The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1892-02-05
WHO DISCOVERED TEA?.
ITS FIRST USE AScRIBED TO
KING SHEN NUNG.
Spoken of in Chinese Annals as Far
Back a. 1000 b. C.-No Soft Drink
Has q Longer History Save
Water and Milk.


Has Longer History Save
Water and Milk.
By whom and when the use of tea
for drinking purposes was discovered
is lost in antiquity. The famous herb
is spoken of in Chinese annals as far
back as 2. 600 b c.. at which time it
was cultivated and classified almost as
completely as to-day.
One ancient legend says that its vir-
tues were learned by accident by a
Chinese monarch. King Shen Nung.
The Divine Husbandman, who
flourished forty centuries ago. and
who, in boiling water over a fire made
of 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 Gu
rative virtues of plants, but also first
fashioned timber into plows and
taught the people the arto husbandry
and instituted the practice of holding
markets for the exchange of comodi-
ties.
Tea was highly esteemed in nearly
every ancient Asiatic city near the
sea. and was used as a royal gift from
the Chinese mOnarchs and great mer-
chants to the potentates of the East
70 the rajahs of Handy the sultans of
Ceylon, the shoguns and daimios 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:
lit weighed forty catties (about fifty
pounds), and each leaf was perfect in
color. size and age. The leaves were
divided into parcels of five maces
each "a little over half an ounce), and
each parcel was wrapped in pure sill
yer foil. This was wrapped in turn in
thin white paper and put into little
bag of bright colored silk. A hum
dred bags were placed into porcelain
jar. whose lid was securely fastened
and sealed, and each jar was protected
by a box of camphor wood, trimmed
with silver hinges and ornaments
In the list of princes to whom these
presents are made are many whose
identity would be otherwise lost to
history. says the Philadelphia Times.
From the old writings many curious
facts are thus obtained. Among other
facts it would seem that Corea, to-day
more dead than alive. was at one time
a formidable power military and
naval; that the japanese at long inter-
walls changed from peaceable neighbors
into marauders and freebooters worthy
of Sir Walter Raleigh, Frobisher and
Drake; that Manipur Assam Burmah
and Tong Kwin ut various epocns
we're strong belligerent communities
in the far East; that Cambodia and
Cochin-China were populous. 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 shores. and at times the
Tartar nomads who live to the north,
northeast and west of Asia were gath
cred into great armies and nations by
unknown Tamerlanes and lengths
Khanns.
The presents of tea from the
Flowery Kingdom to kingly neighbors
are humble monuments to the crash
of dynasties and empires. Before the
time of Confucius it had supplantcd
every other fluid for assuaging thirst.
Its sanitary excellence was appreciated
by Shen hung a celebrated scholar
and philosopher, who said: Tea is
better than wine for it leadeth not to
intoxication; neither does it cause man
to do foolish things and repent thereof
in his sober moments. 1t is better
than water, for 1t doth not carry dis
ease. neither doth it act as poison as
doth water when the wells contain
foul or rotten matter"
That it's use was universal is borne
out by one of the maXilns OF Confucius,
the wlsest 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 thirstcth give I'M
to him cup Of warm tea without
money and without price"
At the time OF Buddha China was
enjoying a large foreign commerce in
tea 1t was carried by her junks to
Japan. Corea Tong Quin. Anam,
Cochin. Burmah. Siam. India Ceylon.
Persia and Arabia, from which it was
separated by long and very torrid
sea. which must have been Egypt. 1t
was carried by caravans to Manchu-
ria. Mongolia Kuldja Tartary,
Thibet, Persia and Northern India
This commerce flourished during
centuries and eliminated in the dy-
nasties Of Hung Tung and Tung Chi
about 1000 A. d.
From this time there was a slow
but steady decline to the reign of the
present sovereign. Kwang- Hsu. In
the past twenty years the decline has
been something terrible. the trade to-
day being scarcely one quarter of
what it was in 1870. The outlook is
not promising to the tea planter and
patriot in any respect. In every dis
trict the industry is on the verge of
hanlx,.,1ntcv Tho demand from