Historical record · Leaves, journeys and living traditions
Tea
Follow tea through ancient evidence, written culture, global trade, colonial conflict and living landscapes.
Primary topic: Culture & Everyday Life
Explore the interactive road →Scope of this guide
A selective cultural and material history of Camellia sinensis tea. The first cup is unknown; archaeological evidence and legends are distinguished. Colonial trade is context, not a celebratory inventor story. Heritage milestones run through 2023.
Actual source-review status
10 completed · 0 partial · 0 pending chapter reviews in this subject.
The factual audit is unfinished. These counts come from recorded chapter reviews, not legacy “reviewed” wording, confidence labels or image checks. A completed source review retains scientific and historical uncertainty.
Key chapters
- About 2,100 years ago
Tea leaves accompany a Han burial →
Archaeological residues provide early physical evidence for tea.
Chapter source review completed: 2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review. Scientific uncertainty is retained in the evidence note. - Late 8th century
Lu Yu writes the Tea Classic →
A dedicated treatise records a developed Chinese tea culture.
Chapter source review completed: 2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review. Scientific uncertainty is retained in the evidence note. - 1839–1842
Tea trade is entangled with war →
British opium trading and Chinese resistance lead to the First Opium War.
Chapter source review completed: 2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review. Scientific uncertainty is retained in the evidence note. - 2023
Tea forests become World Heritage →
Jingmai's cultivated landscape joins the UNESCO list.
Chapter source review completed: 2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review. Scientific uncertainty is retained in the evidence note.
Connected roads
These are authored connections in the existing catalogue, not an automatically inferred family tree.
No additional outgoing subject connections are authored for this road yet.
All chapters & review records
- Tea leaves accompany a Han burialcompleted2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review
- Lu Yu writes the Tea Classiccompleted2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review
- Tea enters Dutch commercial tradecompleted2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review
- Tea is advertised in Londoncompleted2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review
- Tea becomes a political targetcompleted2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review
- Assam tea reaches a British auctioncompleted2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review
- Tea trade is entangled with warcompleted2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review
- A clipper is built for the tea tradecompleted2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review
- Living tea knowledge is recognisedcompleted2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review
- Tea forests become World Heritagecompleted2026-10-12 · Codex expansion source review
Sources
Sources cited by the existing chapters. Listing a source does not mean every claim has been verified.
- Lu et al., Scientific Reports (2016) — Earliest tea evidence ↗
- UK Tea & Infusions Association — History of tea ↗
- US National Park Service — Boston Tea Party, 250 years later ↗
- National Army Museum — First China War, 1839–1842 ↗
- Royal Museums Greenwich — Cutty Sark history ↗
- UNESCO — Traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China ↗
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Old tea forests of Jingmai Mountain ↗