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to northern China, where he was granted an interview with the Liang emperor, Wu-Ti. This emperor was noted for his good works and was eager to speak with Bodhidharma, for he felt sure that the monk would tell him that he was well on his way to enlightenment. When Bodhidharma said that enlightenment could not be obtained through merit, Wu-Ti apparently was not pleased and left the interview in great confusion.
    Leaving the emperor, Bodhidharma went to Loyang, crossed the Yang-tse River, then traveled up into the mountains of the Sung range to stay at the Shaolin temple. Legend says that to fulfill a vow, he spent nine years in meditation in a small cave there. It is from this long meditation that many of the legends about Bodhidharma—and tea—originate.
    Some versions of the legend say that Bodhidharma was looking at a wall in a cave for nine years, while others suggest that he simply vowed to do without sleep, giving his full attention to the meditation of Buddha. According to this version, after five years, his need for sleep became overpowering, and in desperation to keep himself awake, he pulled leaves off a nearby bush and began chewing on them. Fortunately for him—and for us—or perhaps it was divinely ordained—the leaves came off a tea bush and were simultaneously stimulating and soothing, immediately reviving him. He used the leaves of this shrub over and over again until he was able to complete his vow.

    Once the vow was complete, Bodhidharma is said to have turned his attention to helping the monks of the temple. Not only did he introduce them to tea, to enable them to stay awake during long periods of meditation, but he also taught them physical techniques to strengthen the body to withstand the rigors of sitting long hours of meditation. This physical practice, also used as a form of self-defense against bandits and invading war lords, eventually grew into the martial arts style called kung fu.
    Like many legends, this one has endless variations and inconsistencies. After all, as previously indicated, there are written records of tea being drunk for centuries preceding the arrival of Bodhidharma in China. In some versions, the prince actually fell asleep during the years of his vow and was so disgusted with himself when he woke that he pulled off his eyelids so that they would never again close. Where he tossed these aside, the tea shrub began to grow. (The popular “eyebrow” tea, chun mee-cha , introduced in 1958 , has nothing to do with this eyelid legend, but instead refers to the curved “eyebrow” shape of the processed leaf.)
    Wherever tea actually originated, it was used as an aid to meditation among the Buddhist monks of Bodhidharma’s time. Because it was such an important meditation tool, and because meditation was such an essential part of the type of Buddhism that Bodhidharma preached (now known as Zen Buddhism), the spread of tea parallels the spread of Buddhism from China to other places in Asia.

CHAPTER 3
Tea in Ancient China and Korea
“Its liquor is like the sweetest dew of heaven.”
    â€”Lu Yu, eighth-century tea master
    TEA IN THE T ’ ANG DYNASTY
    The imperial court of the T’ang dynasty ( 618 – 907 ) enjoyed great power and influence and controlled vast lands and wealth. A contributing factor to this expansion of power was a series of interconnecting canals that allowed communication and transportation to all parts of the empire and beyond. Boats on the canals carried tea and other consumer goods from one port to another, and as foreign trade grew, the empire expanded.
    Of course, Chinese traders used other means of transportation as well, and wherever Chinese traders went, tea went with them. At this point in history, tea leaves were pressed into a brick or cake, then baked until hard. This gave them a long shelf life and made them easy to transport. To make tea from a brick of baked leaves, one broke off a portion of the