Origin of the name tea - the meaning of the name tea

How did tea get its name? In Chinese legend, tea was discovered by Shen Nong nearly 5,000 years ago. It's not surprising, then, that he plays a role in the legend of how tea got its name.

There are two versions to this story. One is widely known and rather simple. Shen Nong, who had a transperent stomach, had just tried tea for the first time. He saw that the tea had cleaned his stomach of all the poisonous herbs he had just consumed. He named the plant "查," which means to inspect or examine, and is pronounced "cha" in the rising tone, which is the same pronunciation of the modern day "茶," which means tea.

The other version of the story is not widely known nor published. It is related to Qimen (or Keemun black tea), a popular black tea in China and England, that wasn't commercially grown until the 1870's.

This story can be found in the book Studying the Art of Tea, by Li Wei. Xuan Tea is proud to present to you this story, which we have personally translated for our readers.

The goddess Wang Mu learned that Shen Nong had discovered many treats. She invited him up to heaven to attend a banquet. At the banquet, Wang Mu, the Jade Emperor, and Zhongxian, another god, were all very thirsty. Shen Nong, being prepared, took out some pure water and tea leaves, and served the beverage to the gods. After a cup of the tea, the initially weary gods felt immediately rejuvenated. The Jade Emperor spoke first, “what is this rare treasure? Where did it come from?” (The words used by the emperor are “奇宝,” which is pronounced "qi bao," and can be translated as rare treasure).

Shen Nong replied, “These leaves come from Qi Mountain at Qimen.” However, The Qimen of which he spoke was not the same place where today’s leaves come from (Shen Nonghshi spoke of 奇门, whereas the tea is from 祁门, but the two places are pronounced identically).

The Jade Emperor went for a walk with Shen Nong, nodding his head and listening attentively. When they were done, the Jade Emperor appointed one of his generals to go down to earth and search for Qimen.

When Shen Nong returned to earth, he sought to give seeds to the smartest and most industrious people he could find so that they could plant tea themselves. He believed this to be the only way he could escape being pulled back to heaven. Also, everywhere he went, he asked everyone he came across, “How many Qishans are there on earth?”

Eventually, one man replied to him, “There are many, not many; few, not few.”

Shen Nong listened with great interest, but still did not fully understand. “What do you mean by these words?” he replied.

The man’s wife pointed off to the distance, “There are lots, Qi Mountain, Qi Mountain, Qi Mountain, Qi Mountain,” she said, pointing in four different directions. (In the written version, her words are 旗山, 骑山, 齐山, 奇山, all of which are homophones). “However, none of these mountains have a ‘treasure’ on them, which hardly makes them ‘rare’.”

Shen Nong was satisfied by the woman’s words, and as a token of his appreciation, he decided to give them his rare treasure. As the man was reaching out his hand to receive the packet, Shen Nong spoke, “Hold on, I still wish to say one thing that I hope you will remember. Plant the rare treasure at the top of this mountain, and soon the whole slope will be covered with it.” He then handed them the packet, and walked away.

The man opened up the packet and was surprised to find seeds inside, but his wife said, “There’s no way this old man was lying to us. This certainly is a valuable item he has handed us.” The two of them went to the peak of Qi Mountain and planted the seeds.

After one year, the seeds were doing quite well, and bright green saplings had sprung up from the soil. Not long after, buds had begun to flower. The man picked some leaves and boiled them into what he called “rare treasure water,” and gave it to all the villagers to drink, who reported feeling greatly refreshed after drinking the red liquid. The villagers began calling the mountain Qi Mountain and the home of the couple Qimen (men means door, and was used to symbolize their house).

Then, one day two men appeared at the door. The wife asked, “Where are you from? What do you want here?”

They answered, “We are generals from heaven, sent down by the Jade Emperor to seek the rare treasure at Qi Mountain, Qimen.”

The wife, finally understanding Shen Nong’s questions about Qimen, responded, “Oh, this is Qi Mountain (祁山) Qimen (祁门), not Qi Mountain (奇山) Qimen (奇门).” The two generals accepted this answer, and were on their way. Once they were off in the distance, the man spoke, “How dangerous! If it wasn’t for my smart wife they surely would’ve stolen our treasure up to the heavens with them. In the future we must be more careful.”

The wife nodded in agreement, and decided that since they were searching for the leaf using the name “rare treasure,” a name change might protect them in the future. The generals were searching, (查pronounced cha) so they decided to give tea the name “cha” (茶 - the Chinese character for tea), and officially change the name of their town to Qimen (祁门).