The development of tea culture in China has gone through several periods.
Many books set the discovery time of tea at 2737-2697 BC, and its history can be extended to the Three Emperors and Five Emperors. The Western Han Dynasty named the tea-producing county "Chaling", that is, Chaling in Hunan.
2. Tea culture in Jin Dynasty
With the rise of literati drinking tea, poems and songs about tea are coming out. As a general form, tea has left the diet and entered the cultural circle, playing a certain spiritual and social role. During the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, the door system had been formed. Not only emperors and nobles gather together, but ordinary officials and even literati are proud of boasting and competing for wealth, which has multiple effects. In this case, some people of insight put forward the problem of "leading an honest and clean life".
As a result, Lu Na and Huan Wen replaced wine with tea. Shi Zuwu of Nanqi was an enlightened emperor. He doesn't like going to parties. He wrote a will before he died, saying that the funeral after his death should be as frugal as possible. No three sacrifices, just put some dry rice, fruit cake and tea rice. And "the world is expensive, so is salt."
In the period of Lu Na, Huan Wen and Emperor Wu of Qi, drinking tea was not only for refreshing and quenching thirst, but also began to produce social benefits, and became a means of entertaining guests, offering sacrifices and expressing a spirit and sentiment. Drinking tea has not been fully utilized by people because of its natural use value, but has entered the spiritual field.
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the world was in chaos, and various cultural ideas collided, so metaphysics was quite popular. Metaphysics is a philosophical trend of thought in Wei and Jin Dynasties, which is mainly based on Laozi and Zhuangzi's thoughts. Metaphysical scholars are mostly so-called celebrities, pay attention to family status, appearance and manners, and like to talk about arrogance. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Dynasties, the wealth in the south of the Yangtze River temporarily satisfied the scholars, who lingered among the beautiful mountains and rivers all day long, and the breeze continued to develop, resulting in many talkers.
At first, there were confidants and many drinkers. Later, the trend of confiding gradually developed to ordinary literati. Metaphysical scholars like to talk, and so do ordinary speakers. Wine can make people excited, but if you drink too much, you will lose your mind, talk nonsense and be unsightly. But Chaze can drink for a long time and stay awake all the time, which makes people think clearly and have a peaceful mind.
Besides, for ordinary literati, economic conditions do not allow them to deal with wine and meat all day. As a result, many metaphysicians and conversationalists turned from good wine to good tea. In their place, drinking tea has been regarded as a spiritual phenomenon.
With the introduction of Buddhism and the rise of Taoism, drinking tea has been linked with Buddhism and Taoism. In Taoism's view, tea is a good way to help refine the "inner elixir", raise the purity and lower the turbidity, and become an immortal; In the eyes of Buddhists, tea is a necessary thing for meditation.
Although a complete religious tea-drinking ceremony has not been formed at this time, and the ideological principle of tea has not been clearly defined, tea has been separated from the material form of diet and has significant social and cultural functions, and tea culture in China has begun to take shape.
3. Tea culture in Sui and Tang Dynasties
According to the fact that tea once had medicinal value, in the Sui Dynasty, people generally drank tea, and most people thought that tea was good for health. China tea culture was basically formed in the Sui Dynasty. In 780 AD, Lu Yu wrote Tea Classic, which is a unique symbol of the formation of tea culture in Sui and Tang Dynasties. It summarizes the dual contents of nature and humanity of tea, discusses the art of tea drinking, integrates Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism into tea drinking, and innovates the spirit of China tea ceremony.
Later, a large number of tea books and poems appeared, including Tea Narration, brew tea, Tea Picking and Sixteen Soups. The formation of tea culture in Tang Dynasty was related to the rise of Zen Buddhism. Because tea has the function of refreshing the brain, promoting fluid production and quenching thirst, temples advocate drinking tea, planting tea trees around the temples, making tea ceremonies, setting up tea halls, selecting tea heads and holding tea events specially. China tea ceremony was formed in the Tang Dynasty, which is divided into court tea ceremony, temple tea ceremony and literati tea ceremony.
