CHAPTER TWO: TEA & HEALTH
Tea as Medicine
Because of its well-known health benefits, more and more people are choosing to drink tea, but unfortunately, they aren't choosing the correct way to drink it. Tea just started to get popular in recent years. I worry that ten years from now, tea drinkers may be experiencing negative health impacts rather than benefits.
I'm not going to talk about chemicals and other harmful things related to tea growing, as you probably got the general idea from the first chapter about the tea business. Instead, I am now going to talk about how the method of drinking tea can either make you healthy or make you sick, depending on how you go about it.
In ancient Chinese medicine, there is a very important theory:
"If a doctor can make sure you are always healthy, and before you get sick he has already treated the illness, this type of doctor is the best;
If the doctor cannot tell before you get sick, but can heal you when you get sick, this is the middle level doctor;
If the doctor can only treat you when you already have a terrible disease, this is the worst type of doctor."
In ancient Chinese history, there is a very good story that can explain this theory more deeply: Bian Que (Chinese: ; pinyin: Bian Què) (also pronounced Pien Chueh, or Wade-Giles: Pien Ch'iao; died 310 BC) was, according to legend, the earliest known Chinese physician. His real name was said to be Qin Yueren (), but his medical skills were so amazing that people gave him the same name as the legendary doctor Bian Que from the time of the Yellow Emperor. He was a native of the State of Qi.
One famous legend tells of how once when Bian Que was in the State of Cai, he saw the lord of the state at the time and told him that he had a disease, which Bian Que claimed was only in his skin. The lord brushed this aside as at that time he felt no symptoms, and told his attendants that Bian Que was just trying to profit from the fears of others. Bian Que is said to have visited the lord many times thereafter, telling him each time how this sickness was becoming progressively worse, each time spreading into more of his body, from his skin to his blood and to his organs. The last time Bian Que went to see the lord, he looked in from afar, and rushed out of the palace. When an attendant of the lord asked him why he had done this, he replied that the disease was in the marrow and was incurable. The lord was said to have died soon after.
Another important Chinese medicine theory is that medicine and foods are from the same origin: food is medicine, and medicine is the food. When human beings eat food, they also get energy from the food that prevents disease. Having a good diet is the basic and most important way to stay healthy.
The practice of drinking tea has a long history in China. Shennong (Chinese: ), whose name means the Divine Farmer -- and who is considered to be the ancient Chinese Father of Agriculture, is honored with the discovery of tea. According to legend, one fall afternoon, Shennong decided to take a rest under a Camellia tree and boiled some water to drink. Dried leaves from the tree above floated down into the pot of boiling water and infused the water, creating a pot of tea, marking the first ever infusion of the tea leaf. Intrigued by the delightful fragrance, Shennong took a sip and found it refreshing.
Since Shennong's discovery, tea has been grown and enjoyed throughout the world.
In the beginning, tea was used in ritual offerings. Then, tea leaves were eaten as a vegetable, or used in medicine. Until the Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, tea was a new drink.
The Compendium of Materia Medica, also known by the Chinese name Ben Cao Gang Mu (Chinese: ), is a Chinese materia medica work written by Li Shi Zhen during the Ming Dynasty. It is a work epitomizing the materia medica known at the time. The Compendium of Material Medical is regarded as the most complete and comprehensive medical book ever written in the history of traditional Chinese medicine. It lists all the plants, animals, minerals, and other items that were believed to have medicinal properties. This book also contains entries on tea:
"Tea can treat hemorrhoids; good for urination; cooling the heat from inflammation; reducing thirst and helping to sleep less."
So from the traditional Chinese medical point of view, tea is not just a tasty beverage, it is also a food, and one that can treat disease and maintain health, so it's also an important medicine. To drink tea is not as simple as drinking a bottle of Coca Cola or a cup of coffee. When you should drink it, how to drink it, and what types of tea you should drink at which specific time all depend on your body. This is also why the Chinese created the six major varieties of tea: black, green, yellow, white, oolong, and dark.
Tea leaves have been artificially transformed into different varieties, and those different varieties connect with the basic five elements in Chinese medical theory: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth. In traditional Chinese philosophy, we believe in Yin and Yang. Yin created the five elements on earth, and it provides the most basic balance for everything on earth.
Yin and Yang, which are often shortened to "yin-yang" or "YinYang" describe how apparently opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. Many tangible dualities (such as light and dark, fire and water, and male and female) are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality of yin and yang. This duality lies at the origins of many branches of classical Chinese science and philosophy, as well as being a primary guideline of traditional Chinese medicine and a central principle of different forms of Chinese martial arts and exercise, such as Bagua Zhang, Taiji (t'ai chi), and Qigong (Chi Kung), as well as in the book of theYi Jing.
The Yin and Yang of Tea
Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary (rather than opposing) forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the assembled parts. Everything has both yin and yang aspects (for instance, shadow cannot exist without light). Either of the two major aspects may manifest more strongly in a particular object, depending on the criterion of the observation.
So according to this theory, the tea is a leaf created by nature and belongs to Yang, and it must be brewed with water so that nutrition can be released. Water belongs to Yin, so tea and water together are perfect examples of Yin and Yang theory; besides Yin and Yang, the different varieties of tea also include the five elements. Different elements can treat different diseases, and different diseases have different causes, but all belong to Yin and Yang. If Yang becomes unbalanced, the body will manifest disease, but if the body can balance Yin and Yang, it can be healthy. Tea became an important medicine for adjusting the balance of Yin and Yang in the body to keep you healthy.
So let's look at how traditional Chinese medicine analyzes the body, and then we can tell how to drink tea in a manner that supports health. As mentioned above, if a doctor can make sure you are always healthy, and has treated the illness before you get sick, this type of doctor is best. Who can take such good care of you and watch your health so carefully at all times? The answer is you. Only you can feel your own body and intimately know what is happening in your body at any given time, so if you know which time your body needs what kind of food, in traditional Chinese medicine it is believed you will be able to serve as the highest level of doctor for yourself.
Based on this theory, let's first talk about the meaning of Yin Yang for a person's health. In traditional Chinese medicine, it is believed that everything relates to Yin and Yang, and everything works within the Yin Yang system. Yin Yang has two faces, and is divided into two parts. These two parts are part of Taiji (Chinese: ). In the ancient Chinese book Zhou Bi Suan Jing (Chinese: ), which contains details about the lunar calendar, there is a precise description of the meaning of "Ji ()":
The important thing mentioned in this passage is: Yin and Yang correspond to exact numbers, and the calendar represents a very strict Law. Zhang (), Bu (), Sui (), Shou (), and Ji () are the five major parts in the lunar calendar. Zhang means 19 years old, and the name of the number 19 is Zhang, and the Chinese character "Zhang()" has the meaning of law. So being the law, you cannot freely add whatever you want or subtract whatever you feel like. It is a very strict law you have to follow and it is the most basic number. So follow this law: four Zhang become a Bu (); twenty Bu become a Sui (); three Sui become a Shou (); and seven Shou become Ji (). So that means thirty-one thousand nine hundred and twenty years will become a Ji (). When thirty-one thousand nine hundred and twenty years have gone by, the world will undergo a big change - the end of everything and the start of everything.
When every single "Ji " has come, it is the end of time for everything, meaning all life will be over, and then there will be a new start for everything, starting a new cycle. So everything will have an ending, but this end is not forever, and this happens over and over. This theory exactly matches ancient Indian philosophy: Creation, Process, Destruction, and Emptiness. The universe is actually developing through these four steps...
