It is said that a Chinese emperor was sitting under a
tree when leaves fell into the pot of water he was
boiling. He drank the water and found, to his
surprise, that it made him feel uplifted and
revitalized. He concluded that the leaves had caused
this and so brought some back for further
experimentation. This small incident triggered the
beginning of tea drinking in China and in the world.
According to another legend, tea was discovered by a
poor woodcutter who was chopping trees in the hills
when he saw several monkeys plucking leaves off a tree
and chewing them. He tasted some of the leaves, liked
it and brought some back to the village. He told
others of his discovery and soon, everyone was adding
leaves from the tree to their drinks.
From ancient times to today, tea has been an
indispensable part of the life of a Chinese. A Chinese
saying identifies the seven basic daily necessities as
fuel, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea.
The custom of drinking tea is deeply ingrained in
almost all Chinese and has been for over a thousand
years. During the mid-Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), a man
named Lu Yu entered the Buddhist monkhood early in
life but returned when older, to secular life. He was
later best known for summarizing the knowledge and
experience of his predecessors and contemporaries into
the first compendium in the world on tea--the Tea
Classic (Cha Jing). This work helped to popularize the
art of tea drinking all across China, making avid tea
drinkers of everyone from emperor and minister to
street hawker and soldier. Even neighboring
countries--Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia came to
adopt the tea drinking custom
Adapted from
http://www.regenttour.com/china/tea/index2.htm
