Teahouse

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Ancient

Who discovered tea?
It is believed that the Emperor Shen Nung, the divine farmer, discovered the tea tree. He had a habit of going around to different places to taste herbs, in order to discover medicine.

There are two different versions of the story of how Shen Nung discovered tea:
1. One day when Shen Nung was tasting herbs, he was poisoned. Just when he was about to give up finding a cure, he saw some leaves falling from the sky, so he tasted them as usual. It was bitter in taste, but it smelled sweet. It also got rid of the poison in his body.

2. One day when Shen Nung was boiling water in a pan, some leaves fell into it. The water turned slightly yellowish, and had a unique flavour. It tasted both bitter and sweet. It was a very refreshing drink, and quenched thirst. However, he said it was only another type of medicine.

There is, however, a totally different legend of how tea was discovered:

One day when Bodhisattva Bohidharma was meditating, he fell asleep. To keep himself awake, he cut off his eyelids. They grew into tea trees. From then on, monks drank tea to keep themselves awake.

At that time, tea was not popular. It was only used as a medicine. Not everyone liked tea, because it was very bitter.

The Han Dynasty

During the Han Dynasty, people started to drink tea, instead of just using it for medicine. Only the nobles and the rich people were able to enjoy tea, due to the limited amount of wild tea trees. Some people even drank tea instead of wine. When a guest arrives, he will be served with tea.

However, the peasants in China did not have the opportunity to drink tea.

The Tang Dynasty

During the Tang Dynasty, people discovered more and more tea trees, so tea drinking became very popular among the peasants. Everyone loved drinking tea and regarded it as 'very important'. So the Chinese government began to plant tea trees, and so did the peasants. Teahouses were built in busy streets, where people often go to drink tea.

People also started to add milk, butter, and herbal additions to tea.

Some Japanese students who studied in China brought tea back to Japan. So the art of tea-drinking spread to Japan.

The Song Dynasty

There is a special custom in China that started in the Song Dynasty. When a woman is married to a man, she has to serve tea to the man's family. Even the Emperor loved drinking tea. He wrote a book about tea, which is still a very important written source about the art of tea nowadays. At that time, there were a lot of famous writers and poets who wrote a lot of poems to praise the art of tea.

The Yuan Dynasty

The Mongolians ruled the Yuan Dynasty, spreading tea further to western countries such as Russia and to East Mediterranean Sea.

The Ming Dynasty

In the past, people boiled their tea. However, in the Ming Dynasty there was a new way to make tea. You can just soak the tea leaves in hot water to make tea. During the Ming Dynasty, a new way to process the tea leaves was invented. It was much faster than the old one.

The Qing Dynasty

Starting from the Han Dynasty, people had been serving tea whenever guests arrived. However, this custom was changed in the Qing Dynasty. Instead of serving tea when the guests arrived, people served tea when the guests were about to leave. In other words, serving tea was a sign to indicate that the guest had better be going!
Fortunately, when people serve tea nowadays it doesn't mean anything like that!



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