Doctors in ancient China have roughly three meanings.
The “Warring States Policy” records: “Zheng Tongbei meets with King Zhao, and Zhao Wang said: ‘The son, the doctor of the south is also.’” The “doctor” here is similar to “zi” and is a form of respect.
After listening to King Zhao’s compliments, Zheng Tong then told King Zhao that governing a country cannot have ideals, but also needs to understand special knowledge such as strategy and art of war. This involves the second meaning of PhD-a kind of official position. Beginning in the Qin Dynasty, China began to set up “doctorate officers” to grant experts in a certain field to provide various materials or suggestions to the king.
In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the situation changed again. As the heyday of ancient China’s influence, not only was it a vast territory, but also the culture of citizens had also been greatly developed. More and more people studied drinking tea as a manifestation. Lu Yu wrote a special “Tea Classic”, which covers everything from the appearance and characteristics of tea to the picking and brewing of tea, and even the selection of tea sets. People admire him for his research on tea as “Doctor of Tea”; over time, Doctor of Tea has become a popular name for teahouse masters.
