Tea originated from the era of Shennong, was known since the Duke of Zhou, flourished in the Tang Dynasty, and reached its peak in the Song Dynasty.
During the Song Dynasty, with economic prosperity and a fervent tea culture, drinking tea increasingly became an indispensable part of people's daily lives. Tea was one of the seven daily necessities for common people—"firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea"—and also one of the refined pursuits for scholars and literati—"chess, zither, calligraphy, painting, poetry, music, and tea." Tea was closely connected to and had a significant impact on the entire society of the Song Dynasty.
The Song Dynasty's tea monopoly system (government tea专卖) managed and controlled the tea economy, making tea profits an important source of fiscal revenue, accounting for about 5% of the national economic output. This system was formally established in the Song Dynasty and did not gradually disappear until the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, because northern ethnic minorities "could not live a single day without tea," tea also became an important means for the Song Dynasty to contend with northern rival regimes through the Tea-Horse Trade.
Tea had integrated into the cultural river of the Song Dynasty, yet it uniquely formed its own stream. Song tea culture was as brilliant as the midday sun, and famous tea figures shone like stars in the galaxy: Emperor Huizong of Song, known as the "first tea emperor in history," personally authored the tea treatise "Da Guan Cha Lun"; Su Shi, who wrote "fine tea is like a beautiful woman," created the remarkable prose "Ye Jia Zhuan"; Fan Zhongyan, who said "I can clarify the turbidity of the masses," recited the folk song "Dou Cha Ge"; Lu You, who "listened to the zither and brewed tea to bid farewell to the fading spring," produced over three hundred tea poems. Moreover, more than 30 tea books from the Song Dynasty have been preserved, and nearly a thousand poems praising tea were composed, the highest number in any dynasty. Other works on tea themes, such as paintings, calligraphy, essays, and stories, are too numerous to count.
The practice of drinking tea was especially prosperous in the Song Dynasty, and the skill of "Dian Cha" (whisking tea) was exceptionally unique. Both the court and the common people enjoyed "Dou Cha" (tea competitions), while scholars and masters possessed distinct techniques for "Fen Cha" (tea art). Tea in the Song Dynasty carried forward tradition and paved the way for the future; the tea of the Song Dynasty is unparalleled, surpassing the past and the present.
II. Song Tea and Politics
Since tea was introduced to Tibet during the Tang Dynasty, by the Song Dynasty, "ethnic people could not live a single day without tea." Compared to the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty's territory was significantly smaller, mainly comprising agricultural regions, while northern regimes such as Liao, Jin, and Xia emerged successively. Their prolonged opposition to the Song made horses extremely scarce for the Song Dynasty. Therefore, the Song Dynasty implemented the tea monopoly system to strengthen control over the Tea-Horse Trade. This served a dual purpose: on one hand, it restricted rival regimes by controlling the export of essential goods like tea; on the other hand, it enabled the acquisition of sufficient horses to enhance military capabilities against them.
III. Song Tea and Economy
In the history of China's economic development, the three hundred years of the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties hold an important position. The remarkable rise of the tea economy was a landmark phenomenon of the unprecedented development of commodity economy during this period. During this time, vast stretches of tea gardens connected across the lands south of the Qinling Mountains and Huai River, while teahouses and tea shops lined the bustling and prosperous cities and towns like Bianjing. Tea spread to Japan, Goryeo, and surrounding nomadic regions, and increasingly became a key commodity on the Maritime Silk Road.
IV. Song Tea Production Regions
A clear distinction between Song tea and Tang tea is that the national main tea production areas began to shift southeastward. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the main tea production areas extended to low-latitude regions such as Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi. Following the Tang Dynasty's development of the vast southern lands, the Song Dynasty continued to expand into the Lingnan region. Tea farmers cultivated terraced fields in the mountainous areas of Guangdong and Guangxi to grow tea extensively. Nationwide, there were 112 prefectural production areas, including: Sichuan (14), Jiangxi (13), Hunan (12), Hubei (11), Zhejiang (10), Anhui (9), Guangxi (8), Fujian (7), Guangdong (6), Jiangsu (5), Chongqing (5), Guizhou (3), Henan (3), Shaanxi (3), Shandong (3).
V. Song Tea Production
The tea production in the Sichuan-Shaanxi tea region was about 30 million Song jin. Statistics for regions outside Sichuan and Shaanxi are extremely incomplete. According to Lü Tao from the era of Emperor Shenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty: "The tea produced in the four circuits of Sichuan and Shaanxi is less than one-tenth of that from the southeast." Converting 1 Song jin to approximately 1.19 modern market jin, the total tea production during the Northern Song Dynasty likely exceeded 200 million jin at its peak. The highest household registration in the Northern Song Dynasty recorded over 20 million households, with a population of about 60 to 100 million.
Among this, the Northern Song government purchased nearly 30 million jin of tea annually. The rest circulated in society included tax-substitute tea, tribute tea,损耗茶, and privately traded tea that could not be prohibited.