Zhang Tianfu's Meitan tea edge
◎ Cao Yuqiang
One day in April 1939, it was the season of spring and warm flowers, and it was also a busy season for picking and making tea. At that time, Zhang Tianfu, who was only thirty years old, worked in the Fu'an branch of the tea improvement field of the Agricultural Improvement Department of the Fujian Provincial Government, and became a famous tea expert in China after the founding of New China, saw a news from the Central Daily that "the National Government will hold a national production conference in Chongqing", and his name was also included in the list of participants. Although he was a little surprised, he immediately wrote a letter to the Agricultural Improvement Department of the Fujian Provincial Government in Yong'an stating that he was going to Chongqing to attend the meeting, and got the consent of the Improvement Department and sent someone to handle the handover procedures.
Therefore, Zhang Tianfu hurriedly set off, without stopping, first taking a car to Guilin, and then changing lanes and taking a plane to Chongqing, the capital of the Nationalist government.
When he arrived in Chongqing, it was still early to leave the meeting, and Zhang Tianfu first went to visit his two teachers: One was Xie Jiasheng, director of the Central Agricultural Experiment Institute, former dean of the Agricultural College of Jinling University; and the other was Shen Zonghan, deputy director of the Central Agricultural Experiment Institute, who also taught at Jinling University.
For the meeting, on the morning of May 3, Zhang Tianfu also went to a nearby clothing store to order two sets of uniforms. At night, he witnessed the flesh-and-blood situation and the chaotic streets and alleys of the Japanese planes bombing Chongqing, which made him even more indignant against the Japanese invaders.
Zhang Tianfu waited for a few days at the Central Agricultural Experiment Institute before reporting to the National Production Conference designated by the Executive Yuan. At the reception of the delegates, Mu Rongchu, director of the Agricultural Promotion Committee, assigned him the task of visiting the southwestern provinces first and then returning to the meeting. He also told him that the Ministry of Agriculture planned to set up a tea testing ground in the southwest region, and the ministry asked him to go to Sichuan, Xikang, Guizhou, Yunnan and other places to find a more ideal address. Therefore, Zhang Tianfu participated in the tea inspection expert group jointly dispatched by the Central Agricultural Experiment Institute and the China Tea Company, and prepared to go to the inspection together with Wang Tao, Li Lianbiao, Zhu Yuanlin and other experts.
Just do it. But we all know that the several provinces that Zhang Tianfu and he are going to this time are located in the Qinghai-Tibet and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateaus, where the mountains and valleys are dense, and the roads are rugged and bumpy, and it can be said that the degree of difficulty is unimaginable. In order to plan a good route, one is to save time and money, and the other is to minimize the pain of wading through mountains and rivers, Zhang Tianfu found a map and carefully pondered and studied it. He comprehensively considered and compared many factors such as terrain, soil, climate, ecological environment, traffic conditions and development direction of each place to be visited, and repeatedly compared.
From Chengdu, Zigong and Yibin in Sichuan, to Ya'an in Xikang, from Kunming and Qujing in Yunnan to Zunyi, Anshun, Guiyang and Meitan in Guizhou. They hurried all the way, without the heart to see the great rivers and mountains in the southwest of the motherland, but they felt deeply touched by the poverty and backwardness of the towns and villages they passed along the way, and even had a lot of pain lingering in their hearts. Therefore, in order to implement the site selection as soon as possible, every time they went to a place, they repeatedly surveyed and carefully demonstrated.
Finally, after repeated comparisons, Zhang Tianfu took a fancy to Meitan, which is located in the important town of northern Qianbei - more than 70 kilometers northeast of Zunyi, with beautiful mountains and clear waters. Because the climate there is warm and humid, there is no severe cold in winter, no heat in summer, the terrain is open, the soil is fertile, and the products are rich, which is an ancient tea area on the Guizhou Plateau, which is very suitable for the planting and development of tea plants. And Meitan is not too far from Guiyang and Chongqing, and the transportation is more convenient, which is suitable for the creation of a tea research and test base.
Zhang Tianfu, who felt that he had found the ideal place in his heart, ran directly to the Meitan County Government, found yan Puquan, the county magistrate at the time, and told him the news that the central tea test site base might be built in Meitan. The county magistrate saw that he was a person sent by the Ministry of Agriculture and said that he would set up a central tea testing ground base in Meitan, and he was very happy and immediately expressed his determination to vigorously support it.
After Returning to Chongqing, Zhang Tianfu made a detailed report on his inspections in various parts of the four southwestern provinces to Xie Jiasheng, director of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Agricultural Experiment Institute, and Shen Zonghan, deputy director of the Institute, and began to write an inspection report entitled "Developing Tea Production in the Five Southwest Provinces."
Zhang Tianfu wrote in the report: "Since the Sacred War of Resistance, the dying Chinese tea export trade has been hit even more seriously... There is an urgent need to develop the rich source of the southwest. ...... Check the climate and soil environment of the southwestern provinces, except for Xikang only a few snow line areas in the southeast and northwest of Yunnan, there is no discomfort for the growth of tea plants, with Sichuan's output being the largest, about 200,000 cartons per year, about 80,000 cartons in Yunnan, about 80,000 cartons in Xikang, and about 10,000 cartons each in Qian and Gui. There is no limit to future development. ”
The three-day national production meeting was held as scheduled at the Jialing Hotel in Shapingba, Chongqing. At the meeting, Zhang Tianfu took this report as a proposal for the meeting, which attracted the interest and attention of some senior officials of the authorities, and decided to create the Central Tea Experimental Field of the National Government in Meitan (later named the Meitan Experimental Tea Field of the Central Agricultural Experiment Institute, referred to as the Central Experimental Tea Field). This proposal was later hailed by tea historians as "the first proposal for tea in China".
In September 1939, the Central Agricultural Experiment Institute and the China Tea Company jointly dispatched Wang Tao, Zhang Tianfu, Li Lianbiao, Zhu Yuanlin and others to Meitan and began to prepare for the construction of the Central Experimental Tea Farm in the area of the school yard outside the south gate of the county. After consultation, the Meitan County government decided to give the Yiquan Wanshou Palace and the Shuifu Ancestral Hall to them as tea yard offices, dormitories and tea processing factories, and the land around Tongzipo, Xiangshan (commonly known as Dagupo) and Xuechangba as tea farm land.
Arriving at Meitan, Zhang Tianfu and they quickly opened the prelude to the preparatory work in spite of the wind and dust, so that Meitan, a remote and comfortable town, began to be lively for a time because of their arrival. During the period, in addition to carrying out a series of preparatory work without stopping, Zhang Tianfu also invited Mr. Li Liangqi, director of the Guizhou Meteorological Institute, to visit Meitan and establish a temporary meteorological observation station here on the climatic issues of tea growth, borrowing the equipment of the Provincial Meteorological Institute. Although the observation work did not last long and did not leave observation data for support, he formed a deep friendship with Li Liangqi. So much so that later, when he was imprisoned in the "cowshed" labor camp, he met Li Qitai, the son of Li Liangqi, who was also locked up, and he also relished this matter, and became a friend of Li Qitai, and also taught Li Qitai a lot of tea knowledge. When I interviewed Li Qitai in Guiyang in 2015, Li Qitai excitedly talked to us about their little-known past.
One day in November 1939, Zhang Tianfu went to the Ministry of Economic Affairs to work on the preparation of the Central Experimental Tea Farm, and met Xu Xueyu, who had been the director of the Fujian Provincial Construction Department and later an adviser to Chen Yi, the chairman of the provincial government. Xu then invited Zhang Tianfu to be the director of a Fujian demonstration tea factory jointly organized by the Fujian Provincial Government and the China Tea Corporation in Chong'an County, and asked him to return the next day in the first small car from Fujian to Chongqing. He also said that he was paid 300 yuan a month (at that time, he could buy 100 quintals of millet), and said that Chen Yi, the chairman of Fujian Province, also promised to appoint him as a technical director of the provincial construction department. As for the start-up fee, it is 1 million yuan, which is half paid by the Central Committee of the Republic of China and the Fujian Provincial Government.
Things came a little suddenly, and Zhang Tianfu also felt very embarrassed for a while, so he refused on the grounds of "going to Meitan County, Guizhou to prepare for the central tea testing ground, and the matter over there has just begun..." But the other party's meaning is very firm, and he is not allowed to resign at all.
After a night of tossing and turning and fierce ideological struggle, Zhang Tianfu thought of the high hopes of his father and elder in his hometown, and thought of his 76-year-old father who was sick without brothers and sisters... At dawn, Zhang Tianfu finally made a difficult decision in his life: endure the pain of cutting love and go back to his hometown. To this end, Zhang Tianfu also wrote a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture, stating the reason for his pain and love.
In this way, Zhang Tianfu, who had left footprints in the five southwestern provinces, did not have time to say goodbye to his teachers one by one, nor did he have time to return to Meitan to hand over the work, so he hurriedly boarded the car that picked him up to Fujian with regret.
When the car tossed and turned for two days and came to an intersection in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, there was also an episode: at that time, an official sent by the Jiangxi provincial government was holding a telegram signed by Zou Bingwen, then an adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture, "Sincerely Sincerely", which earnestly demanded that Zhang Tianfu return to Chongqing anyway and organize the central tea testing ground in Meitan, Guizhou. Zhang Tianfu, who had already made up his mind, although he also had a little hesitation in his mind, but the matter had reached this point, coupled with the strong persuasion of the people in the car, he had to continue to Fuzhou. Since then, until his death on June 4, 2017, Zhang Tianfu, who died at the age of nearly 108, never visited Meitan again.
After Zhang Tianfu regretted not resigning, the Ministry of Agriculture sent Liu Ganzhi from the Central Agricultural Experiment to Meitan quickly to take over Zhang Tianfu's preparatory work, and in April 1940, after the formal establishment of the Meitan Experimental Tea Farm of the Central Agricultural Experiment Institute of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, he served as the first director.
Although Zhang Tianfu did not continue to stay in Meitan to prepare for the construction of the Central Experimental Tea Farm, the people of Meitan always had a sense of gratitude and remembered his original choice and decision. So that 70 years later, in April 2009 and 76 years later, in April 2016, the Meitan County Party Committee and the county government sent delegations to Fujian to visit him, who was 100 and 106 years old at the time, and brought him a greeting and blessing. On June 4, 2017, when the people of Meitan learned of the news of his death in the crane fairy, some people spontaneously sent WeChat and wrote poems, and the county party committee and the county government also organized mourning activities and held forums to send mourning and express a strong feeling.
In April 2009, in order to express his gratitude for the simplicity of the people of Meitan, Zhang Tianfu, who was already a hundred years old at the time, after tasting the "Meitan Cuiya" tea brought to him by the people of Meitan, also excitedly wrote such a banner to the people of Meitan: "Zunyi Meitan - Good Mountains, Good Water and Good Tea". Talking about this word, it can also be regarded as a continuation of the incomprehensible tea edge of that year.
Source: Weimei Meitan