Ⅱ.Period of the Three Kingdoms

During the Period of Three Kingdoms， the earliest records of ethnic minorities using tea in Yunnan appeared.In 109 BC， Wu Pu， from the Wei Dynasty during the Period of Three Kingdoms，recorded in his Materia Medica · Cuisine：“There are several bitter cuisines， respectively named Tu，Xuan and Youdong， which grow beside the valley and hill roads of Yizhou.”The word“荼 （Tu）”in the records gradually evolved into what we now call“茶 （tea）”， and the word“Yizhou”was Yizhou Prefecture established after the Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty founded“southern aboriginal tribe”， ancient Dian Country， in the 2nd year of Yuanfeng.

The Local Chronicles of Huayang (Southwest)· Records of Nanzhong described that“In

Pingyi County with the jurisdiction as a prefecture, there are places called Tiaojin and Anleshui which are abundant in tea and honey”.According to Wu Juenong’s Review of Tea Classics,Pingyi County is Fuyuan County 140 km away from Qujing today.There is also a record of“Nanzhong is rich in tea”in Lu Yu’s Tea Classics.The“Nanzhong”region mentioned in these two places is a general term for all Yunnan, northwest Guizhou and southwest Sichuan at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.