The tea tree has a history of 1 million years on the earth. Tea drinking can be traced back to China 5,000 years ago. When Emperor Shennong boiled water in his backyard, the leaves of tea trees floated into the water. After a while, Shennong smelled the aroma. This is the first cup of tea. In ancient times, the earliest way people used tea was to chew raw food.[1] Later, they used tea as a kind of vegetable, boiled and used the tea, like the vegetable soup that is drunk today.
Before the Tang Dynasty, almost all tea was expensive, and only the nobles drank tea. In particular, good tea was offered to the emperor most of the time because of its scarce production. The reign of the Sui Dynasty was relatively short, and there were relatively few records about the tea industry. However, the opening of the Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty greatly promoted the development of the economy, culture and tea industry in the Tang Dynasty. Tea drinking has become a trend in the Tang Dynasty, and every household started to drink tea.
In the Tang Dynasty, tea production has already had a complete system, and the output has been greatly improved.[2] Although high-grade tea is still expensive, ordinary tea has become popular. During this period, because of the popularization of tea, the tea culture was basically formed. It has been perfected in the spiritual realm. For example, tea drinking has a unique etiquette, and at the same time it is closely integrated with Chinese traditional culture, and there have been paintings and poems related to tea. During this period, the world's first professional work on tea and tea culture-"The Classic of Tea" was published. It was written by Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty and was written in 780 AD. "The Classic of Tea" is very rich in content and is an encyclopedia of tea. It involves biology, cultivation, tea making, taxonomy, ecology, mathematics, etc. It also records stories about tea in and before the Tang Dynasty. This book is a great help for us to study tea and people's living habits.
In the Qing Dynasty, the development of Chinese tea culture was more in-depth, and tea was closely integrated with people’s daily life. For example, in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, urban tea houses emerged and developed into venues for activities required by all classes of society. It combined tea with folk art and poetry. Folk cultural activities such as festivals, dramas and lantern riddles are integrated to form a special tea culture.
Reference
[1]Coffeeteawarehouse.com, 2021. History of Tea - Learn About Tea History. Available at: http://www.coffeeteawarehouse.com/tea-history.html [Accessed 20 December 2021].
[2]Nature.com, 2021. The growth of tea. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00395-4 [Accessed 20 December 2021].