I. The Origin and Early Utilization of Tea
Tea plants have existed for about 70 to 80 million years. However, the discovery and utilization of tea only happened around 4,000 to 5,000 years ago. According to research, there has been a written record of tea-related affairs for over 2,000 years. Around 200 BC, during the Qin and Han Dynasties, in China’s earliest dictionary “Erya”, there was the character “jiǎ”, which stated that “jiǎ is kǔ tú” (“tú” was an ancient Chinese character, referring to what we now call “tea”). Later, around 350 AD, Chang Qu in the Eastern Jin Dynasty mentioned tea affairs in many places in “Huayang Guo Zhi”. In “Huayang Guo Zhi · Ba Zhi”, it was recorded that “When King Wu of Zhou launched an expedition against King Zhou of Shang, he got the help of the troops from Ba and Shu regions, which was recorded in ‘Shang Shu’… Lacquer, tea, honey… were all offered as tributes.” King Wu of Zhou led the troops from eight southern states to attack King Zhou of Shang in 1066 BC. That means as early as over 3,000 years ago, people in the Ba and Shu regions (nowadays parts of Sichuan and Chongqing) in China had already used local tea as tributes. Therefore, it can be inferred that at least 3,000 years ago, China already had the cultivation and production of tea. Up to now, no other countries in the world have earlier discoveries and records about tea. So, China is the first country in the world to plant, produce and drink tea.
II. The Origin Place of Tea Plants
China is the country that discovered wild big tea trees earliest and in the largest number. Since ancient times, many wild big tea trees have been continuously discovered in Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan and Hubei. As early as in the Three Kingdoms period, in “Wu Pu · Ben Cao” which quoted from “Tong Jun Lu”, there was a saying that “In the south, there is a kind of gourd-lute wood (big tea tree), which is also similar to tea leaves. It tastes extremely bitter and astringent. People grind it into powder and drink it as tea, and it can also make people stay awake all night.” In “The Classic of Tea” written by Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty, it was said that “In the mountainous areas between Ba and the Three Gorges, there are tea trees that need two people to embrace. People cut them down and pick the leaves.” In the “Dali Prefecture Annals” of the Ming Dynasty in Yunnan, it was recorded that “In the Cangshan Mountain (Xiaguan area)… the tea trees are as tall as one zhang (about 3.3 meters).” In recent years, through investigations and surveys, wild big tea trees have been found in nearly 200 places in 10 provinces and autonomous regions across the country. In some areas, they are even distributed in large areas. For example, in Qianjiazhai, Heping Township, Jiujia District, Zhenyuan County, Simao Region, Yunnan Province, thousands of mu of wild big tea tree communities have been discovered. In 1961, in the dense forest of Bada Dashan in Menghai County, Yunnan Province, a tall wild tea tree with a height of 32.12 meters and a girth at breast height of 2.9 meters was found. It was estimated that the age of the tree was about 1,700 years, and it was a wild “tea tree king”. There is also a cultivated “tea tree king” on Nannuo Mountain in Menghai County with an age of about 800 years. Recently, a transitional “tea tree king” with an age of about 1,000 years was discovered in Lancang County. These three types of “tea tree kings” were all found in the Xishuangbanna region of Yunnan Province. These ancient big tea trees have been listed as key protected ancient trees and are open for domestic and foreign scholars to visit. They are historical witnesses of the origin place of tea trees. Moreover, from the perspective of the distribution areas of ancient tea trees, most of them are distributed in the southern and southwestern parts of Yunnan, as well as in some parts of Guangxi, Guizhou and Sichuan. Of course, a few are also scattered in Fujian, Taiwan and Hainan. Therefore, scientists generally believe that judging from the distribution areas of ancient tea trees, the origin place of tea trees should be in the southwestern part of China, and the origin center may be in the Xishuangbanna region of Yunnan.
