CHINESE CUSTOMS AND FOLKLORE

      It is said that distance causes difference. In the long history of China, different customs of drinking tea exist in different nation, different social milieu and natural environment, and for people of different age. Chinese tea custom lies in each realm of our life and society, dazzling with its spectacular, including its straightforwardness of Qing and Han Dynasty, its luxury of Tang and Song Dynasty, its coziness of Ming and Qing Dynasty, and especially its contemporary grandness.

        China is a multiracial country, built up by 56 nations of which each has its distinct custom of drinking tea for geographic, environmental, historic, and cultural difference, additionally for different life style. In practical life, the custom is even diverse in different region of the same nation. Yet it is a common point of view that tea is a healthy drink that presents chastity and friendship.

        There are numerous kinds of famous tea in our country, each containing a miraculous folk story. Do you know the history of Da-hong-pao, Tie-guan-yin and Bilouchun ? Have you ever heard the story of how shennong first found tea, how Luyu boiled tea, and how Emperor Qianlong nominated tea for imperial use? Indeed so many recorded historical anecdotes about tea matter catch our eye and supply us with significant thought. For example, people drink tea instead of wine in the Three-Kingdom; there is a story about the 40 beats to punish dissipation of people in kingdom Jin; Wang Anshi checked the water by making tea and then found the flaw made by Su Dongpo about the source of water; Emperor Zhu Yuanzhan of Min Dynasty beheaded his son-in-law because of tea smuggling; Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty rated water by measuring with silver container, and initiated the method of washing water by water.