According to legend, tea was first discovered by the Chinese emperor and inventor Shennong in 2737 B.C. . It is said that the emperor liked his drinking water boiled before he drank it, so that was what his servant did. One day, on a trip to a distant place, he and his army stopped to rest. A servant began boiling water for him to drink, and a dead leaf from the wild tea bush fell into the water. It turned brown, but it was unnoticed and presented to the emperor anyway. The emperor drank it and found it very refreshing, and tea came into being.

The origin of tea as a medicine for staying awake is unclear. China is considered to have the earliest records of tea drinking, with recorded tea use in its history dating back to the first millennium（千年）B C. The Han Dynasty（206 B.C.—220 A.D.）used tea as medicine. The use of tea as a drink for pleasure on social occasions dates from the Tang Dynasty（618—907A.D）.

The Tang Dynasty writer Lu Yu’s（ 729—804 A.D.）Cha Jing is an early work on the subject. According to Cha Jing writing, around 760 A.D., tea drinking was very popular. The book describes how tea plants were grown and how the leaves were processed. It also describes how tea was developed. The book also discuss where the best tea leaves were produced.

At this time in tea’s history, the nature of the drink and style of tea preparation were quite different from the way we experience today. Tea leaves were processed into the forms of cakes. The dried teacake, generally called brick tea was placed in a store mortar（ 臼 ）. Hot water was added to the powdered teacake and then enjoyed as a hot drink.