Tea in China can be divided into six categories: green tea, black tea, white tea, oolong tea, yellow tea and black tea.

1. Green tea: divided into fried green tea, baked green tea, sun-dried green tea and steamed green tea. Among them, West Lake Longjing, Huangshan Mao Feng, Lu 'an Guapian, Taiping Houkui, Biluochun, Enshi Yulu, Xinyang Maojian Tea, Anji White Tea and Nanjing Yuhua Tea are among the best green teas.

Fried green tea includes tea products such as Zhenmei, Gong Xi, Yucha, Needle Eyebrow, Xiumei, Bamboo Tea, Yucha, Xiumei, Mengding Gan Lu, Longjing, Dafang, Biluochun, Yuhua Tea, Manna and Pine Needle. Fried green tea includes Sichuan fried green tea, Suzhou fried green tea, Zhejiang fried green tea, Huizhou fried green tea, Fujian fried green tea, Mao Feng tea, Taiping Monkey Kui tea and Huading Wuyun tea. Sun-dried green tea includes Sichuan green tea, Yunnan green tea and Shaanxi green tea. Steamed green tea includes fried tea, jade dew and other tea leaves.

2, black tea: divided into small black tea, kung fu black tea, red broken tea. Among them, Zhengshan Race, Jin Junmei, Qimen Black Tea, Yunnan Dianhong, Tan Yang Kung Fu, Zhenghe Kung Fu, Berlin Kung Fu, Chuanhong Kung Fu and other high-quality teas.

Ethnic black tea includes tea products such as Masayama ethnic group and Waishan ethnic group. Kung Fu black tea includes Dianhong, Hong Min, Hong Hu, Chuanhong, Yue Hong, Hong Xiang and Yue Hong. Red broken tea includes tea products such as leaf tea, broken tea, slice tea and end tea.

3, white tea: divided into bud tea, leaf tea. Tea products in white tea include Baihao Yinzhen, Bai Mudan, Shoumei, Gongmei, and new technology white tea.

Among them, bud tea includes tea products such as Baihao Yinzhen. Leaf tea includes Bai Mudan, Shoumei, Gongmei, new technology white tea and other teas.

4. Oolong tea, also known as green tea, is divided into northern Fujian oolong, southern Fujian oolong, Guangdong oolong and Taiwan Province oolong. Among them, high-quality tea such as Dahongpao, Tieguanyin, Narcissus, Cinnamon, Fenghuang Danzong and Frozen Top Oolong do not contain oolong tea.

Oolong tea in northern Fujian includes tea products such as Dahongpao, Narcissus, Cinnamon, Banriyao, Lan Qi and Baxian. Minnan Oolong Tea includes Tieguanyin, Lan Qi, Narcissus and Huang Jingui. Guangdong Wulong Fenghuang Danzong, Fenghuang Narcissus, Lingtou Danzong and other tea products. Oolong tea in Taiwan Province Province includes frozen top oolong tea, Baozhong tea and other tea products.

5. Yellow tea: including yellow bud tea, yellow small tea and yellow tea. Among them, Junshan Silver Needle, Huoshan Yellow Bud, Mengding Yellow Bud, Wanxi Huang Da Tea, Guangdong Dayeqing, Beigang Maojian, Weishan White Cat and Pingyang Tanghuang are all high-quality teas in yellow tea.

Yellow bud tea includes Junshan Yinzhen, Huoshan Huangya and Mengding Huangya. Huangxiaocha includes Beigang Maojian Tea, Weishan Baimaojian Tea, Yu Anan Luyuan Tea, Wanxi Huangxiaocha and Pingyang Tanghuang Tea. Huang Da tea includes Huang Da tea in western Anhui, Dayeqing tea in Guangdong and Haima tribute tea in Guizhou.

6. Black tea: including Hunan black tea, Sichuan black tea, yunnan black tea black tea and Hubei black tea. Among them, Anhua black tea, Ya 'an black tea, Pu 'er tea, Hubei old green tea, Sichuan edge tea and other tea products are high-quality tea products in black tea.

