Tea: Its History and Mystery

The history of Tea is intimately bound up with that of China, that is, so far as the Western world is concerned, its production and consumption being for centuries confined to that country. But, having within the past two centuries become known and almost indispensable as an article of diet in every civilized country of the globe, it cannot but prove interesting to inquire into the progress, properties and effects of a commodity which could have induced so large a portion of mankind to abandon so many other articles of diet in its favor, as well as the results of its present enormous consumption.

Although now to be found in a wild state in the mountain-ranges of Assam, and in a state of cultivation through a wide range from India to Japan, the original country of Tea is not definitely known, but from the fact of its being in use in China from the earliest times it is commonly attributed to that country. Yet though claimed to have been known in China long anterior to the Christian era, and even said to have been mentioned in the Sao-Pao, published 2700 B. C., and also in the Rye, 600 B. C., the exact date or manner of its first discovery and use in that country is still in doubt. One writer claims that the famous herb was cultivated and classified in China 2000 B. C., almost as completely as it is to-day, and that it was used as a means of promoting amity between Eastern monarchs and potentates at this early period. Chin-Nung, a celebrated scholar and philosopher, who existed long before Confucius, is claimed to have said of it: “Tea is better than wine, for it leadeth not to intoxication, neither does it cause a man to say foolish things and repent thereof in his sober moments. It is better than water, for it doth not carry disease; neither doth it act as a poison, as doth water when the wells contain foul and rotten matter,” and Confucius admonishes his followers to: “Be good and courteous to all, even to the stranger from other lands. If he say unto thee that he thirsteth give unto him a cup of warm Tea without money and without price.”

A Chinese legend ascribes its first discovery to one Darma, a missionary, famed throughout the East for his religious zeal, who, in order to set an example of piety to his followers, imposed on himself various privations, among which was that of forswearing sleep. After some days and nights passed in this austere manner, he was overcome and involuntarily fell into a deep slumber, on awakening from which he was so distressed at having violated his vow, and in order to prevent a repetition of allowing “tired eyelids to rest on tired eyes,” he cut off the offending portions and flung them to the ground. On returning the next day, he discovered that they had undergone a strange metamorphosis, becoming changed into a shrub, the like of which had never been seen before. Plucking some of the leaves and chewing them he found his spirits singularly exhilarated, and his former vigor so much restored that he immediately recommended the newly discovered boon to his disciples.