Those Things About Medicinal Tea

The manifestations of medicinal tea are diversified. From the early cooking of medicinal tea to the use of tea as medicine in the mid-term, to the final concoction of medicinal tea into a recipe to replace tea, medicinal tea culture has been continuously innovated and developed in the inheritance, forming a more complete theory of medicinal tea.

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1. Medicinal tea culture

Medicine and tea are steamed together

As early as the pre-Qin period, people had a certain understanding of the nature and taste of tea. To alleviate the bitterness and coldness of tea, they chose to use ginger, chives, mint, and other medicines to cook tea soup together with tea to drink. The "Food Taboo" records the cooking method of this tea soup: "The bitter tea is eaten for a long time, and it grows. When eaten with leeks, it makes people gain weight." Leeks are sweet and spicy, warm in nature, and cooking with tea can reconcile the bitterness and coldness of tea. Sex, so that the entrance does not hurt the spleen and stomach. Until the Tang Dynasty, people were still drinking this tea soup.

And this kind of tea soup is a form of herbal tea. It cooks hot and warm medicine together with tea. It is precise because people love the taste of tea to the bone, but they are afraid of its medicinal properties, so they came up with this kind of tea. Medicinal tea can not only make people enjoy delicious tea soup, but also have a certain health care effect.

tea as medicine

As mentioned above, the ancients had a deep understanding of the nature and taste of tea. Although daily drinking is a burden for people with a deficiency in the system, tea is also a good medicine in terms of its medicinal effects. The "Tea Classic" written by Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty recorded the magical use of tea as a medicine: "When tea is used for use, the taste is very cold... If it is hot and thirsty, stuffy, brain pain, astringent eyes, troubled limbs, and uncomfortable joints, talk about four or five sips, and compete with Daigo and nectar." For example, the book "Taiping Shenghui Fang" in the Song Dynasty recorded eight "medicine tea recipes", such as the green onion tea recipe for treating typhoid fever, headache and strong heat, and mint tea. In these medicinal tea recipes, tea appears as a blind medicine, which shows that tea has a long history of being used as medicine.

As early as the Tang Dynasty, the pharmacist Chen Zangqi once put forward the view that "all kinds of medicine are the medicine for every disease, and tea is the medicine for all diseases". It is conceivable that the ancients still believed that drinking more tea can maintain health. From this, we can see that it is not unreasonable that tea culture has been popular in my country for thousands of years.

The emergence of drugs instead of tea

In addition to the above two medicinal tea applications, in the long history of ancient China, another form of medicinal tea has also been developed, that is, medicinal tea instead of tea, that is, medicinal soup instead of tea as a daily drink.

In ancient times, a kind of medicinal tea culture was widely circulated among the people. The leaves and buds of common Chinese herbal medicines are made in a similar way to tea makings, such as the Sophora japonica bud tea recipe and the acacia bud tea recipe that appeared in the Song Dynasty. "Pill Powder Prescriptions" also recorded several first medicinal tea prescriptions such as Puji medicinal tea and even the popularity of tea therapy in the Qing Dynasty. Medicinal tea was also made into pills, powders, granules and other dosage forms to facilitate going out and to be used when using. Tea can be served.

As an important part of the medicinal tea culture, medicinal tea drinking is the crystallization of the labor wisdom of the ancient Chinese people. It not only inherits the essence of the previous medicinal tea culture but also carries forward the tradition in the inheritance, which reflects the creativity of the ancient working people.

The history of medicinal tea

From the initial budding in the Han and Tang Dynasties to the development and growth of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and then to the maturity and prosperity of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the gradual deepening of the ancient people's understanding of medicinal tea, Chinese medicinal tea has the same origin of medicine and food, and tea is used as medicine. With the changes of the times, medicinal tea has been continuously advocated and changed, and carried forward, forming a unique Chinese medicinal tea culture.

From the Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties: the budding period of medicinal tea culture

The period from the Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern, and Northern Dynasties was the development period of Chinese medicine culture in my country, and it was also the budding period of the medicinal tea culture. As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a record of "using tea as medicine". It is recorded: "Tea is very effective in treating pus and blood in the stool." However, during this period, due to the lack of in-depth understanding of tea among medical scientists, medicinal tea was still in the stage of "sharing food and medicine", which was the budding period of medicinal tea culture.

For more than 700 years from the Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the development of medicinal tea culture was slow. Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, people usually boiled tea with ginger, chives, coriander, and other foods into tea soup, which was the medicinal tea at that time. Medicinal tea can not only maintain health care but also can be used to treat diseases. At that time, some people used this medicinal tea recipe to sell it as a commodity. In the "Guang Ya" written by Zhang Yi, a Wei person during the Three Kingdoms period, it was recorded: "Jingba Jian" The leaves are collected and made into cakes, and the old leaves, the cakes are made with rice paste... onions, ginger, and oranges. The drink sobers up and makes you sleepless."

