Although the history of wine is older than tea, tea is a world drink that originated in China and has endured for a long time. "If you ask the gentleman in the drink, who is it?" Elegant and popular only tea. "Seven things to open the door of ordinary people's lives: chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea; Literati and scholars also have seven things: qinqi calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine and tea. The common intersection between the two is tea.
The first person to drink tea was not Lu Yu, who wrote the Tea Classic in the Tang Dynasty, but shennong who tasted hundreds of herbs. The legendary Shennong clan, in order to teach the public to understand the hundred grasses, so they used their own body experiments as white rats to see which grasses can be used as drugs to save people, and what characteristics? It is said that he often turned blue from poisoning because of eating herbs every day. Fortunately, he has a special medicine, that is, "荼", I did not write a typo Oh, it is this "荼", in fact, he is the earliest name of "tea".
Tea also has other names, such as "槚", "蔎", "Tea" and "荈", as well as "Di Annoyance" and "No Night" are all other names of tea.
Shennong, who is in a state of poisoning almost every day, eats tea to detoxify, has a miraculous therapeutic effect, and the ancient writing is very exaggerated, saying that he is poisoned 72 times a day, in fact, this is just to emphasize that he was poisoned many times. Until he ate the "Broken Intestinal Grass", even the magical green leaves could not save his life, and he cried out and died. Fortunately, the broken intestinal grass can cure the poison of the love flower, so that Yang Guo can meet the little dragon girl sixteen years later (see Jin Yong Divine Eagle Hero for details) story....
The earliest wild tea plant was found in a primeval forest in Yunnan, five or six thousand years of history, some people say that it is not in Yunnan in Hangzhou, anyway, Chinese found the wild tea tree of the camellia family, and took it as a medicine, after the Tang Dynasty gradually developed into a drink, but also developed a tea ceremony, this is an indisputable fact. But the British disagreed, believing that tea was produced in Assam, India, and that India was the home of tea.
In fact, the British have ulterior motives, because since the import of tea into Britain in the 18th century, British high society has begun to be madly obsessed with tea. They tried to steal tea trees or seeds from China, and then went to the colonies to plant them, and as a result, they were successfully planted in Assam, India, and just when the officers and soldiers found wild tea trees, they began to make up history, to squeeze the historical status of tea, and squeeze China down into India. In order to obtain the benefits of tea, the British even sold opium to China, poisoning the health of Chinese.
The British interpreted the Opium War as: the trade war, this war over tea, actually changed China, which is really far-reaching!
Tea was first used in China:
Why are there six types of Chinese tea? Combine history and production to distinguish
China has endowed tea with a deep culture:
Opened up by Lu Yu's "Tea Classic", the development of Chinese tea culture and tea art is explained in detail in five stages
The development of Chinese and foreign tea tasting:
A Brief History of Tea: Originated in China and Developed into the World
Those things that the tea trade exchanges:
A slice of Chinese tea on the world A pot of English tea sparked two wars
One. Origin of the tea tree
When did the tea plant originate? According to the plant taxonomy method to trace the roots, through a series of analysis and research by botanists in the world, it is concluded that the camellia plants belonging to the tea plant originated in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Lauya Paleocontinental from the Upper Cretaceous to the Cenozoic Tertiary Period, and have a history of 60 million to 70 million years.
Two. The origin of the tea plant
(1) China is the origin of tea plants
China was the first country to discover and utilize tea plants, known as the motherland of tea. Written records show that our ancestors began to cultivate and utilize tea plants more than 3,000 years ago. However, as with the origin of any species, the origin and existence of tea must have been hundreds or even tens of millions of years before humans discovered and exploited tea plants. The experience of human tea use has also been passed down from generation to generation, slowly expanding from local areas, and then gradually being documented. With the development of research technology and the continuous discovery of ancient tea plant communities, people have gradually reached a consensus: China is the origin of tea plants, and confirmed that southwest China (including Yunnan. Guizhou. Sichuan) is the center of the origin of tea plants.
(ii) Controversy over the origin of tea plants
Originating in China, the tea plant has been recognized by the world since ancient times. But in 1824, British Major R. Bruce discovered wild large tea plants in the Mountains of Sadiya, Assam Province, India, and published an article in the world-famous magazine Nature, arguing that India is the origin of tea plants. Bruce's assertion immediately caused an inexplicable debate in international academic circles about the origin of the tea plant, which led to different origin hypotheses of the origin of the tea plant.
1. Chinese origin theory
After the distribution of tea plants. Variation. A large number of investigations and studies on the relationship between the evolution of tea characters and the comparison of tea pronunciation in various countries in the world, mainland scholars and the vast majority of scholars in other countries believe that China is the origin of tea plants, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, Japanese scholars Professor Shimura Qiao and Professor Hashimoto Shigeru from the perspective of cytogenetics and morphology, from the southeast of China to Taiwan. From Hainan Tea District to Myanmar. Thailand. A comprehensive systematic analysis of tea plants in the major tea regions of India was carried out. Comparison and results suggest that the origin of the tea plant is in Yunnan, China. The Sichuan generation of scholars who supported this doctrine included the Indian botanists Dr. Wallich and Griffich, the American scholars J.M. Walsh and A. Wilson, the Soviet (now Russian) scholars E. Brelsehncder and Kimhard, and the French scholar Kinnear.
