Study on the culture about tea porridge

Abstract

　Although tea porridge has never been the mainstream of Chinese tea culture, it has been seen in every time along with the tea culture. While studying Chinese tea culture, I find that the concept and forms of tea porridge vary with the times.

　The paper is aimed to clarify the forms of tea porridge in ancient times, and through analyzing the historical changes of the concept about tea porridge, study the essence of tea porridge and the influence of tea porridge on the mainstream tea culture in China.

　Through field investigations and literature analysis, I draw the main conclusions as follows:

【1】The period before Wei and Jin Dynasties and Wei and Jin Dynasties: Thick soup stewed with fresh tea leaves was the mainstream and entered the market as a commodity.

【2】Tang Dynasty: Stewed thick tea soup was called “tea porridge”.

【3】At the end of the Tang Dynasty and in the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms: Tea porridge with dried fruits and nuts enriched the categories of tea porridge. Tea porridge covered tea food, additive tea and pure tea soup, etc.

【4】Song Dynasty: Tea porridge was used more to describe “the tea foams formed in tea preparation”.

【5】After the Ming Dynasty: Tea porridge was gradually viewed as “tea food” and differentiated from pure tea.