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In which dynasty did China's tea drinking culture originate?
The origin time of tea drinking

Shennong has a crystal belly, which turns into a tea tree. There are different opinions about the origin of tea drinking in China: some people think it originated in ancient times, while others think it originated in the Zhou Dynasty, Qin and Han Dynasties, Three Kingdoms, Southern and Northern Dynasties and Tang Dynasty. The main reason for the disagreement is that there was no word "tea" before the Tang Dynasty, only the word "tea" was recorded, and it was not until Lu Yu, the author of Tea Classic, reduced the word "tea". Others are said to have originated in Shennong and Qin and Han Dynasties.

1, Shennong said Tang Lu Yu's Tea Classic: "Tea is for drinking, it originated from Shennong." In the history of cultural development in China, the origin of all things related to agriculture and plants always belongs to Shennong. However, China's view that tea drinking originated from Shennong has different views due to folklore. Some people think that tea was discovered by Shennong when he was boiling water in a large pot outside the field. The boiled water is yellowish in color, which can quench your thirst and refresh yourself. According to Shennong's past experience of tasting herbal medicine, it was found that it was a kind of medicine. This is the most common statement about the origin of tea drinking in China. Another way of saying it is to attach it to pronunciation. It is said that Shennong has a crystal belly, and it can be seen from the appearance that food crawls in the gastrointestinal tract. When he tasted tea, he found that tea flowed everywhere in his stomach and the gastrointestinal tract was washed clean. So Shennong called this plant "tea" and then changed it into the word "tea", which became the origin of tea.

2. The Western Zhou Dynasty said that Jinchang Qu "Huayang Guozhi Bazhi": "Zhou Wuwang is the teacher of Bashu, and ... tea honey ... pays tribute." This record shows that when Zhou Wuwang attacked the week, Pakistanis had paid tribute to it with tea and other precious products. The Records of Huayang Country also recorded that there were artificially cultivated tea gardens at that time.

3. Qin and Han Dynasties said that Wang Bao's Contract in the Western Han Dynasty: The earliest and more reliable information on tea science was in the Han Dynasty, based on the contract written by Wang Bao. This article was written on the fifteenth day of the first month in the third year of Emperor Xuandi (59 BC). It is the most important document in the history of tea science before tea classics. The development of tea culture at that time was illustrated by the pen and ink in the article. The content is as follows:

There are guests in the house. Take a jar and hold it tightly. Draw water. Hello. Wash the whole box of cups. Pull garlic in the garden. Cut the breast with soy sauce. Establish meat and taro. It's hard to catch. There is everything you need to make tea. Feeding has covered up hiding. There are trees behind the house. When cut into boats. Go up to Jiangzhou. Go to the frying master. Ask government officials for money. Push spinning failure. Silly keyhole pavilion. Buy a seat and go back and forth. We should work for the interests of women. Sell it in a small market. Return to the capital. Open the bypass. Penny sells geese. Wuyang buys tea. Young's pool bears the load. Gather in the city. Be careful to protect thieves.

"Boiling all the tea" and "Wuyang buying tea" are both tested teas. It can be seen from the article that tea has become a part of the social diet at that time, and it is a rare thing to treat guests with courtesy, which shows the importance of tea in the social status at that time. In recent years, bamboo slips and woodcuts of "□" and "□" were found in the tomb of the Western Han Dynasty in Mawangdui, Changsha. After textual research, the variant of □ means □, which shows that there was a custom of drinking tea in Hunan at that time.

4. Six Dynasties Theory

Tea drinking in China began in the Six Dynasties. Some people think that it started with "Sun Hao replacing wine with tea", others think that it started with "Wang Suming drinking", while Japanese and Indians say that tea drinking started with "Dharma meditation". However, the theory of Qin and Han dynasties has solid historical evidence, which weakens the correctness of the theory of Six Dynasties.

(1) Dharma meditation: According to legend, Dharma went to China from eastern India and vowed not to sleep for nine years. Dharma succeeded in the first three years and finally fell asleep. When Dharma woke up, he was ashamed and angry, so he cut off his eyelids and threw them on the ground. Soon, young trees were born under the eyelids, with sparse branches and leaves and abundant business. For the next five years, Dharma was sober, but a year later, it was invaded by the sandman. Dharma ate the leaves beside him, and immediately after eating, his mind was clear and clear, and he was able to complete the nine-year meditation vows. The leaves that Dharma eats are the tea of later generations. This is the saying that drinking tea in the Six Dynasties originated from Buddhism. The story captures the characteristics of tea and expounds the refreshing effect of tea elements.

(2) Sun Hao replaced wine with tea: According to the biography of the Three Kingdoms Wei Yaochuan, Sun Hao, the emperor of Wu, led his ministers to drink, stipulating that people attending the banquet should drink at least seven liters, while Wei Yao was so drunk that he drank two liters, so Sun Hao often replaced wine with tea cups. This shows that in the Three Kingdoms period, drinking tea was very popular in the upper class at that time, and there was a precedent of "replacing wine with tea".

(3) Wang Suming's tea drinking: Before the Tang Dynasty, people drank tea called "drinking tea", just like cooking and drinking soup, it was used to quench thirst or to accompany meals. This statement can be seen from yang xian's "Luoyang Galand Ji" in the Northern Wei Dynasty. According to the book, people who liked "drinking tea" at that time were mainly from the Southern Dynasties, while northerners drank more cream every day. The book also records a story: In the Northern Wei Dynasty, Wang Su, an official of the State of Qi in Nanhu, told the Northern Wei Dynasty that when he first arrived, he was not used to eating mutton and cream in the north, so he often ate crucian carp soup as a meal and drank tea juice when he was thirsty. In one gulp, Luoyang, the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, was king. A few years later, the Northern Wei Emperor gave a banquet. At the banquet, Wang Su ate a lot of mutton with cream. Gaozu asked Wang Su, "What do you think of mutton compared with crucian carp soup?" Wang Su replied: "As a small country living in seclusion, fish can't compete with mutton, but orchids and autumn chrysanthemums have their own advantages. It's just that the juice boiled from tea is not good, so I have to be a slave to cheese. " As soon as this allusion spread, Tea Juice was dubbed "Cheese Slave". This record shows that drinking tea is the fashion of southerners. From aristocrats to gentry to civilians, there are good people and even necessities in daily life, while northerners discriminate against drinking tea. Secondly, at that time, drinking tea was a cow drink, and some people even drank a cup of two liters, which was very different from drinking slow tea later.