Hunan black tea includes Anhua black tea and other tea products. Sichuan black tea includes Chuanbian tea and other tea products. Yunnan black tea includes Pu 'er tea and other tea products. Hubei black tea includes Hubei old green tea and other tea products.

China has a long history of drinking tea, and the exact time cannot be verified, but there is a general statement about the time. We can also find evidence that the habit of drinking tea in many parts of the world was handed down from China. Therefore, many people think that drinking tea was initiated by China people, and the habit of drinking and growing tea in other parts of the world was passed down directly or indirectly from China.

However, some people can find evidence that the habit of drinking tea was invented not only in China, but also in other parts of the world, such as India and Africa. 1823, a major of the British invading army discovered wild tea trees in India, so some people began to believe that tea originated in India, at least in India. Of course, there are records of wild tea trees in China, all of which are concentrated in the southwest, and some areas in Gansu and Hunan are also recorded. Tea tree is a very old dicotyledonous plant, which is closely related to people's lives.

In China, there are also arguments about the earliest origin of tea trees, and there are several opinions. Today, many people believe that in Yunnan, a scholar, after careful research and textual research, asserted that Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province is the origin of tea trees. The earliest written records of artificially cultivated tea trees began with Mengshan tea in the Western Han Dynasty. This is recorded in Sichuan Tongzhi.

Actually, for those of us who drink tea, it doesn't matter where we are now. Maybe it has cultural significance. Let's take a look at some academic statements first:

There are different opinions about the origin of tea drinking. Generally speaking, there are pre-Qin theory, Western Han theory and Three Kingdoms theory.

(A) Pre-Qin theory

According to Shennong's Classic of Food, Lu Yu believes that tea drinking began in Shennong's era, and "tea is a drink, which originated from Shennongjia". (Tea Classic Six Drinks) Shennong, a native of jiyan, is the tribal leader of the ancient capital of China with the Yellow Emperor. However, Shen Nong Shi Jing was written according to the textual research of modern people. It is only a legend in history, not a belief. After the Han Dynasty, the ancient primitive society began to drink it.

A Qing people thought that "Qin people began to drink tea when they took Shu" (the road tea of the day). There is no direct evidence that tea drinking began in the Warring States period. Tea drinking in the pre-Qin period either originated from legends or was indirectly speculated, and there was no reliable material proof.

(B) The Three Kingdoms Theory

There is a saying in The Biography of the Three Kingdoms, Wu Shu Wei Yaochuan that "tea replaces wine". This kind of beverage that can replace wine is tea beverage, which is enough to prove that the court of Wu State has started drinking tea. On this basis, China's tea drinking began in the Three Kingdoms, while Lu thought it began in Wei and Jin Dynasties.

There is no doubt that drinking tea in Soochow during the Three Kingdoms period. But Dongwu tea drinking originated from Bashu, earlier than Dongwu. Therefore, tea drinking in China must be earlier than in the Three Kingdoms period.

(C) Western Han Dynasty theory

Hao Yixing in Qing Dynasty pointed out in "Prove Custom": "The method of drinking tea began at the end of Han Dynasty and sprouted before Han Dynasty." Every general in Sima Xiangru made a mistake. Wang Bao invited Wuyang to buy tea. Hao Yixing believed that tea drinking began in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and sprouted in the Western Han Dynasty.

In Tong Yue by Wang Bao, there are "tea making" and "Wuyang buying tea". It is generally believed that "tea" is tea, and Wuyang is now pengshan county, Sichuan, indicating that Sichuan was promoted to the title of emperor in the third year of the Western Han Dynasty (59 BC), and China drank tea no later than the first century BC.

We believe that tea drinking in China began in the Western Han Dynasty, but it was later than the consumption and medicinal use of tea. China people found that tea and Chaze were used as early as the Western Han Dynasty, even dating back to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties.

