According to legend,
over 5,000 years ago in China, there was
a divine farmer named Shen Nong. One of
the noble figures of Chinese mythology,
he taught people agricultural and medicinal
practice. One day, he sat beneath a tree
and was ready to taste herbs, his servant
began to boil drinking water. By chance,
some dry leaves dropped from a tree into
the water. It tasted a little bitter,
and the water looked slightly yellowish,
but it refreshed him. The tree turned
out to be a wild tea tree.
Buddhist legends
have another story. Once Bodhidharma stayed
in a cave-temple outside Nanjing, where
he practiced meditation. One day as he
meditated, he felt sleepy. He cut off
his eyelids in an attempt to keep himself
awake; and to his surprise, tea plants
sprang up from the ground where he had
tossed the severed eyelids. Later, he
used these leaves to brew tea to help
him stay awake for meditation.
