The Origin and Development of Tea Culture

China is the hometown of tea. The ancients discovered tea and developed tea culture. Tea culture began with "Shennong tasting a hundred herbs", which has been more than 4700 years since. Today, many cities in China still have the custom of replacing gifts with tea. As one of the seven things to open the door (rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar tea), drinking tea was very common in ancient times. China tea culture has a long history, extensive and profound, including not only the material culture level, but also the profound spiritual civilization level. In the new era, we must maintain our love for traditional culture and persist in inheritance!

1. The origin of tea

It is said that Emperor Yan of Shennong was unwell and accidentally tasted a leaf. Although the taste is bitter, his mind gradually wakes up and the toxins are slowly discharged. So, he took this leaf back to study and found that it has the effect of detoxification. This is recorded in "Shennong Taste a Hundred Herbs" in the Qin and Han Dynasties: "Shennong tastes a hundred herbs, and it encounters 72 poisons every day, and it is solved by tea."

2. The development of tea

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, Huayang Guozhi recorded that tea was once used as a tribute. In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, tea was used as food, and people began to cook and drink new tea. In the Western Han Dynasty, people began to have tea-making utensils and teahouses. At this time, tea began to circulate as a commodity. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, "replacing wine with tea" was popular among celebrities, who chose to chat while drinking tea.

In the Tang Dynasty, tea culture reached its peak and the types of tea began to be rich. Drinking tea not only became a daily habit of ancient people in China, but also benefited scholars from other countries. There is a saying that tea flourished in the Tang Dynasty and in the Song Dynasty, which is true. In the Song Dynasty, there was no shortage of tea from the imperial court to the people. Tea culture has developed into a kind of etiquette for entertaining guests, and then "fighting tea" began to rise.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, abandoned tea and prospered it. Because of the complicated technology and high cost of making tea cakes, Zhu Yuanzhang thought it was too extravagant to drink tea like this. He has always advocated frugality and ordered not to drink tea in this way in the future, but to taste tea directly by making tea. Since then, fried green tea has developed.

After the Ming Dynasty, China tea has spread all over the world, and the main technology is roasting. Only oolong tea, black tea, black tea, scented tea, green tea and white tea are made.

In modern times, 1846 to 1886 was the prosperous period of tea in China. The area of tea garden is expanding and the output of tea is increasing, which promotes the development of foreign trade. From 1886 to 1947, tea in China experienced a decline period of more than half a century. Since 1950, the tea economy has developed steadily due to the support and attention of the government.