Korean Tea Ceremony - History

History

The first historical record documenting the offering of tea to an ancestral god describes a rite in the year 661 in which a tea offering was made to the spirit of King Suro, the founder of the Geumgwan Gaya Kingdom (42-562). Records from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) show that tea offerings were made in Buddhist temples to the spirits of revered monks.

Important national rituals involving tea drinking were being presided over by the government officials of the "Tabang" department. There is at least one ritual recorded in the Goryeosa Yaeji, or The Official History of Goryeo, mentioned as part of receiving a Chinese messenger to the court.

During the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), the ritualistic drinking of tea continued and was further refined. "Tabang" sustained and organized main royal ceremony. The royal Yi family and the aristocracy used tea for simple rites, the "Day Tea Rite" was a common daytime ceremony, whereas the "Special Tea Rite" was reserved for specific occasions. They were codified in the 1474 "National Five Rites" (Gukjo Oryeui, 國朝五禮儀, 국조오례의). These terms are not found in other countries.

But plantation problems happened and changed many of governing decisions about Korean tea. Unlike tea plantation areas in China or Japan, climate of the Korean Peninsula is much colder and Tea harvesting season was the same as just before the spring. So,at that period, tea tree forested area in the mountain was so cold and even dangerous because of wildlife. Old Korean name of tea, 설록("Sulloc", 雪綠), means the first flush tea leaf was harvested on the snow field of mountain. This situation brings lots of trouble during Goryeo Dynasty and Joseon Dynasty.

The tea tree forested area is also traditional Breadbasket of Korea and both tea leaf harvesting season and cereal seeding season overlap each other.And because of its value, farmers lived around tea tree forested region paid a tribute several amount of their tea for King as tax account. So, harvesting and treating tea leaf is pointed out as the major cause of amount of yearly crops harvest decreasing. In Goryeo Dynasty, there were hundreds of appeals by many lieges and scholars as Lee Je-hyun or Lee Gyu-bo. And finally at the end of the Goryeo Dynasty, recorded in the "YuDuRyuRok(유두유록, 遊頭流錄)", farmers burnt or chopped their tea trees to refuse their tea tax. And case of Joseon Dynasty, governed based by Confucianism, sustained Tabang for tea ceremony but reduced tea production scale for protecting the agricultural balance. By this reason, the development of tea industry was prevented for a very long time. And except Yangban and the Royal family, Korean original tea drinking culture and ceremony remained in a limited area around tea tree forested region.

However, by the middle of the Joseon dynasty, there appears to have been a decline in tea drinking except the ceremony for anniversary. It is said, that when the Ming Commander, Yang Hao, told King Seonjo (r.1567-1601) during the Japanese invasion that he had discovered high-quality tea plants in Korea, and that "if you were to sell the tea in Liaodong, you could get a silver coin for every ten pounds of tea. Altogether, that would be enough silver to buy ten thousand horses." King Seonjo, however, replied "We do not have a tea drinking custom in our country."

Towards the end of the Joseon Dynasty, commoners joined the trend and used tea for ancestral rites. Mainly Scholars of Silhak, like Jeong Yak-yong, Kim Jeong-hui, had interested about tea "drinking" culture and its production at their exile period on tea forested region . These people corresponded with monks who still had tea drinking culture. It started from Silla and Goryeo Dynasty that monks formed and administrated tea forest around the temple and it pass down as their possession. And Buddhist tea ceremony and drinking culture stylized in the traditional temple. And these two cultural leader group's relationship influenced both Seonbi society and contemporary monks.