III. The Discovery and Utilization of Tea from the Legend of Shennong Tasting Hundreds of Herbs
In the book “Shennong’s Herbal Classic” in the Warring States period, there was a legend that “Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs, encountered seventy-two poisons in a day, and was detoxified by tea”. According to folk legends, 5,000 years ago, there was a person named Shennong who was the earliest inventor of agriculture and medicine. He tried to relieve people’s pains and tasted all kinds of herbs in an attempt to find plants that could cure diseases. One day, Shennong tasted seventy-two poisonous herbs one after another. The poisonous gas accumulated in his abdomen, making his tongue numb and his internal organs feel as if they were on fire, and he couldn’t control himself. So he lay under a tree to rest. A cool breeze blew, and a leaf fell from the tree into Shennong’s mouth. It tasted fragrant, sweet and mellow, which made Shennong feel refreshed. Then he put the tender branches and leaves under the tree into his mouth and chewed them. Immediately, the poisonous gas dissipated and he felt comfortable all over. So he identified this kind of leaf as a good medicine for curing diseases and named it “tú”. There is also another widely spread legend. It is said that Shennong had a transparent crystal belly, and he could clearly see the changes of the food and medicine he ate in his belly. In order to find out which foods could be eaten and which couldn’t, Shennong always tasted all kinds of herbs and observed the changes in his belly to make judgments. One day, Shennong ate the leaves of a tree with white flowers. After eating them, not only did he feel that the bitterness in his mouth turned into sweetness, but also the poisonous food in his belly was completely cleared away by the juice of this kind of leaves, as if his belly had been “checked” up and down. So he named this kind of tree “tú”. Since then, whenever he was poisoned while tasting herbs to look for medicine, he would eat the tea leaves he carried with him and could immediately relieve the poison. Shennong introduced this kind of tea leaves to people, which saved people from plague disasters time and time again. The legend of Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs may be the beginning of our ancestors’ eating tea. Lu Yu, the “Tea Sage” in the Tang Dynasty, probably based on this historical record and stated in his “The Classic of Tea” that “Tea as a drink originated from Shennong”. Lu Yu also believed in “The Classic of Tea” that drinking tea was already known in the time of Duke Zhou of Lu. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Yan Ying of the State of Qi, Yang Xiong and Sima Xiangru in the Han Dynasty, Wei Yao in the State of Wu, Liu Kun, Zhang Cai, Lu Na, Xie An and Zuo Si in the Jin Dynasty all loved drinking tea. Later, as it spread widely, it became a custom. Lu Yu said that by the Tang Dynasty, the custom of drinking tea was already very popular. In the two capitals, Chang’an (now Xi’an) and Luoyang, as well as in Hubei and Sichuan regions, every household drank tea. From Shennong’s tasting hundreds of herbs to the formation of the custom of drinking tea, it can be said to be a historical process from being used as medicine to being used as a drink.
IV. Precious Historical Tea Relics and Sites
- The Han Dynasty Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha: There are many unearthed cultural relics from the Western Han Dynasty tomb which is over 2,100 years old, including bamboo slips, silk books and silk paintings. Among them, there is a silk painting of a lady serving tea, which is a realistic portrayal of the Han Dynasty emperors and nobles enjoying tea. In the burial inventory, there is also a bamboo slip inscription of “mù gǔ yuè sì”. According to research, “mù dà yuè” is a variant character of “jiǎ”, that is, kǔ tú (tea). This is the earliest tea burial object discovered so far.
- The Underground Palace of the Famen Temple Pagoda in Fufeng County, Shaanxi Province: Many precious cultural relics from the Tang Dynasty were unearthed from the underground palace which had been sealed for over 1,100 years. There are several pieces of gold and silver tea sets, glazed tea bowls and celadon tea sets. Among the gold and silver tea sets, there are silver cages for baking tea cakes, turtle-shaped boxes for storing tea, tea rollers for grinding tea, tea sieves for screening tea, salt stands and silver jars for putting seasonings, silver teaspoons for taking tea, tea stirrers for mixing tea, silver wind furnaces for boiling tea and silver tongs for clamping charcoal. This is the most complete set of Tang Dynasty imperial court tea sets preserved in China.
- Mengshan Mountain in Mingshan County, Sichuan Province: Mengshan Mountain is an ancient tea-growing area. It produced many famous teas in the Tang Dynasty, and many historical sites have been preserved to this day. The “Imperial Tea Garden” where fairy tea is planted is one of them. The Imperial Tea Garden is located in a mountain depression on the upper side of the mountain. According to legend, it was the place where Wu Lizhen, a native of the region, cultivated seven fairy tea trees during the Ganlu period of the Western Han Dynasty (53 – 50 BC). The Imperial Tea Garden covers an area of 12 square meters. It is surrounded by stone railings. There is a gate tower locked beside the path. There are two stone tablets standing on the left, recording the origin of the fairy tea and the achievements of Master Ganlu (the tablets have been damaged now). The stone railings still exist. Now, there is a newly engraved couplet on the stone gate: “The water in the Yangtze River, the tea on the top of Mengshan Mountain”.
- Zhijusi Temple on Mengshan Mountain: It was founded by Wu Lizhen, a Taoist in the Ganlu period of the Han Dynasty, rebuilt in the Chunxi period of the Song Dynasty and repaired in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. From the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, tribute tea was produced here every year. It is one of the early tribute tea production yards in China.
- Lu Yu, the author of the first tea book “The Classic of Tea” in the Tang Dynasty: He was born in Jingling (now Tianmen County) in Hubei Province. There are still some places with historical significance preserved there, such as Wenxue Spring, Luzi Well, Luzi Spring, Lu Yu Pavilion and Lu Gong Temple. In his later years, Lu Yu lived in Miaoxi Temple on Zhushan Mountain in Wuxing (now Huzhou), Zhejiang Province. The site of Zhushan Mountain still exists. The Guzhu Zisun tribute tea production area in Changxing, Zhejiang Province and Yixing, Jiangsu Province, which Lu Yu had investigated, still has some relics of the tribute tea production yard, such as Jinsha Spring and Guzhu Mountain.
