Tea classics

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Tea classics
Lu Yu: The Classic of Tea
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	茶書
Simplified Chinese	茶书
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin chá shū
Japanese name
Kanji	茶書

Tea as a drink was first consumed in China and the earliest extant mention of tea in literature is the Classic of Poetry, although the ideogram used (荼) in these texts can also designate a variety of plants, such as sowthistle and thrush.

Chinese literature contains a significant number of ancient treatises on tea. Together, there exist approximately one hundred monographs or treatises on tea published from the Tang dynasty through the end of the Ming dynasty. The more famous books on tea are listed below.