In addition, the functions of tea are recorded in many medical books at that time, such as "Materia Medica Mube" records: "Ming: bitter tea. It tastes sweet and bitter, slightly cold, and non-toxic. Thirsty and heat make people less sleepy. Harvest it in autumn. It is bitter, and it controls Qi and digestion." Another example is recorded in the "Ru Zi Fang": "To treat children who are frightened for no reason, boil it with bitter tea and shallots, and take it."

From these records, it is not difficult to find that from the Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, tea was still in the "same origin of medicine and food", and people only had a preliminary understanding of the function of tea, but did not have an in-depth understanding.

Sui, Tang, Song, and Yuan Dynasties: The Prosperous Period of Medicinal Tea Culture

From the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, with the prosperity and development of the economy, the market culture gradually became a popular culture in society. Medical scientists gradually deepened their understanding of the efficacy of tea, and tea began to become the king drug in prescription. The word "medicine tea" also first appeared in the "Medicine and Tea Prescriptions" in the official medical book "Taiping Shenghui Fang" in the Song Dynasty. This period was the prosperous and development stage of medicinal tea. Although there was already the appearance of tea prescriptions in this period, the use of tea as medicine was still the main manifestation of medicinal tea in this period.

With an in-depth understanding of the medicinal value of tea, people began to use tea as a medicine. There are many records about the medicinal value of tea in the existing classics of the Sui, Tang, Song, and Yuan Dynasties. Chen Zangqi highly praised the therapeutic effect of tea. In his Compendium of Materia Medica, he boasted: "All medicines are the medicine for all diseases, and tea is the medicine for all diseases."

And Lu Yu's "The Classic of Tea" also mentioned the medicinal value of tea: "When tea is used, the taste is very cold... If you are hot and thirsty, stuffy, have brain pain, astringent eyes, troubled limbs, and uncomfortable joints, chat Four or five sips, it can also compete with Daigo and Gansu." The most widely circulated about the use of tea as a medicine should be Chuanxiong tea powder from "Taiping Huimin Heji Ju Fang". Headache caused by exogenous wind pathogens is still one of the commonly used prescriptions in traditional Chinese medicine and has high academic value and clinical value.

In addition, during this period, with the continuous emergence of official medical books, medicinal tea was also recorded separately as a branch of traditional Chinese medicine. It can be seen that the medicinal tea culture has entered a prosperous stage from the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and has had a profound impact on the medicinal tea culture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Ming and Qing Dynasties: the mature period of medicinal tea culture

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, due to the influence of the previous dynasties, the trend of tea therapy prevailed. From the royal family and nobles to the common people, all social strata were willing to accept medicinal tea as a way of health care. At the same time, with the capital With the emergence of the sprout of socialism, medicinal tea was gradually commercialized, popularized, and popularized. In addition, traditional Chinese medicine began to enter the summary stage during this period, and the medicinal tea culture also entered a mature stage. During this period, medicine instead of tea gradually became a medicine. The mainstream form of tea and the dosage forms of medicinal tea have also increased, and there have been pills, pastes, and powders.

With the increasing specialization and refinement of traditional medicine in the motherland, the culture of medicinal tea has also changed, and various medicinal tea prescriptions have also begun to vary from person to person, such as the "Three Sons" suitable for the elderly. Yangqin Decoction", "Siwu Decoction" suitable for women, etc. Medicinal tea became an important means of disease prevention and treatment in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. With the wide spread of tea therapy at this time, a large number of effective medicinal tea substitutes have been widely used, such as afternoon tea, wolfberry tea, ginger tea, Babao tea, Baxian tea, Tianzhong tea, etc., and these substitute tea recipes have also been recorded in life records such as "Suixiju Diet Manual", saying that they can "cleanse the mind, cool the liver and gallbladder, cleanse the heat, and relieve the lungs and stomach."

In the dream "Dream of Red Mansions" written by Mr. Cao Xueqin, there is a record that Miaoyu brewed Laojun Mei tea for Jia Mu to treat alcohol and meat that hurt the spleen and stomach and stop eating. In the "Cixi Guangxu Medical Prescription Selection", it is recorded that Cixi used to drink heat-clearing and cough-relieving tea when coughing.

Judging from various records, medicinal tea not only appeared in various medical books and tea classics but also in books of daily life. It can be seen that the medicinal tea culture flourished during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. From tea-based to the equal emphasis on tea and medicine, and then to using medicine instead of tea, the change and development of medicinal tea formulations also show that medicinal tea culture entered a mature stage in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

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