Study on Tea Culture in China

China tea culture has a long history, and Bashu is often called the cradle of tea industry and tea culture in China. According to the historical data of tea before the Six Dynasties, the tea industry in China originated from Bashu. The formation of tea culture is closely related to the early politics, customs and tea drinking in Bashu area.

(1) Tea culture enlightenment before the Three Kingdoms.

Many books set the discovery time of tea at 2737-2697 BC, and its history can be extended to the Three Emperors and Five Emperors. Hua Tuo recorded the medicinal value of tea in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Bitter tea is good for a long time". In the Western Han Dynasty, the tea-producing county was called "Chaling", that is, Chaling in Hunan. In the Wei Dynasty of the Three Kingdoms, Guangya first recorded the making method and drinking method of cake tea: picking leaves between Jing and Ba to make cakes, and the old man made cakes out of leaves and made them with rice paste. Tea appears in the form of substance and permeates other cultures to form tea culture.

② The germination of tea culture in the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties.

With the rise of literati drinking tea, poems and songs about tea are coming out. As a general form, tea has left the diet and entered the cultural circle, playing a certain role. ⑭⑸󣪡? Br>③ The Formation of Tea Culture in Tang Dynasty

"Since Lu Yu was born in the world, the world has learned new things." In the middle Tang Dynasty, the appearance of Lu Yu's Tea Classic made tea culture develop to an unprecedented height, which marked the formation of tea culture in Tang Dynasty. The Book of Tea summarizes the natural and humanistic contents of tea, discusses the art of tea drinking, and integrates Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism into tea drinking, thus creating the spirit of China tea ceremony. Later, a large number of tea books and poems appeared, including Tea Narration, brew tea, Tea Picking and Sixteen Soups. The formation of tea culture in Tang Dynasty was related to the rise of Zen Buddhism. Because tea has the function of refreshing the brain, promoting fluid production and quenching thirst, temples advocate drinking tea, planting tea trees around the temples, making tea ceremonies, setting up tea halls, selecting tea heads and holding tea events specially. China tea ceremony was formed in the Tang Dynasty, which is divided into court tea ceremony, temple tea ceremony and literati tea ceremony. The Book of Tea is a milestone. Over the past hundred years, tea people in all dynasties have tried and explored all aspects of tea culture countless times. It was not until the birth of Tea Classic that tea parties became popular, so it was of epoch-making significance.

④ The prosperity of tea culture in Song Dynasty.

The great development of tea industry in Song Dynasty promoted the development of tea culture. Among the literati, professional tea tasting societies have emerged, including the Tang Society composed of officials and the Thousand People Society composed of Buddhists. Zhao Kuangyin of Song Taizu is a tea drinker. He set up a tea hall in the imperial court, and the tea used in the imperial court has been graded. Tea ceremony became a kind of ceremony, giving tea became an important means for the emperor to win over ministers and take care of relatives as soon as possible, and it was also given to foreign envoys. As for the lower classes, tea culture is more lively, and some people migrate. Neighborhood should respect tea and guests, respect "Yuanbao Tea", respect tea at the time of engagement, tea at the time of marriage, and tea in the same room. The rise of folk tea fighting has brought about a series of changes in cooking points.

⑤ Popularization of tea culture in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

At this time, various teas such as steamed green, fried green and baked green appeared, and drinking tea was also changed to "making tea". Many literati in Ming Dynasty left masterpieces handed down from generation to generation, such as Tang Bohu's Tea Making Scroll and Tea Tasting Map, Wen Zhiming's Huishan Tea Party, Lu Yu's Tea Cooking Map and Tea Tasting Map. With the increase of tea, the skills of making tea are also different, and the styles, textures and patterns of tea sets are also diverse. In the late Ming Dynasty, people made a new breakthrough in the realm of drinking, paying attention to the realm of "perfection"

In the eyes of those literati, the ultimate perfection of things is Tao, which exists in things. Bird put forward his own theory of "Tea Ceremony" for the first time in his book "Tea Classic": "Being good at making, being dry in hiding and being pure in soaking. Fine, dry and clean tea ceremony. " In his view, there is a "god with intrinsic meaning" in tea, that is, "meta-god", and the external one is called "meta-body". The two are interdependent and inseparable. Shen Yuan is the essence of tea, and Yuanti is the essence of color, fragrance and taste. As long as we are simple and natural, simple and realistic, modest and moderate, we can get the true meaning of tea. The tea ceremony in Bird pursues the beauty of tea soup and the truth of tea taste, and strives to enter the perfect realm of seeing the color, tasting the taste, smelling the fragrance, listening to the sound and rubbing the tea set.