- Guoqing Temple on Tiantai Mountain and Jingchan Temple in Yuhang, Zhejiang Province: They were the birthplaces of tea planting, tea production and Buddhist tea ceremony in the Tang and Song Dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, the Japanese monk Saicho studied Buddhism and tea ceremony on Tiantai Mountain and took tea seeds back to Japan when he returned, contributing to the spread of tea to Japan. There is an inscription left in Guoqing Temple on Tiantai Mountain. Jingchan Temple created the Jingchan Tea Banquet. The Japanese monk Nampo Shomyo brought this Buddhist way of drinking tea back to Japan, and it later developed into the present Japanese tea ceremony. Jingchan Temple still preserves the imperial stele inscribed by Emperor Xiaozong of the Song Dynasty with the words “Jingchan Xingsheng Wanshou Chan Temple”.
- The “Imperial Tea Garden” in Beiyuan, Jian’an (now Jian’ou) in Fujian Province in the Song Dynasty, the “Imperial Tea Garden” in Wuyishan Mountain in Chong’an County in the Song Dynasty, and the “Eighteen Imperial Tea Trees” in front of Hugong Temple at the foot of Shifeng Mountain in Longjing Village, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, which Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty had visited: Although they have gone through the vicissitudes of the times, they are still preserved, providing references for today’s tea people to study and appreciate.
V. The Evolution and Formation of the Character “Tea”
According to research, there were many names referring to tea in ancient historical materials, such as “tú”, “chuǎn”, “chà”, “shè”, “xuǎn”, “míng”, “jiǎ”, “gourd-lute”, etc. In the 2nd century BC, during the Qin and Han Dynasties, in China’s earliest dictionary “Erya”, it was recorded that “jiǎ, kǔ tú”. Guo Pu in the Eastern Jin Dynasty stated in his “Annotations on Erya” that “The tea leaves picked early are called ‘tú’, and those picked late are called’míng'”. The character “tea” first appeared in “Kaiyuan Wenzi Yinyi” by Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, Lu Yu mentioned in “The Classic of Tea” that “Its names include: first, tea; second, jiǎ; third, shè; fourth, míng”. As a historical summary, Lu Yu officially changed the character “tú” by subtracting one horizontal stroke and called it “tea” in “The Classic of Tea”. As for the pronunciation of the character “tú”, there are two systems. In Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and North China regions, it is pronounced as “chai” or “cha”; while in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, it is pronounced as “ta”, and in Xiamen and Shantou, it is pronounced as “te”. These two pronunciation systems were spread abroad and also formed two foreign language pronunciation systems in the international arena. In some European and American countries such as the UK and the US, it is written as “tea” or “thea”, etc.; while in some Asian countries such as Russia and Japan, it is mostly spelled according to the Chinese pronunciation of “tea”, such as in Russian and Japanese. From the pronunciation of the character “tea”, it can also be seen that tea originated from China and spread all over the world.
VI. Ba and Shu Regions: The Cradle of Tea Culture
Ba and Shu were extensive regions in ancient China, referring to the present Sichuan, Hubei and parts of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. “Hanshu · Dili Zhi” stated that “Ba, Shu and Guanghan were originally southern barbarians, and Qin unified them and set them as prefectures.” In the Ba and Shu regions, in addition to the Ba people and the Shu people, there were also ethnic minorities such as the Pu, Ju, Gong and Nu. The Ba and Shu ethnic groups were two large ethnic groups with a relatively wide distribution and a large population. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Ba and Shu belonged to the uncivilized areas outside the Huaxia culture. It was only after the First Emperor of Qin unified China that Ba and Shu were set as one prefecture. In the prehistoric Shennong era in the Ba and Shu regions, from the legend of Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs, we can know that tea was discovered and utilized at that time, and then the history of drinking tea began. Gu Yanwu, a scholar in the early Qing Dynasty, studied in his “Ri Zhi Lu” and said that “Since the Qin people occupied Shu, the matter of drinking tea began.” He pointed out that the drinking of tea in various places was slowly spread after the Qin State annexed the Ba and Shu regions. Therefore, the Ba and Shu regions are the cradle of China’s tea industry and tea culture. In “Tongyue” by Wang Bao in the Western Han Dynasty, there were two sentences: “Prepare all the utensils for making tea” and “Buy tea in Wuyang”. In “Guangya” by Zhang Yi in the Three Kingdoms period of the Wei Dynasty, it was recorded that “In Jing and Ba regions, people pick tea leaves to make tea cakes, and use rice paste to make them… and add scallions and ginger.” In “Chu Ge” by Sun Chu in the Western Jin Dynasty, there was a sentence “Ginger, cinnamon, tea, all come from Ba and Shu.” Chang Qu in the Eastern Jin Dynasty stated in “Huayang Guo Zhi · Ba Zhi” that “… Lacquer, tea, honey, were all offered as tributes.” Lu Yu said in “The Classic of Tea” that “Tea as a drink originated from Shennong.” These historical records all show that the Ba and Shu regions had an extremely early development period from the discovery, utilization, drinking, tea market to tribute tea of tea, and the development of the tea industry in the Ba and Shu regions had an extremely profound impact on the entire Chinese tea culture.
