The Brief History of Tea Drinking
2 min readThe Origin of Tea
According to the historical records，the Chinese forefathers first used tea because of its curative value.Later people discovered its function of quenching thirst，and from then on tea popularized across the country as an indispensable drink in people’s daily life.through a process that lasted at least 5，000 years.
With such a long history，people today can hardly imagine how tea emerged fron the nature and gradually became the”state drink”of China，and how it spread all over the world.Therefore，to understand the Chinese tea culture，we might first acquaint ourselves with the brief history of tea drinking in China.
Little evidence is now available for us to identify or confirm the origin of tea；people in the remote antiquity had rather rare records about tea.However，there indeed are many legends about the origin of tea.Among all those legends，the most popular one is about Shennong（the legendary inventor of agriculture and Chinese medicine）.It is said that about 5，000 years ago，in order to cure people’s diseases，Shennong tested the medical properties of various herbs on himself.One day，he tasted 72 kinds of poisonous herbs，and consequently was badly poisoned and had to lay down under a tree.Suddenly，the wind blew and a leaf fell from the tree，with strong aroma.Shennong picked it up and chewed it.To his surprise，this leaf served as an antidote and he was cured from the poisonous herbs.And this leaf was just the tea leaf that became familiar to everyone later.From then on，Shennong held the opinion that tea had the function of detoxification and had high curative value，thus introduced it to the Chinese people.
There is another legend about tea in Sichuan Province：Long time ago，an old man living at the foot of Bashan Mountain raised a henwhich laid an egg every day.However，there are few days when hearing the”母鸡叫he went to pick up the egg，he found the hen roost empty.Feeling puzzled，one dayhe waited to watch the hen lay egg，and found that a snake stole the egg.The old man was very angry，so he put a cobblestone in the hen roost and waited till he saw the snake swallow it down.The snake seemed very uncomfortable，and then，to the old man’s surprise，it began to eat the fallen leaves of a tree beside the fence and the lump in its stomach gradually disappeared！The old man concluded that this was a precious tree，so whenever he felt bloated in the stomach，he would eat the leaves of this tree and would feel much better a moment later.From then on，if someone in the neighborhood suffered from indigestion，the old man would pluck some leaves from tree for them.For years，people gradually found that the leaves on this tree could not only help digestion，but also quench thirst and refresh themselves.
