Tea, Its Mystery and History

LO FONG LOH, C.I.C.S.
SECRETARY TO THE CHINESE EDUCATIONAL MISSION, IN EUROPE.
FAC-SIMILE OF MR. LO FONG LOH’S PREFATORY NOTES IN THE CHINESE HING SHOO, OR RUNNING HAND; FOR TRANSLATION, SEE FOLLOWING PAGES
TEA ITS MYSTERY AND HISTORY
SAMUEL PHILLIPS DAY, Author of “Food Papers: a Popular Treatise on Dietetics,” etc.
WITH A PREFACE IN CHINESE AND ENGLISH
BY LO FONG LOH, C.I.C.S., Secretary to the Chinese Educational Mission in Europe .
ILLUSTRATED.
“The Sovereign drink of Pleasure and of Health.” Brady.
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO., Stationers’ Hall Court. 1878. Price One Shilling.
TO THE LOVERS OF PURE TEA, this Treatise is respectfully Inscribed by The Author.
The Chinese writing is eminently picturesque; and as the language admits of no alphabet, all ideas and objects are conveyed through the medium of groups of characters, each group representing a series of impressions, or opinions. By an ingenious and elaborate combination of strokes, upwards of 40,000 distinct symbols are perfected. This vast array has given rise to the amusing, but erroneous notion, that the Chinese pass their lives in learning to read; so that old and infirm scholars, after having devoted all their days to its accomplishment, have departed this life with the task undone.