Zhang Dafu went further on this basis. He said: "The world tastes tea without tasting its nature, loves mountains and rivers without feeling their feelings, learns without thinking, and learns Buddhism without breaking its Sect." What he wants to tell us is that tea tasting should not be limited to the appearance and taste of water, but should go deep into the essence, that is, to achieve a kind of spiritual pleasure, a pure and refined state of mind, so as to achieve a fairyland of detachment and noble feelings, and a realm of unity between heaven and earth. This can be said to be the development and transcendence of China's tea ceremony spirit by Ming people. By the Qing Dynasty, tea export had become a formal industry, and there were countless tea books, tea events and tea poems.

⑥ The development of modern tea culture

After the founding of New China, the annual output of tea in China increased from 7500T in 1949 to more than 600,000t in 1998. The substantial increase of tea material wealth has provided a solid foundation for the development of tea culture in China. 1982 Hangzhou established the first social organization with the purpose of promoting tea culture, 1983 Hubei established Luyu Tea Culture Research Association, 1990 Beijing established China Tea People Association. 1998 China international peaceful tea culture exchange hall was built. With the rise of tea culture, there are more and more teahouses all over the country. The fifth International Symposium on Tea Culture has attracted Japanese, Korean, American, Sri Lankan, Hongkong and Taiwan Province. Various provinces, cities and tea-producing counties have held "tea festivals" in succession, such as the Rock Tea Festival in Wuyi City, Fujian Province, the Pu 'er Tea Festival in Yunnan Province, the tea festivals in Xinchang, Zhejiang Province, Taishun, Yingshan, Hubei Province and Xinyang, Henan Province, all of which take tea as the carrier to promote all-round economic and trade development.

2. The origin time of tea drinking.

(1) Shennong period: Tang Lu Yu's Tea Classic: "Tea is a drink, which originated from Shennong." In the history of cultural development in China, the origin of all things related to agriculture and plants always belongs to Shennong. After coming back here, you can't push it up any more. Because of this, Shennong became the god of agriculture.

(2) Western Zhou Dynasty: Jinchangqu's "Eight Records of Huayang Country": "Zhou Wuwang's attack on Zhou Dynasty was really a teacher of Bashu, and ... tea honey ... paid tribute." This record shows that when Zhou Wuwang attacked the week, Pakistanis had paid tribute to it with tea and other precious products. The Records of Huayang Country also recorded that there were artificially cultivated tea gardens at that time.

(3) Qin and Han Dynasties: Western Han Dynasty. Wang Bao's Tongyue: "Exhausting tea" and "Wuyang buying tea" are the teas after the exam. In recent years, in the tomb of the Western Han Dynasty in Mawangdui, Changsha, "? A "and"? " Textual research on bamboo slips woodcut "?" That is, the variant of "rhyme" shows that tea drinking in Hunan was quite extensive at that time. We still drink the same drinks as our very old ancestors, such as Jiang Taigong and others, which is really exciting. Can give us a lot of reverie.

3. The origin of drinking tea.

The exploration of this point often focuses on the study of the birthplace of tea trees. There are several sayings about the birthplace of tea trees:

1. Southwest: "Southwest China is the origin and birthplace of tea trees." This statement refers to a large range, so it is more accurate.

2. Sichuan: Yanwu's "Rizhilu" in the Qing Dynasty: "Since the Qin people took Shu, there has been tea drinking." The implication is that before Qin people came to Shu, drinking tea was known in Sichuan today. In fact, Sichuan is in the southwest, and Sichuan says it is established, so the southwest says it is established. Sichuan is more "accurate" than the southwest, but the risk of correctness will be greater.

3. Yunnan: It is believed that Xishuangbanna, Yunnan is the birthplace of tea trees, and this area is the kingdom of plants. It is entirely possible to own local tea varieties, but this view is at the risk of "humanism", because tea trees can be local and Chaze is the fruit of activating labor.

4. East Sichuan and West Hubei: Lu Yu's Tea Classic: "Bashan Xia Chuan embraced each other." Bashan Gorge and Sichuan are now East Sichuan and West Hubei. There is no evidence that anyone has used such excellent tea trees in this area as tea.

5. Jiangsu and Zhejiang: Recently, it was suggested that it started from the ancient Yue culture represented by Hemudu culture. At present, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are the most developed areas of tea industry in China. If history can take root here, it is a very meaningful topic. In fact, I think there must be more than one place where tea trees originated naturally in ancient times. Where there are tea trees, the custom of drinking tea may not necessarily develop. As mentioned earlier, tea was invented by Shennong, so where does it live? If we find the intersection of "tea tree native place" and "Shennong activity place", we may have the answer, at least narrowing the scope of the answer.

4. Invent the method of drinking tea

How did humans invent the habit of drinking tea? Or how did tea originate? The study of this problem has always been a "basic problem" of tea science. Because as any tea scholar or tea worker, it is not enough if you can't even explain "how tea came from". Now there are many answers to this question:

1. Sacrifice: This view holds that tea and other plants were originally used as sacrifices, and later some people found that food was harmless, so they were "eaten as sacrifices, but used as medicines" and eventually became drinks.

