Is tea culture part of traditional Chinese culture?

Tea culture belongs to traditional Chinese culture. China is the hometown of tea. The drinking of tea by Chinese people is said to have started in the Shennong era, which is said to be more than 4,700 years ago. Until now, Chinese compatriots still have the custom of drinking tea as a substitute for gifts.

According to many records, most books date the discovery of tea from 2737 to 2697 BC, and its history can be traced back to the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Hua Tuo recorded in the "Shi Jing" that the medical value of tea was explained. Today's "Chaling" in Hunan was named in commemoration of the place where tea was discovered during the Western Han Dynasty. In the "Guang Ya" of the Wei Dynasty of the Three Kingdoms, the making and drinking method of cake tea were first recorded. Tea began to appear in material form and penetrated into other humanities, thus influencing the enlightenment of tea culture.

In the Tang Dynasty, national power was strong and people's minds were unprecedentedly open, which provided a good background for the formation of tea culture. The Tang Dynasty had a vast territory and focused on foreign exchanges. Chang'an was the political and cultural center at that time. It was in this climate that Chinese tea culture was formed.

The symbol of the formation of tea culture in the Tang Dynasty is the "Tea Classic" compiled with great effort by Lu Yu, who is now known as the "Sage of Tea". It is a comprehensive treatise that summarizes the history, origin, current situation, production technology, tea art, and tea ceremony principles of tea production in the Tang Dynasty and before the Tang Dynasty. It not only describes the natural science of tea in great detail, but also focuses on tea culture. ?

In the Song Dynasty, tea culture had reached a stage of prosperity due to the establishment of professional tea tasting societies. Tea seemed to have become an aristocratic ritual in the Song Dynasty. However, tea in the Song Dynasty lost its original cultural level in the Tang Dynasty due to its connection with officialdom. However, the popularity of tea drinking in the Song Dynasty gave tea culture a wider social dimension.

By the Ming and Qing dynasties, tea culture had spread to people in various industries.

Extended information:

The customs of tea growing, tea making and tea drinking that are widely spread in the world today are all spread from my country. It is speculated that Chinese tea has spread abroad for more than 2,000 years.

Around the fifth century AD during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, my country’s tea began to be exported to neighboring countries in Southeast Asia and other parts of Asia. In 805 and 806 AD, Zen masters Saicho and Kaiku from Japan came to my country to study. When they returned home, they brought back tea seeds to try planting. Zen master Eisai of the Song Dynasty introduced the cultivation of tea seeds from my country. The Japanese tea industry inherits the principle of steaming green tea in ancient my country to produce green tea with a unique flavor.

In the tenth century, when Mongolian caravans came to China to engage in trade, they brought Chinese brick tea from China to Central Asia via Siberia. At the beginning of the 15th century, Portuguese merchant ships came to China for trade, and tea trade with the West began. The Dutch brought tea to Western Europe around 1610 AD, and after 1650 it spread to Eastern Europe, and then to Russia, France and other countries.

Indonesia began to introduce tea seeds to my country for trial planting in 1684, and later introduced tea seeds from China, Japan and Assam for trial planting. After many ups and downs, it was not until the latter part of the 19th century that it began to achieve significant results.

In 1780, the British East India Company introduced tea seeds to my country and planted them in Hard India. Later, drinking black tea became popular in Britain in the early 18th century, and even became an act of elegance. Tea became a symbol of the British upper class. A high-end gift used by people in society to give each other. In 1880, my country exported 1.45 million tons of tea to Britain, accounting for 60 to 70 percent of China's tea exports.

In 1833, tea seeds were introduced from my country to Russia for trial planting. In 1848, tea seeds were imported from my country and planted on the Black Sea Coast. In 1893, Chinese tea master Liu Junzhou was hired and led a group of skilled workers to Georgia to teach tea growing and tea making techniques. ?

Baidu Encyclopedia - Tea Culture