2. Tea drinking developed in the Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

China began to drink tea in the Western Han Dynasty, but in the Western Han Dynasty, China only drank tea in Sichuan. Sima Xiangru, Wang Bao and Yang Xiong, who recorded tea affairs in the Western Han Dynasty, were all Sichuanese. In the Han Dynasty, tea, as a specialty of Sichuan, first spread to Chang 'an, Kyoto, and gradually spread to the political, economic and cultural centers in northern areas such as Shaanxi and Henan. On the other hand, the tea drinking fashion in Sichuan has spread to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River along the waterway. From the Western Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms period, tea was a rare product enjoyed by the upper class outside Bashu. Drinking tea was limited to princes and ministers, and people probably seldom drank tea.

He Fasheng's Book Promotion in Jinzhong in the Southern Song Dynasty: "When Lu Na was in the first place, General Xie An of Wei often wanted to accept it. When ... he arrived, he only placed tea fruits." Liu Kun and his brother in the Western Jin Dynasty wrote a book about the history of Zhou Nan: "I am bored in my body. I am always false and true, which is trustworthy." Jin Zuosi's "Nv Jiao Poetry Talk" includes: "Don't be a tea show, blow your own horn". During the Southern Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, Liu Yiqing wrote in his book A New Interpretation of Tianxia Language: Twenty-six: "Teacher Chu crossed the river first. ..... stab the left and right with tea juice. " Another article "Wrong 34" contains: "Ask who, this is tea for tea." In the Jin Dynasty, in the south of the Yangtze River, "people made food and drank", and tea was popular among literati and folk.

Xiao Zixian, Liang of the Southern Dynasties, wrote "Biography of the Southern Book Emperor Wu Di": "I am careful not to sacrifice." Only cakes, tea, dry rice and wine are served. "Biography of Buddhism and Taoism": "Yao, surnamed Yang, is from Hedong. ..... trailer, tea in the dining room. " Song Lu: "Prince Luan of Xin 'an, Prince Shangyi of Zhang Yu, Taoist of Bagongshan, Taoist set tea. Zi Shang said, "This is manna, so there is no need to drink tea." . In the story of Luoyang in the late Wei Dynasty, the temple in the south of the city said: "(Wang) Su Chu entered the country and did not eat mutton and cheese. Often eat crucian carp soup and thirst for tea juice. "... when I was a cop in Liu Gao, I was fascinated by the wind in Su Mu and drank tea. Wu Ji, written by the Southern Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, includes "Wu Cheng Wen Tong Inner Court" and "Changxing pecks at the wood cen, where every year, the satrap of two counties has a tea banquet and a pavilion." During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, emperors and princes, literati and literati were well informed, and tea style was stronger than gold. Wuxing has a royal tea garden. During the tea-picking season, a satrap banquet was held in the second county, probably made by the governor and presented to the court.

Third, the custom of drinking tea became in the middle Tang Dynasty.

In the mid-Tang Dynasty, Feng performed Wen Jian Ji (Volume 6), which recorded a cup of tea: "Southerners love to drink, but northerners don't drink much at first. During the kaiyuan period, there were demon-falling masters and Daxing Zen in Lingyan Temple in Taishan. Don't sleep or eat at night, let them drink tea. People cherish chivalry, cook and drink everywhere, and then follow suit, thus becoming a custom. ..... So the tea ceremony became popular and all the princes and ministers drank it. ..... It is almost a custom to race at night when you are poor, starting in the middle of the country and flowing outside the Great Wall. " Yan Feng believed that Zen promoted the formation of tea drinking in the north. After the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, the "tea ceremony" prevailed in China, and the wind of drinking tea permeated the ruling and opposition parties, and it became a custom to "fight against the night" and "flow beyond the Great Wall".

