Aside from being a familiar beverage, Tea also has a unique background in Traditional Chinese Medicine. What differences emerge when we view tea through the lens of TCM?
1. Tea as Chinese Medicine
In ancient times, tea was used as medicine and recorded in medical texts. The Shennong Ben Cao Jing records that “Shennong tasted a hundred herbs and encountered seventy-two poisons in a single day, finding relief in tea.” This suggests that the origin of tea was medicinal. During the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties when the custom of Drinking Tea began to form, the techniques for processing tea were not rudimentary or primitive, reflecting the development of Tea processing before it became a beverage of choice. This development occurred within the realm of medicine.
From the time tea became a beverage of choice, while preserving its biological characteristics, the goal of tea processing shifted towards making it more delicious and palatable. Although conceptually distinct from medicine, there was no fundamental change in the technical aspects of processing tea.
From the perspective of Chinese pharmaceutical processing, the objectives of tea processing and medicine preparation are entirely consistent: both aim to extract active ingredients effectively, improve their efficacy, alter certain properties of the raw materials to suit specific needs, and facilitate preservation.
The techniques used in tea processing, similar to those in medicine preparation, ensure the achievement of these objectives. Early brewing methods, prior to Lu Yu, retained many elements from the period before tea became a beverage of choice, often adding other ingredients to the tea.
When comparing the brewing methods of tea during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the early Tang Dynasty with contemporary Chinese herbal decoctions and prescriptions in the Newly Revised Materia Medica, we find that the tea decoction was a complex formula.
From the perspective of Chinese pharmaceutical processing, the techniques for processing Chinese medicine and tea align in intent and technology. From the perspective of Chinese pharmacology, preparing tea is akin to cooking a decoction of herbs, and the combination of ingredients in tea decoction resembles a complex Chinese herbal formula. Considering these factors, tea was likely consumed as a form of Chinese medicine at the beginning. Additionally, Lin Hong's Qing Gong of the Mountain Home from the Song Dynasty states, “Tea is medicine.”
2. Benefits of Tea
Since the Han Dynasty, numerous historical and ancient medical texts have recorded the medicinal value of tea and its health benefits. Incomplete statistics show that 16 ancient medical texts record 20 health benefits of tea, encompassing 219 medicinal effects, such as invigoration, improved eyesight, quenching thirst, treating diarrhea, reducing greasiness, and sobering up after alcohol consumption.
Shennong Ben Cao: “Tea is bitter in taste, and drinking it improves thinking, reduces sleep, lightens the body, and clarifies the vision.”
Shennong's Food Classic states: “Long-term consumption of tea strengthens the body and uplifts the spirit.”
Guangya mentions: “In Jing and Ba, people make tea cakes… Drinking it sobers one up and keeps them awake.”
Lu Yu's The Classic of Tea says: “The use of tea is in its cool and bitter taste, making it most suitable for drinking. For those who practice frugality and virtue, if they experience heat, thirst, congestion, headaches, eye strain, discomfort in the limbs, and unease throughout the body, a few sips of tea can be as refreshing as ambrosia and nectar.”
Newly Revised Materia Medica – Wood Section states: “Ming (tea), bitter tea, is sweet and bitter in taste, slightly cold, and non-toxic. It treats abscesses, aids urination, clears phlegm and heat, and reduces sleepiness. It should be harvested in spring. Bitter tea aids digestion and reduces gas and indigestion.” It also mentions: “For reducing gas and aiding digestion, make a drink by adding hawthorn, green onion, and ginger.”
According to the Gujin Hebi Shiwai Ji from the Southern Song Dynasty, tea has the effects of relieving headaches, aiding digestion, and preventing sleep.
Lǐ Shízhēn's Compendium of Materia Medica: “Tea is bitter and cold, and best able to reduce fire… It also helps to neutralize the toxins of alcohol and food, making one clear-minded and alert without drowsiness. These are the benefits of tea.”
Modern research in medicine, biology, and nutrition shows that most beneficial components regulating human metabolism are present in tea. Tea can prevent aging and enhance physiological activity. Over 600 chemical substances have been identified in tea, including alkaloids, polyphenols, minerals, vitamins, proteins, and amino acids.
3. Tea and the Five Elements
Ancient theories of the five elements categorize all matter in the universe according to their attributes. If we compare the various phenomena, properties, and actions of nature to the characteristics of the five elements, we can assign them to one of the five categories. The five elements theory also posits that nothing exists in isolation or remains static, as the five elements are in a dynamic balance through the processes of generation, overcoming, overreaching, and counter-overcoming.
Wood, represented by the phrase “wood bends and straightens,” encompasses growth, upward movement, and flexible development.
Fire, symbolized by “fire burns,” includes warmth and upward movement.
Earth, embodied in “earth nurtures,” involves growth, support, and reception.
Metal, denoted by “metal changes,” encompasses cleansing, descent, and gathering.
Water, represented by “water moistens and descends,” includes coolness, moisture, and downward movement.
In the opening sentence of The Classic of Tea, Lu Yu states that tea comes from the “Southern” region and is a “fine tree,” so it naturally belongs to the element of wood. Lu Yu incorporated the five elements into the tea ceremony, believing that the combination of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth is necessary to brew good tea. The wind stove is metal; the paper on which the stove stands represents earth; the boiling water is water; the charcoal in the stove is wood; and the fire ignited by the charcoal is fire.
This interplay of the five elements, along with the principles of yin and yang, achieves the health-promoting purpose of tea in “curing a hundred ailments.”