2023-07-10 06:00:03
Switzerland is a hub for commodity trading. Did you know that this activity represents 4% of Swiss GDP, and even 22% of tax revenue for the canton of Geneva. This week, focus on tea.
We will look at three tea legends (China, India, Japan). Then we will discuss the history of tea. We will see that tea was born in China. This gives us the opportunity to admire a painting by an unknown author, dating from 1825, representing the production of tea in southern China, showing the plantations, the manufacture and the sale to Dutch traders, National Museum of Denmark.
The history of tea finds its origin in a Chinese discovery.
Chinese legend
A myriad of legends surround the birth of tea.
According to Chinese legend, it was in 2737 BC that Emperor Shen Nung, “the divine healer”, an expert in botany, discovered tea by chance while sitting under a plant, drinking boiling water and a leaf of the plant fell into his cup. The emperor is said to have tasted the infusion and enjoyed its taste so much, finding it extremely invigorating and refreshing, that he immediately ordered its cultivation throughout China.
Indian legend
An Indian legend circulates and confers the invention of tea in Bodhidharmathe founder of the Chang School in China.
This Buddhist monk fell asleep in front of a wall after nine years of meditation. When he woke up, he felt so guilty that he cut his eyelids and threw them on the ground never to sleep again, giving birth to tea trees.
Japanese legend
The Japanese legend is a bit different.
Prince Dharma, exhausted, dozes off after three years of travel. When he woke up, guilty of his weakness, he cut his eyelids and threw them to the ground.
He came back a few years later to the same place and found that a tree he had never seen before was growing where he had thrown his eyelids. Intrigued, he tasted the leaves and realized he could keep his eyes open.
The tree was a tea bush. He spoke about it to those around him, who then got into the habit of cultivating tea in the places where he passed.
Between 770 and 780, Lu Yu rédige Cha Jing (Classic Tea). This treatise is the oldest and most important in the world on the cultivation, processing, preparation and tasting of tea. Tools and rituals are also discussed.
Origin of tea: China 2500 BC.
The history and origins of tea are very old. The country of origin of tea is actually China and the first uses of this plant date back to around 2500 BC.
Originally, the plant was not used for recreational purposes, but for medicinal purposes: the leaves were chopped, ground and eaten. In fact, tea mostly had antimicrobial and antibiotic properties, which is why ancient people in southern China used it. And that’s where the tea comes from, from southern China. The area we know today as Yunnan is one of the hotbeds from which tea later began to spread to North China, thanks to the emigration of Chinese people from the South to the North.
For a very long time, the use of tea and its cultivation have remained the exclusive prerogative of the Chinese population who have embarked on crafts around this plant. For example, the creation of porcelain teapots, cups and a whole series of handicrafts are the exclusive property of the Chinese. These creations were also made to please the emperor.
Indeed, it was the emperors themselves who prided themselves on the use and consumption of tea leaves and owned the finest leaves and harvests, which were sent directly to the imperial court.
The expansion of tea thanks to the monks and its arrival in Japan
For a very long time, until 800 – 900 AD, tea was only consumed in China. It was only with the arrival of Buddhist monks from India that tea began to develop. The wanderings of Buddhist monks who arrived in China allowed them to learn about this plant and to be fascinated by its properties. Tea notably allowed monks to stay awake during long meditations.
The leaves and seeds of the plant were introduced to Japan in the year 1000.
Tea production in southern China
Above, you can admire an 1825 painting, by an unknown artist, representing the production of tea in southern China, depicting the plantations, the manufacture and the sale to Dutch traders, which is kept in the National Museum from Denmark.
The table shows tea production in southern China. On the slopes, the leaves are picked, sorted, dried and roasted. Below left, two Danish traders are seen buying the tea, which is then packed into boxes and transported to the waiting merchant ships. The Dutch were the first to introduce tea to Western Europe, first as a medicine, but healthy people quickly learned to appreciate its taste. Teahouses sprung up in European cities, and tea drinking became so popular that it made up most of the cargo on ships that traded with China.
In the same series, “Raw materials and art”:
Cereals and Van Gogh Coffee and culture Cotton and Edgar Degas Cocoa and Luis Meléndez Sugar and Sartre Copper and Chardin Steel and Gayle Hermick Maize and Jean Mortel Biogas and Victor Hugo Hydrogen and the globe aerostatic The wind, Da Vinci and Monnet The sun and Firedrich Gold and Klimt Barley and antiquity Soy and Seikei Zusetsu Aluminum and Jule Verne Rice and Morimura Gitō Money and the Elblag museum Tin and Jean Treck Oats and Géricault Milk and Vermeer Water and Renoir Potatoes and Millet Lapis lazuli and the Scrovegni chapel in Padua Honey and Pierre de Cosimo Sorbet and the Ottoman sorbet seller Spices and the Moluccas Marble and the Venus de Milo The olive tree and the painter of Antimenes The paper and a woodcut from the Tiangong Kaiwu The wool and Jakob Jordaens The vanilla and the Florentine codex
Sources :
The history of tea – Cure-Naturali.it
History of tea – Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
History of tea (larouteduthe.com)
Lu Yu and the writing of the Classique du Thé (terre-des-thes.fr)
Origins and History of Tea: A 4500 Years Story (terzaluna.com)
Photo credit : The National Museum, CC BY-SA 3.0via Wikimedia Commons
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