Tea Culture in China 【PART II】

China has the greatest tradition of pottery-making in the world. The use of the word 'CHINA' for any porcelain or porcelain-like products shows how closely the country is identified with ceramics. Pottery has been made in China from as early as the 3rd millennium BC, but it is only from the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) that a continuous tradition begins, low-fired, lead-glazed earthenware being made in large quantities for use in tombs. High-fired wares were also made, developing into the Yue wares of the Six Dynasties (251-589) and Tang (618-907) periods. These were stoneware, fired to a temperature of about 1,200 and covered in a green celadon-type. Lu Yu is a very well-know tea-maker and his statue in Xi'an now. The Tang Dynasty writer Lu Yu's (729-804) Cha Jing is an early work on the subject.

According to Cha Jing writing, around CE 760, tea drinking was widespread. The book describes how tea plants were grown, the leaves processed, and tea prepared as a beverage. It also describes how tea was evaluated. The book also discusses where the best tea leaves were produced. The most important feature of Tang ceramics was the perfection of the fine pottery known in the West as porcelain in the 7th or 8th century. The Song dynasty (960-1279) was the golden age of Chinese ceramics, with famous kilns in both northern and southern China. 

Jingdezhen, in south-eastern China, became the most important ceramic centre from the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) onwards. A form of compressed tea referred to as white tea was being produced as far back as the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). This special white tea of Tang was picked in early spring, when the tea bushes had abundant growths which resembled silver needles. These "first flushes" were used as the raw material to make the compressed tea.

Tea Culture in China 【PART I】

Chinese tea culture refers to the methods of preparation of tea, the equipment used to make tea and the occasions in which tea is consumed in China. The terms ChaYi "Art of Tea" and "Tea Ceremony" have been used, but the term "Tea Culture" includes more than just the ceremony. According to legend, tea was first discovered by the Chinese emperor and inventor Shennong in 2737 BCE. It is said that the emperor liked his drinking water boiled before he drank it so it would be clean, so that is what his servants did. 

One day, on a trip to a distant region, he and his army stopped to rest. A servant began boiling water for him to drink, and a dead leaf from the wild tea bush fell into the water. It turned a brownish color, but it was unnoticed and presented to the emperor anyway. The elements of the Chinese tea ceremony are the harmony of nature and enjoying tea in an informal and formal setting. Tea ceremonies are now being revived in China's new fast-paced culture, and continuing in the long tradition of intangible Chinese art.

The emperor drank it and found it very refreshing, and tea came into being. The Erya, a Chinese dictionary dated to the 3rd century BCE, records that an infusion of some kind of leaf was used as early as the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BCE). While historically the origin of tea as a medicinal herb useful for staying awake is unclear, China is considered to have the earliest records of tea drinking, with recorded tea use in its history dating back to the first millennium BC. The Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) used tea as medicine. The use of tea as a beverage drunk for pleasure on social occasions dates from the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD) or earlier.