My ancient "tea saint" is Lu Yu, then do you know China's "contemporary tea saint"?
His original name was Wu Rongtang, from a young age to experience the hardships of peasant life, and then by the "Three People's Principles" influence to pay attention to the people's livelihood problems in our country, at that time after understanding the current situation of agriculture in our country, he was determined to dedicate himself to agriculture, so he renamed himself "Juenong".
Mr. Wu Juenong
Mr. Wu Juenong has devoted his life to agriculture, especially to the revival of the tea industry, and has made great contributions, and is the founder of china's modern tea industry. Why is he called the "contemporary tea saint" of our country? This matter also begins with his association with tea.
In 1919, Mr. Wu Juenong was admitted to zhejiang province as a publicly-funded international student to study at the tea testing ground of the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, becoming the first student in China to study tea abroad, and since then he has formed an indissoluble relationship with tea.
During his study abroad, he has already shown his outstanding talent and unique vision. He collected a lot of information about the production, manufacture, trade and other aspects of tea in various countries, wrote a large number of articles, and published in major newspapers and periodicals, and slowly had a certain impact on the world tea industry. Among them, the famous "Examination of the Origin of Tea Plants" not only strongly refutes the historical fact that some foreign scholars deny that China is the origin of tea plants, but also justifiably declares to the world that China is the hometown of tea!
After three years of studying and returning to China, Mr. Wu Juenong was invited to organize a tea export inspection institute, and since then he has worked hard for the rejuvenation of China's tea industry on the land of China. In the following 7 years, he compiled China's first export tea inspection standards, pioneered China's tea export port and origin inspection system, and improved the popularity of China's tea export trade in the world.
As we all know, the ancient tea drinking style in China was prevalent, and the tea industry developed unprecedentedly, especially during the Tang and Song dynasties, which attracted many foreign scholars. However, after the 20th century, China's tea industry is facing a huge crisis, due to war, oppression and other reasons, many tea houses, tea factories closed, China's tea industry once withered.
The efforts made by Mr. Wu Juenong can be described as saving China's tea industry from water and fire, after a series of investigations and studies, he co-authored two works with Fan Hejun and Hu Haochuan, "China Tea Industry Problems" and "China Tea Industry Revival Plan", which have a far-reaching impact on the tea field.
From 1938 to 1939, the export of Chinese tea ranked first among China's exported agricultural products, and the export trade status of China's tea was increasing. Of course, while committed to the development of tea production and trade, we must also pay attention to the cultivation of technical talents in tea, Mr. Wu Juenong and Mr. Sun Hanbing opened the first tea industry group in Fudan University, including a four-year undergraduate, two-year tea industry specialization and tea research room.
Then, under the positive influence of Mr. Wu Juenong, higher agricultural colleges and universities in Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi and other higher agricultural colleges have also opened tea majors. So far, 24 universities across the country have opened tea science disciplines and tea culture disciplines, if Mr. Wu Juenong can see it, he will be very pleased.
Speaking of Mr. Wu Juenong, you will think of the American William Ukes's tea book "The Complete Book of Tea", which he and his colleagues translated, which is divided into upper and lower volumes, which has played a huge role in promoting China's tea-related education.
In his later years, Mr. Wu Juenong deeply studied Lu Yu's "Tea Classic" in the Tang Dynasty and wrote the authoritative work "Tea Classic Review", he not only made detailed comments on the contents of the book, but also made a scientific and comprehensive review, so that future generations can more easily read the Tea Classic and understand the contents of the book. The title of "Contemporary Tea Saint" Mr. Wu Juenong is well deserved.
Tea drinkers should know the "tea saint" Lu Yu, and those who learn tea should learn the "contemporary tea saint" Wu Juenong. In the same period and after Mr. Wu Juenong, there is no shortage of people who have made great contributions to the tea industry, such as Chen Rafters, Sun Hanbing, Zhuang Wanfang and so on.
Professor Chen Rafters
The articles and works mentioned in the article, interested tea lovers can go to see. Mr. Wu Juenong's contribution to the entire tea industry and even agriculture in China is far more than the above, and to understand his deeds in depth, we need to spend more time reading his works.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="34" > As a student of tea science and tea culture, I hereby solemnly pay tribute to Mr. Wu Juenong! Because of you, let China's tea culture become more and more confident! </h1>
References:
[1] China Archives Information Network
[2] China Tea Network