Chinese Tea Culture

For every Chinese, Chinese tea culture plays an essential part of Chinese culture. When we are talking about Chinese culture it would be incomplete without including tea. If drinking tea is sipping as a drink to quench thirst, tasting tea is a totally different thing to do.

History of Chinese Tea

China is the hometown of tea and the first country in the world to discover, cultivate, and use tea. The origin of tea trees can be traced back at least 60,000 to 70,000 years ago, and the history of humans discovering and using tea is approximately 4,000 to 5,000 years ago. It is said that legendary Emperor Shennong first discovered the medicinal value of tea when tasting various herbs. And so, according to legend, tea was created in 2737 BC.

Few people know that before tea was known as a famous drink in the world, it was a Chinese medicine. From the time it was discovered until the Tang Dynasty, tea was still regarded as a remedy, growing wild in the mountains and forests instead of being planted and processed. From Zhou Dynasty to Han Dynasty, the literati class began to be fond of tea drinking, and tea-related poems, songs, and fu gradually emerged, making tea enter the cultural circle and showing certain spiritual and social functions. Tea was not popular among ordinary people.  

In 780 AD, the famous Tang Poet Lu Yu's "The Classic of Tea" was published, marking the formation of tea culture in the Tang Dynasty. Lu Yu summarized the experience of tea production and drinking in the Tang Dynasty and before, and put forward the tea ceremony spirit of "precision, practice, and frugality."

Nowadays, China's tea production has increased rapidly, providing a solid material foundation for the development of tea culture. Tea has become the second most consumed beverage in the world after water. The amount of tea consumed each year is equal to the total consumption of coffee, soft drinks and alcohol combined. Moreover, tea has gradually entered the cultures of other countries: Japanese tea culture, Malabar Tea Culture in India and British afternoon tea culture. Tea is not only a drink, a medicine, but also an art that is considered as one of the “national spirit” of the Chinese.