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Brief history of tea
for tea lovers
history

Tea likely originated in the Yunnan region during the Shang dynasty
The Shang dynasty (Chinese: 商朝; pinyin: Shāngcháo), also historically known as the Yin dynasty (殷代; Yīndài),
was a Chinese dynasty that ruled in the Lower Yellow River Valley in the second millennium BC,

Life was tough 5,000 years ago, people suffered from hunger and numerous diseases.
Shennong felt for them deeply. As he was determined to find safe food and remedies for his people,
he started to hike among the mountains and tasted hundreds of herbs to test their medical value.

In one popular Chinese legend, Shennong, the legendary Emperor of China and inventor of agriculture and
Chinese medicine was drinking a bowl of just boiled water due to a decree that his subjects must boil water before drinking it.
Some time around 2737 BC, a few leaves were blown, from a nearby tree, into his water,
changing the color and taste.

The leaves swam around in Shennong’s body as soon as he put them in his mouth. They swiftly checked the infected areas and performed wonders.
Shennong was saved by their healing power, he pleasantly surprised and decided to name this plant “cha” (Chinese: 查) meaning “examine” or “check”.

The emperor took a sip of the brew and was pleasantly surprised by its flavor and restorative properties.
A variant of the legend tells that the emperor tested the medical properties of various herbs on himself,
some of them poisonous, and found tea to work as an antidote.

Shennong is also mentioned in Lu Yu's famous early work on the subject, The Classic of Tea.
A similar Chinese legend goes that the god of agriculture would chew the leaves, stems, and roots of various plants to discover medicinal herbs. If he consumed a poisonous plant,
he would chew tea leaves to counteract the poison.

Lu Yu (simplified Chinese: 陆羽; traditional Chinese: 陸羽; pinyin: Lù Yǔ; 733–804) was a Chinese tea master and writer.
He is respected as the Sage of Tea for his contribution to Chinese tea culture.
He is best known for his monumental book The Classic of Tea, the first definitive work on cultivating, making and drinking tea.

Lu Yu penned the first-ever exhaustive study on tea.
His work has been a reliable source for scholarly studies for generations after him.
Lu Yu has truly been the patron saint of tea

Whenever time permitted between his studies Lu Yu often went to the countryside to gather tea leaves and herbs.
In one of those trips Lu Yu stumbled upon a spring underneath a 6-foot round rock and the water from the spring was extremely clear and clean.
When Lu Yu brewed tea with this spring water, he found the tea tasted unexpectedly better than usual. From then on, Lu Yu realised the importance of quality water in brewing tea.


“For six years Lu Yu stayed in Houmen mountain studying under the guidance of master Zou Fuzi. During this period Lu Yu often brewed tea for his teacher.
He also took care of fellow students’ health with his remarkable knowledge in tea and herbs that he learned while at the Longgai Monastery,”

Lu Yu’s quest for tea intensified after 725 and after extensive research spanning the length and breadth of the land to measure the impact of soil,
water and leaf that he started at the age of 21, he was finally ready with the Cha Jing in another 21 years. Lu Yu passed away in 804.

For Lu Yu, tea symbolized the harmony and mysterious unity of the universe.
"He invested the Ch'a Ching with the concept that dominated the religious thought of his age, whether Buddhist,
Taoist, or Confucian: to see in the particular an expression of the universal".