Most studies on the history of Chan tea culture cite a well-known passage in which Chan master Xiangmo Zang advocates tea drinking, and regard Mazu Daoyi as the first one to use tea as a tool in dharma transmission. These studies are mainly based on later Chan classics such as Zutang Ji, the earliest extant document on Chan history, and Jingde Chuandeng Lu, a book on Chan history and neglect the historical books on early Chan history unearthed at Dunhuang. By consulting the Lidai Fabao Ji, from among the documents of Dunhuang, this paper clearly reveals that the earliest records about Chan tea practices are contained in this very text. The research further concludes that Bashu was the site at which tea drinking and Chan Buddhism became associated with one another, that the Chan masters Wuxiang and Wuzhu were the first to transmit the dharma using tea, and that the Chan masters in Sichuan were the primary founders of Chan tea culture.
