The Appearance of Tea Houses

There are many names in Chinese to call the places where people drink tea，but in English we just call them teahouses.Generally speaking，teahouses at the very beginning were the public places for people to drink tea and have a rest.No matter the men of letters，the scholars or common people，all could drink tea as long as they paid.However，as the time went by，the teahouses began to perform a more important role in social function；as they developed，the teahouses were no longer merely places of drinking tea and resting，but also began to have the functions of cementing ties，information exchange，entertainment and solving social disputes etc，and accordingly，the teahouse culture also began to come into being.

The Appearance of Teahouses

Tea drinking in China could be dated back to the time before the Western Zhou dynasty（1046 BC～771 BC），which was really of a long history.However，according to the records in the New History of Tang:the Biography of Lu Yu，the time when teadrinking trend really prevailed was the middle and late Tang dynasty.And according to the What Feng Saw and Heard written by Feng Yan of the Tang dynasty，in the Kaiyuan Period，the monks usually drank tea to refresh themselves，and the commonpeople followed their way，which resulted in the appearance of many teahouses in many areas and even the capital.Therefore，we could say that teahouses were first appeared in the Tang dynasty when people esteemed tea drinking very much.This could be regarded as the earliest teahouses in China.

According to the investigations towards the history of tea culture in the Tang dynasty，the appearance of teahouses in this period had two reasons:the first one was the prevalence of tea drinking trend，and the second one was the prosperity of city economy in the Tang dynasty and the rising of folk tea culture.Therefore，we could judge that the records about the appearance of teahouses by the Tang people were doubtless，and there were also other materials that could prove that at the meantime when teahouses appeared，they also gradually rose.

According to the Chaguanxianqing by Wu Xuxia，besides the teahouses in the capital Chang’an，there were also teahouses in Rugao Town in Hailing of Yangzhou，and the tea-selling facilities such as tea stand，tea shed，teahouse etc among the people in the Tang dynasty.In addition，according to the New Tang History-the Biography of Lu Yu，most of the teahouses in the Tang dynasty esteemed Lu Yu as the God of tea.In a word，judging from the existing materials，the teahouses in the Tang dynasty was only ofsingle function，i.e.confined to providing a place to rest and quench thirst，which had nothing to do about culture of the teahouses.

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