When it comes to tea, China is undoubtedly the most vocal. I'm afraid no one in China, regardless of age, women and children, feels that they don't know tea. Seven things that the ancients opened the door, rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar tea, simply and clearly demonstrated the importance of tea in ancient social life. Not only in ancient times, China people were the first people in the world to discover the wonderful use of tea, plant tea and cultivate tea trees. Moreover, in modern times, tea, like porcelain and silk, is a completely different business card for China in the international community; The black tea enjoyed by the British royal family is China's world-famous Qimen black tea.
So, how is the tea culture in China formed?
The origin of tea originated from Shennong tasting a hundred herbs.
Tea, often called "Ming" in ancient Chinese, is called "Cha Sheng". In the Tang Dynasty, Lu Yu said in his book:
(Tea) Its words come from either grass, wood or vegetation. Its name is tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea.
Lu Yu's Tea Classic? A source "
Next to the word "tea" or "wood" or "grass head", there are five names, namely, tea, dragon (sound a, meaning bitter tea), dragon (sound club), Ming (referring to the young leaves of tea) and dragon (sound breath, the old leaves of tea, that is, coarse tea).
Compared with the origin of wine, the origin of tea is earlier. The custom of "replacing wine with tea" on the dining table in China also shows that tea is more popular with the people than wine. The legend about tea is also more credible, because it is related to Shennong, the ancestor of China agriculture.
Legend has it that Shennong often collects herbs in deep Shan Ye forest to treat people. Once, he tasted a poisonous plant, and the pain was unbearable. In a panic, he picked the leaves of another plant around him, chewed them in his mouth and swallowed them, which magically relieved the pain. This leaf is tea. Since then, Shennong has tasted all kinds of herbs and has tea around him. If he is poisoned, he will immediately detoxify with tea. Until once Shennong tried the highly toxic Lysimachia christinae and died before eating tea.
"Shennong tasted a hundred herbs and encountered 72 poisons every day. He got tea and got rid of it."
Herbal classics
Early Distribution of Tea in China
In Chinese myths and legends, there is a saying that Shennong was the leader of the ancient Sanmiao and Jiuli tribes. According to historical records and other ancient books, the activity area of Sanmiao people is roughly between Qishan in Shaanxi and Hengshan in Hunan, and between Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake, which is equivalent to the southwest of Shennongjia today.
"Yesterday, on the left of Sanmiao was Dongting and on the right was Peng Li." Historical Records? Sun Tzu's Art of War, Biography of Wu Qi
"Sanmiao family, Hengshan in the south, Qishan in the north, Dongting slope in the left and Lipeng River in the right." Shuoyuan
We can probably speculate that this area may only be the approximate area where Shennong tasted a hundred herbs. Coincidentally, there is also a record about tea in Huayang Guozhi, one of the earliest local chronicles in China, which is about the event that Pakistan paid tribute to the Zhou royal family during the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Zhou Wuwang is a real teacher of Bashu, who wrote Shangshu, in which King Wu not only made Yin, but also named Bashu as Zuji. The nobles include mulberry, silkworm, hemp, fish, salt, copper, iron, Dan, lacquer, tea, honey, tortoise, giant rhinoceros, pheasant and tortoise. Huayang country? Bazhi
The above quotation is to the effect that the division of Bashu helped the king of Wu attack Zhou, which is recorded in the history books. After the King of Wu cut down, he gave the viscount, the son of Ji's imperial clan, established the Ba state here, and presented many things such as silkworm and hemp to the Zhou royal family, which not only proved the fact that the southwest Bashu area was the place where tea was born prematurely, but also showed that China people had a considerable understanding of tea as early as 3,000 years ago, otherwise it would not be offered as a tribute.
In addition, a large number of wild tea trees concentrated in Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou, combined with the geological structure and variation history of tea trees in southwest China, finally made the international community reach an agreement on the origin of tea, that is, tea trees originated in southwest China, and China is the origin of world tea culture.
Tea was originally used for "eating"
Although the story of "Shennong tasting a hundred herbs" is only a legend, it can be clearly seen that people's initial understanding of tea comes from its medicinal value of "detoxification"; It can also be seen that tea was not originally sipped with water as it is now, but was eaten directly. In ancient times, when the productivity level was extremely low, everyone could eat, and tea was no exception, not to mention its natural detoxification function.
With the preservation and use of fire, people's intestines and stomach gradually get used to the nourishment of cooked food. After discovering that tea can be eaten and detoxified, people naturally have to cook and taste tea like other foods. Comparing raw tea with cooked tea, it is obvious that cooked tea is not only delicious, but also delicious tea soup, which is much better than directly chewing bitter raw tea!
Moreover, the ancients did not simply cook tea, eat leaves and drink soup, but often cooked with other things to eat or drink. Scholars in the Song Dynasty said that tea can be cooked into soup or rice when compiling "Taiping Magnolia".
"(Tea) is roasted first, and the color is red. Put it in porcelain, pour the soup, stir fry with onion and ginger. " Drinking hangover makes people insomnia. "Guangya
"Guangya" said that before drinking tea, it was baked until it was red, mashed and put into porcelain, and boiled in water with onions and ginger. Drinking it can make people awake, refresh themselves and make people not sleepy. Until now, tea smashing, which is popular in southern China, still follows the ancient way of eating tea. It is made by mixing fried rice, peanuts, sesame seeds, salt, tea, litsea cubeba, ginger and other raw materials, mashing, and boiling in a copper pot.
The reason why tea is cooked with other ingredients is probably to increase nutrition, to reduce the bitter taste of tea, and to avoid insomnia caused by eating too much, because the ancients realized the function of "refreshing the brain" long ago, so they mixed tea with other foods.
Drink real tea, your eyes sleep less. "natural history"
This is why many places in our country still say "eat tea" instead of "drink tea", because in earlier times, tea was really used for "eating". Moreover, for girls, tea can not be "eaten" casually, because in ancient times, "eating tea" meant that women accepted men's marriage engagement. Presumably, everyone will remember the sentence in A Dream of Red Mansions in which Xifeng teased Sister Lin: "Since you ate our tea, why don't you be our wife?"
Up to now, the Qiang nationality in Aba, Sichuan, China still retains the ancient custom of "drinking tea" when they get married. When the man marries the woman, every time he passes through a village, the wedding procession will stop to enjoy the tea provided by the local villagers, and the bride and groom will accept the villagers' warm wishes. During the wedding, this kind of "tea ceremony" was staged repeatedly, which fully reflected the importance this ancient nation attached to the marriage of young men and women.
This paper summarizes the origin of tea culture in China, the distribution of early tea, and the folk saying of "eating tea" in China. So, how did the custom of "drinking tea" in China evolve into the current style of "drinking tea"?