of Western Han to middle Western Han, tea was used as medicine. From the late Western Han dynasty to the Three Kingdoms period, tea was an imperial beverage. From the Western Jin dynasty to Sui dynasty, the use of tea as a beverage throughout the Chinese population From the Tang period onward, tea became one of the seven essentials of daily life During the Southern Song dynasty a Japanese monk 明菴栄西 Eisai (Yosai): came to Tiantai mountain of Zhejiang to study Chan (Zen) Buddhism (1168 CE); when he returned home in 1193 CE, he brought tea from China to Japan, planted it and wrote the first Japanese book on Tea:喫茶養生記, Treatise on Drinking Tea for Health. This was the beginning of tea cultivation and tea culture in Japan. In the Song dynasty, tea was a major export good, through the Silk Road on land and Silk Road on the sea, tea spread to Arab countries and Africa. Some historians believe Marco Polo encountered tea in his travel. Other historians point out that his writings fail to mention tea at all. In 1559, Giovanni ta Ramusio mentioned "chai" in "Delle Navigatione et Viaggi", Vol 6. 1579, Two Russian travellers introduced Cha to Russian spy Mass production of white tea Modern-day white teas can be traced to the Qing dynasty in 1796. Back then, teas were processed and distributed as loose tea that was to be steeped, and they were produced from "chaicha", a mixed-variety tea bush. They differed from other China green teas in that the white tea process did not incorporate de-enzyming by steaming or pan-firing, and the leaves were shaped. The silver needle white teas that were produced from the "chaicha" tea bushes were thin, small and did not have much silvery-white hair. It wasn't until 1885 that specific varietals of tea bushes were selected to make "Silver Needles" and other white teas. The large, fleshy buds of the "Big White", "Small White" and "Narcissus" tea bushes were selected to make white teas and are still used today as the raw material for the production of white tea. By 1891, the large, silvery-white down-covered Silver Needle was exported, and the production of White Peony started around 1922. The first tea monograph The first tea monograph Cha Jing by Tang dynasty writer Lu Yu was completed around 760 CE. This is more than four hundred years earlier than the first