The origins of tea: the legend of Shennong
Written by Dian VAULTIER·
In Brief
- Tea was not born as a drink of pleasure.
- Chinese tradition places the discovery of tea in 2737 BCE, during the reign of Shennong, literally the Divine Farmer.
- The expertise of the HOLLIN tea sommelier: the origins of tea explained by a purist Tea Maison, with no added flavourings, based in Sartrouville (Île-de-France) and shipping its finest teas worldwide.
Tea was not born as a drink of pleasure. In Chinese tradition, it appears as a remedy, an antidotal plant, tested by a mythical sovereign who tasted herbs to learn their virtues and poisons. This medicinal origin still explains today why a quality leaf needs no added fragrance.
2737 BCE: the Divine Farmer and the providential leaf
Chinese tradition places the discovery of tea in 2737 BCE, during the reign of Shennong, literally the Divine Farmer. He is credited with inventing agriculture and the plough, and with developing knowledge of medicinal plants. The story tells that he boiled his water before drinking it, a remarkable hygiene precaution for the time, and that he travelled through the mountains, tasting plants one by one to determine their effects on the body.
That day, he rests beneath a wild shrub. The wind loosens a few leaves, which fall into his simmering water. The liquor takes on a pale amber hue, and a vegetal fragrance rises. Shennong drinks and notes a sensation of clarity, freshness and inner purity. The plant then enters his repertoire not as a pleasure, but as a purifying agent.
The most frequently cited version of the legend goes further: Shennong is said to have tasted seventy-two toxic plants in a single day and saved himself with the leaf of the tea plant, used as an antidote. The detail matters: from the very beginning, tea is not a flavour, but an action on the body. The temperature of the water, simmering rather than boiling, is already part of the founding story, and remains today the gesture that determines the refinement of a liquor.
From pharmacopoeia to the art of living
The written evidence most often cited is the Shennong Ben Cao Jing, the Divine Farmer's Classic of Materia Medica, the oldest treatise on Chinese pharmacopoeia, compiled under the Han and traditionally attributed to Shennong himself. The work classifies hundreds of plant, mineral and animal substances according to their nature and use. Tea appears among the beneficial plants, associated with alertness, clarity of mind and the elimination of toxins.
For centuries, the leaf therefore remained an object of healing before becoming an object of taste. It was consumed compressed, boiled, and sometimes mixed with ginger, salt or bark. The shift took place under the Tang, in the eighth century, when Lu Yu wrote the Cha Jing, the Classic of Tea, and finally separated the drink from a simple medicinal decoction. He codified water, fire, utensils and gesture. Tea became an art.
This shift from pharmacopoeia to the art of living does not erase the origin, it elevates it. The distinction between an time of plants and a true tea, derived solely from Camellia sinensis, goes back precisely to this history. It is also what separates a crafted leaf from a flavoured preparation.
Rediscover original purity with HOLLIN
Camellia sinensis remains a unique, complex plant, capable on its own of producing notes of chestnut, iodine, white flowers or damp wood, depending on its cultivar, altitude, harvest and drying method. Our teas are sourced in Hunan, a region of mist and rugged landscapes, from producers who work with the whole leaf rather than fragments.
At HOLLIN, no leaf receives artificial flavouring. This refusal is not an aesthetic stance, it is the direct consequence of the spirit of Shennong: if the plant is already a complete remedy, covering it with a superficial fragrance means masking precisely what was being sought. Our green teas and our black teas are enjoyed unadorned, just as the leaf presents them.
Which HOLLIN tea comes closest to the original infusion?
To relive Shennong's experience, one must turn to a minimally processed leaf. The green tea pure, simply withered then heat-fixed to halt oxidation, and the white tea, air-dried with almost no intervention, are the two families closest to the leaf that fell into simmering water. No extensive roasting, no prolonged oxidation, no additions: just the plant, water and time.
Infuse with water at around 75 degrees, allow the leaf to unfurl for two to three minutes, and watch the liquor slowly take on colour. It is the oldest gesture in tea, still intact.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Who invented tea according to Chinese tradition?
- Tradition attributes the discovery of tea to Shennong, the Divine Farmer, a mythical emperor of ancient China regarded as the father of agriculture and pharmacopoeia. The date given in the stories is 2737 BCE. It was not an invention in the technical sense, but a chance discovery: leaves from a wild tea plant fell into his hot water, after which he observed their purifying effects.
- Did Shennong really exist?
- No archaeological evidence attests to the historical existence of Shennong, who belongs to the corpus of mythical Chinese sovereigns. The treatise bearing his name, the Shennong Ben Cao Jing, is, however, very real: compiled under the Han dynasty, it is the oldest classic of Chinese materia medica. Shennong is therefore a founding figure, a way of recounting botanical knowledge accumulated over centuries by numerous anonymous practitioners.
- Why is simmering water important when infusing tea?
- Water at a rolling boil burns the leaf, extracts catechins and tannins too quickly, and produces a bitter, astringent liquor. Simmering water, between 70 and 85 degrees depending on the tea family, releases amino acids and volatile aromatic compounds first, resulting in a rounded, clearly defined cup. This is already described in the legend of Shennong, who brought his water to a simmer rather than a prolonged boil.