China is the birthplace and cradle of Tea culture and the world's largest tea-producing country. A series of customs, manners, and habits, known as tea customs, have formed during the processes of growing, processing, brewing, tasting, and Drinking Tea.
The period of the Three Kingdoms, Jin Dynasty, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties was the nascent stage of tea customs. At that time, the main functions of drinking tea were limited to quenching thirst, sobering up, aiding meals, medicinal use, sacrificial offerings, and health preservation. There was also a preliminary tendency to view tea drinking as a spiritual pursuit.
The popularity of tea-drinking began in the Tang Dynasty. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, although some people in the north drank tea, the custom of drinking tea was mainly confined to the southeast and southwest regions, hence the saying that “the southerners are fond of drinking tea, while northerners do not drink much.” In the early 8th century, Emperor Suzong of Tang ordered an alcohol ban, so the people replaced wine with tea, and the custom of drinking tea began to spread in the north. After the Kaiyuan era, tea-drinking became widespread. Feng Yan's “Fengshi Wenjian Ji” vividly depicted the scene where the custom of tea-drinking “gradually imitated each other and became a popular trend.” At that time, many towns from Shandong to Henan and then to Shaanxi had tea shops where tea could be bought everywhere. Most of the tea produced in the south was sold to the north along the Grand Canal. The consumption of tea spread from the south to the Central Plains and then from the Central Plains to the frontier areas.
The popularity of tea-drinking in the Tang Dynasty was closely related to the production of tea and the level of social civilization at the time. The main tea-producing areas of the Tang Dynasty covered 43 prefectures and counties across eight major tea-producing regions: Shan'nan (south of the mountains), Huainan (south of the Huai River), Zhexi (west of Zhejiang), Zhexi (east of Zhejiang), Jian'nan (south of Jian River), Qianzhong (central Guizhou), Jiangnan (south of the Yangtze River), and Lingnan (south of the Five Ridges). This has basically formed the framework of modern tea-producing areas. “Many people in the Jiangnan region made their living by growing tea,” and gradually developed towards professionalization and commercialization.
The rise of tea customs and the improvement of tea-drinking taste in the Tang Dynasty were also due to the efforts of Lu Yu and others. The publication of Lu Yu's “The Classic of Tea” transformed ordinary tea-drinking activities into a cultural phenomenon full of charm and poetry, imbuing tea rituals with aesthetic connotations of mental clarity, tranquility, and spiritual refreshment. As Mei Yaochen of the Song Dynasty said, “Ever since Lu Yu appeared in the human world, people have learned to make spring tea.”
At the same time, “worship of the tea god” also became part of tea customs. Since the mid-Tang Dynasty, Lu Yu has been revered as the “tea god” and has been enshrined in tea workshops, tea warehouses, tea shops, teahouses, and tea-producing areas for over a thousand years without decline. In some places, Lu Tong and Pei Wen were also worshipped as accompanying deities. Many couplets in tea shops and teahouses feature Lu Yu, such as “Lu Yu writes about tea, Lu Tong quenches thirst; Wuyi selects tea, Guzhu shares its fragrance” and “Boiling water enhances the value of tea, thanks to Lu and Yu; spring breeze savors tea, ranking banners and spears.”
Tea gained prominence in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty was a dynasty where the custom of drinking tea was fervent, as Wang Anshi said in his “Discussion on the Tea Law”: “Tea is as essential to the people as rice and salt, indispensable even for a single day.” If the greatest contribution of Tang tea rituals was the formation of a tea-drinking art focused on tasting, then the greatest achievement of the fervent custom of drinking tea in the Song Dynasty was transforming this artistic way of life into a daily necessity. Wu Zimu wrote in his “Dream in the Liang Record”: “Among the things that cannot be missing in every household every day are firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea.” Tea became one of the “seven necessities for starting a household.”
