom and eloquence”. He hid his light and dwell in seclusion in the South for a long time to live out his life in retirement, during which time he kept his mind clear and calm by tasting tea, playing musical intruments and reading, paying no attention to the world affairs. He clearly indicated that his fondness of tea was to use tea as a medium to express his lofty aspirations and to cultivate his moral character rather than to love the taste of tea itself.

Zhu Quan explored the loose tea drinking method after the ball tea processing was stopped. He reformed the traditional drinking method and the tea sets, and advocated simple process to keep the nature of tea.

Tea Road on the Sea- Spreading in the Ming Dynasty

Zheng He (A.D. 1405-1433), a Ming Sanbao eunuch, made seven long voyages to middle-southern peninsula, South Ocean islands, Bangladesh, India, Iran and Arab States. The farthest areas he reached were the east Coast of Africa and the Coast of Red Sea. Every time when he set out he brought with him tea.

South Asian countries played an important part in the spread of Chinese tea. It was these countries that played a role of medium between China and the Mediterranean of European Countries by sea. After the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Chinese tea was transported to Europe by way of these countries and so the “Tea Road” by sea was formed. It was this route that promoted the spread of Chinese culture all over Europe and America.

Tea Becoming Common Customs in the Qing Dynasty

During the Qing Dynasty, the main stream of Chinese tea culture- the spirit of traditional culture of nationalities-began to enter common people’s life. Tea house culture and tea customs culture replaced the former elite tea culture. Tea culture penetrated into the city people’s daily life and became common customs and a noble national sentiment as it was integrated with traditional etiquette and order of importance and seniority in human relationships.

Tea house trades in the Qing Dynasty prospered greatly. Various tea houses distributed all over the cities and the country-sides, they were beyond count and all afforded magnificient views. They constituted the basis of the modern magnificient tea house phenomenon.

Tea shops, tea stores, tea companies and tea firms appeared one after another. Hangzhou Wenglongsheng Tea Firm was found in 1730. It was a tea firm of great reputation in selling Westlake Longjing Tea of three-prior plucking (prior to Guyu festival, prior to Qingming festival, prior to Chunfen festival). Shanghai Wangyutai Firm was also well-known for selling black tea and green tea from Anhui.

Tea Affairs in Imperial Court

The rulers of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Kang Xi and Emperor Qian Long in particular, had the hobby of tasting tea. Qian Long initiated the Xinhua Palace Tea Party, which was held on the third day after the New Year’s day. Sixty times of the tea party were held in Xinhua Palace during the Qing Dynasty. In such a case, tea tasting was in vogue in the whole upper-class society of the Qing Dynasty, which in turn influenced the common people.

Common Tea Affairs

“Stele of Jiangshan Tea Party “ recorded about non-government fund raising to offer teas and to hold allies meeting, was engraved in front of Jiangshan Wanfu Temple in the twenty-fourth year of the Kang Xi regime. It was an important historical record about common tea events. Both the tea courtesy and style of writing on the stele were excellent.

“Tea Case Stele” was also called “Lawsuit Settling Stele”. It was erected in Yiwu town of Yunnan in Daoguang eighteenth year of the Qing Dynasty. Yiwu was once one of the six great tea mountains producing Puer Tea. There were a lot of controversial issues on paying tribute tea, selling spring tea and paying taxes. It was full of contradictions. The villagers time and again appealed to the government because they could not bear the exorbitant taxes and levies. The Dali States Government paid great attention to the appeals and settled the whole case. The government issued an order to the local officials: “to abide the will of people and not to over-levy on tea”. The tea price was then increased and taxes on tea were decreased. Seeing that the local officials abused their power, the government stipulated a limit of board expenses during work hours. People concerned erected a monument to this on which details of the case were engraved.

Foreign Trade

During the early Qing Dynasty, Chinese tea production developed with surprising rapidity. The tea field area and production volume were increased by a huge margin. Chinese tea rapidly entered the world market as a staple trade commodity and once monopolized the world tea market.

Classification of Chinese Tea　　　　

There are three basic categories of tea which differ according to the manner in which they are produced. Green, Oolong and Black teas. Each have their respective subcategories such as white, yellow, light or heavily fermented, or compressed. Etc. Green tea is the most popular and now it is ranked as one of the six most healthy drink by WHO(World Health Orgnazation).