The long-term development of the tea industry in the Tang Dynasty also greatly promoted its own construction. Before the Sui Dynasty or the early Tang Dynasty, tea could only be said to be a regional production or culture. After the middle of the Tang Dynasty, with the development of the tea industry, tea became a national social economy, social culture and an independent tea study.
As a kind of social economy in the country, tea is mainly reflected in the tea tax, in addition to its commercial content. Before the middle of the Tang Dynasty, planting tea, buying and selling tea, did not impose taxes. After the middle of the Tang Dynasty, as tea production and trade developed into a large-scale production and bulk trade, the state treasury was tempted to levy a tax on tea, which gradually evolved into a customization.
Before the Tang Dynasty, although the history of drinking tea and planting tea in some places in southern China has been long, but it has not yet published a book on tea. That is to say, at that time, tea has not yet formed an independent formal study. After the middle of the Tang Dynasty, in response to the development of the tea industry and the need for knowledge of tea in the society, a number of tea monographs such as Lu Yu’s “Tea Classics” appeared, making tea a national production and economy, as well as an independent new study and culture that has been displayed in the world and passed down through the ages.
Lu Yu's "Tea Classic" is the first tea book in China and the world. Later, the Tang people continued to write new chapters of the book "Tea Classics", which enabled the continually evolving tea study to continue to flourish, established the earliest traditional tea study in China to reflect the reality and knowledge of tea science in the Tang Dynasty.
At the same time, after the advent of the "Tea Classics", people began to pay attention to the tea culture, tea production, the art of tea set and tea taste. That is to say, in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, with the development of Chinese tea industry and tea study, the tea culture itself has also developed a lot. For example, 28 tea sets are listed in Lu Yu's "Tea Classics", about the size, process and use of each type of equipment are described in detail. It not only lays the foundation for ancient Chinese tea sets, but also has promoted the development of tea sets production in China.
The development of tea culture in the Tang Dynasty also highlighted that more and more people enjoy tea in the society. This shows that the value of tea has been unprecedentedly improved. Therefore, since the Tang Dynasty, the literati used poetry, words, and literature to celebrate the joy of drinking tea, which has become a common practice. For example, the famous poets of the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai, Liu Yuxi, Bai Juyi, Meng Haoran, etc. all loved tea, and they have left many wonderful poems of tea. On the one hand, these poems promoted tea as a daily necessities and on the other hand, they have greatly expanded and improved the spiritual significance of tea culture.
In the Tang Dynasty, tea was also spread to border area. When Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty married to Tibet, she also brought the trend of drinking tea. Tea spread to Tibet and further integrated with Buddhism.