"Tea is a drink, which originated from Shennong" (Lu Yu Tea Classic). One of the Huang San worshiped by Taoism, the god of agriculture, first used tea as a prescription for detoxification. "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs, and when he encountered 72 poisons every day, he got a tea solution" (Shennong Materia Medica Classic). Shennong was poisoned many times in order to help the people cure diseases and get rid of illness, and finally found tea to detoxify. And named it "tea" (today's tea). In addition to detoxification, people also found other medicinal effects of tea. "Tea is bitter, and drinking it makes people think better, lie down less, have intelligence and improve their eyesight" (Shennong Herbal Classic). Hu Jushi's "Food Bogey" also said: "Bitter tea grows feathers, and it is heavy to eat with leeks." To the Ming Dynasty hermit Luo Lin's "Tea Solution", he still said: "Tea is a fairy, and long-term service can make it ascend to heaven. However, it has a wonderful reason, unless you know you can't get it. " It is said that the tea discovered by Shennong or the ancient tea that can strengthen the body may have been discovered by Taoist priests who are trying to find the elixir of life. "Tea is an elixir of health and a wonderful skill to prolong life", and it is known as "the immortal bone of vegetation". Shan Hai Jing? "Xishan Jing" said: "Jade paste is used as inverted Dan wood. Mu Dan is five years old, with five colors and five flavors. " This immortal Mu Dan is certainly the pursuit of those who want to become immortal and get enlightenment. Ever since Zhuangzi expounded that immortals "don't eat grains, suck the wind and drink dew, ride clouds and descend dragons, and travel around the world", "immortals can fly in the clouds and be deified lightly" and "never die when they are old" have been inspiring persistent pursuers in the world. Believers known as "immortal Taoism" either think that drinking dew can take off lightly, or that eating plants can fly lightly. "Or eat vitality, or ruzhi grass" ("fairy tale? Peng ancestral), countless people look for medicine to eat grass. "I don't know the yellow grass in the middle of the Xuan world, and Jia is blooming. ""I was born with feathers. I collect herbs and vegetables in the clouds. "The medicine layer is far from the city" and "One Lotus is Poor". " Cliffs produce panacea, and idle people care. "Ma is the figure and footprints of Taoist priests, and the grass is growing, and tea should be among them. Health preservation is the foundation of immortality. Li Bai's poem "Shennong attaches great importance to health" and Ge Hong's "Bao Puzi? "On Immortals" said: "Take medicine to keep healthy and prolong life by surgery", and said: "Take vegetation first to save losses". Tao Hongjing, a tea expert, wrote in the Book of Tea: "Bitter tea turns to bone, and the ancient gods have taken it." At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Liu summarized the "Ten Virtues" of tea and concluded that "tea can nourish health". Ge Xuan personally cultivated a "tea garden" in the Eastern Han Dynasty and cultivated tea for health. After Taoism was taken, it became more and more detailed, including vegetation, stones and so on.

The important role of tea in health preservation is to cultivate one's self-cultivation. It is said that Taoist tea drinking emphasizes the merits of tea. Tea "makes people thin after eating for a long time, except for human body fat", "Except for being bored and tired, anyone who has meat between his teeth must wash it with tea, but it must be reduced" (Ming? Gu's tea spectrum), but his teeth are getting solid. Sichuan Mengding tea is more magical. Tang Wuzong Prime Minister Li Deyu is a master of distinguishing water in tea ceremony. To make tea, pour a pot of water on the meat, put it in a silver box and seal it. The next day, the meat had melted. Therefore, Tu Long of the Ming Dynasty said: "Tea is the best to drink, and it can best shape people in Xiu De." . Taoism, headed by Fang, believes that God is born according to form, and form is born according to god, and the combination of life, form and god is healthy. Therefore, paying attention to the cultivation of medicine, eating is one of its main prescriptions. "Eating is beneficial, and it becomes immortal." Vegetation is the essence of external cultivation, and tea is of course the first choice. Zhang Daoling, the ancestor of Taoism, once took five kinds of medicines in Changli Mountain and taught his disciples how to strengthen the body and lighten the body.

Tea has the above functions, can live forever, can be used as medicine, and can preserve health. In China, which pays attention to etiquette, it is a kind of etiquette and custom for people of all ethnic groups in China to offer tea and express their wishes and hopes in the ceremony. In Japan, even the tea ceremony is greeted as a national courtesy. It is said that the earliest ceremony of tea was also related to Taoism. Some books about the origin of customs record that the tea ceremony originated from Hanguguan in Yin. I went out to Hangu Pass in the west to offer a cup of Jin Xian medicine. It is also recorded in the Taoist classic "Jade Book of the Emperor": "I went out to Hangu Pass, and Yin Yingqi came home to offer tea, which was the beginning of this tea. Laozi said, "Those who eat tea are all disciples of your Tao. Therefore, Taoist Zhu Quan (the seventeenth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Emperor) wrote the Book of Tea, telling tea drinkers: "Anyone who loves cranes, saints and feather walkers can aspire to the world, live outside the gods, and do not involve the secular and pollute the customs. Sounding into nature, clearing the heart from dust. "The real taste of tea at home. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, "Zhou Wuwang was really the teacher of Bashu, and ... tea honey ... was paid tribute". Precious tea from Palestine and Israel was made as a tribute to the Zhou Dynasty, and Yin honored the nobles with precious things, which became the first gift tea.

Because tea was precious at that time, there were 24 tea officials in the Zhou Dynasty, whose role was to pick tea in time for the funeral. Tea has become a gift to help the country. Tea is a spiritual thing, and the history books say that "the time of sacrifice is considerable, and the time can be viewed as a person or a god." . Tea is naturally a sacrifice to heaven, land, god and ancestors. "Walking in the Eyes" records that "Mi Yuanzhang knows that he is not an army, and he likes monsters ... whenever he gets a new tea fruit, he needs to dedicate it to God". Even small folk gods are no exception. Yin's poem "Sending a Kitchen Stove" says: "A cup of tea, a wisp of smoke, the kitchen god goes to heaven." . There are written records that tea is sacrificed. It was first written on the seventh day of the eleventh year of Emperor Yongming of Qi: "Be careful not to take sacrifices as sacrifices, but only set cakes, tea, dried rice and preserved wine, which is the same in the world." Emperor Wu of Qi is famous for his frugality, and the innovation of taking tea as a sacrifice is exactly the same as Taoism's thought of keeping vegetarian diet and advocating frugality. Before that, there should have been something about taking tea as a sacrifice. Jin's Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio records that Yu Hong, a native of Yuyao, went up the mountain to pick tea and met a Taoist priest with three green cows, calling him Dan Qiu Zi, and pointed out the location of the big tea tree. Yu Hong returned home and offered tea to Dan Qiu Zi. Tea is widely used in Taoist sacrificial ceremonies, and Qingcheng Mountain is one of the top ten offerings of tea in China. The Southern Song Dynasty's "Shangqing Lingbao Dafa" says: "Before the three treasures of God, tea and soup are listed." In Taoism, incense, flowers, water, fruits and lamps are five articles, and tea is generally used as water. When offering sacrifices to Zhenwu Emperor in Qing Dynasty, white porcelain cups were used to hold tea as offerings. In the Complete Works of Gong Yanji and Li, there is also a word of tea worship: "Those who make this tea will be crowned with it, and the immortal spring will be crowned with it ... and presented to Yaotai." The best tea in the world is dedicated to the gods of Yao and Taiwan Province. Tea is really the dew of Taoism. Tea can reach a fairyland, so there are also "three cups of tea" in the Taoist memorial ceremony.