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[Illustration: LO FONG LOH, C.I.C.S.
SECRETARY TO THE CHINESE EDUCATIONAL MISSION, IN EUROPE.]
[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF MR. LO FONG LOH’S PREFATORY NOTES IN THE
CHINESE HING SHOO, OR RUNNING HAND; FOR TRANSLATION, SEE FOLLOWING
PAGES]
TEA
ITS MYSTERY AND HISTORY.
TEA
ITS MYSTERY AND HISTORY
BY
SAMUEL PHILLIPS DAY,
_Author of “Food Papers: a Popular Treatise on Dietetics,” etc._
WITH A
PREFACE IN CHINESE AND ENGLISH
BY
LO FONG LOH, C.I.C.S.,
_Secretary to the Chinese Educational Mission in Europe_.
ILLUSTRATED.
“The Sovereign drink of Pleasure and of Health.”
BRADY.
LONDON:
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO.,
STATIONERS’ HALL COURT.
1878.
_Price One Shilling._
TO THE
LOVERS OF PURE TEA,
THIS TREATISE
IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED
BY
THE AUTHOR.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE IN CHINESE.
NOTES ON THE CHINESE LANGUAGE ix
EXTRACT FROM MR. LO FONG LOH’S JOURNAL xii
CHAPTER I.
LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF THE PLANT 17
CHAPTER II.
INTRODUCTION OF TEA INTO ENGLAND 27
CHAPTER III.
APPRECIATION OF THE LEAF 36
CHAPTER IV.
THE PLANT BOTANICALLY CONSIDERED 39
CHAPTER V.
HISTORY OF THE TEA TRADE 48
CHAPTER VI.
THE COLOURING OF THE LEAF 57
CHAPTER VII.
SOCIAL CHARACTER OF THE BEVERAGE 60
CHAPTER VIII.
THE “DRINK OF HEALTH” 70
CHAPTER IX.
THE VIRTUES OF THE LEAF 78
CHAPTER X.
A CUP OF TEA 90
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
NOTES ON THE CHINESE LANGUAGE.
The Chinese writing is eminently picturesque; and as the language
admits of no alphabet, all ideas and objects are conveyed through the
medium of groups of characters, each group representing a series of
impressions, or opinions. By an ingenious and elaborate combination of
strokes, upwards of 40,000 distinct symbols are perfected. This vast
array has given rise to the amusing, but erroneous notion, that the
Chinese pass their lives in learning to read; so that old and infirm
scholars, after having devoted all their days to its accomplishment,
have departed this life with the task undone.
Ideographic and phonetic at the same time, the mechanism of the
language is intelligible only to a few Europeans; but it is truly
surprising that the vernacular of 400,000,000 of our fellow-men, whose
literature dates from the time of King David, and whose yearly exchange
of merchandise with England amounts to £40,000,000 sterling, should
have been so long wrapped in oblivion.
China does not possess, as we do, public libraries and reading rooms,
but all who have a taste for reading or desire instruction can readily
satisfy their need, as books are sold in the Celestial Empire at prices
lower than in any other country in the world; further, all the finest
quotations from the best authors are found written on the pagodas,
public monuments, façades of tribunals, signs of the shops, doors of
houses, and interior of apartments, so that, in fact, China may be
likened to a huge library, where rich and poor alike can enjoy their
country’s literature, and it is deserving of remark that the general
prosperity and peace of China has been much promoted by the diffusion
of knowledge and education throughout the lower classes.
The construction of the Chinese symbols varies from the square
character to the more cursive character of the Seal and Grass, peculiar
for their obscurity. The six styles of writing are as follows:--Chuen
shoo, or Seal character; Le shoo, or Official character; Keae shoo, or
Model character; Hing shoo, or Running character; Tsaov shoo, or Grass
character; and Sung shoo, or Sung dynasty character. The preface to
this book is written by Lo Fong Loh, Esq., in the “running” character,
and is undoubtedly a perfect specimen of caligraphy; his translation is
rendered in the following pages.
[Illustration]
EXTRACT FROM MR. LO FONG LOH’S JOURNAL.
Among the several places of interest in London, visited by H. E. Li
Fung Pao (Director of the Chinese Educational Mission) and myself
during our six months’ sojourn therein, I could not fail to be
impressed with the Tea Establishment of Messrs. Horniman and Co.,
Wormwood Street. The first department to which our attention was
directed, is called the “Blending Floors.” Here we observed divers
descriptions of Tea, which had been shipped from different countries
in the Eastern Hemisphere. Although we do not profess to be _au
courant_ with regard to that particular article of domestic use, still
we happen to come from the Tea districts of China, and therefore took
the opportunity of examining some specimens of the tropical leaf.
