The history and culture of tea?

China is the hometown of tea and the birthplace of tea culture. The discovery and utilization of tea in China has a history of four or five thousand years, and has flourished and spread around the world. Tea is the Chinese nation's national drink, hair in Shennong, heard in Lu Zhougong, the rise of the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, popularized in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Chinese tea culture is a combination of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and other schools of thought, a unique one, is a Chinese culture in a strange flower! China's tea area is vast, the tea area is divided into three levels, namely, the first level of tea area (to the southwest, south of the Yangtze River as a table), the second level of tea area (to the northwest, north of the Yangtze River), the third level of tea area (represented by the South China region). At the same time, tea has become the most popular, most popular, most beneficial to the physical and mental health of the world's most popular green beverage. Tea integrates heaven and earth in one, advocating "the world of tea is a family".

The connotation of tea culture is in fact a specific expression of the connotation of Chinese culture and Chinese culture. China has always been called the state of etiquette, the spiritual connotation of tea culture is through the tea, tea, tea, tea, tea, tea and other habits and Chinese cultural connotations and etiquette combined to form a distinctive Chinese cultural characteristics of a cultural phenomenon, can also be said to be a phenomenon of etiquette. In ancient China, etiquette was used for determining affinity, deciding suspicion, distinguishing similarities and differences, and clarifying right and wrong. In the long-term historical development, rituals, as the moral norms and living standards of Chinese society, have played an important role in the cultivation of the spiritual qualities of the Han people; at the same time, with the changes and development of society, rituals have been continuously given new content, and some of the habits and forms of Chinese life have been integrated to form various types of cultural phenomena with Chinese characteristics. Tea culture is a representative traditional culture of China. China is not only one of the origin of tea, but also, in different ethnic groups, different regions of China, there are still rich and diverse habits and customs of tea drinking.

Second, tea culture and literati:

Tea planting, tea drinking is not the same as a tea culture, tea culture is only a prerequisite for the formation of tea culture, there must be literati participation and cultural connotations. The Tang dynasty Lu Yu written "tea scripture" system summarizes the Tang dynasty as well as the Tang dynasty before the tea production, drinking experience, put forward the spirit of the tea ceremony of the fine line of thrift and virtue. Lu Yu and Kyauk Ran and a group of cultural people attach great importance to the spiritual enjoyment of tea and moral norms, tea drinking utensils, tea drinking water and the art of tea, and with Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism philosophical thinking, and gradually make people enter their spiritual realm. In the process of tea drinking of some scholars and literati, but also created a lot of tea poems, only in the "poetry of the whole Tang Dynasty", there are more than a hundred poets have been handed down to date more than four hundred, thus laying the foundation of the tea culture of the Han Chinese people.

Three, what is tea.

Tea for a plant, edible, detoxification, long product easy health, longevity, tea Shun for the best, can also be used for medicinal purposes, so there is a tea is the essence of heaven and earth, Shun is the fundamental life. Therefore, the Taoist family has tea for tea.

The Han Chinese drink tea, focusing on a "character" word. Where guests, tea, tea ceremony is essential. When a guest visits, you can seek advice, choose the most suitable for the guest's tastes and the best tea to treat guests. Tea to honor the guests, the appropriate mix of tea is also necessary. Masters in the company of guests drinking tea, pay attention to the guests cups, pots of tea residual amount of tea, tea cups in general, such as has been drinking half of the tea, we must add water, drink with the addition, so that the concentration of tea is basically to maintain the same before and after the water temperature is appropriate. When drinking tea can also be appropriate with tea food, candy, dishes, etc., to regulate the taste and the effect of snacks.

Tea culture in the life of the Han people, very important. King Wu of Zhou, tea has been used as tribute. Late primitive commune, tea became goods exchange items. Warring States, tea has a certain scale. The pre-Qin "Poetry" general collection has tea records. Another example is in the Han Dynasty, tea has become a Buddhist "sitting meditation" special tonic. Wei Jin and North and South Dynasties, there has been the wind of drinking tea. Sui Dynasty, universal tea drinking. Tang Dynasty, the tea industry flourished, tea has become "people can not be one day without", the emergence of teahouse, tea feasts, tea, advocating guests to tea. Song Dynasty, the popularity of tea, tribute tea and tea and so on.

When China began to drink tea, everyone said different, no one can agree. Only generally can be said to start in Han, and prevalent in Tang. Drinking tea before the Tang, Lu Yu, "Tea" under the volume of "six tea drink" as a generalization of the words, said: "Tea for drinking, from Shennong's, known as Lu Zhougong, Qi Yan Ying, Han Yang Xiong, Sima Xiangru, Wu Wei Yao, Jin Liu Kun, Zhang Zai, far from Zunna, Xie An, Zuo Si's disciples, all drink." But more non-historical facts. Even if it is a historical fact, non-representation, is not easy to understand. Tea Classic" cloud: Shennong "food scripture" "tea and tea served for a long time, powerful and pleasant" (Liu Yuanchang "tea history" Volume I). Lu Yu "Tea" that tea drinking from Shennong's, but the "food scripture" for the pseudo-books, as we all know, not enough to go on. Er Ya" has "bitter" sentence, the world to "Er Ya" for the Zhou Gong works, the fallacy that drinking tea from the Zhou Gong, I do not know "Er Ya" is not made in the Zhou Gong. Insufficient evidence for the beginning of tea drinking.