Song Dynasty tea art advanced further, creating novel and unique tea games that emphasized the enjoyment of flavor. Both aristocrats and commoners were obsessed with the novel and stimulating tea-fighting and tea-dividing games. Tea-fighting, because it involved evaluating the quality and determining the winner, was also called “mingle warfare.” Apart from comparing the variety, manufacture, origin, anecdote, and understanding of tea, tea-fighting also compared the water used for brewing, the temperature of the water, and the foam. The winner of the tea-fighting would supply tea to the imperial court, and the person who offered the tea could gain wealth and status. Local officials actively participated in and encouraged tea-fighting in order to win the emperor's favor. Su Zhe wrote in his “Harmony with Zizhan on Boiling Tea”: “You don't see how highly regarded Minzhong tea is, and how people devote themselves to tea without knowing the hardships,” depicting the fervent atmosphere of tea-fighting.
Different from tea-fighting, the tea-dividing game, which started around the early Song Dynasty, attracted attention for its superb technical requirements. Tao Gu's “Qingyi Record” in the Northern Song Dynasty recorded: “In recent times, there are those who stir the soup with a spoon, applying special techniques, making patterns of birds, beasts, insects, fish, flowers, etc., in the water, delicate like paintings, but they dissipate in a moment. This is a transformation of tea.” The fleeting moment when the patterns dissolve reveals magnificent and ever-changing scenes, requiring high-level skills.
Another prominent manifestation of the fervent custom of drinking tea in the Song Dynasty was the wide range of functions of tea. Tea was indispensable for gatherings of friends, welcoming guests, weddings, funerals, and more. Emperor Huizong of Song, Zhao Ji, was proficient in tea art and wrote “Daguan Tea Treatise.” Ouyang Xiu wrote in his poem: “As I approach old age, my interest in worldly pleasures wanes, but my love for drinking tea remains unchanged.” Su Dongpo excelled in growing, brewing, and tasting tea, writing many outstanding poems about tea. The participation of these important figures fueled the fervent custom of drinking tea.
The rich and diverse tea customs of the Song Dynasty were widely applied to various aspects of folk life. Tea was always included in the dowry gifts for marriage engagements. Wu Zimu recorded in his “Dream in the Liang Record” the engagement gift-giving ritual: “For wealthy families, the engagement gifts include pearls, jade jewelry, gold utensils, brocade dresses, and tea cakes, accompanied by two sheep.” Tea was listed alongside jewels and gold, making it a very precious gift. Lu You recorded in his “Notes from Old Scholar's Hut” the custom among young men and women in western Hunan to express their love through tea: “Men and women gather and sing… One of their songs goes ‘Little girl, flower under the leaves, come out for a cup of tea without any trouble.'” Using the pretext of having tea, they invite their loved ones out for a date, and “having a cup of tea” becomes a euphemism for courting. Tea also had a connection with funeral customs. During the mourning period, family members and guests could not use tea trays when drinking tea. This custom was followed not only by ordinary people but also by royalty. The influence of Song Dynasty tea customs extended far. Offering tea to guests was already widespread in the Song Dynasty, and by the Ming Dynasty, it had become an indispensable etiquette, a tradition that also spread to Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, and other countries.
The Liao, Western Xia, and Jin dynasties, which existed concurrently with the Song Dynasty, also had the custom of drinking tea. Their tea-drinking customs were influenced by both the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, but also had their own characteristics. For example, the Liao people served tea after soup to guests, contrary to the Song custom of serving tea to guests and then soup when they leave.
The Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties were important periods for the development of Chinese tea customs. In the Yuan Dynasty, compressed tea was mainly enjoyed by the imperial nobility, while loose-leaf tea was primarily consumed by the general public. The Mongolians' method of drinking tea in the Yuan Dynasty, apart from adopting certain Han methods, also combined their own ethnic characteristics to create fried tea, lan paste, and suqian tea with special condiments.
The Ming Dynasty's promotion of replacing compressed (cake) tea with loose-leaf tea and the brewing method of pouring boiling water over