2. Indian origin theory
In 1824, Major R. Bruce in India found a large tea tree about 13 m in height and nearly 1 m in diameter in the Sadiya Mountains of Assam Province, on the border of northeastern India and Burma, and asserted that India was the origin of tea. The hypothesis was followed by the British botanist S.baidond, J.H. Blake, E.A. Brown, A. lbbetson, and the Japanese scholar Shigeru Kato.
3. Two Sources (native to China and India)
In 1919, the Dutch botanist Cohen. Dr. Cohen Stuart proposed that the large-leaf tea plant originated in the eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau of China (including Sichuan. Yunnan), as well as Vietnam. Myanmar. Thailand. In places such as Assam, India, the small-leaf tea plant is native to the theory of eastern and southeastern China.
4. Multi-source theory (tea producing countries with wild raw tea originating in Southeast Asia)
In 1935, the American scholar William H. W.H. Wkers put it in his Book of Tea: "Wherever natural conditions favour the growth of tea leaves, it is the place of origin." Northern Thailand. East Myanmar. Vietnam. Yunnan, China. India, Assam and other places, climate. Soil. The amount of rainfall is very suitable for the growth and breeding of tea plants, all of which are origins, and thus form a center of gravity of origin.
5. Unnamed High Say (native to India. Unnamed highlands on the border between Myanmar and China)
In 1974, the British T. Eden proposed that tea is neither simply native to China nor simply to India, but originates in a fan-shaped center of the upper Irrawaddy River, that is, the Jiangxin slope of Myanmar or the territory of Yunnan and Tibet further north of China.
The debate in the international academic community about the origin of tea plants lasted for more than a century, until April 1993 at the "Symposium on the Conservation of Ancient Tea Plants in China" held in Pu'er City (formerly Simao City) in Yunnan Province, where a number of scientists from all over the world systematically analyzed and compared ancient tea trees in Yunnan based on the theories of biological evolution and genetic variation. The ancient tea garden and other countries and regions of the tea plant cell chromosome situation, unanimously believe that yunnan tea plant cell chromosomes have the most primitive characteristics, deservedly be the origin of tea plants, tea scholars on the origin of tea plants controversy has only landed.
(3) Origin of tea plants
In recent decades, tea experts and botanists around the world have changed from tree species and geology. From different perspectives such as climate change, the origin of tea plants has been analyzed and demonstrated in more detail and in depth, further proving the origin of tea plants in the southwest region of the mainland. The main arguments are as follows:
1. Analysis and examination of the natural distribution of tea plants
At present, there are 23 genera and more than 380 species of camellia plants found, while there are 15 genera and more than 260 species in the mainland, and most of them are distributed in Yunnan. Guizhou and Sichuan. There are more than 100 species of camellia that have been discovered, and most of them are distributed in Yunnan. Guizhou and Sichuan. There are more than 100 species of camellia that have been discovered, and there are more than 60 species in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, of which tea plant species occupy the most important position. From a botanical point of view, the center of origin of many genera is concentrated in a certain area, which indicates that the region is the birthplace of this flora. Theaceae. The high concentration of camellia plants in the southwest region of the mainland shows that the southwest region of the mainland is the birthplace of camellia plants, and it is the birthplace of tea.
2. Analysis and verification of geological changes
Geologically, tea plants have differentiated from the genus Camellia before the Ice Age, when the Himalayas were still sunk to the bottom of the sea. In contrast, the southwestern part of the continent (Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau) is less affected by glaciers, and the mountains in the region are undulating and the river valleys are crisscrossed, resulting in the formation of many small geomorphological areas and microclimate zones. The difference between low latitude and altitude leads to large differences in climate, so that the tea plants that originally grew here are slowly distributed in the tropics. In different climatic types such as subtropical and temperate zones, the intraspecific variation of tea plants has led to the development of tropical and subtropical large-leaf and medium-leaf tea plants, as well as temperate mid-leaf and small-leaf tea plants. Botanists believe that the place where a species has the most variation is the center of the origin of the species. The three southwestern provinces of the mainland are the most varied tea plants in the mainland. The most resourceful place is when it is the center of the origin of the tea plant.
3. Analysis and examination of the evolutionary type of tea plant
From the perspective of the theory of the origin of species, as Darwin said: "Every species has its center of origin". In the long history of its phylogenetic development, tea plants have always tended to evolve continuously. Therefore, where the original tea plants are more concentrated, it is the origin of the tea plants. The three southwestern provinces of the mainland and its adjacent areas of wild large tea trees have the morphological characteristics and biochemical characteristics of the original tea plants, and also have the largest number of wild large tea trees. The area with the highest concentration. This proves that the southwestern region of the continent is the heartland of the tea plant's origin.
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