Tea-lover Emperors in Chinese History

Today, I would like to introduce three tea-lover emperors in Chinese history. The first one, Emperor Huizong (1082-1135) of the Song Dynasty. He’s not only a tea master, but also the first emperor who wrote a book about tea. His book “Daguan Tea Theory” has less than 3000 words, but precisely summed up the origin, material, customs of tea. He was just like a tea professor.

The second one is the Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799) in Qing Dynasty. He has written about 1,000 poems about tea, and is known as the “Emperor of Tea”. No matter what kinds of tea he drinks, he always writes poems to praise it.

The third one is the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398) of the Ming Dynasty, he was born from an ordinary family and advocated simple lifestyle. He abolished compressed tea as soon as he came to power. And Since then, loose tea gradually became popular. He also simplified the way of drinking tea, the reason everyone can drink tea nowadays is probably credited to him.