History of Tea | Chinese Characteristic Tea Culture —— Tea and Tradition Intertwined: As one of the three major beverages in the world, tea has a history of thousands of years, evolving from medicinal use to consumption, from powdered tea to leaf tea. Through countless transformations, it has continuously merged with other cultural streams, gradually forming China’s profound and distinctive tea culture. In the history of tea drinking in China, tea is not just about the taste of drinking; it is closely related to cultural and religious schools, as well as the I Ching and divination. Their integration with tea is an expansion of their own fields and also enriches the tea culture and industry.
Tea and Buddhism —— Tea has a hundred flavors, just as Buddhism has a thousand interpretations. Since the beginning of Zen, tea has been closely united with Buddhism, from the unity of Zen and tea to the unity of tea and Zen, the two are inseparable and coexist. Buddhist practitioners understand the bitterness and tranquility from tea, while tea drinkers infuse Buddhist principles and Zen into the tea culture, creating the Zen tea culture of ‘Zen tea is one, and I am as one with Brahma.
As recorded in the Taoist classic “Baopuzi · Yuanming”, “On Gaizhu Mountain, there is an Immortal Elder’s tea garden. It was said that Ge Yuan planted tea here in the old days.” And Tao Hongjing of the Southern Dynasties also said in “Miscellaneous Records”, “Bitter tea can make people light in body and transform their bones. In the past, Danqiuzi and Huangshan Jun took it.”
**Tea and Confucianism**
Tea pursues peace and tranquility, while Confucianism promotes the Doctrine of the Mean. Tea and Confucianism fit together perfectly. Confucianism advocates the harmonious concept of the unity of man and nature. It regards tea as a medium to communicate with nature, achieving the realm of the unity of man and nature where nature and humanity are coordinated and integrated. For example, the utensil used in making tea – the “covered bowl”, also known as the Three Talents Bowl, is an appearance of the unity of man and nature.
“Cultivate one’s moral character, regulate one’s family, govern the state, and bring peace to the world.” This grand concept pursued by Confucianism has long penetrated into the minds of the people in past dynasties and has become the lifelong pursuit of people with lofty ideals. It has also merged with tea. It gives tea its backbone in the policies, etiquette, and customs of cultivating one’s moral character with tea, regulating one’s family according to tea, and governing the state and bringing peace to the world with tea.
Among them, the requirements of “cultivating one’s moral character” for people’s etiquette and morality are reflected everywhere in the requirements and norms of etiquette in tea art performances. And presenting tea to elders in traditional family etiquette and newlyweds sharing the wedding tea are also specific manifestations of “regulating one’s family”. The implementation of internal policies such as tea tributes and tea taxes set up in past dynasties and border trade policies such as the tea-horse trade are all proofs of the combination of tea and Confucianism’s concept of “governing the state and bringing peace to the world”.**Tea and Yi-ology**
If Buddhism injects a soul into tea, Taoism adds charm to tea, and Confucianism forges the backbone of tea, then Yi-ology infuses tea with mystery, making tea possess a bit of hazy beauty and endowing traditional tea culture with a mysterious color. Yi-ology – the combination of science and metaphysics – is the crystallization of thousands of years of ideological wisdom in China. It is also a philosophical study by the ancients on the operating laws of all things and their interrelationships.
Through observing various things and phenomena, the ancients formed the theory of yin-yang and the five elements in Yi-ology philosophy regarding the nature and laws of motion and change of matter. Influenced by this theory, the ancients believed that tea has yin and yang, and varies in different seasons. Tea has the five elements. From being born on the mountain, reborn in the pot, hidden in the tea pot, to reviving in the teacup, this is the journey of tea’s life. Its production process corresponds to the five elements of water, fire, wood, metal, and earth. The whole process from making tea to drinking tea is permeated with the yin-yang balance of the mutual generation and mutual restriction of the five elements.
In addition, tea is also associated with divination. The ancients highly respected divination and prediction, and often used divination to predict good or bad fortune, feng shui, etc. Therefore, some fortune-tellers would deduce based on the state of the floating and sinking of tea leaves when making tea. The number images obtained through mathematical calculations are used as the basis for divination, becoming the “tea divination” in divination techniques. Of course, whether it is the combination of tea with yin-yang and the five elements or the application of divination, they are all manifestations of the special ideological form of the combination of tea and Yi-ology, and are a practical integration of practical value, learning value, and belief psychology.
Tea and Medicine: The medicinal use of tea has a long history, dating back to its discovery and use as a medicinal substance, which has been closely linked to the field of medicine. Tea is rich in various intrinsic substances that have medicinal effects on the human body, and the practice of drinking tea for health and wellness has gradually become a consensus in people’s health preservation. The earliest existing pharmacological work in our country, ‘Shennong Bencaojing’, records the origin of tea with the phrase ‘Shennong tasted a hundred grasses and encountered seventy-two poisons, which were cured by tea’, marking the beginning of tea’s use as a medicine.
By the Eastern Han Dynasty, Hua Tuo stated in ‘Shi Lun’: ‘Tea has a pungent taste, and regular consumption is beneficial for stimulating the brain and enhancing thought.’ Tang Chen Zangqi’s ‘Bencao Shiyi’ says: ‘Various medicines are for specific diseases, while tea is the medicine for all diseases.’ Ming Li Shizhen’s ‘Bencao Gangmu’ records: ‘Tea has a relatively bitter taste and a cold nature, making it most suitable for reducing internal heat. ‘ The Qing Dynasty’s Wang Jian’an in ‘Bencao Bei’an also stated: ‘Tea can detoxify from alcohol, greasy food, and grilled foods, and is beneficial for bowel movements; excessive consumption can help in fat reduction.’ Throughout the dynasties, medical texts have documented tea’s use as a medicine. Modern scientific research has identified over 500 chemical substances in tea, including more than 450 organic compounds. Research on components such as saponins, theanine, catechins, tea polysaccharides, and tannic acid has shown that the chemical composition of tea has medicinal value for the human body, and drinking tea has become a healthy lifestyle. Tea originates from nature and encompasses all things. The combination of tea with politics and economy is evident in policies such as the border tea trade and the Ancient Tea Horse Road, with art in tea paintings and songs, and with literature in tea poems, verses, and notes. .. All are proof of tea’s integration with various cultural schools. Through a single leaf, tea integrates and coexists with diverse cultural schools, and through generations of inheritance and development, it has formed a unique tea culture in our country. When we drink tea, we are not only consuming tea but also perpetuating the cultural heritage left behind over thousands of years.
