Tea is the first of the three major beverages in the world, and green tea is the most in terms of nutrients and other aspects. Tea is the general name of tea tree or the processed products of tea tree shoots and leaves. Tea is a perennial evergreen woody plant belonging to Theaceae. China was the first country to discover and utilize tea. Tea has many ancient names. In ancient times, such as tea, tea, bitter tea, tea, etc., some refer to tea trees, and some refer to different finished teas. By the end of the Kaiyuan period in the Tang Dynasty (8th century AD), the word "tea" was gradually simplified into the word "tea", which unified the name of tea. The pronunciation of the word "tea" in the world is mostly changed from the phonology of "tea", "tea", "cha" and "tea".
Since ancient times, there has been a legend in China that "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs, and when he encountered 72 poisons every day, he got rid of it with tea". Although there is nothing to test, it can be said that it is too early to know how to use tea. In the Tang Dynasty, Lu Yu wrote the world's first monograph on tea, The Classic of Tea, saying, "The tea maker is a jiamu in the south, one foot, two feet or even dozens of feet, and there are two people embracing him in Bashan and Xiachuan", which not only describes the shape of tea trees, but also points out that tea is produced in the south of China.
He also said: "Tea is a drink, which originated in Shennong's family and was heard in Duke Zhou of Lu ... It was immersed in customs and flourished in the Zhou Dynasty." Tea, as a medicine, was first recorded in Shen Nong's Classic of Materia Medica: Shen Nong tasted a hundred herbs and suffered seventy-two poisons every day, so he got rid of it with tea. Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica records: "Tea is bitter and cold, which can best reduce fire, and also relieve the poison of wine and food, making people feel refreshed and not sleepy." "Tea for Health" records: "Tea is also an elixir for health, and a wonderful technique for prolonging life.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty's "Tongjun Record": "There are melons and reeds in the south, which are also like tea. They are bitter and bitter. They can be taken as crumb tea, or they can stay up all night, but people who cook salt can drink it." Tea was used as a drink by the upper class since Zhou Wuwang replaced wine with tea. In Feng's Wen Jian Ji: "There is a monk in Mount Tai in Kaiyuan who promotes Zen, and everyone cooks tea to drive away sleep, which makes everyone follow suit and become a custom one by one." Tea had become a commodity in the Han Dynasty. The earliest tea market in China was recorded in Wang Bao's "Yueyue" in the Han Dynasty: "brew tea has everything" and "Wuyang buys tea". By the time of the Tang and Song Dynasties, drinking tea had spread to the common people. In Song Dynasty, Wang Anshi said: The use of tea is equal to rice and salt, and it cannot be without a day.
According to a large number of physical evidence and cultural and historical data found, the habit of drinking tea in other parts of the world was passed down from China. Therefore, people generally agree that drinking tea was initiated by China people, and the habits of drinking tea and growing tea in other parts of the world were directly or indirectly passed down from China. In Europe, the ridiculous Englishman said that the habit of drinking tea was not invented by China, but by India. 1823, a major of a British invading army discovered the so-called wild tea tree in India, and some people began to think that the birthplace of tea was in India.
However, it was pointed out that these tea trees were actually planted by the British in China, and in the thousands of years of tea history, no wild tea trees were ever found in India, and no one made tea locally. How coincidentally, wild tea trees came as soon as the British invaded Southeast Asia. Moreover, they all made a basic logical mistake. Other plants, including tea plants, have always existed, even longer than human history. It cannot be said that where there are tea trees, there is the birthplace of tea making and drinking.
The earliest records of human tea making and drinking are all in China, and the earliest tea products are also in China. According to reliable archaeological findings, China is the real birthplace of tea drinking. Of course, there are wild tea trees in China, and they are even older. Ancient tea trees dating back 6,000 years were unearthed at the Tianluo Mountain site in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province. According to the British logic, the identity of Zhejiang as the birthplace is more credible. The wild tea trees in China are concentrated in Yunnan and other places, including some areas in Gansu and Hunan. Tea tree is a very old dicotyledonous plant, which is closely related to people's lives.
Tea spread to the whole country from Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan plateaus in China. In ancient times, there was a saying that "tea in Sichuan is the most sacred, and it is the first in Mengding". After the Qin Dynasty unified China, tea spread down the Yangtze River to half of China. Now there are 17 provinces and more than 900 counties producing tea in China. China's coastal areas spread to 50 countries and regions around the world. As a commodity, tea was imported to Europe in 16 10, and first to the Netherlands and Portugal, and then to Britain in 1638. 1664 input to Russia. /kloc-imported into America in the 0/7th century, and/kloc-imported into new york in 0/674.
William Ux of the United States wrote "The Complete Book of Tea": "The habit of drinking tea instead of wine is equally valued by both the East and the West, and it was only after centuries that Europeans began to learn to drink tea." As the introduction of tea, it spread all over the world, of course, after the Tang and Song Dynasties. It was introduced to Japan in 729 AD and spread to Korea in 828 AD. 16 18 to Russia, 1780 to India, 1828 to Indonesia, 1834 to Sri Lanka. 19 14 Malaysia, as a commodity, of course, spread to these countries much earlier.