4. Tea culture in Song Dynasty
The great development of tea industry in Song Dynasty promoted the development of tea culture. Among the literati, professional tea tasting societies have emerged, including the Tang Society composed of officials and the Thousand People Society composed of Buddhists. Zhao Kuangyin of Song Taizu is a tea drinker. He set up a tea hall in the imperial court, and the tea used in the imperial court has been graded. Tea ceremony became a kind of ceremony, giving tea became an important means for the emperor to win over ministers and take care of relatives as soon as possible, and it was also given to foreign envoys.
As for the lower classes, tea culture is more lively, and some people migrate. Neighborhood should offer tea to guests, to "Yuanbao Tea", to tea for engagement, to tea for marriage, and to share tea in the same room. The rise of folk tea fighting has brought about a series of changes in cooking points.
Since the Yuan Dynasty, tea culture has entered a tortuous development period. Song people expanded the social level and cultural form of tea culture, and tea affairs flourished. However, tea art has become complicated, trivial and extravagant, losing the profound ideological connotation of tea culture in Tang Dynasty. Too fine tea art drowned the spirit of tea culture and lost its noble and profound essence. In the imperial court, nobles and literati, drinking tea became a "drinking ceremony", "drinking style" and "playing with tea".
In the Yuan Dynasty, on the one hand, although the northern minorities also liked to drink tea, it was mainly for the needs of life and physiology, but they were not interested in tea tasting and cooking culturally. On the other hand, in the face of the broken motherland and foreign oppression, China cultural people have no intention to express their charming feelings with tea, but hope to express their sentiments and sharpen their will by drinking tea.
The combination of these two different ideological trends in tea culture has promoted the development of tea art towards simplicity and simplicity. Before the mid-Ming Dynasty, the Han people felt that the previous generation of people had perished, and it was difficult for the country to be a country when it was founded, so they still had the ambition to observe the festival. Tea culture still inherits the trend of Yuan Dynasty, which is characterized by the simplicity of tea art, the harmony between tea culture candy and nature, and the expression of one's bitterness with tea.
5. Tea culture in Ming and Qing Dynasties
At this time, various teas such as steamed green, fried green and baked green appeared, and drinking tea was also changed to "making tea". Many literati in Ming Dynasty left masterpieces handed down from generation to generation, such as Tang Bohu's Tea Making Scroll and Tea Tasting Map, Wen Zhiming's Huishan Tea Party, Lu Yu's Tea Cooking Map and Tea Tasting Map.
With the increase of tea, the skills of making tea are also different, and the styles, textures and patterns of tea sets are also diverse. By the Qing Dynasty, tea export had become a formal industry, and there were countless tea books, tea events and tea poems.
6. Modern development
After the founding of New China, the annual output of tea in China increased from 7500T in 1949 to more than 600,000t in 1998.
The substantial increase of tea material wealth has provided a solid foundation for the development of tea culture in China. 1982, the first social group-"Tea House" was established in Hangzhou.
Luyu Tea Culture Research Association was established in Hubei on 1983, China Tea People Association was established in Beijing on 1990, China International Tea Culture Research Association was established in Huzhou on 1993, and China Tea Museum was officially opened in Xihu Township, Hangzhou on 19 1.
1998 China international peaceful tea culture exchange hall was built. With the rise of tea culture, there are more and more teahouses all over the country. The 5th International Tea Culture Seminar has been held, and tea festivals have been held in all provinces, cities and tea-producing counties, such as the Rock Tea Festival in Wuyi City, Fujian Province, the Pu 'er Tea Festival in Yunnan Province, the tea festivals in Xinchang, Taishun, Zhejiang Province, Yingshan, Hubei Province and Xinyang, Henan Province. They all use tea as a carrier to promote the all-round development of economy and trade.