Tea classics


This article is about historical treatises on tea.
Tea as a beverage was first consumed in China. The earliest extant mention of tea in literature is the Classic of Poetry, although the ideogram used in these texts can also designate a variety of plants, such as sowthistle and thrush.
Chinese literature contains a significant number of ancient treatises on tea. Together, there exist approximately one hundred monographs or treatises on tea published from the Tang dynasty through the end of the Ming dynasty. The more famous books on tea are listed below.

Chinese

Tang Dynasty

Eisai came to Tiantai mountain of Zhejiang to study Chan Buddhism ; when he returned home in 1193 AD, he brought tea from China to Japan, planted it and wrote the first Japanese treatise on tea, called Kissa yojoki. This was the beginning of tea cultivation and tea culture in Japan.

Modern Chinese