Green Tea Ancient Chinese History
September 15, 2008
Tea in general can be followed back up to and over 4000 years into deep Chinese history. Rumor has it that a Chinese leader named Sheng Nong was out looking for medicine. He sat down below a tea tree and began to boil water for the night. Some tea leaves fell into his pot and it began to brew. Sheng Nong drank the tea and was astounded. He added tea to his list of herbs with medicinal qualities.
During the Han dynasty, tea was more of a common beverage than a medicine or offering. Buddhist monks began to cultivate tea around their monasteries and the tea trade (during the Ming dynasty) began to grow and take the majority of all trade going in and coming out of China.
A monk visited Japan in the 6th century, and he brought tea with him. Japan then began to cultivate it’s own tea. Europe received it’s first look at tea when a Portuguese missionary brought the product over. The trade and contact between China and the rest of the world grew. During the Ching dynasty, the trade basically spiked. In less than 100 years, England increased tea imports from 100 pounds a year to 5 million pounds a year, 50,000 times the original. China was constantly sending ships full of tea to England.
During this tea trade, porcelain also came to the forefront of massive trade. The English used lead and sulfur to trade for tea. These two materials also served as ballasts for the ships. After trading away the ballasts, the English sought a new product that weighed just as much and was cheap. Porcelain was the answer. Porcelain is made of clay, and the Chinese had plenty of clay. China sent tea and porcelain back to England for every ship run.