Tea Creation Legends

Tea is so central to Chinese culture that the origins of human use of tea are described in several legends. In one popular Chinese legend, Shen Nong, the famed ruler of China credited with the invention of agriculture and Chinese medicine, is said to have discovered tea some time around 2737 BC. Shen Nong is reputed to have tasted hundreds of herbs to test their nutritional and medicinal qualities.

According to the story, Shen Nong was resting under a tree after a long walk. Leaves from a nearby tree dropped into the water he was boiling to drink, changing its color. The ever inquisitive and curious monarch took a sip of the brew and found it not only sweet and tasty, but also refreshing. In the ancient Chinese medical book called Shen Nong Herbal, which is attributed to Shen Nong, the author says that "tea tastes bitter. Drinking it, one can think quicker, sleep less, move lighter and see clearer. "  A variant of the legend claims that Shen Nong had tested 72 poisonous herbs in a single day and was near death. However, he noticed the fragrant leaves dropping around him from a nearby tree and put them in his mouth. Soon, the legend says, he began feeling better and picked more leaves to completely cleanse his body of the toxins. The legend of Shen Nong is recorded in Cha Jing. Written by Lu Yu, Cha Jing is the earliest known treatise on tea in the worl.

According to a Tang Dynasty legend that spread along with Buddhism, Bodhidharma, founder of the Zen school of Buddhism, which is based on meditation known as "Ch'an.".After meditating in front of a wall for nine years, he accidentally fell asleep. When he awoke, Bodiharma was said to be so disgusted at his weakness that he cut off his own eyelids.  As they fell to the ground, the eyelids took root and grew into tea bushes. 

Sometimes, this  story is retold with Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, as the main character instead of  Bodhidharma. A less gruesome  variant of the Buddhist‐influenced legends is similar to that of Shen Nong, with  Gautama Buddha serendipitously discovering tea when some leaves fall into an open pot of boiling water.
 
Whether or not these legends have any basis in fact, tea has played a significant role in Asian culture for centuries as a staple beverage, a curative and a symbol of status. Therefore, it is not surprising its discovery is ascribed to revered religious or royal leaders.

Tea in China

What can be confirmed about the history of tea is that the discovery and usage of tea originated in the southwest of China about 5,000 years ago. Wild tea trees more than 1,000 years old can still be found in Yunnan and other areas. Over time, the earliest method of serving fresh‐boiled tea  as a kind of soup gave way to methods of  drying and preserving tea. Simple green tea paved the way for  the blossoming of six major kinds of tea, which started to gain status in the Tang (618‐906 AD) and Song (960‐1279 AD) dynasties have maintained their popularity into modern times.  
 
During the Zhou Dynasty (1046‐252 BC), the function of tea to refresh the body and clear the mind gradually overshadowed its use as medicine.  People began drying leaves in order to better preserve them.  The tea was served by placing the leaves into a hollowware and making a kind of thick soup.  While the princes of the Zhou Dynasty developed a taste for this dish, the bitterness of the tea soup never caught on with the general public.

Lao Tzu (600‐517 BC), the founder of Taoism, described tea as "the froth of the liquid jade" and deemed it an indispensable ingredient to the elixir of life. Legend has it that the man who inspired the custom of offering tea to guests also inspired Lao Tzu to write Tao Te Ching, the fundamental book on Taoist teachings. Disgusted at his nation's treatment of Taoism, Lao Tzu  fled westward to Ta Chin. While passing through the Han Pass, he was offered tea by a customs inspector named Yin Hsi, an elderly sage who encouraged him to write a book of his teachings Yin's generosity helped many people, and his example  is followed to this day.
 
In 220 BC, a famed physician and surgeon named Hua Tou described tea's ability to improve mental functions in a letter to Shin Lun, saying, "to drink k'u t'u [bitter tea] constantly makes one think better." It’s clear that by 59 BC when Wang Bo wrote the first known book providing instructions on buying and preparing tea was not only a medicine, but also an important part of the Chinese diet.

