The Origin of Tea - has many legends as of that of times of old. One popular Chinese legend, around 2737 BC, a Legendary Emperor of China named Shennong, was an inventor of agriculture along with Chinese medicine, was drinking a bowl of boiling water, when a few leaves were blown from a nearby tree into his bowl of water, which changed the colour. The emperor took a sip of this new brew to be pleasantly surprised by its flavour and restorative properties. Another variation to this legend tells that the emperor would test the medical properties of various herbs on himself, some of them poisonous, and found this new brew "tea" to work as an antidote. Shennong is also mentioned in Lu Yu's famous early work on the subject, Jing. A parallel Chinese legend says that "The god of agriculture would chew the leaves, stems and roots of various plants to discover medicinal herbs". "If he consumed a poisonous plant, he would chew tea leaves to counteract the poison".
Quite a gruesome legend would date back to the days of the Tang Dynasty. In this legend, Bodhidharma, who is to believed to be the founder of Chan Buddhism, accidentally fell asleep after meditating in front of a wall for nine years. When he woke up he was in such disgust at his own weakness, (it is said) he cut off his own eyelids. They fell to the ground - took root, growing into tea plants. Sometimes, a variation of this is the story where the Gautama Buddah is used in the place of Bodhidharma.
Whether these legends or whether not these legends have any fact attached to them, tea has played a momentous role in Asian culture for centuries as an essential beverage, a curatice and a status symbol. Therefore, its not surprising that these theories of the Origin of Tea, are often in religious or royal nature For more information on the Origin of Tea View Source: Wikipedia - The Free Encylopedia