In the late Tang Dynasty, Huayang's "Chef's Handling Records" recorded: "Between Kaiyuan and Tianbao, there was a little tea; There are many virtues and great calendars, and it will prosper after the establishment of China. "Lu Yu's" Tea Classic Cloud "also said:" When you are immersed in customs, you think it is better than drinking in the house. "Huayang believes that tea originated in Xuanzong period, and became more and more popular in Suzong and Daizong periods, and became popular after Dezong. The first draft of Lu Yu's Tea Classic was written in the first year of Daizong Yongtai, and the final draft was written in the first year of Dezong Jianzhong. According to the Book of Tea, the wind of drinking tea spread to the people at that time, with Luoyang in the east and Chang 'an in the west. Hubei and Shandong were the most popular areas, and tea was regarded as a household drink.

Tea Classic, Feng Shiwen Ji Jian and Fu Shan Shou Lu have basically the same development and popularization of tea drinking. Before Kaiyuan, there was not much tea. After Kaiyuan, especially after Jianzhong (AD 780), all princes, ministers, scholars, farmers, workers and businessmen drank tea. Tea is consumed not only in the vast areas of the Central Plains, but also in the border minority areas. There are even tea shops, "from Zou, Qi, Pao and Li, and gradually to Jingyi City, open more shops and buy fried tea." Don't ask vulgar questions, throw money at drinks. "

"Old Tang Book" Li Yuchuan: "Tea is no different from rice and salt. It is given by people, and so are the customs near and far. Giving up is too timid, and it is hard to give up, especially in the fields. " Tea is as indispensable to people as rice and salt, and it is a special hobby for farmers in the field.

Fourth, drinking tea became popular after the Song Dynasty.

Tea drinking became more and more popular in Song and Tang Dynasties. Song Mei and Yao Chen's "Southern Family Ming Fu" says: "Hua Yi is a leopard, who drinks all day and is insatiable, rich and poor, and sometimes drinks it all at once. Hao Song's self-grazing "Meng Lianglu" Volume 16 "Op" contains: "Those who can't afford to cover others every day, rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar tea. Since the Song Dynasty, tea has become one of the "seven things" to open the door. The preface of Song Huizong and Evonne's "Daguan Tea Theory" said: "A gentleman, like Webb, Mu Gao, Xiu De, Yang Yazun, is engaged in drinking tea. Gu, who is nearly ancient and rare, is carefully selected and meticulous, winning by quality and superb in cooking. "

Wu's "Journey in a Dream" Volume 16 "Tea Shop" Note: "Today's tea shops are arranged with flower stands, filled with exotic pines and flowers, decorated with storefronts, and sold with songs, only with porcelain lamps, and there will be no silver pots. There are also people in the night market who set up water shops in Tai Street and order tea and soup for sightseeing. Most teahouses have well-off children, and all departments get together to learn musical instruments and teach music, which is called "hanging the board". Human feelings tea shop, this is not for tea soup, but for this reason, find more tea golden ears. There is also a tea shop dedicated to the gathering place of slaves, and people from all walks of life borrow money to buy old people, which is called "market head". There are three or five tea shops on the main street, and there are prostitutes upstairs, which are called "night tea houses" ... This is no place for gentlemen to stop. There is also the Huangjianzui Qiuqiu Tea House next door to the store, and there is also a tea house in the Wangmu family in Zhongwan. The "Che 'er" tea house and the tea house to be inspected on the street are places where scholars and scholars meet and make friends. In the street and neighborhood, you have your own tea bottle to order tea along the door, or on the first day of the first month, in case of good or bad luck, you can send tea to the neighborhood to communicate with each other. Another first-class street official, a hundred soldiers, sent refreshments to the facade to spread mats and begged for money and things, which was called "dirty tea." "If a Buddhist monk wants to write an inscription, he should first send tea along the door, thinking that it is a step into the body." There are many tea shops in Lin 'an (now Hangzhou), the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, and not only the tea shops on earth. Scented tea house, night market, and people who buy some tea soup for sightseeing in Dongdan. Some carry tea bottles and order tea along the door, some send tea to the door to spread mats, and monks send tea along the door to prevent accidents. Tea plays an important role in society.

