Tea tree originated in the southwest of China, and China was the first country to discover and utilize tea tree in the world. The history of Chinese tea has gone through five stages:
First, the wild medicine stage. Tea was originally used as a medicinal material. In the book Shen Nong's Classic of Materia Medica, it is pointed out that "Shen Nong tasted a hundred herbs and encountered 72 poisons every day, so he eliminated them with tea" (note: tea was originally named tea), saying that tea was discovered by Shen Nong as early as 2737-2697 BC and used as a medicinal material. Since then, tea has been gradually popularized as medicine. However, when it was first used as a drink, historical materials were extremely scarce. Only the article Tongyue written by Wang Bao in 59 BC mentioned the work contents of "Wuyang buying tea" and "making tea to do everything", which is the earliest record of tea being used for drinking.
The second is to plant a small amount for monks and nobles to drink. The habit of drinking tea should have originated in Sichuan and Sichuan at the earliest, and then gradually spread to other places. By the end of the Western Han Dynasty, tea had become a senior drink for monks, royalty and nobles, and it was more frequent in the courts of the Three Kingdoms.
Third, a large number of development stages. From the Jin Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty, drinking tea gradually became popular and became a folk drink. But until the early Northern and Southern Dynasties, there was still a certain gap in the region. Tea drinking in the south is more prosperous than in the north. However, with the gradual integration of north and south cultures, tea drinking gradually spread from south to north, but it was after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty Empire. The reasons for the prosperity of tea drinking in Tang Dynasty are: 1. After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the society was stable, the economy was developed and the transportation was convenient, which greatly developed the production, trade and consumption of tea. 2. The prosperity of drinking tea is also related to the prohibition of alcohol issued by the Tang government. Due to population growth and war, farmers fled in large numbers and lost their land. After the mid-Tang Dynasty, food was very scarce, but wine-making needed a lot of food. In order to alleviate this contradiction, Tang Suzong issued a prohibition order in the first year of Gan Yuan, and began to ban alcohol in Chang 'an, which made many alcoholics turn to tea and replaced it with tea, which promoted the spread of tea drinking. 3. The prosperity of tea drinking in Tang Dynasty is inextricably linked with the rise of tribute tea, the prosperity of poetic style, the imperial examination system and the spread of Buddhism.
Tea drinking was very common before the Tang Dynasty. With the popularity of tea drinking in the Tang Dynasty, the way of tea drinking has also changed obviously, and there has been a slow-frying way of tea drinking. This change is a great event in the history of tea drinking, and its credit should be attributed to Cha Sheng Lu Yu.
Tea drinking in the Song Dynasty inherited the way of tea drinking in the Tang Dynasty, but it was more exquisite and refined than that in the Tang Dynasty, especially the production of palace group tea (cake tea). Although the tea drinking in Song Dynasty was mainly cake tea, there were some famous loose teas, such as Japanese tea, Shuangjing tea and Jingshan tea, which were especially loved by literati. In drinking, the tea-making method in the Tang Dynasty was changed to the tea-ordering method, that is, tea powder was no longer boiled in water, but put in a teacup and brewed with boiling water, and then fully stirred to make the tea and water fully dissolve. When it was milky white and a bowl of fine white foam appeared, it could be drunk slowly.
Tea drinking in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was significantly different from that in the previous generation, both in types and methods. In the Ming Dynasty, loose tea was developed and expanded on the basis of the Tang and Song Dynasties, and became the main tea that prevailed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and spread to this day. In the Ming dynasty, the loose tea made by frying green tea was mostly green tea, and some of it was scented tea. In the Qing Dynasty, in addition to all kinds of green tea and scented tea, oolong tea, black tea, black tea and white tea also appeared, thus establishing the basic types of tea structure in China.
Fourth, the fading stage. Although the working people in ancient China had a lot of valuable experience in tea, which contributed to the development of tea production all over the world, tea science, technology and experience could not be summarized, developed and utilized due to the rule of corrupt politics before liberation, and tea production declined day by day under the exclusion and manipulation of imperialism.
Five, after the liberation of China tea production development stage. After liberation, China's tea production has been restored and developed, and new high-standard tea gardens have been opened up, and the area of tea gardens has been continuously expanded; Comprehensively manage a large number of low-yield tea gardens according to local conditions; Both of them attach importance to the construction of tea farms and factories, practice scientific tea planting, cultivate tea scientific and technological talents, and promote the great development of tea production. This stage has roughly gone through two stages.
The first stage is 1950- 1970. In these 20 years, reclamation, development and efforts to expand the planting area are the main tasks. During this period, the area of tea gardens increased by 7.3% on average, while the output of tea increased by 5.9% on average.
The second stage is after 1970, and the focus of this stage is to improve the structure of tea garden, increase the output of tea garden and improve the tea-making technology. After entering the 1990s, the production of famous tea has mushroomed and varied, which not only restored the production of many famous teas in history, but also created a wide variety of new famous teas.
Tea, the king of drinks in 2 1 century, will surely get greater development with the development of society and the improvement of people's living standards.
You can't say which country people like to drink, but people in most countries love to drink.
Hmm. How interesting