Tea is the national drink. In the daily lives of Chinese people, tea has never faded from the scene. As tea drinking became more secular and popular in Chinese society, teahouses gradually emerged and became an important venue in the public life of Chinese people and a routine way of life. Regardless of how times have changed, Chinese Tea culture has never stopped evolving, and teahouses continue to thrive in everyday tea-drinking moments, healing and warming every individual and every city. The rich and diverse ways of tea drinking across the country have also given rise to various unique tea customs and teahouses, with this trend being more pronounced in cities south of the Yangtze River.
“The common man's resistance is just a cup of tea each day.”
“In the face of the times, the common man's resistance is just a cup of tea each day.” When I first saw this title in my WeChat Moments feed, I was intrigued. Upon reading the article, I discovered that it referred to historian Wang Di. His historical research focuses less on emperors and generals and more on the lives and perspectives of ordinary people to reconstruct the face of the era. Just like Lao She's “Teahouse,” which projects half a century of social changes onto the rise and fall of a teahouse, Wang Di also uses teahouses as an important perspective in his historical research. He spent over a decade writing the book “Teahouse,” focusing on Chengdu's teahouses from 1900 to 1950, hoping to provide a window through which readers can truly perceive the daily lives of Chengdu residents and the pulse of the city's history in the first half of the 20th century.
In his research, he found that around 120,000 people visited teahouses daily in Chengdu at the beginning of the 20th century. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, even though teahouses seemed less “progressive,” they still existed in people's daily lives. He once came across an article published in the Huaxi Evening News in 1942, signed “Written by a fellow villager on a teahouse floor”: “We drink idle tea, and although we may not achieve great things, we do no harm either. Perhaps we can gain some small insights from Drinking Tea. Not gambling, not drinking excessively, not watching plays, not visiting prostitutes – having a bowl of tea is the last resort for the poor.”
In the final chapter of his book “Teahouse,” Wang Di wrote: “Over the past 50 years, the teahouses they frequented and the habitual practice of sitting in teahouses have been a ‘battlefield' where state power clashed with local society and culture, where uniformity and uniqueness were pitted against each other. Their daily act of drinking tea in teahouses was, in fact, wielding the ‘weapons of the weak' in an act of ‘resistance by the weak.' This means that the weak, unarmed managers, servers, and patrons of teahouses, in their repeated battles over 50 years, have, despite the turmoil and changing tides, been like brave warriors fighting for the ultimate victory of teahouses and daily culture.”
Indeed, teahouses have survived wars, upheavals, and transformations, and have welcomed the market economy, globalization, and new smart technologies. No matter how the wheels of history roll forward and stir up storms, the institution of teahouses and the lifestyle of sitting in them have remained. They have been sustained by every person, whether wealthy or poor, heroic or ordinary, in the simple act of drinking a cup of tea each day, and in each small step taken towards a teahouse and in the bubbling sound of boiling water in every kettle.
Drinking and eating are the most basic needs for human survival and also the realms that generate the richest regional food cultures. People in different regions always find their own ways to make water flavorful. The Arab and Western worlds chose coffee, while the national drink of Chinese culture is tea. Whether it's coffee or tea, when they become more secular, popular, and part of the common people's lives, coffeehouses and teahouses come into being.
In the mid-16th century, after coffee moved from mosque prayer rituals to the masses, coffee stalls and coffeehouses began appearing in places like Yemen, Mecca, Istanbul, and Cairo. People gathered here to chat and listen to storytellers, becoming bustling gathering spots for the local populace. As coffee spread to Europe and across various social circles, coffeehouses became hubs of literary and cultural activities, frequented by poets, writers, artists, musicians, and politicians, becoming sources of social change and cultural enlightenment.
In the Past, Teahouses Were Indispensable
Chinese teahouses also emerged during the era when tea drinking became part of the common people's lives and gradually became an essential part of the social public life of the Chinese. The initial function of teahouses was not merely to drink a cup of tea; they were more like information hubs, important venues for learning about major and minor events. It was difficult to stay informed without visiting a teahouse. With the passage of time and improvements in communication methods, the information dissemination function of teahouses gradually weakened, but other functions became richer, such as chatting, making friends, entertainment, and enjoying aesthetics and art. Teahouses and daily tea culture have evolved with each passing era.
In the Tang Dynasty, Chinese Tea culture entered its first golden age, and tea drinking gradually spread from the imperial court and ruling class to temples, Daoist observatories, literati, and ordinary people. The earliest recorded mention of teahouses dates back to the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty's “Fengshi Wenjian Ji” describes: “From Zou, Qi, Cang, and Li, it gradually spread to the capital. Many shops opened in cities, selling boiled tea. Regardless of religious affiliation, customers paid money to drink.” These shops selling tea might be the prototype of teahouses. The Tang Dynasty calligrapher Yan Zhenqing once wrote a couplet for a teahouse: “Cold flowers invite guests to sit, tea invites refined conversation,” indicating that teahouses were places for people to drink tea, chat, experience beauty, and feel beauty.
In the Song Dynasty, tea became a daily necessity from the imperial palace to the common people. Wang Anshi wrote in his “Proposal for Tea Regulations”: “For the people, tea is as essential as rice and salt, and cannot be dispensed with for a single day.” Tea tasting, tea competitions, and tea performances all appeared during the Song Dynasty. With economic development and urbanization, large populations gathered in towns and cities, and urban life venues and recreational lifestyles became more diverse, making teahouses even more prevalent. “Teahouses” or “tea shops” in large cities like Lin'an could be found everywhere. Some were elegant and upscale, while others served the general public. Some teahouses and shops also provided various snacks and delicacies.
Looking at the street scenes depicted in the “Prosperous Scenes at the Qingming Festival,” one can see the presence of teahouses. During the Song Dynasty, teahouses operated around the clock. The “Dream Record of Eastern Capital” records such a splendid scene: “Outside the Zhuque Gate, except for the two teaching halls to the east and west, the rest are residences or teahouses. The markets in the streets are especially lively at night.” Even at night, teahouses in the Song Dynasty were bustling.
Chinese teahouse culture declined somewhat during the Yuan Dynasty but was revived again in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the Ming Dynasty, there were simple teashops in the neighborhood selling large bowls of tea to ordinary people, providing a place for lower-class individuals and the common folk to rest. There were also high-end tea art houses favored by literati where they could taste tea, chat, and enjoy performances by artists playing music and storytelling.
In the Qing Dynasty, teahouses became popular throughout the south and north of China. Not only did teahouses become more diverse in form, but during this period, teahouses in different regions also developed their own characteristics. For example, in the capital, teahouses were divided into grand teahouses, simple teahouses, storytelling teahouses, and rural teahouses. Some had larger spaces and offered meals, attracting a diverse clientele; others had elegant environments, mostly frequented by literati; some were used for chess-playing and