The birthplace of tea

The exploration of this point often focuses on the study of the birthplace of tea trees. There are several sayings about the birthplace of tea trees:

1. Southwest said: "Southwest China is the origin and birthplace of tea trees." This statement refers to a large range, so it is more accurate.

2. Sichuan said: Yanwu's "Rizhilu" in the Qing Dynasty: "After Qin people took Shu, they only had tea." The implication is that before Qin people came to Shu, drinking tea was known in Sichuan today. In fact, Sichuan is in the southwest, and Sichuan says it is established, so the southwest says it is established. Sichuan is more "accurate" than the southwest, but the risk of correctness will be greater.

3. Yunnan said: It can be completely considered that Xishuangbanna, Yunnan is the birthplace of tea trees, and this area is the kingdom of plants. However, there is a risk of "humanism" in this statement, because tea trees can be local, and Chaze is the result of activating labor.

4. East Sichuan and West Hubei said: Lu Yu's "Tea Classic": "Bashan Xia Chuan embraced each other." Bashan Gorge and Sichuan are now East Sichuan and West Hubei. There is no evidence that anyone has used such excellent tea trees in this area as tea.

5. Jiangsu and Zhejiang said: Recently, it was suggested that it started from the ancient Yue culture represented by Hemudu culture. At present, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are the most developed areas of tea industry in China. If history can take root here, it is a very meaningful topic.

In fact, I think there must be more than one place where tea trees originated naturally in ancient times. Where there are tea trees, the custom of drinking tea may not necessarily develop. As mentioned earlier, tea was invented by Shennong, so where does it live? If we find the intersection of "tea tree native place" and "Shennong activity place", we may have the answer, at least narrowing the scope of the answer.

Invent a method of drinking tea

How did humans invent the habit of drinking tea? Or how did tea originate? The study of this problem has always been a "basic problem" of tea science. Because as any tea scholar or tea worker, it is not enough if you can't even explain "how tea came from". Now there are many answers to this question:

According to this view, tea and other plants were originally used as sacrifices. Later, some people found that food was harmless, so "food was sacrificed, but food was used as medicine" and eventually became a drink.

Medicine says: this view holds that tea "originally entered human society as medicine." "Shennong Hundred Herbs Classic" wrote: "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs, and when he encountered seventy-two poisons every day, he was relieved by tea."

Eating: "The ancients drank water like grass", "People put food first", and eating first conforms to the evolutionary law of human society.

Synchronization said: "At first, tea may be used as a chewing food or as a baking food, and it is gradually consumed as a medicinal material." The comparison and accumulation of these ways will eventually develop into "drinking tea", which is the best way.

The most useless of the above statements is the fourth, which adds up the first three and becomes your own "foolproof" explanation. Perhaps this explanation is the most appropriate.

Now, we can think that tea has been recognized and used for a long time in China, as well as the cultivation and harvest of tea trees. However, it can also be verified that tea is widely used in all walks of life, probably after Lu Yu's Tea Classic was handed down in the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, there is a poem in the Song Dynasty that "since Lu Yu was born, the world has learned from each other's strengths and made spring tea". In other words, after the invention of tea, 1000 was not known to the public for many years.

Lu Yu listed Shennong, Zhou Gongdan, Yan Ying and other ancient tea men in China in the Book of Tea, indicating that China was the first country to discover and utilize tea. He quoted Shennong's "Food Classics" as saying: "The power of tea will make you happy for a long time", and he quoted Erya as saying: "Bitter tea; He quoted Yan Zi Chun Qiu as saying: "When the baby was in Qi Jinggong, he ate rice without millet, three elder brothers moxibustion, five eggs and tea." It can be seen that the pre-Qin tea affair in China has already begun. However, some scholars believe that the works cited by Lu Yu are all works of the Han Dynasty. And the Chinese nation originated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Although the ancient climate in northwest China was warmer, it never produced tea. How does Shennong achieve "taste a hundred herbs, encounter 72 poisons every day, and solve it with tea?" They think that the tea affair in China came too late, and foreigners used this mechanism to send tea from India to China. It was later discovered that there was no tea in ancient India.

