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CH-P-01
TEA ROUTES FROM CHINA TO THE WORLD
I-MingJuan
TenFu Tea Museum, Zhangzhou, Fujian, China, 363202
Summary
China is the original place where tea plants have been growing. The Chinese are the
earliest people who discover the tea plants and use tea leaves in their living.
The cultivation of tea plants, the manufacture of tea, and the tea culture in every
country of the world were introduced directly or indirectly from China. Even, the
pronunciations of "Tea" in different countries were originated from Mandarin "Cha" or
from Amoy "Tey". Consequently, Tea is originally in China and has passed on to the
world.
There were four tea routes from China to the world. The first one was the sea route
from the China East Coast to Japan and Korea in Tang and Song dynasties. (AD
618-1279). The second way was the caravans from the Great North Grassland to Russia
and Eastern Europe. The third route was clippers from the China Southeast Coast to
Western Europe and America. The fourth path was the tea and horse caravans from the
Southwest China to Tibet and Southern Asia.
Chinese tea had been spread to the world, by collies, by horses, by oxcarts, by camels,
by bamboo rafts, by clippers, by steamships for a long history; thus, tea is become one
of the three big beverages in the world.
Keywords
culture, Tea routes, Chinese tea, Tea caravans.
Tea cltlture,
China is the original place where tea plants have been growing. The Chinese are the
earliest people who discover the tea plants and use tea leaves in their living.
The cultivation of tea plants, the manufacture of tea, and the tea culture in every
country of the world were introduced directly or indirectly from China. Even, the
pronunciations of "Tea" in different countries were originated from Mandarin "Cha"
or from Amoy "Tey". Consequently, Tea is originally in China and has passed on to the
world.
In the middle stage of the Tang dynasty, tea drinking was a fashion favored by the
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nobilities and even the common people in China. At that time, the ceremonial forms of
tea drinking had passed on to Japan and Korea through Buddhist rituals and the ways of
Confucian Scholars. Tea seeds was introduced and grew in Japan by a Japanese monk
Zuicheng from China in the year of 805. Chinese tea seeds was also introduced and
grew in Korea by a Korean ambassador Jindalian in 828. At the same stage, Chinese tea
(green tea) had been spread through South Asia (India) and West Asia (Persia, Arab) by
the ways of commercial trade. Tea had been spread from China to allover the Asia in
the Tang dynasty. Nowadays Asia is the major tea production and consumption area in
the world, about 80% of world tea was produced and over 60% of world tea was
consumed in Asia.
Although Chinese tea was introduced into Japan and Korea early in the 7th or 8th
century, during the Tang dynasty, tea events were only as a favourite of the royal and
noble families, did not go into the common people's living yet.
In the Song dynasty (960-1279) to drink the whisked powdered tea was a fashin.
The Song's style of tea drink was introduced to Japan and Korea by Zen masters.
(Song's whisked powdered tea was introduced to Japan by a Zen master Rongxi in 1191)
Chinese tea was passed on to Japan and Korea again, to drink whisked powdered tea
was a fashin of the nobilities and also a favowite of the common people, blended
harmoniously with their native culture and thus Japanese tea ceremony and Korean tea
ceremony were formed gradually.
The first emperor of Ming dynasty changed the tribute tea from caked tea to leaf tea,
that pushed the development of panned green tea in China and also simplified the way
of preparing a tea drink from whisking powdered tea to infusing tea in hot water. The
way of infusing tea was just simple to put the leaf tea in a pot or a bowl then infused
with hot water. Infusing of leaf tea became the fashion of preparing a
a tea drink in China
after the 15th century. Because of preparing a tea drink by infusing leaf tea is easier than
whisking powdered tea, the European or American people can easy to accept tea drink.
Ming's emperor Chengzu dispatched Zhenghe, a court eunuch, to lead a fleet of
hundreds ships to sail to the Indian Ocean and the area which covers Southeast Asia and
Indonesia during the early 15th century (1405-1433) for seven times. Zhenghe's fleet
shipped plenty of chinawares, silk fabrics, and Chinese tea which were given as gifts to
the natives around the Indian Ocean and the South Sea. Chinese tea had been spread to
the Southeast Asia, the Indian sub-continent, and far to the coast of East Africa
following the route of the Zhenghe's fleet.
In the Qing dynasty, Chinese tea has been passed on to the Soviet Russia since
1689. Chinese tea (Bohea tea) was transported from Fujian to Hubei by ships, passed
through Henan, Shanxi, to Zhangjiakou by horses and oxcarts, then crossed the Great
North Grassland by camel caravans to Russia and Eastern Europe.
In early 16th century, the Portuguese explorers discovered a new navigation route
to detour Africa by passing the Cape of Good Hope and sailed to South Asia. The
Portuguese got the right of residence in Macao since 1553, and from that time on the
Western explorers and Christian missionaries got in China, and knew about the Chinese
popular beverage "Cha". In 1596, the Dutchman set up aa transit port in Java, an island
of Indonesia. The Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602,and brought the first
tea from Java to Europe in 1610. Tea drink was spread from Netherlands to France,
Germany and England. The English East India Company was founded in 1600, and the
first tea imported by the Company was transported from Java in 1669. Qings Emperor
Kangxi opened the foreign trade in 1684, thus Chinese tea was shipped from Amoy, a
port city in China, to England directly by The English East India Company Since 1689.
Chinese tea was passed on to the Western Europe over water route since the seventeenth
century.
During the Ming Qing dynasties and the early stage of the Republic of China, the
tea and horse caravan trails formed a communication network from the Southwest
China, Yunan, Sichun, to Tibet and to South Asia. Chinese tea was spread to Tibet and
to South Asia by those old roads of the traveling merchant.
Chinese tea had been spread to the world, by collies, by horses, by oxcarts, by
camels, by bamboo rafts, by clippers, by steamships for a long history~ thus, tea is
become one of the three big beverages in the world.