As early as the Tang Dynasty, there was a special place to taste tea, which was similar to today's teahouse. Then the teahouse flourished in the Song Dynasty, but after the Song Dynasty, the teahouse gradually withdrew from people's sight, and it was not until the Ming Dynasty that it began to revive slowly, and it was not until the Qing Dynasty that it gradually flourished.
First, tea was first used for sacrifice, and then it was regarded as food and medicine, and it was not used as a drink until the late Western Han Dynasty. Teahouses are places for people who like drinking tea to entertain and communicate, but with the development of the times, the service content and form of teahouses have also changed. People in China have enjoyed drinking tea since ancient times. From Ouyang Xiu's poem: "Jian 'an is three thousand miles away, and the capital tastes new tea in March. "This shows China people's love for tea. In the Tang Dynasty, tea was mainly enjoyed by the upper class.
During the Kaiyuan period, teahouses appeared in Henan and Shandong. "Feng Shiwen Ji Jian" once wrote:
"Since Zou, Qi, Cang and De came to Jingyi City one after another, they opened more shops and sold fried tea. Mo Wen is vulgar, throwing money to drink. "
This can be seen. In the Song Dynasty, tea shops entered the public life. Due to the relatively prosperous economy in Song Dynasty, handicraft industry and commodity trade developed rapidly, forming a relatively wealthy citizen class. They pay attention to the enjoyment of life, drinking tea is one of their pastimes, and the teahouse provides them with a place to drink tea.
Teahouses existed as early as the Song Dynasty, when it was all the rage in society. "Dream of Tokyo" once wrote: "About ten miles, the other alleys have tens of thousands of miles ... each has a teahouse, a hotel and a restaurant." It can be seen that teahouses flourished in the Song Dynasty. Teahouses in Song Dynasty were not only places for drinking tea, but also places for consumption and entertainment. Teahouses provide entertainment items such as string songs, games, cuju and bathing, which greatly enriched people's leisure life in the Song Dynasty.
Therefore, more and more teahouses need a master of tea-making technology-Dr. Cha. Dr. Tea was first seen in Feng Ji: "I ordered people to take 30 yuan and pay Dr. Tea." In the old days, it referred to tea shop guys, and later it specifically referred to people who were good at tea ceremony. But in the Ming Dynasty, Dr. Tea, who frequently appeared in teahouses in the Song Dynasty, was regarded as a new landscape. It can be seen that after the Tang and Song Dynasties, teahouses gradually declined, and people knew little about tea culture in the Tang and Song Dynasties.
The Ming Dynasty was a new turning point, and teahouses were gradually revived in cities. Teahouses were not revived in the early Ming Dynasty, but there were already tea doctors performing in rich people's homes and large banquet places, and teahouses also appeared in economically prosperous cities. It was not until the middle of the Ming Dynasty that the teahouse was revived. By the end of the Ming dynasty, teahouses could be seen everywhere; After entering the Qing Dynasty, teahouses became more prosperous.
There were two kinds of teahouses in Ming Dynasty. One is a popular teahouse, which is used for people's daily needs. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, a big bowl of tea came out to meet the needs of the public. Teahouses selling big bowls of tea, or teahouses, are small in scale, low in price and simple in layout, and only need a few tables and benches.
This kind of tea shop provides a resting place for the lower classes. It pays attention to small profits but quick turnover, not elegance and secularization. The other is an elegant teahouse, which faces the nobles with high consumption level. In the mid-Ming Dynasty, teahouses were favored by literati and became their gathering place.
Take Nanjing as an example. Teahouses in Nanjing pay attention to indoor layout and have elegant taste. There is a private room in the museum where artists can play the piano and rap, and there are many games to participate in. This kind of teahouse is a teahouse with high consumption, which mainly receives literati and dignitaries. Although the space is large, it limits the number of people, thus highlighting the status gap.
In the Qing dynasty, the division of teahouses was more refined, including Qing teahouses, wild teahouses, book teahouses and teahouses that run both tea and food. The customers of Qing teahouse are literati and businessmen. They come here for recreation and information, but drinking tea is not the main purpose. Wild teahouses mainly sell tea. Teahouses are simple in design and often located in the suburbs. Although simple, the environment is quiet.
As the name implies, the book teahouse is a kind of teahouse that tells stories and sings for a living. This kind of teahouse is deeply loved by the public. The last teahouse first appeared in the Song Dynasty, developed in the Ming Dynasty and flourished in the Qing Dynasty. For example, Hongfuyuan and Chunheyuan not only provide tea service, but also provide delicious food for customers. It can be said that the development of commercialization has made it slowly return to the stage from behind the scenes.
2. Teahouse, as a place for people to consume, not only has the functions of diet and entertainment, but also has the functions of communication and information circulation. The appearance of these functions is closely related to the development of business and people's spiritual needs of keeping pace with the times. Some people confuse teahouses with ancient "hotels", and the catering and entertainment functions of teahouses are different from those of ancient hotels, which cannot be generalized. A hotel is a place for temporary accommodation, providing basic daily necessities for daily life; Teahouses Teahouses are very different. Although tea and tea food are provided, they are far from meeting the needs of daily life and have strong leisure and entertainment functions.
It has been recorded in the literature that "strange teas and different soups are sold in four seasons, Qibao tea, Aozi tea and green tea are sold in winter and summer, or Mei Huajiu with snow blisters is sold, or the spleen is shrunk and summer medicine is drunk". Look, it sells mostly drinks and snacks, and it's enough to eat. In other words, the teahouse has deeply expanded the entertainment function of the hotel.
Secondly, the division of teahouses has become more and more clear, indicating that they have class attributes, and different types of teahouses provide refined services for people of different classes. For example, the book teahouse and Qing teahouse in Qing Dynasty were actually open to celebrities. The consumption of ordinary teahouses in Ming Dynasty was not high, and the customers were the masses, which had the characteristics of popularization.
Secondly, the price of tea in ordinary teahouses is low, and it is necessary to rely on the flow of people to make a profit. In order to attract customers, it must meet the diverse needs of customers. As a result, teahouses that combine food and tea and teahouses that provide "special" entertainment items came into being. In ancient times, there was a teahouse selling sheep's head dog meat. It hangs the brand of teahouse, and actually deals in the flesh business.
Not only that, the teahouse also undertakes the function of communication. When people need to socialize, it acts as a place for communication. After dinner, people gather in teahouses to talk with friends or talk about lengthening and shortening, or watch folk rappers perform. It's easier to make friends in this relaxed atmosphere.