Shenwei Feng
Professor Travis
Asian Behavior and Thought
17 March 2016
Chinese Tea Culture Tea is a kind of drink. It is made from tea leaves, and steeped in hot water; then, you can drink it. It seems like coffee, but the taste and color of tea is different from coffee. From the color, tea can be divided by green tea, black tea, white tea, yellow tea and oolong. The color difference is because the way it is produced is different, but the functions of these teas are similar; all of them can detoxify and refresh. Due to the different origins of tea, tea can be divided into many levels. A good place can produce better tea, and there also is different tea from different areas. In China, most Chinese like to drink tea, especially the older. I did not like drink tea when I was a child, but when I grew up, I started to like the tea. When I was a child, I travelled with my family to go to Wu Yi Mountain. It was the earliest memory about tasting tea; even now I can recall some of the taste of tea. Because I was very young, I did not know what kinds of teas I tasted, but I could remember that I was most impressed by a taste of tea. This tea was very bitter when it came on my tongue, but when I drank some water after I tasted this tea, I felt the water was very sweet. This sweet was different from the sweet of candy, it made me comfortable and relaxed. Another tea was produced by the lotus leaf, and it could help people lose weight; but I could not taste it because I was a child, and children need nutrition to grow and not lose weight. However, these teas are not the best teas in there, but I could not remember other teas. Maybe because I was too young to distinguish the difference between good and bad tea, I just could follow my feel to recognize which tea I like to drink. “To drink tea, begin at Shennong(茶之为饮，发乎神农氏)” (Yu Lu (陆羽) Cha Jing (茶经)). It means the first man drank tea was Shennong. Shennong was one of China’s greatest leaders at the ancient times of China, and he was one of the ancestors of the Chinese people. He lived in 3,000 BC, so the tea culture of China has more than a 4,000 year history. The tea was developed slowly in ancient China, but it prospered in the Tang Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty. In those times, Chinese created numerous ways of how to drink tea, and they drink tea every day. In ancient times, people used to entertain guests with tea, and this developed tea culture. Tea is very important in China at any time.
“Zhou King Wu, actually gets Basu division, tea honey are tribute of(周武王伐纣，实得巴蜀之师，茶蜜皆纳贡之)” (Qu Chang (常璩) Huayang Guozhi·Bazhi (华阳国志·巴志)). That means tea was an important tribute at that time. Zhou Dynasty was founded in 1122 BC, so tea could be a tribute at that time. With the development of the times, everyone could have tea, but it did not mean that the status of tea fell. In fact, tea has levels, and the best tea will be tribute to give to royalty; also, some teas are more expensive than gold. Tea is also sold abroad as cargo to the west. On the Silk Road, tea was sold to western countries, and at that time, tea was a luxury for the western countries. Good tea is a precious thing, and it can be present every time, even now. Tea is not only the product but also a culture. The main points of Chinese tea culture are tea leaves, water, heat, tea sets and environments. If you have all of the best things of them, you can drink the best tea. Development of the art of Chinese tea can be divided into three phases. First, in Tang Dynasty, they put the tea with the water and heated them together, it was the earliest way from of the art of tea tasting. Second, in Song Dynasty, people preferred to hold tea competitions that compared the technology of tea and the merits of quality tea. Finally, in Yuan Dynasty, they just liked to put the hot water with tea. This is a very easy way to tasting tea, so more and more people use this way to drink, and this way continues to today. Also, tea was joined into civil society, and a lot of people accepted it, and it became a folk culture. “Firewood, rice, oil, salt, wine, soy sauce, vinegar and tea(柴、米、油、盐、酒、酱、醋、茶)” (Zimu Wu (吴自牧) Meng Liang lu (梦梁录)). He mentioned these things, and he thought these things were the base things for life, they are important for everyone. However, wine was removed in Yuan Dynasty because they thought wine was not a necessary thing for life. As can be seen from these words, tea was as important as food. Moreover, a lot of poets wrote about these seven things in their poetry. That means most people accepted this point that tea was very important for everyone. Today, tea is developed more and more. There is a new kind of tea—reprocessing tea. It is a kind of tea that use flowers, cereals and fruits to make tea. These teas are different from the traditional tea, but it also tastes and smells good. These teas are also cheaper than the high quality tea, and taste good, so a lot of Chinese restaurants prefer to use these teas to entertain customers. I think that is one of the developments of Chinese tea culture. Furthermore, milk tea is popular all over China. This is a kind of tea that originated with nomads in northern China, and after a long period of evolution, a lot of kinds of milk tea developed. It is sweeter than traditional tea, and most young people like to drink. Also, people like to add numerous things into to the milk tea to make it different, and the most famous thing is pearl milk tea. There have some common things you can add in the milk tea store, but it is the fact that you can add any things you like into your tea. In conclusion, Chinese tea culture has a long history, and it continues to progress. Maybe tea is not as important as food now, but it still exists in our daily life, and we can see it anywhere. In China, tea is also an important part in society, people can drink tea to make friends and use tea as gifts. Although there have not a lot of people to pay attention to tea culture, tea culture has already joined into almost all of Chinese hearts.

Works Cited
Lu, Yu (陆羽). Cha Jing (茶经). Cha (茶). Baidu (百度), 29 Feb. 2016. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.
Chang, Qu (常璩). Huayang Guozhi·Bazhi (华阳国志·巴志). Cha (茶). Baidu (百度), 29 Feb. 2016. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.
Wu, Zimu (吴自牧). Meng Liang lu (梦梁录). Kaimen Qijianshi (开门七件事). Baidu (百度), 6 Nov. 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.