As early as before the Qin and Han Dynasties, drinking tea was popular in Sichuan. In the Western Han Dynasty, tea was a specialty of Sichuan, which was once spread to Chang 'an, the capital of China, through tribute. It turns out that the eastern and western parts of Sichuan in ancient China were the birthplace of tea trees, and this was the earliest place where the Three Emperors and Five Emperors lived. Shennong is the leader of "Sanmiao" and "Jiuli" tribes. In Historical Records, Biography of Wuqi, Shuoyuan and other ancient books, there are records of "Sanmiao family, Hengshan Mountain in the south, Qishan Mountain in the north, Dongting slope in the left and Lipeng River in the right", which shows that Shennong tribe originated in the mountainous area of eastern Sichuan and western Hubei, which is today's Great Shennongjia area. In such an environment with lush vegetation and rich tea, Shennong is entirely possible to taste a hundred herbs. Later, these tribes moved north or east, and the northwest became the political center of China.

In Shun Di, the king was ceded to Dayu, and the political center of clan society moved to Dengfeng, Henan. A few years ago, the ruins of the Xia Dynasty were excavated in Wang Chenggang, where Dayu ascended the throne. This is not plain sailing. At the beginning, it controlled water along the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, flowed into the sea, and guided Tiaoxi, Yubuxi and Taihu Lake, thus defeating the flood. Later, it was defeated by Fang Feng and gradually went north. Shun Di learned that Dayu had made great contributions to water control, so he made way for him. However, the descendants of "Sanmiao" refused to accept it. Therefore, the Historical Records of the Five Emperors records that "Sanmiao was in chaos in Jianghuai and Jingzhou". Dayu managed the water in the south of the Yangtze River, and the history books also have evidence: after Qin Shihuang unified China, he once "visited Huiji to sacrifice Dayu", and when Sima Qian was twenty years old, he also "visited Huiji to explore Yu Cave." Therefore, there are Dayu relics in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province today. Yu Xia gave way to Bo Yi, the "general of all insects", but he seized power for his son Xia Qi, and his three sons, Taikang, Zhong Kang and Shao Kang, constantly competed for the throne. In the sixth generation of Yu, the political situation was unified and the national strength was strong. He led his troops south to seek roots, and went to Miao Feng in southern Zhejiang and Jindou in Shandong, so the mountain in this area is called Jue Mountain. At that time, there were some relics in Shannan, such as Wang Xia Village, a city that avoided it. After the Xia dynasty, after the eighth generation, the contract declined and disappeared, and the contract was established before the Shang dynasty.

It is not difficult to see from the existing historical data that tea production has lasted for several generations in the place where the "Sanmiao family" of clan society lived. For example, in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Liu Kun mentioned Anzhou (now Anlu, Hubei Province) in "Tea Purchase"; Lu Tongjun has Youyang (now Huangfengdong, Hubei) and Badong (Fengjie, Sichuan). Wuling (Changde, Hunan) is mentioned in Jingzhou Land Records. Rich in tea. According to the historical data of the Tang Dynasty, Jiangling, Nanzhang, Peng Jing, Anjing and Qionglai in Hubei are rich in tea. Among the eleven states with unknown tea quality mentioned in Lu Yu's Tea Classic, Ezhou is now Wuchang, Hubei. It can be seen that Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica records that "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs and encountered 72 poisons every day, and solved them with tea", which should have happened in the Central Plains of China. Even from the fact of drinking and selling tea recorded in Wang Bao Tong Yue, before the Han Dynasty, the cause of producing and utilizing tea in eastern Sichuan and western Hubei was quite developed. It is not difficult to imagine how long it will take from wild tea picking to artificial planting of tea trees, from self-sufficiency to "production, supply and marketing". Therefore, our ancestors have a long history of discovering and planting tea.