Regarding tea, we firstly think of the seven things after opening the door in the morning, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea.Tea has been the daily necessary. Till today in some minority areas people can not live without tea for a single day. And the Emperor Qian Long said that the king needed tea everyday just like the whole country needing the king every day. Liang ShiQiu wrote in his Ya She Huai Jiu that the ones who do not drink tea are not Chinese. Yang Hua, who lived even early in Tang Dynasty, said that he could live without food for a few days, but could not endure without tea for one single day
Tea, as an ancient economic crop, has an history over couples of thousands of years from being once used as pharmacy, then food, till now the best favorite drinking. Chinese nationalities left a splendid page in the history of human civilization during the long age regarding tea’s breeding, processing, drinking, further processing and tea culture.
And all the tea trees , planting methods, processing, brewing ways, tea ceremony, tea custom, tea art, tea moral abroad were transmitted abroad from China directly or indirectly.
Tea, coffee and coco are the most popular consumed beverages, while only tea means more than material character itself, or being a kind of drinking. Just like lyre-playing, chess, calligraphy and painting, tea has been the spiritual food, a cultivation symbol, a personality power, a moral realm.
Tea was started to drink because of Shen Nong, and well-known because of Lu Zhou Gong. It’s been thousands of years that tea drinkers get themselves intoxicated . People write and praise tea in different languages, creating wonderful and colorful Chinese tea culture.
Tea culture includes tea itself, fine tea wares, exquisite tea house, spiritual tea poems, tea books, tea paintings and different kinds of tea customs in daily life. It also contains the people who drink tea and the series of material or spiritual works that those tea people achieve.
Tea culture is special phenomenon among abundant of tea culture, was one of the most important culture in the development of Chinese ancient cultures. Especially lots of ancient scholar-bureaucrat have denoted to tea and tea culture, which influenced Chinese tea culture’s characters greatly. Meanwhile tea culture itself impacted those ancient literati consciously, shaping their personalities, which is very unique and the only one comparing to other countries’ ancient cultures.
The guests stayed for cups of the spring tea, we felt that we were almost supernatural being after drinking it.
China is an ancient civilized country, state of courtesy. It is necessary to brew cups of tea for guests as soon as they arrive. Proposing a toast by tea is Chinese traditional habit. We all show our courtesy by offering tea no matter you are rich or poor, noble lords or normal citizens.
Chinese long tea history created tea science for human being, also brought abundant of tea literature for the whole world. There are not only tea monographs among those tea documents,but also historical records, local records and other ancient books mentioned and praised tea things, tea ceremonies and processing.
There were lots of tea documents before Tang Dynasty, and much more tea monographs since Tea Classic wrote by Lu Yu. Till modern China, there are over 200 kinds of such famous books. Meanwhile the literati left countless works about tea’s stories and praising tea. There are still more than two thousands of poems maintained among folks which we can find, such vivid and beautiful.
Tea is used everywhere in daily life, like wedding, sacrifice, Buddhism, Chinese opera, calligraphy, novel, etc. As the Chinese essence, tea and tea custom has been to every corner with over 160 countries and areas in the whole world.
Sitting alone in the little stone house at mountain, sharing cups of tea with best friend.
Brew one pot of simple tea, let us experience such attractive tea culture together.