It was in a slave's
employment contract we first confirmed that tea had become a common beverage of the everyday in the
Han Dynasty,
China. Incidentally, it was recorded well before 300 B.C. that tea has become a tonic rather than a medicine, that cultivation and trading tea has become prevalent. Western historians beware!
In January 59 B.C., a scholar named Wang Bo from
Sichuan traveled to the capital
Chengdu for the government's exam. He passed his newly deceased friend's house to pay condolences to the widow. His friend's wife, though, may have had other designs. She served an excessive amount of wine at dinner, and Wang Bo became very drunk and very flirtatious. He demanded more wine when depleted, and the widow's servant named Bian Le (translated: Convenient) was bidden to go make another purchase. Bian Le ended up buying more alcohol again the next day, as they not only drank into the night, but picked it up again the next morning. Fearing that his mistress was about to become unfaithful to her
dead husband, he ran to the graveside and stirred a scene, crying and yelling how unfortunate that he, Bian Le, has become nothing but a wine buyer for a rogue as Mr. Wang. The whole village heard, to the embarrassment of Wang Bo. He asked the widow to sell him this servant for 15000 Liang (silver pieces), and the widow agreed. The servant demanded that he be clearly notified as to what his duties are, or else he might CONVENIENTLY forget some items to do. Unfortunately, Wang Bo being an educated scholar and can write more words than the servant can ever hoped to read, wrote a contract of 600 words. (That is equivalent to a 200 page book in English). He left no duties out and not a minute of free time. It included "Rising and cooking breakfast, then washing the used dishes" to " Washing laundry at midnight"
Most significantly, the middle of the day included " Brew tea and make sure all teawares are kept clean" to " Travel to Wu Yang to purchase teas whenever depleted" Wu Yang had been recorded else where as one of the two main tea trading towns of Sichuan, as tea has become such a huge commodity that whole towns are devoted to its trade by then.
After Convenient Bian Le read the exhaustive contract, he tearfully asked if the employment purchase can be rescinded, that he could just buy wine for the mistress everyday and never complain again.
