镬仔叉烧 (广东风味)

Tea House & Tea Shops

History of Tea-The Origins of Tea 
One Chinese legend says that Shennong(神農), the Divine Cultivators, discovered tea accidentally about 3000 B.C.? He was credited with inventing agriculture and herbal medicine. He was not the first one to create, “ market “ place and? arranged for people from all parts of China to come together in one place with their products and their wares and exchange them according to their needs. One-day leaves of the tea fell into water when he was in outdoor boiling some water.? He loved the drink, and later found it to have medicinal value.? Thus, tea was born.?

The other legend says an herbalist sampled various plants to determine their individual effect.?? And he found out that he could use tea as antidote to treat the boldness, which some times resulted poisoning. Another legend came from a much later, from Japan, Bodhidharma, or Dharuma, the Indian monk who brought Zen Buddhism to China in A.D.520.? The Chinese emperor gave him a cave-temple just outside the capital, Naming, and let him to proceeded to demonstrate the benefits of meditation. He used the aid of tea to make him awake to do long hour’s meditation.?? It indeed made monks became instrumental in spreading its fame.

Some Chinese researcher has found evidence of the use of tea much earlier that that.? Some thought as far back as twelfth century B.C., King Wen, founder of Zhou dynasty. He is said to have received tribute from trial heads in and around present-day Sichuan.? (This is mentioned in a book after A.D. 347, “ Treatise on the Kingdom of Huayang “ by Chang Ju.?? But the fresh leaves were not boiled with water until the third century.? And the drying and processing of leaves as a daily beverage started around this time.

In the third century, the well-known Chinese doctor/anesthesia, Huatuo?? also said that the tea drinking increased concentration and alertness.?? Even the China’s oldest medical book Shennong’s Canon of Medical Herbs (Bencao Gangmu(本草纲目: collection of herbal remedies first compiled around A.D. 500, or called? “Great Herbal” at the Ming dynasty) includes mentions of tea.

??????
Tu ,? is?? Chinese character, the early references for tea.? “tu” also refer to snow-thistle.?? Later , Cha, got its own characters in Tang Dynasty,? but the Chinese? word for tea , which was widely used in the Han Dynasty? originally meant any infusion: sailors picked up the southern regional version of? “tsay ”,? which later? changed to “ tea”

During the 5th century, tea drinking tea drink spread very rapidly in the south and more slowly in the North. Tea then became as a well-established beverage. Even a poet at the Jin Dynasty(晋朝 ), “ Fragrant tea superimposes the six passions; the taste for tea spreads over the nine districts (according the Chinese meaning, it spreads the whole country)” according the Chinese records, the tea has been used as barter trade with Turkic peoples in A.D. 476.? Those people from Mongol, Turkic and Tibet found out that tea drinking in large quantities can improve digestive system in their body because their meat eating habits was very common in their daily life due to lack of vegetables and fruit in their area

The Golden age of tea drinking in the Tang Dynasty (唐朝618-907) soon became an art. It even spreads over the world from Mongolia to the Caspian Sea. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a person, called Lu Yu, who later was considered as the originator of tea drinking experts.? He also found that tea from Yangxian, the mountains areas located in the border of Jiangsu-Zhejiang provinces considered the best.? The Yangxian tea was considered the regular list of tribute products to the Emperor. Soon tea picking became a festival in the early spring in order to pick up the best tea presented to the Emperor.? The tribute to the Emperor was quite an honor to show his/her loyalty to the Emperor.

Lu Yu(陆羽) was quite often invited to do the performance of the methods tea making?? m and tea drinking. Since then he had chance to collected and edited of his work on tea drinking.? Tea drinking had become widespread and he began to investigate the process and its history in the 760. Later he was in 780 and published the book of Tea (Cha Jing 茶经). The Chapter includes:

• Origin, Charactereristcs, Names, and Qualities of Tea.
• Tool for Plucking and Processing Tea
• Varieties. Plucking and Processing Methods
• Utensils for Making and Drinking Tea.
• Methods of Making Tea and the the Water of Various Places
• Habits of Tea Drinking
• Stories, Plantations of Tea as a Medicine
• Which Kinds of Tea Are Better in Different Locations
• Utensils Which May Be Omitted
• How to Copy This Book on the Scroll.

After his first book was circulated around the country, this made him well known? and was considered as the patron saint of tea. Later he spent his time on 10 more books of?? Tea in his final period of his life.? But unfortunately all of them were lost.

During the Golden age of tea drinking in the era of Tang and Song Dynasty(唐朝和宋朝), Tea testing and tasting were a popular pastime among officials and all walks of life especially in Sony Dynasty (宋朝960-1279) because of greater farm of productivity of tea, it made tea as of necessity rather a luxury item. even? among the poorest households.

The world’s greatest?? city of its time, Hangzhou(杭州)( ,? the capital of ?Southern?? Song(南宋), began to have ?many tea houses established serving soups and seasonal snacks? among merchants. They also displayed flower arrangements according to season in the teahouses as well as they displayed some of artists’ painting on the walls of the teahouses.? Among the rich, tea drinking become a popular art at the peak , they even built the fabulous beautiful gardens to entertain high official their peers and their guests.

Source: from “ All The Tea In China “ by Kit Chow & Ione Kramer  published by China Book and Periodicals, Inc. and other references

Related Link:

20 Most Common & Popular Tea
Why the name "TEA"  
History of Tea
Tea House & Shops
Tea Arts [茶藝], also: Tea Lore [茶道]

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