The roots unearthed at the site of Tianluoshan, Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, by preliminary judgment is a tea plant, China's earliest history of tea may be rewritten; the pronunciation of the word "tea" originated from the Banan people, Bayu is the birthplace of tea culture.

Four. Tea drinking customs origin.

The custom of drinking tea in many parts of the world was passed on from China. Therefore, many people believe that tea drinking is the first creation of the Chinese, and that the tea-drinking and tea-growing habits in other parts of the world are directly or indirectly passed on from China.

(1) Shennong period: Tang Lu Yu "Tea Scripture": "Tea for drinking, from Shennong's." In the history of China's cultural development, it is often the origin of all things related to agriculture and plants are ultimately attributed to Shennong. After it is attributed here it can never be pushed upward. Because of this, Shennong became the god of agriculture.

(2) Western Zhou Dynasty: Jin Chang Qu's Huayang Guo Zhi - Ba Zhi: "King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty conquered the Zhou Dynasty and actually gained the division of Ba Shu, and the tea and honey were all paid tribute to him." This record indicates that when King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty conquered the Zhou Dynasty, the state of Ba had already paid tribute to King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty with tea and other precious products. It is also recorded in the Huayang Guozhi that tea plantations were already cultivated at that time.

(3) Qin and Han Dynasties: Western Han Dynasty. Wang Berg "boy about": "cooking tea all set", "Wuyang buy tea", after the examination of the tea is now tea. In the tomb of Western Han Dynasty in Changsha's Mawangdui, it was found that there were "? Yishu" and "? Yisu" bamboo and woodcut, after checking the "?" which is a variant of "Catalpa", indicating that tea was widely consumed in Hunan at that time. We are still drinking the same beverage as our very ancient ancestors such as Jiang Taigong, which is indeed a very exciting thing. It can give us a lot of reverie.

(4) Song and Yuan dynasties: the tea area continued to expand, tea, tea, tea, tea skills advanced. Song Dynasty tea culture developed, there are a number of tea writings, such as Cai Xiang "Tea Record", Song Zian "Dongxi test tea record", Huang Ru "tea tasting to record", especially the Song Huizong Zhao Ji authored "Daguan Tea Theory" and so on. At the time of Song and Yuan, Liu Songnian's "Lu Tong Cooking Tea" and Zhao Mengfu's "Fighting Tea" are the art treasures of Han tea culture. [3]

From the evolution of the word "tea" to see the history of tea.

In ancient history, the name of tea, but "tea" is the proper name, "tea" in the middle of the Tang Dynasty before the general writing of the word "tea". The character "tian" has the nature of a word with multiple meanings, indicating tea, is one of them. Due to the development of tea production, the popularity of tea drinking is getting higher and higher, the frequency of tea writing is also getting higher and higher, therefore, the folk writers, in order to express the meaning of tea more clearly, intuitively, so, it is the "tian" character minus a row, into what we see "tea

"Tea" from the "tea" in the germ of simplification, began in the Han Dynasty, the ancient Han seal, some of the "tea" character has been subtracted from a stroke, become The shape of the word "tea" has been reduced by one stroke in some ancient Han seals. Not only the shape of the word, "tea" pronunciation in the Western Han Dynasty has been established. Such as Chaling in Hunan Province, the Western Han Dynasty was once Liu Xin's territory, commonly known as "Tuan" Wangcheng, is one of the then Changsha country's 13 subordinate counties, known as "Tuan" Lingsheng County. In the Book of Han - Geography, "Tuan" Ling's "Tuan", Yan Shigu note as: sound Yixuexuanfeng, and sound Zhongjiafeng. This is the pronunciation of the word "tea" now. From this phenomenon, "tea" pronunciation of the establishment of the word, earlier than the establishment of the "tea" character form.

China's vast territory, a large number of nationalities, and therefore in the language and writing is also colorful, the same thing has a variety of names, the same name and a variety of ways to write.

In ancient history, the name of the tea is a lot of, to the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the sound of tea, shape, meaning has tended to unify, and later, Lu Yu, "Tea Scripture" of the widely circulated, "tea" glyphs have been further established, until today.

Sixth, the spread of tea overseas.

In ancient Chinese literature, there are very early records of tea, and with different origins and different names. China's tea as early as the Western Han Dynasty has been spread abroad, the Han Emperor Wu Di had sent an envoy to the Indochina Peninsula, the items brought in addition to gold, brocade and silk, there is also tea. North and south dynasty qi wudi yongming years, Chinese tea with the export of silk, porcelain to Turkey. Tang Shunzong Yongzhen yuan year, Japan's most Cheng Zen master returned to China, China's tea seeds back to Japan. After that, tea from China continued to spread to all over the world, so that many countries began to grow tea, and have the habit of drinking tea.

But some people have been able to find evidence that tea was not only invented by the Chinese, but also in other parts of the world, such as India and Africa.

In 1823, a major in a British invasion force found large wild tea trees in India, and some people began to think that tea originated in India, or at least in India. China, of course, there are also records of wild large tea trees, are concentrated in the southwest, the record also contains individual areas of Gansu, Hunan. The tea tree is a very old dicotyledonous plant, closely related to people's lives.