飲茶是中國文化的一個組成部分。

據陸羽《茶經》所載，中國飲茶最早要追溯到周朝（公元前1046—公元前222年）：“茶之為飲，發乎神農氏，聞于魯周公。”茶在中國已有四千年的歷史了。相傳有位傳奇英雄叫神農，品嘗了成百上千種植物，并分辨出哪些是有毒的，哪些是可以食用的，以此來防止人們吃到有毒的植物。據說他曾經一天中毒72次，后因咀嚼了一種開著白色花朵的長青樹嫩葉而脫險了。神農的肚子是水晶般透明的。人們可以看見食物是如何通過胃和腸消化的。當他們看到這種嫩葉汁在他胃里上下洗滌，好似在檢查什么，就稱這種綠葉為“查”，即尋找的意思。后來轉命名為“茶”，與“查”同音。

中國人民世世代代傳頌這個故事，是為了表示崇敬和紀念這位中國農業和醫學事業的開創者的功績。

Shennong Tasted Herbs

Tea-drinking is a constituent part of Chinese culture.

According to Lu Yu's Tea Classics,tea-drinking in China can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty（1046 B.C.-222 B.C.），"ea was discovered by Shennong and became popular as a drink in the State of Lu（1043 B.C.-249 B.C.）because of Zhou Gong." Tea drinking in China has a history of four thousand years.As the legend has it,Shennong,a legendary hero,tasted hundreds of wild plants to see which were poisonous and which were edible,so as to prevent people from eating the poisonous plants.It is said that he was poisoned seventy-two times in one day and was saved by chewing some tender leaves of an evergreen plant with white flowers blossoming.Since he had atransparent belly,people could see how the food moved throughout his stomach and intestines.When they saw the juice of the tender leaves go up and down in the stomach as if it were searching for something,they called it“查（cha）"（meaning "search”）.Later it was renamed“茶”（cha）having the same pronunciation of“查”.

People told and retold this story from generation to generation,paying great respect to this ancestor,who pioneered agriculture and Chinese medicine.