Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1891-12-25
Legend Ascribes It's First Use to the
Chinese Monarch, King
Shen Nung.
Chinese Annals Claim 1t Was Guilt
waited at Least 1000
Years B. c.
NJ Other Drink, Except Water and
Milk. Can Show Longer
History.

By whom and when the uses IF tea for
drinking purposes was first discovered is
lost in antiquity. The famous herb is
as 1000 B. c., at which time it was cult
waited and classified almost as completely
as today.
One ancient legend says that its virtues
were discovered by accident by a Chinese
monarch, KING Shen Nung, The Divine
Husbandman, who fourisLed forty GEN.
turtles ago, and WHO, in boiling water over
fire made from the tea branches on
which the leaves still hung, allowed some
of the latter to fall into the pot. During
the reign of King Shen Nung She (2737 to
1896 B. c. he not only discovered the
curative virtues of plants, but also first
fashioned timber into plows and taught
the people the art of husbandry and lnstl-
tuted the practice Of holding markets for
the exchange o. commodities.
Tea was highly esteemed in nearly every
Asiatic city near the sea, and was used as
a royal gift from the Chinese monarchs
and great merchants to the potentates of
the east. To the rajahs of Handy, the
sultans of Ceylon, the shcguns and dalm-
los Of Japan carefully selected samples of
the leaves, packed in precious boxes, were
sent with great regularity. Some must
have been presents worthy of a crown.
| One Of them is thus recorded: ''lt
weighed 40 cattie8 (about so pounds) and
each leaf was perfect in color, size and
age The leaves were divided into par
cells of FIVE maces each IA little over half
an ounce), and each parcel was wrapped
in pure silver foil. This was wrapped in
turn in thin white paper and put iuto a
little bag of bright colored silk. A hun
dred bags were placed in porcelain jar,
whose lid was securely fastened and sealed
and each jar was protected by box of
camphor wood, trimmed with silver
hinges and ornaments.
In the list of princes to whom these
presents were made are many whose lden-
| tlty would be otherwise lost to history.
From the old writings many curious facts
are thus obtained. Among other things
it would seem that Corea, to-day more
dead than alive, was at one time formid-
able power, military and naval; that the
Japanese at long intervals changed from
peaceable neighbors into mafuaders and
free-booters worthy Of Sir Walter Raleigh,
Frobisher and Drake; that Manipur, AS
sam, Burmah and Tong Kwin at various
epochs we're strong beligerent communi-
ties in the far east; that Cambodia and
Cochin-China were pcpulous, rich and
warlike civilizations, where now the tiger
prowls and the serpent glides; that the
island of Ceylon was the scene of brilliant
and brave dynasties, which followed one
another like the waves on the shore, and
at times the Tartar nomads who live to
the north, northeast aud west of Asia,
were gathered into great armies and ma
tions by unknown Tamerlanes and Zenghls
Khanns.
The presents of tea from the Flowery
Kingdom to kingly neighbors are humble
monuments to the crash Of dYnastles and
umpires. Before the time of COnfuclus it
had supplanted every other fluid for as
suaging thirst. Its sanitary excellence
was appreciated by Shen Kung, 2ele-
brated scholar and philosopher, who said:
"Tea is better than wine, for il leadeth
not to intoxication; neither does it cause
a man to do foolish things and repent
thereof In his sober moments. 1t Is better
than water, for it doth not carry disease,
neither doth it act as a poison as doth
water when the wells contain foul or rot
ten matter.
That its use was universal is borne out
by one of the maxims of Confucius, the
wisest man of China, when he said: 'Be
good and courteous to all, even to the
stranger from other lands. If he say unto
thee that he thirsteth give unto him a cup
of warm tea without mopey and without
price"
at the time of Buddha China was en-
joying large foreign commerce In tea.
1t was carried by her junks to Japan
n,1,., RI1r
NAH, Siam, India, Ceylon. Persia, and
Arabia According to one record 1T was
sent to a great fat river country west of
Arabia, from which it was separated by
long and very torrid sea, which must have
been Egypt. 1t was carried by caravans
to Manehuria, Mongolia, Kuldjah, Tar
tarv. Thibet, Persia and Northern India
This commerce fourished during CEN
fury and eliminated in the dynasties of
Hung Tung and Tung Chi about 1900
A. D.
From this time there was slow but
steady decline to the reign of the present
sovereign. Kwang-Hsu. In the past 20
years tie decline has been something terri
BILE, the trade to-day being scarcely one
quarter of what it was in 1870. The out
look is not promising TO the tea planter
and patriot In any respect. In every dist
riot the INDUSTRY IS o. the verge of bank
ruptcy. The demand from abroad yearly
diminishoe. The people themselves are tax
ing to other beverages, which in the form
er years of prosperity was a mere tride,
now threatens utter extinction of the
trade
There are many interesting facts to be
CLEANED from the old books in relation TO
the tea trade. There is no doubt, for ex-
ample, that China was far more liberal In
her commercial policy when ruled by her
own PEOPLE than she was after the Man
chu conquest in A. D. 1641. Before that
time are many illusions to trades and mer-
chants from various countries and to the
expectation Of goods of all sorts | find
references to bronze works and porcelains
from Japan, weapons and pottery from
Corea, cloths and other woven tissues from
Indo- Chinese territories and ivory and tor
toise she'll from Ceylon and Arabia. The
transactions were upon large scale and
required quite large navy of iunks and
cargo boats. In several insurnces are re-
ferepces which can only be examined by
the theory that the mercantile classes of
the east had established some system of
marine insurance.
After the Manchu conquest there is
verv greah change. Foreign trade seems
TO drop out of existence, as it were, and
foreign traders lose all status. This con-
dition of affairs continues for nearly two
centuries. In reading between the lines
of the tea trade the most striking fact is
the profound change wrought in Chinese
life bv the influence of Europe and espec-
iaIly the European steamer of the presnnt