The tradition of tea drinking in China can be traced back to more than 3,000 years BC.

Yixing, Jiangsu Province, was called "Yixing" and "Yang Xian" in ancient times. In the Tang Dynasty, Yangxian tea had a good reputation, and it was the tribute tea for the emperor. The poet Lu Tong recited: "Asked the New Year into the mountains, stinging insects startled spring wind. The Son of Heaven has not tasted Yang Envy tea, all kinds of grass do not dare to blossom first." Visible fame. The custom of drinking tea in our country has a long history, to the Tang Dynasty era Lu Yu wrote the "Tea Classic" and complete its affairs.

But the way of drinking tea has changed with the times.

Historically, there have been three major evolutions in the way tea is drunk in China.

The first stage was the transition from the decoction drinking method to the boiling tea method.

Cooking tea directly into a tea kettle was a common method before the Tang Dynasty.

When tea was first discovered, human ancestors were still living in primitive tribes, when productivity was low and eating was a big problem. When they found that the tea leaves were not poisonous and tasted OK, they foraged for food as vegetable leaves, and had no intention of carefully savoring the color and flavor of tea. In the continuous consumption, they found that tea can not only dispel heat and quench thirst, and can invigorate the spirit, and also have curative effects on some diseases, so the tea from the grain separated from the decoction to use as medicine.

From the pre-Qin Dynasty to the two Han Dynasty, tea became a beverage from medicine. At that time, when people drank tea, it could be boiled into soup to drink, and the tea could be added to corn and some flavorings to make porridge-like food.

This method still existed in the Tang Dynasty, but was opposed by Lu Yu. Since then, the Tang people began to drink tea to promote the original flavor of the tea soup, laid the foundation for the rise of the tea ceremony.

Some ethnic minorities in China accepted the Han Chinese habit of drinking tea during the Tang Dynasty, and have preserved and inherited this method to this day.

The second stage of the transition from the method of boiling tea to the method of ordering tea.

The style of tea-fighting began in the Tang Dynasty and reached its peak in the Song Dynasty. The tea-dotting method developed from the tea-fighting of the Song Dynasty and was later widely accepted.

This method does not use the tea kettle to cook directly, but puts the tea powder into the tealight, and points it with boiling water. If the tea and water blend into one, must use an important tool "tea brush". For tea, the tea brush is used to hit the tea broth, which makes the water thicker and thicker. This is where the Japanese Matcha Ceremony originated. Drinking the end of the tea is still in the soup, known as the "bite of the marigold".

The third step in the transition from tea-pointing to brewing.

The tea-dotting method, which was very popular in the Song Dynasty at court and among the scholarly class, gradually disappeared after the Song Dynasty with the emergence of the tea-brewing method.

The method of making tea began in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The Tang Dynasty had the method of steaming green tea, that is, after picking the tea, steaming and roasting, and not mashed, drinking directly brewed.

But because of the Tang and Song Dynasty to drink tea, this method is not popularized.

To the Ming Dynasty, tea production and tea drinking method has been simplified again and again, the group tea was replaced by loose tea, tea brewing method based on the method began to prevail, and has been used until now.

The tea does not add any flavorings, drink is the original flavor of tea, true taste.

Tea has experienced from medicinal to edible to drinking, and has experienced from boiling tea to point tea to bubble tea, the development of the evolution of successive dynasties.

After thousands of years, tea has permeated all levels of Chinese life, for the Chinese, tea is not only a beverage, but more of a spiritual support.

This article was shared by Dongjia Artisan: Six Paths Zisha