We are aware that in commerce there is a special kind of so-called Tea,
denominated “Reviving Leaf,” a spurious production, so coloured and
prepared as to deceive the eye of all but experts. This manipulated
“presentment” of the genuine commodity was not among the varieties;
and we are satisfied that Messrs. Horniman’s Teas are perfectly
unsophisticated and natural growths, free from all adventitious
“additions.” The effect of blending the various descriptions of Tea is
to make the flavour uniform, and thus to meet the wants and tastes of
the consumers.
One thing particularly struck us during our visit. This was the vast
quantity of Tea in stock, both in the Warehouses and the Wholesale
Establishment. Upon enquiring of the Head of the Firm, whether all
their importations are consumed by the people of the United Kingdom,
the reply was, that “A considerable portion thereof is exported to
European countries.” This circumstance convinced us that the Teas are
blended with marked technical skill, in order to suit the various
tastes and likings of divers individuals and nationalities.
When H. E. Li and myself were passing through the “Blending Floors,”
the first remark made to me by H. E. was this: he observed that “In
China, Tea Merchants invariably separate the different qualities of
the leaf; while the practice in this country seemed to be the very
reverse.” I explained to him the reason of such usage, comparing it to
the composition of a book. First, you collect information of sundry
kinds; anon, proceed to classify the same; and, finally, artistically
blend the whole for the general advantage. The Chinese merchants having
performed the first part, Messrs. Horniman & Co. effect the other
equally important portions.
Upon entering what is deemed the “Testing Room,” we noticed a
collection of tiny China cups, filled with infusions of the leaf.
Albeit we did not then taste the tempting liquid, nevertheless we
could not avoid being favourably impressed with the delicate aroma and
excellent colour of the beverage.
The next department we inspected was the “Weighing Floors,” which
proved no less a source of interest. In this place the Tea is weighed
previous to its being put into packages, varying in size from two
ounces to several pounds weight. While the smaller packages are neatly
enclosed in tinfoil, so as to prevent the leaf suffering injury through
the action of damp or exposure, the larger sorts and for export are
done up in tins, securely closed, to obviate the admission of air.
In the adjoining department, or “Labelling Room,” the various packages
are labelled (the labels being printed in nine languages), on a similar
principle to that adopted by the Chinese themselves.
Shortly after my arrival in England, I felt distressed respecting
the means of procuring pure Tea, not drinking coloured Tea in my own
country. I experienced that some of the largest hotels and leading
restaurants seldom produced a beverage such as I could with pleasure
drink. Upon trying the Tea supplied by Messrs. Horniman’s Agents, I
found it excellent in every respect, and like to that I have been
accustomed to use when at home.
One object of my official visit to Europe being to collect special
information bearing on the Industrial Arts, as evidences of Western
civilisation, I must confess that both H. E. Li and myself derived
mutual pleasure and profit in going over Messrs. Horniman’s
Establishment.
LO FONG LOH.
_London, May, 1878._
[Illustration]
TEA
ITS MYSTERY AND HISTORY.
CHAPTER I.
LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF THE PLANT.
According to the most authentic Chinese historians, the Tea plant was
introduced from the Corea in the eighth century, during the dynasty
of Lyang. Being both approved of and much relished by the Emperor it
was extensively cultivated, so that it rapidly became popular with all
sections of the community. As this story was too prosaic for general
acceptation, the masses, and even certain sceptical _literati_, readily
received a more poetical account, which, like many of our own nursery
tales, veils some political allegory.
The story runs, that in the year 510, an Indian prince--one Darma,
third son of King Kosjusva--famed throughout the East for his religious
zeal, landed in China on a Missionary enterprise. He devoted all his
time and thought to the diffusion of a knowledge of God. In order
to set an example of piety to others, he imposed on himself various
privations and mortifications, forswore sleep, and, living mostly in
the open air, devoted himself to prayer, preaching, and contemplation.
However, after several years passed in this excessively austere
manner, he involuntarily fell asleep. Upon awaking, so distressed was
he at having violated his oath that, to prevent a repetition of such
backsliding and never again permit “tired eyelids” to “rest on tired
eyes,” he cut off those offending portions of his body, and flung them
on the ground. Returning next day to the same spot, he discovered that
his eyelids had undergone a strange metamorphosis, having been changed
into a shrub the like of which had never before been seen upon the
earth. Having eaten some of the leaves, he found his spirits singularly
exhilarated thereby; while his former vigour was restored. Hence he
recommended the newly-discovered boon to his disciples and followers,
so that after a time the use of Tea rapidly spread. A portrait of
Darma is given by Kæmpfu, the first authoritative writer on China. At
the foot of the portrait is the representation of a reed, supposed to
be indicative of the religious enthusiast having crossed rivers and
seas in the pursuit of his mission. It is by no means difficult, out
of this wonderful legend, to extract a moral, namely, that an earnest
individual, who had acquired the useful habit of keeping his eyes open,
discovered one of Nature’s secrets, which had entirely escaped the
observation of all others.
