Understanding the Evolution of Chinese Tea Culture Through Four Periods

Chinese tea culture has ancient roots, tracing back to legendary times. According to folklore, the Yan Emperor (炎帝), one of the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, was the first to discover tea. Legend says he noticed that these ordinary-looking leaves made a refreshing drink, and the story marks the start of the earliest era of Chinese tea culture, when tea was gathered and brewed alongside other wild herbs.
This shows how closely early Chinese tea culture was tied to the gathering of herbs and to cooking. The history of Chinese tea is, in essence, a miniature of Chinese history.
So, how can we divide the development of Chinese tea culture into different periods? Let's explore this in the Chen Sheng Hao Tea Academy series.

First Period: The Herbal Drink Era

This era spanned from ancient times to the Three Kingdoms period (三国时期). As mentioned, the Yan Emperor, also known as Shennong (神农), was a legendary tribal leader who, according to tradition, foraged for plants in the mountains to learn which ones were safe to eat. The best-known legend, later linked to the "Shennong Bencao Jing" (神农本草经/ Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica), tells of Shennong tasting hundreds of plants and coming across tea. It is a story rather than a record, but it shows that tea was first gathered as one wild plant among many.
During the Three Kingdoms period, tea appears more often in written records. In Wei, a text attributed to the famous physician Hua Tuo, "Hua Tuo's Food Classic" (华佗食经), mentions bitter tea, one of the early references to drinking it regularly.
In Shu Han, legend has it that Zhuge Liang (诸葛亮) had his soldiers brew local Pu-erh tea from big trees, along with turmeric and other spices, while campaigning in Yunnan. The custom of brewing tea with spices still exists in Yunnan, and some of the region's oldest tea trees are still nicknamed "Kongming trees" after him.
In Wu, the fourth sovereign Sun Hao famously let his minister Wei Zhao, who could not hold his liquor, drink tea in place of wine at feasts, which gave rise to the phrase "tea in place of wine" (以茶代酒). In this early period, tea was valued as an herb as much as a drink, and some made exaggerated claims for it.

Second Period: The Porridge Drink Era

With advancing productivity and deeper understanding of tea, people found that boiled raw tea leaves tasted harsh and unpleasant. This led to the invention of tea porridge - green tea pressed into cakes, ground into powder, and cooked with mixed fruits. This porridge-like beverage, named "Ming Porridge," (茗粥) marked the transition from chewing raw leaves to boiling them. Tea evolved from a simple herbal brew into a food item.
By the mid-Tang Dynasty, Lu Yu's "The Classic of Tea" (茶经) had a profound influence. He argued that adding mixed fruits to tea spoiled its original flavor, likening it to ditch water. This view laid the foundation for appreciating the true taste of tea, ushering in the next phase of tea culture.

Third Period: The Plain Drink Era

This period, from the mid-Tang to the end of the Yuan Dynasty, saw the initial formation of the Chinese Tea Ceremony spirit. Tea was no longer seen only as an herb, a food to satiate hunger, or a thirst-quenching beverage, but also as a cultural symbol. During this time, with the spread of Buddhism, tea became popular among monks, who drank it during long hours of meditation, and it spread widely beyond China.
Rongxi Zen Master (Myōan Eisai), known as the "Patriarch of Japanese Tea," greatly admired Chinese tea culture. He studied in Song-dynasty China and brought tea seeds and Chinese tea customs back to Japan. In 1211 he wrote one of Japan's first books on tea, the "Kissa Yōjōki" (吃茶养生记), which praised tea in the lavish language of its time and helped make tea drinking popular among Japan's monks and nobility.
Post "The Classic of Tea," people gained a deeper understanding of tea, blending Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist philosophies with tea culture, giving it new cultural significance. Thus, Chinese tea culture developed its unique tea philosophy: integrity, beauty, harmony, and respect. In a way, tea in this period was still an herb, a food and a refreshing drink, but it also became a way to cultivate the mind and spirit.

Fourth Period: The Loose Tea Era

Throughout the long history of Chinese tea, various forms have been used for storage and transportation. Initially, green tea was pressed into cakes - a practice that thrived from the Tang to the Song Dynasties, with famous examples like the luxurious
Dragon and Phoenix cakes. However, with the continuous development of tea fermentation technology and the spread of the Chinese philosophy of "nurturing integrity through tea," a significant shift occurred in the 24th year of Hongwu (1391) under Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He issued an edict to stop the production of Dragon and Phoenix tea cakes, marking the beginning of the loose tea era. To this day, most Chinese teas, except for a few like Pu-erh and dark tea, are still sold as loose leaves.
From the development of Chinese tea culture outlined above, it's clear that in China, tea is much more than a simple beverage. The Chinese tea ceremony is not just a social ritual revolving around drinking tea; it's a rich tradition that draws on botany, chemistry, craftsmanship, philosophy, history and the arts.

This article is general information about tea, not medical advice. If you're pregnant, breastfeeding, taking medication or managing a health condition, please talk to your doctor before changing what you drink.