According to Eight Records of Huayang National Records, about 1025 BC, Ji Fa of Zhou Wuwang led Zhou Jun and his vassals to destroy Zhou Wang, a merchant of Yin Dynasty, and later sealed his clan to Bati. This is a vast country. East to Yufu (now Baidicheng, Fengjie, Sichuan), west to Bodo (now Anbianchang, southwest of Yibin, Hubei), north to Hanzhong (now south of Qinling, Shaanxi) and south to the Antarctic (equivalent to Fuling, Sichuan). As a vassal, Wang Ba naturally paid tribute to Zhou Wuwang (the son of heaven). "Bazhi" gave us such a "tribute list": five grains and six livestock, silkworms, fish, salt, copper and iron, red paint, tea honey, turtle rhinoceros and pheasant white? Yellow powder.
Since it is a tribute, it must be precious. But the tea served in Ba Wang Xian is a treasure among treasures. After this list of tributes, Ba Zhi added a special sentence: "The treasure of its fruit includes litchi on the tree, pungent vines and fragrant tea in the garden." The tea that goes to work is not wild tea in the mountains, but fragrant tea in the tea garden specially cultivated by people.
Huayang Guozhi is one of the earliest preserved local chronicles in China. The author is a native of Changqu in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Jiangyuan (now southeast of Chongqing, Sichuan). He is a Sima Qian-style scholar with profound knowledge and pays attention to on-the-spot interviews. He wrote this book before 355 AD, with a scale of 12 volumes.
It is not known whether Zhou Wuwang accepted the tea tribute for tasting and medicine, or did something else. However, judging from the book Zhou Li, it seems that this kind of tea has other uses. "Li Zhou Emperor Situ" said: "Palm tea. There are two collections, one in the government, one in history and twenty in behavior. " "Tea" is an ancient word "tea". Zhang Cha has as many as twenty-four people. What are you doing? This book is also called: "Palm Tea: The Funeral of Palm Tea; Wild things, things to stay in the country, animals gathered. "It turned out that tea was not only for appetizing at that time, but also an indispensable sacrifice when the country held funeral activities, and it must be in charge of a group of special people.
In addition, "Shangshu Gu Ming" said: "Wang (referring to Cheng Wang) has three nights, three sacrifices and three cups (that is, tea)." This shows that in Zhou Chengwang, tea has replaced wine as a sacrifice.
It can be seen that tea had a fairly high status in the Zhou Dynasty three thousand years ago. In The Book of Songs, it is not surprising that the word "tea" frequently appears in Gu Feng, Sang Rou, Owl, Liang Yi and Outside the East Gate.