FROM COMMODITY TO SYMBOL: THE GENESIS HISTORY OF TEA IMAGE IN 18TH-CENTURY RUSSIA﹡

This article aims to reconstruct the “genesis history of the image” of Chinese tea in 18th-century Russia. The study adopts the methods of historical document analysis, integrating the perspectives of conceptual history, material culture history, semiotics, and reception history, using primary sources from 18th-century Russia as the core historical material. The research shows that tea in 18th-century Russia went through four progressive stages: precious commodity, multifunctional item, linguistic symbolization, and cultural image genesis. For the first time, this article systematically applies the frameworks of conceptual history and the “cultural biography of things” to the study of tea culture in 18th-century Russia, filling a gap in existing economic history and social life history regarding the mechanisms of meaning making. This article is part of a series of papers reporting results from an interdisciplinary study on the influence of the “Tea Road” on Russian national culture. Its companion article, “A Study of the Meaning-Conveying Functions of the ‘Symbolic Image of Tea’ in Works of Russian Literature” [15], examines the mature forms and functions of this image in 19th- and 20th-century Russian literature, whereas the present article traces its genesis in the 18th century. It helps to reveal general patterns in the cross cultural dissemination of national cultures and has significant practical implications for optimizing contemporary mechanisms of cross cultural communication. Future research may further examine the mature forms of “tea image” in 19th-century Russian classical literature or undertake comparative studies of tea culture symbols across countries.