Tea as Herbal Medicine and Drink in Han Dynasty

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Entering the Han dynasty (206 BC～AD 220), the function and status of tea hadnew breakthrough as well as changes. In the Qin and Han dynasties people put emphasis on the edible and curative functions of tea, then its function of thirst quenching as a kind of drink also began to be sought out and emphasized, and itgradually became the indispensable drink of people’s daily life. But it was not accidental for people to find out tea’s value as a drink; it should be attributed to its curative function. According to the investigations, it was during the process of delving into the detoxification and digestive functions of tea that people began to know its thirst quenching and refreshing functions. And from then on tea entered people’s daily life as both herbal medicine and drink, mostly being steamed.

According to the Fanjiangpian of Sima Xiangru, tea became one of the herbs in the traditional Chinese medicine at the early Western Han dynasty (206 BC~25 AD)because of its curative function. According to the records in Shilun (Discussion on Food), written by Hua Tuo in the Eastern Han dynasty (25～220), and Shennong’s Herbal Classic of Zeng Guang, the Han people had a deeper understanding that the major curative function of tea was refreshing.

China，the cradle and the”motherland”of tea，enjoys a long history and profound culture of tea planting，tea processing and tea drinking.During the development，evolvement and spread of tea affairs，the Chinese ancestors，with theirdiligence and wisdom，kept inventing new skills of tea planting，tea processing and tea brewing.They developed many activities about tea tasting and water selectionetc；they also summarized the corebtive experiences about tea affairs recorded inmany Monographs.Under the guidance of those tea theories，people began to give on and heighten the cultural connotation to tea tasting through all kinds of tea affairs and activities，and gradually connected people’s infelt life to tea drinking.In this way，the Chinese tea ceremony came into being，which established the basis for the development of Chinese tea culture.