The True History of Tea

Victor H. Mair, Erling Hoh

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd
• Year: 2012
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780500771280
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

This is the remarkable story of tea and its uses from ancient times to the present. The narrative takes the reader from the jungles of Southeast Asia to the splendour of the Tang and Song Dynasties in China, from the tea ceremony aesthetics of medieval Japan to the fabled tea and horse trade of Central Asia, from the advent of Britains love affair with tea to the tea party that sparked the American Revolution. Throughout the centuries, tea has inspired artists, enhanced religious experience, played a pivotal role in the emergence of world trade, and helped trigger major wars. No other drink has touched the lives of so many people in so many different ways. The True History of Tea brings all these disparate strands together in an erudite tale full of quirky facts and unexpected byways, celebrating the common heritage of a beverage we have all come to love.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• About the Author
• Other titles of interest
• Contents
• Prologue – Tea: Leaf of Awareness
• 1 A Botanical Excursion: The Rivals of Tea
• 2 The Heartstrings of National Pride: Southeast Asia and the Origins of Tea
• 3 A Slave of Yoghurt: Tea in the 1st to 6th Centuries
• 4 Go Have Some Tea!: The Tang Dynasty
• 5 Cloudy Feet in a Hare’s Fur Cup: The Song Dynasty
• 6 Buying Peace With the Celestial Beverage: The Tea and Horse Trade
• 7 The Taste of Zen Is Tea: Japan in the 12th to 15th Centuries
• 8 Sen Rikyū The Tea Master: The Perfection of the Japanese Tea Ceremony
• 9 Han Xin Counts the Soldiers: Tea in the Ming and Qing
• 10 How the Dalai Lama Got His Name : Brick Tea in Tibet and Mongolia
• 11 We Invented the Samovar!: The Russian Caravan Tea Trade
• 12 Conquering New Lands: The Islamic World of Tea
• 13 Approved by Physicians: The Advent of Tea in Europe
• 14 The Progress of This Famous Plant: Tea and the Opium Wars
• 15 A Master Teapot Maker’s Midnight Ride: Tea in America
• 16 Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe: India and Ceylon in the 19th Century
• 17 The Heyday of the Clipper Ships: British Tea
• 18 Vignettes From the Global Village: Tea in Our Time
• Appendix A: The Autobiography of Instructor Lu
• Appendix B: A Debate Between Tea and Beer
• Appendix C: A Genealogy of Words for Tea
• Acknowledgments
• Sources of Illustrations
• Sources of Quotations
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright