Pu'er tea has begun to take shape in the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty Chenggong tea is at its peak, and it is currently sought after by fanaticism!
Unlike before the Ming Dynasty, when Pu'er tea was only a few words in the historical records, there were more records in the Qing Dynasty, and the verifiability was stronger. Or in order to help tea friends collect and easily read and remember, true, objective and comprehensive understanding of Pu'er tea, we continue to sort out the Records of Pu'er Tea in the Qing Dynasty and introduce it in parts. In order to make it easier for tea lovers to read, I try my best to translate and dedicate it to everyone to help tea xing. Since there are fewer materials to refer to, please laugh at the inappropriateness!
The Qing Dynasty was 1644-1912, a total of 276 years.
In 1729, Pu'er Province, Youle Tongzhi, Gongcha Pu'er
Records: (1) In the second year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1737), Ni Shu wrote the twelve volumes of the "Biography of the Dianyun Calendar": "In the seventh year of Yongzheng, the governor Ortai set up a general tea shop in Yu Simao to judge his affairs.
(2) Qing "Daoguang Yunnan Zhiqian" Volume 1 "Geographical Chronicle" "Pu'er Province." In the seventh year of Yongzheng, he judged the Yuanjiang Tongjue, and placed the Pu'er Mansion in the six major tea mountains and olive dams of Pu'er under his rule, and set up the Tongzhi zhizhi to be subordinate to youle, and the Si Mao who was stationed in the place was judged. "
Translation:
(1) In 1729 (the seventh year of Yongzheng), the governor of Yunnan, Ortai Shangzuo, set up a general tea shop in Simao, presided over by the judge himself, to manage the local tea trade.
(2) Pu'er Province. In 1729 (the seventh year of Yongzheng), the general judgment department of the Yuanjiang Military and Civilian Government was abolished (Pu'er Prefecture was separated from the Yuanjiang Military and Civilian Government). Pu'er Province was added to govern the six major tea mountains assigned to Pu'er Province, as well as the Olive Dam, and Liubanna west of the Lancang River. It also set up a garrison within the jurisdiction of Yule Tongzhi, and the general judgment department was stationed in Simao.
—Qianlong Emperor—
Serial Interpretation: In 1729 (the seventh year of Yongzheng), Pu'er Province was placed in The Liuguan system; in the same year, the Pu'er Tongjue was moved to Simao, and in Simao, Youle Tongzhi was set up.
1729 (yongzheng seven years) - 1904 (Guangxu thirty years) about 176 years, is the tribute tea time of Pu'er tea. The Qing government spent 1,000 taels of silver every year to purchase Pu'er Gong tea.
Tribute tea is a tea that was specially used in ancient China to pay tribute to the imperial family for the emperors to enjoy. During the Yongzheng period, Yunnan Pu'er tea was officially written into the imperial court tribute tea case book and was designated as the special tea for the royal winter. Because the Qing court was particularly fond of Pu'er tea, it was stipulated that 66,000 catties of tribute tea should be handed over every year.
In 1726, the Yongzheng Emperor appointed ortai, a Manchu confidant, as the governor of Yunnan. Yongzheng is a workaholic, reigning for 13 years, sleeping an average of no more than 4 hours a day. In order to repay the favor of the Qing court and win the favor of the emperor with Tu, Ortai paid tribute to Pu'er tea in the seventh year of Yongzheng (1729 AD), which was deeply pleasing to Yongzheng.
This is the earliest record of Pu'er tea listed as a tribute tea in historical records. Historical records show that Pu'er Province was a distribution center for the local tea trade, and tea was processed and produced, paid tribute to the imperial court and shipped to various places.
Ming Dynasty tribute tea is "Lu'anZhou piece of tea, for the best of tea", the Qing Dynasty pays more attention to Pu'er tea, because of its "soy", drinking in winter, both warm up, but also can go greasy. More importantly, the emperor liked to promote, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing loved to drink Yiwu, and Daoguang liked Nahan. In particular, Qianlong is the "behind-the-scenes promoter" of Pu'er tea, creating a new tea ceremony centered on Pu'er, and also writing poems "unique Pu'er trumpet is strong, and the qingbiao is not enough to boast of the tongue", giving Pu'er tea a high praise. In addition, gifts to foreign envoys are also Pu'er tea. It is precisely because of Qianlong's advocacy that "the reputation and admiration of Pu'er tea in the Qing Dynasty power palace is unmatched by other teas." "
The Guangxu Emperor drank 33 kilograms of Doppuri tea a year. According to the archives, when Guangxu was "the emperor used Pu'er tea, he used one or two five dollars a day, shared two pounds of thirteen two a month, shared thirty-three pounds of Pu'er tea for one year, drank more than 33 pounds a year, and did not count "one year after another gargling with Pu'er tea eleven or two", this amount is really amazing.
Before picking tea, the Kino people worship their ancestors - Kong Ming Tea Ancestor
In the same year (1729), Pu'er Province added "Youle Tongzhi" to the Youle Mountain Situ Laozhai (formerly known as Citong), and sent 500 soldiers to garrison the ancient "Six Great Tea Mountains", managing the political economy, tea production and trade of the ancient "Six Great Tea Mountains", and responsible for the procurement of Pu'er Gong tea. In addition, in Menghai, Mengsha, Yiwu and other places, the "Department of Military Merit for Money, Grain and Tea Affairs" was set up, which was specifically responsible for managing local taxes and tea administration. Due to traffic congestion and serious miasma, Tongzhi was transferred to Simao in 1735. After the revocation, Gongcha was supervised by the General Manager of Yibang Tuqian.
The Qing government gave the "Yule Tongzhi" a lot of power, and the territory under its jurisdiction was quite broad. The Qing "Yunnan Tongzhi" records that "the east to the south of the state (Laos) boundary of 755 miles, the west to the Menglian boundary of 600 miles, the south to the Cheli (Jinghong) boundary of ninety-five miles, the north to the Simao boundary of 442 miles", has approached the level of a prefecture today.
In 1735, the "Yunnan Tea Law" and the birth of the Seven Sons Cake
(Shuanglong Tea Factory Seven Zi Cake purchased at Shuangjiang Tea Expo on May 2, 2006)
Records: Qing History Manuscript, vol. 124, "Food And Goods Five Tea Law": Yongzheng Thirteen years (1735), "with seven pounds as a barrel, thirty-two barrels as a citation, as usual to collect taxes." "
(1kg brick of Shuanglong Tea Factory purchased at Shuangjiang Tea Expo on May 2, 2006)
Seven pounds are used as a barrel, and thirty-two barrels are used as a citation, and the tax silver is collected according to the usual practice.
Cross-reference: "Jin" is suspected to be a copy error of "circle" or "rose". It is recorded in the "Great Qing Huidian" and "Pu'er Fu Zhi" as "yuan" and "rose".
"Yunnan Tea Law" - In 1735 (the thirteenth year of Yongzheng), the imperial court promulgated the Yunnan Tea Law. The tea law is a mandatory standardization provision, which is intended to facilitate statistics, taxation, and transactions. The Tea Law stipulates that the purchase and sale of Yunnan tea leaves must hold a "tea introduction", and the imperial court approves Yunnan to issue three thousand "tea introductions" every year, and each purchase of tea is 100 catties. The Yunnan Tea Law also specifically stipulates that the tea traded should be round cake-shaped, each round cake weighs seven two, seven round cakes are a barrel, each cylinder is 49 two, each barrel is taxed silver 1 point, each "tea introduction" can buy thirty-two barrels (about 100 catties in the old name), and the taxed silver is three dollars and two cents, which is always customized. The Tea Law also stipulates that Yunnan merchants sell tea, and where the number of tea barrels is less than one citation, it shall be proved by the official and discussed with zero citation.
After the promulgation of the tea law, there is a unified unit of measurement, whether it is processed, sold, or taxed, it is much more convenient. With laws to follow and rules to follow, all aspects of processing, sales and taxation have become orderly and transparent. The Yunnan Tea Law stipulates the shape, weight and packaging specifications of tea listed and traded in Yunnan and tea for export in the form of law. This was the beginning of the formal intervention, control and monopoly of Yunnan tea by the central court of China in history.
"Seven Sons Cake Tea", yunnan tea law gave birth to the seven sons cake tea. 7 two is a circle, weighing 218.75 grams / cake), seven circles is a cylinder, weighing 49 two (16 two for one pound, 49 two for 3.06 pounds at that time); 32 cylinders for a lead (weight 98 pounds), close to 100 pounds. Special provisions are made for the number of hundreds of catties to be a citation to facilitate calculation and sale.
The packaging is a tube of seven cakes, wrapped in cotton paper, and then packaged with fat bamboo shoot shells as a barrel, which is called "Seven Sons Cake Tea", and this packaging method continues to this day.
Qizi cake tea since entering the market has been controlled by the national tea law, with the imperial court, official supervision, processing standards, strict quality requirements, stable and reliable quality, according to today's saying is the quality of the national standard of commercial tea, is more than a hundred years ago the Qing Empire national standard tea.
The processing method of Qizi Cake Tea is very unique, which is a combination of the method of processing tea by the ethnic minorities in Yunnan and the method of processing tea by the ethnic groups in the Central Plains, containing the technology of steaming into a ball, and the legacy of the dragon tuan phoenix cake reflects the characteristics of the integration of Han culture and Yunnan ethnic minority culture.
Why is the weight of Pu'er tea cake 357 grams now? After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the weight of the seven-child cake was set at 357 grams, which was also to be closer to the whole number per cylinder and the weight of each basket, such as "a tube weighs 7 pieces× 357 grams / piece is about equal to 2.5 kg; a basket weighs 12 barrels× 2.499 kg / barrel = 29.988 kg is about equal to 30 kg.
The original fragmentary number becomes an integer after the sum, which is also to facilitate the statistics, taxation, transaction and other management of Pu'er tea.
1755 (Qianlong 20th year) Zhang Hong's "New Language of Southern Yunnan"
In 1755 (the twentieth year of Qianlong), Zhang Hong's "New Language of Southern Yunnan" → the earliest and most informative account of Yunnan tea and Pu'er tea.
Record: Zhang Hong's "New Language of Southern Yunnan" says: "Dian tea: There are several kinds of Dian tea. The prevailing people are known as Mu Bang and Pu'er. Mu Bang ye coarse taste astringent, also made of tuan, impersonating the name of Pu Ming, to fool foreign traders. Because of its proximity also. And the taste is inferior. Pu tea treasures, there are Mao Jian, bud tea, daughter tea number. The hair tip is the one who picked it before the rain, does not make a ball, the taste is light and fragrant like a lotus, and the new color is tender green and lovely. The bud tea is slightly stronger than the hair tip, and it is collected into clusters, with a rate of two, two, four, two. The Dian people are heavy.
Daughter tea is also a bud tea, taken from the valley rain, with one pound to ten pounds as a clump. All Yi women are collected and ruled, and the goods and silver are accumulated as funds, hence the name. The system of care is used to pay tribute to the three. The rest of the coarse leaves are sold in Dianzhong. The coarsest boil the paste into a cake, copy the print, and prepare the gift. There is also a daughter tea paste in the year gong, and it is also entered into the pearl tea. "
There are many varieties of Yunnan tea. At that time, one of the popular ones was called Mu Bang and the other was called Pu'er. The thick and astringent leaves of Mubang are very heavy, and they are also made into tuan tea, which pretends to be the name of Pu'er tea to sell to the outside world in a fake and real way. Because the land of Mubang (in present-day northeastern Burma) was close to the current Lincang and Dehong. But the taste is far less good than Pu'er tea. The treasures of Pu'er tea are Maojian, bud tea, and daughter tea. The valley rain festival before the harvest of Maojian tea, is a loose tea is not made as a group of tea, the taste of light aroma like lotus, the newly picked tea color tender green is very cute. Later, the bud tea is slightly stronger than the hair tip, and it is picked to make a group of teas, with two two or four pairs as the standard. Yunnan people especially like it.
Daughter tea is also a bud tea, which is picked after the Valley Rain Festival and steamed into a ball with one to ten pounds. They are all picked and made by ethnic minority girls in Yunnan, and the money obtained after selling the daughter's tea market with a salary is accumulated to buy a dowry, so it is called daughter tea. According to the custom, the government uses three kinds of Pu'er tea, maojian tea, bud tea, and daughter tea, to charge the annual tribute tea. The rest of the coarse and old Pu'er tea leaves are sold loosely in Yunnan. The coarsest leaves are boiled into cakes and stamped with a gift. However, every year, there is also a tea paste made from daughter's tea, which is paid tribute together with the pearl-shaped tea made by picking the tips of newly germinated buds.
Serial explanation: Zhang Hong was an official in Yunnan in the early Qianlong period, and the record was convincing.
This account describes the three types of tribute teas of Pu'er tea: Maojian, Bud Tea, and Daughter Tea. It is also the earliest and most informative account of Yunnan tea and Pu'er tea. The daughter tea is particularly described, corresponding to the legend, according to legend, the daughter tea as a tribute tea is picked by unmarried girls, and the bud tea that is picked must be put into the arms first, accumulated to a certain amount, and then taken out and put into the bamboo basket. The salary of the tea pickers is the daughter tea that is shared with the owner of the tea garden, and this daughter tea is very good to sell, and the money sold by the girls is saved for dowry. Legend only!
Pu'er tea, which was just famous in the Qing Dynasty, had counterfeit products. Imagine today's chaos driven by profit. Mubang was in present-day northeastern Burma, near Xishuangbanna, and its area also produced tea, but the taste was far less good than the tea in Xishuangbanna. Now there are also many overseas tea such as Laos, Myanmar tea, impersonating Pu'er tea, not only hawkers and small factories.
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Author: Return to the Countryside [Original] 2018.04.09 First published, 2020.07.06 modified