Towards the close of the sixteenth century, a learned physician of
Padua--one Giovanni Bolero--published a work “On the Causes of the
Magnificence and Greatness of Cities.” Therein, while treating of the
Orient, he observes: “The Chinese have an herb out of which they press
a delicate juice that serves them for drink instead of wine; it also
preserves their health and frees them from all those evils which the
use of wine produces among ourselves.” Albeit the allusion is somewhat
cloudy, still no doubt exists but that the celebrated Paduan refers to
Tea. This is supposed to be the earliest mention of the plant by any
European writer.
It is curious that among the many wonderful things which Marco
Polo--the great traveller of his day--saw in China, he omits to mention
the Tea plant either as shrub or beverage. This omission is the more
unaccountable inasmuch as both himself and his father (whose voyages
he records) must have visited districts wherein Tea was in common use.
The early Portuguese navigators are equally silent on this matter, nor
is mention made thereof in the logs of our own freebooting Sea Kings.
These, however, troubled themselves less about botany than the broad
pieces to be found in the holds of the Spanish King’s galleons. Had Sir
Walter Raleigh, who travelled West instead of East, accompanied his
friend Drake on his famous voyage round the world, he might have added
to his discoveries of the potato and tobacco plants of America, that of
Tea in China. The honour of introducing the refreshing and invigorating
leaf to Europe was, clearly, not reserved for English travellers.
This honour is properly claimed by the Portuguese, although they had
been trading for many years with the Chinese before they made the
discovery, just about the close of the sixteenth century.
[Illustration: A TEA GARDEN.--The Tea plant flourishes best in the
provinces of To-kien, Kiang-su, Hoonam and Hoopels. The first crop is
gathered in the early spring.]
Shortly after Tea had become a popular beverage in China, it was
exported to Japan, the only nation with which the Chinese were suffered
to hold intercourse. In those islands it assumed even a more important
position than it held in the “Flowery Land,” so that to be able to
make and serve the beverage with a polished grace was recognised as an
indubitable sign of a polite and aristocratic education. The Japanese
devoted their artistic and mechanical skill to the production of
tea-caddies, tea-trays, tea-pots, and tea-cups and saucers, remarkable
for exquisiteness of design no less than peculiarity of fabric.
Tea-houses were opened in the leading cities of Japan. These were
frequented by the Daimios, or lesser nobles, and the lower classes
alike, who took their chief pleasure in such popular resorts.
Eminent writers, also, considered it no indignity to extol the precious
beverage. What Bacchanalian and hunting songs, cavalier and sea songs,
rhapsodical treatises in laudation of hunting, coaching, and so forth,
are to the literature of England, such was Tea to the writers, artists,
and musicians of China and Japan. In other words their Dickenses,
their Goldsmiths, their Nimrods, their Dibdins, their Tom Moores, and
their Leeches, instead of having a wide variety of topics to treat
of, as was the case with their English compeers, were confined to
one subject--Tea. Indeed, each plantation was supposed to possess
its peculiar virtues and excellences, like to the slightly varying
vineyards of the Rhine, the Rhone, the Garonne, or the Moselle. Each
had its poet to sing its praises in running rhymes. In illustration,
one Chinese bard, who seemingly was an Anacreon in his way, magnifies
the shrub that grows on the Mong-shan mountains, in the territory of
Ya-chew, in words which, literally translated, mean:--
“One ounce doth all disorders cure,
With two your troubles will be few’r;
Three to the bones more vigour give;
With four for ever you will live,
As young as on your day of birth,
A true Isyen[A] upon the earth.”
[A] An immortal.
However hyperbolical this testimony may be considered, it at least
serves to show the high estimation in which Tea was held. This
fact furnishes the best possible answer to the silly objections
of certain modern writers who would fain have us believe that the
Chinese cultivate Tea, not for their own consumption, but to sell to
foreigners. The only gleam of truth latent in so manifestly absurd an
assertion being that the Celestials invariably drink the _pure_ Tea,
not that which has undergone artificial preparation for those outer
barbarians, the English consumers, it being an admitted fact that they
prepare Tea “to order,” and can by the aid of mineral facing-powder
transform black Tea into green, or green Tea into black at pleasure.
Such transformation, however, only alters the appearance to the eye;
the quality, inferior or otherwise, remains concealed.
In due time Tea became, not simply in China and Japan, but also in
India and Persia, the drink of ceremony, just as is coffee with the
Turks and Arabs, and wine with ourselves. A little over two centuries
since, a French traveller in Persia gravely imagined that what
constituted a hospitable custom, was a universal desire to administer
medicine. He avers that people “assigned to Tea such extravagant
qualities that, imagining it alone able to keep a man in constant
health, they treated those who came to visit them with this drink
at all hours.” This statement might be paralleled by an Eastern
writer who, treating of England, should use the same sentence, merely
substituting the word “wine” for “Tea,” and he may add, “to increase
the beneficial influence of the beverage, in many instances they make
cabalistic movements with the glasses, sometimes clinking the edges
together, meanwhile uttering the talismanic words, ‘Your health!’ which
are supposed to possess some potent charm.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]