 Tea was first mentioned in an ancient Chinese book named "Fan Jiang Pian" written by Si Ma Xiang Ru of West Han Dynasty in year 200 B.C. It had about 10 different Chinese words with different prounciation. Entered Lu Yu, the first person in the world who wrote a book called "Cha Jing"(means The Bible of Tea) around year 758 A.D to systematically describe tea. In his book, he quoted "Cha"(tea) as the "best wood in the south (China)", and uniformed the word "cha" in written format as well as in prounciation from previously called "tu". "Cha" had then introduced into various regions and/or countries from nearby Chinese regions, which carried its Chinese local dialects' prounciation. The current English word "tea" was originated from Chinese southern Fujian dialect "te". |
