History of Chinese Tea
It is believed that tea was
discovered in 2737 b.c. by Shen Nong, a Chinese Emperor. There are two different
stories of how tea was discovered. According to Chinese literature, Shen Nong
was the founding father of today's Chinese herbal medicine and agriculture. Shen
Nong was a scientist who invented and designed the way that Chinese's
agriculture work for the past few thousand years. In many ways, Shen Nong was
the person who started Chinese's civilization. The two stories about how tea was
discovered are as follows,
1. Shen Nong suffered food poisoning after conducted
experiments by tasting wild herbal medicine. His throat was dried and had severe
stomach pain. While trying to recover from food poisoning, he found some leaves
falling from trees. He picked some up and put in his mouth hoping that the pain
would be disappeared. Not only did he find that the pain was disappeared, he
also find the leaves to have special flavor that could hardly be described. The
tea was not only a medicine, it was also a very good vegetable.
2. On one summer day, while visiting a distant region of
Shen Nong's realm, Shen Nong stopped to rest. The servants began to boil water
for Shen Nong to drink. Dried leaves fell into boiling water, and a brown liquid
was infused into the water. Shen Nong drank the liquid and found it refreshing
and tea was discovered.
Tea was always as one of the
Chinese medicine until around 3rd or 4th centuries that tea became a beverage.
Tea originally was for "rich and powerful" people only because it was rare and
hard to get. Around 3rd centuries and 7th centuries, tea became more and more
popular and affordable in China. After 7th centuries, tea finally took over
wine's place and became the most popular beverage among Chinese.
|