2. Medicine: According to this statement, tea "originally entered human society as medicine." "Shennong Hundred Herbs Classic" wrote: "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs, and when he encountered seventy-two poisons every day, he was relieved by tea."

3. Food: "In ancient times, people drank water like grass" and "people took food as the sky". Eating first conforms to the evolutionary law of human society.

4. Synchronization: "At first, tea was used as chewing food or baking food, and it was gradually used as medicine." The comparison and accumulation of these ways will eventually develop into "drinking tea", which is the best way.

The most useless of the above statements is the fourth, which adds up the first three and becomes your own "foolproof" explanation. Perhaps this explanation is the most appropriate.

Now, we can think that tea has been recognized and used for a long time in China, as well as the cultivation and harvest of tea trees. However, it can also be verified that tea is widely used in all walks of life, probably after Lu Yu's Tea Classic was handed down in the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, there is a poem in the Song Dynasty that "since Lu Yu was born, the world has learned from each other's strengths and made spring tea". In other words, after the invention of tea, it was not known to the public for more than 1000 years.

5. The origin of tea tree

China is the first country to discover and utilize tea trees, which is called the motherland of tea. Written records show that our ancestors began to cultivate and utilize tea trees more than 3000 years ago. However, like the origin of any species, the origin and existence of tea must have been discovered and used by people before they discovered and used tea trees, and it was a long time later. The experience of human beings in using tea has been passed down from generation to generation, gradually expanding from local areas, and it took a long time to be gradually recorded in writing.

The origin of tea trees has always been controversial. With the development of textual research technology and new discoveries, it is gradually recognized that China is the origin of tea trees, and southwest China, including Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, is the center of tea tree origin. Due to geological changes and artificial cultivation, tea trees began to spread all over the country and gradually spread to all parts of the world.

I. Country of origin and country of origin

When did the tea tree originate? It must have been written more than 3000 years ago. The problem that historians could not prove was finally solved by botanists. They traced back to the source according to the method of plant taxonomy. After a series of analysis and research, they think that the origin of tea trees has a history of 60 million to 70 million years.

Tea originated in China and has been recognized by the world since ancient times. 1824 years later, wild tea trees were discovered in India. Some foreign scholars objected that China was the origin of tea trees, which caused controversy in international academic circles. These dissidents are all based on Indian wild tea trees and think that there are no wild tea trees in China. In fact, the existence of Erya wild tea tree was mentioned in China around 200 AD, but today's data show that 18 wild tea trees have been found in 198 places in 65,438 provinces and autonomous regions of China, among which one tree in Yunnan is about 1700 years old, and the trunk diameter in Yunnan Province is more than one meter. In some areas, even wild tea tree communities are as high as thousands of acres. Therefore, the wild tea trees discovered in China are the earliest in the world, with large trees, large numbers, wide distribution and different characters. In addition, through textual research, both the wild tea plants found in India and the tea plants imported from China belong to the varieties of tea plants in China. It is concluded that China is the origin of tea trees. In recent decades, the combination of tea science and botanical research has made a more detailed and in-depth analysis and demonstration of the origin of tea trees from different angles such as tree species, geological changes and climate changes, which further proves that southwest China is the origin of tea trees. In short, the main argument has three aspects:

1. From the natural distribution of tea trees,

At present, there are more than 380 species of Theaceae plants in 23 genera, while there are more than 260 species of 15 genera in China, most of which are distributed in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. There are more than 100 species of camellia, and there are more than 60 species in Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, among which tea occupies the most important position. From the botanical point of view, the origin centers of many genera are concentrated in a certain area, which shows that this area is the origin center of this flora. The high concentration of Theaceae and Camellia plants in southwest China shows that southwest China is the origin center of Camellia plants and the birthplace of tea.

2. From the perspective of geological changes

There are many small landform areas and microclimate areas in the southwest of China, where the mountains are undulating, the valleys are criss-crossing, and the terrain is changeable. In the case of great difference between low latitude and altitude, the climate is so different that the tea trees originally grown here slowly separate in different climates of tropical, subtropical and temperate zones, which leads to intraspecific variation of tea trees and develops into tropical, subtropical big-leaf and middle-leaf tea trees, as well as middle-leaf and small-leaf tea trees in temperate zones. Botanists believe that the place where a species has the most variation is its origin center. The three southwestern provinces of China are the places with the most variation and abundant resources of tea trees in China, and are the centers of tea tree origin.

3. According to the evolutionary types of tea plants.

In the long history of its systematic development, tea trees always tend to evolve. Therefore, all areas where primitive tea trees are concentrated should be the origin of tea trees. The wild tea trees in the three southwestern provinces and their adjacent areas have the morphological and biochemical characteristics of primitive tea trees, which also proves that the southwest region is the center of the origin of tea trees.