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Tea drinking prospered in the Tang Dynasty.
As it became more and more popular, the
way of the drinking varied. Before that
time, people were not particular about
their tea drinking. They drank tea to
quench their thirsty and for medical purposes.
Beginning with the Tang Dynasty, however,
people tended to have more delicate tea
tastes and went through a rather complicated
process in tea drinking. Usually one went
through several stages before drinking.
The first stage was to select tea; the
second was to choose excellent tea cups
and cooking utensils; the third was to
prepare charcoal; the fourth was to get
water; the fifth was to bake the chosen
tea; the sixth was to grind it; the seventh
was to boil the tea; and the final stage
was to drink the tea. People thought that
the taste would be better by going through
the above procedures. They also took great
care about water. The best water was from
mountain, the worst from well.
At that time, Lu Yu published The Book
of Tea, the first book about tea in China.
There also appeared anther book Supplement
to the History of the Tang Dynasty, which
talked about tea from Mt, Mengding in
Sichuan Province. This book says, “the
local people have a custom of entertaining
their guests with good tea. High quality
tea falls into several different types,
ranked first by taste and scent.”
This
article by Yang Tianqing and Daniel Kister.
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