Both the collection and processing of wild tea leaves were improved during the Han Dynasty (206 BC‐AD 220).  Tea became a tasteful drink favored by the nobility.  In the time of the Wei  (220‐265 AD) and Jin (265‐420 AD) dynasties, tea displaced wine as the drink of choice.  As metaphysics came into fashion and interest in enlightened conversation grew, people preferred tea's freshness and purity to wine's perceived violence and intoxication.
 
Around the same time, tea drinking spread from the kingdom of Shu (AD 221‐263) to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and became a drink that demonstrated one’s virtue.  During the reign of the Eastern and Western Jins and Northern and Southern dynasties (AD 265‐589), rulers advocated drinking tea and eating simple food in order to restrain the growing competition among the nobility to show excessive extravagance.  Buddhists advocated drinking tea because it prevented people from dreariness and languor, while Taoists believed tea helped people stay young and become immortal.   Tea cakes evolved at about this time as well. Made from tea leaves, the cakes were ground into powder and combined with other flavors, depending on the region. Soon after, tea was introduced to Japan by Buddhist monks during the Sui Dynasty (589‐618 AD).
 
Though it had already been around for centuries, it is said that tea started in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty.  One major improvement in tea drinking during the Tang Dynasty (618‐907 AD) was the invention of a method called "steaming green," which reduced the grassy flavor of the tea leaves.  It was also during the Tang Dynasty that the teahouse in its real sense came into being as tea shops began making  tea for their customers instead of just selling the leaves.  It's said the piles of tea leaves in these shops were mountainous to keep up with the public’s growing demand for tea. 
 
In The Book of Tea, written by Lu Yu (729‐804 AD) during the Tang Dynasty, tea drinking was widespread by 760 AD. The world’s first definitive commentary on tea, The Book of Tea describes how tea plants were grown, the leaves processed and tea prepared as a beverage. It also describes how tea was evaluated and where the best tea leaves were produced. 

 
Teas produced in the Tang Dynasty were mainly processed into tea bricks that were often used as currency, especially in regions farther from the center of the empire where coins lost their value.  Tea bricks were also easier to transport for those involved in a booming foreign trade, including Japanese Buddhist monks who went to China for training and brought tea leaves back to Japan with them.  A small piece of the brick could be broken off the compact brick to prepare a drink.
 
The Song Dynasty (960‐1279) was the Golden Age for tea in China.  During that era, production and preparation of all tea changed to meet the court society’s preference for a tea with delicate character. For centuries, steaming tea leaves had the primary process used in the preparation of tea, including the powdered forms that emerged during the Song Dynasty. However, in the mid‐13th Century the Chinese learned to process tea in a different way for trade and distribution. Tea leaves were roasted and then crumbled, rather than steamed, serving as the origin of today's loose teas and the practice of brewing tea.
 
The Yuan Dynasty (1271to 1368 AD) was a dark period in tea history.  The Chinese Empire was taken over by Genghis Kahn and subsequently ruled by Mongols.  Tea was looked down upon by the Mongol rulers who did not value the tea drinking as previous emperors did.
 
When the Ming Dynasty (1368‐1644 AD) came to power, the tea culture damaged by the Mongols, underwent a renaissance. The familiar green, oolong and red/black teas were all developed at this time.  In 1391, Emperor Zhu Yanzhang issued a decree that only loose tea would be accepted as a "tribute." As a result, loose tea production increased and these processing techniques further advanced. Soon, most tea was distributed in full‐leaf, loose form and steeped in earthenware vessels.
 
With the ever better understanding of tea and its increasing cultural importance, people were no longer content to pick wild tea leaves. The Chinese opened tea gardens and cultivated tea trees.  As different processing methods evolved, so did the six major types of tea.   No longer viewed as medicine, tea was consumed to fulfill spiritual needs, containing deep cultural meaning.  The elaborate ritual of the tea ceremony in China is evidence of the importance of tea as it consists not only of the type of tea, but many other factors, including water, utensils, time and occasion. 

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Tea in Japan

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