The climate in the middle and lower reaches of the Lancang River is warm, everything is in contention, and the endless mountains are covered with forests, where tens of thousands of plants grow and hundreds of animal stalks are located. When human beings were still in a primitive society, with gathering activities and hunting activities as the main way of survival, this area was undoubtedly the most suitable place for people to survive. The relics and cave sites of Lincang, Baoshan, Pu'er, and Xishuangbanna prove that in the Paleolithic period, there were already people on the mountains on both sides of the Lancang River, and these ethnic groups were the "Pu people" recorded in the later history books, and because the languages spoken by these groups belonged to the Mon-Khmer language family, historians called them "ZhuanPu" in order to distinguish them from the Pu people in the Xiang, Gui, and Qian regions.
These Khmer-speaking Yongchangpu were the earliest indigenous peoples in the middle and lower reaches of the Lancang River, and after thousands of years of activity in the Lancang River basin, the Qiang peoples migrated from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to Yunnan. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Qiang and Qiang ethnic groups migrating in the direction of Yunnan were mainly still active in the junction area of Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet in the Jinsha River Basin, and the Ethnic Groups of the Qiang and Qiang (Hani, Lahu, Naxi, Kino, Pumi, etc.) that had entered the southern bank of the Jinsha River were still mainly living in the northwestern Yunnan region until the Eastern Han Dynasty, and rarely entered the middle and lower reaches of the Lancang River.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the central government established Yongchang County in Yongchang (present-day Baoshan) in Yunnan, with Yongchang County's jurisdiction of 3,000 miles and 4,600 miles north and south. Today, the prefectures and cities of Lincang, Pu'er, Xishuangbanna, Baoshan and Dehong are completely included in it. There are several large mountain ranges with an altitude of more than 3,000 meters on both sides of the Lancang River under the jurisdiction of Yongchang County, Bangma Mountain, Wuliang Mountain, and Ailao Mountain, these three major mountains stretch for thousands of miles, and are majestic and penetrating, because of their climatic conditions, geological conditions, and suitable species conditions, a large number of tea plants grow from the time of wood in the mountains. After hundreds of millions of years of evolution, wild tea plants have spread out in the primeval forests of the three major mountains. After entering the 20th century, from the Republic of China period to the founding of New China, dozens of Chinese leaf experts have made many inspections of this area, asserting that the origin of the world's tea plants is in this area, and this conclusion has now been recognized by experts in the tea industry at home and abroad.
The Gupu people (Yongchangpu) of Yunnan and their descendants, the Brown, Wa and Deang tribes, have been living in this area from the Paleolithic period of primitive society to the present. The Gupu people were the first to see tea trees, know tea trees, eat tea leaves, and eat camellia flowers.
In the Paleolithic period, the ancient Pu people were not engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, and their main source of survival depended on gathering and fishing and hunting, mountain flowers, wild vegetables, leaves, wild fruits, wild honey, insects, fish, and birds were all food for their hunger. Long-term gathering activities will inevitably make them gradually understand which flowers, which leaves, which fruits can be eaten and which cannot be eaten. Wild tea plants were found everywhere in the first forest of Bang Ma Mountain, WuLiang Mountain, and Ailao Mountain (and still do so today), and camellia flowers were also there
It is striking that when the Gupu people carry out collection activities, camellias and tea leaves will inevitably enter their sight.
People who have been to the mountains of Yunnan know that there are various mountain flowers and wildflowers blooming in the mountains of Yunnan all year round, and there are hundreds of edible flowers. Gupu people have the custom of collecting all kinds of mountain flowers, wildflowers, and flowers on various trees for food, this custom of eating mountain flowers, wildflowers, and flowers blooming on trees, the descendants of the ancient Pu people, the Brown, Wa, and Deang people, are still maintained today, and the Brown, Wa, and Deang people who still live in the mountains are still eating all kinds of flowers as vegetables almost every day, which is a food custom left behind in ancient times.
The Huayang Guozhi NanzhongZhi records that "there is a large bamboo name Puzhu in Yongchang Naqi". Dapu Zhushengnan has been in the south for at least 10,000 years. Five thousand years ago, when there were no metal utensils and clay utensils in Yunnan, the large Pu bamboo that was thicker than the bowl mouth was the pot that the ancient Pu people cooked food, and the Brown people still maintain the habit of boiling camellia flowers with large bamboo tubes, tea leaves and wild honey to drink, which should be the legacy left by the primitive social period when pottery did not appear.
There are a large number of cave sites to prove that the ancient Pu people in the New Instrument Period have widely used fire, there are fire ponds and large Pu bamboo, and the ancient Pu people are fully qualified to boil tea soup and drink. Gupu people from know how to cook fresh camellias, fresh tea to know how to boil dried camellias, dry tea leaves to eat it is very easy, when the ancient Pu people from the collection economy era into the era of special hunting economy, tea with its unique role and efficacy to become the protection of the health of the ancient Pu people.
At least 5,000 years ago, the Ancient Pu people had been hunting in the primeval forests on both sides of the Lancang River, and when they caught wild animals and wild birds, they roasted and ate them with fire. Hunting economy era of the ancient Pu people's staple food is roast meat, and eating barbecue meat must be accompanied by soup to eat, every day to eat that roasted half-cooked fishy smell of the beast meat and poultry meat, there is no kind of antipyretic to greasy consumption of soup to eat with food, people's stomach is unbearable. Gupu people must look for a soup that can go to greasy, dehethered, and help digestion when eating barbecue, and after drinking a variety of wildflowers, wild vegetables, branches and leaves to boil the soup, you will find that the tea soup is greasy, fishy, deheated, and the effect of digestion is the best. Tea soup and tea water will naturally be used as the first choice and essential soup drink by the Ancient Pu people when eating barbecue meat. Tea leaves are easy to pick, the mountains on both sides of the Lancang River have tea leaf leaves that do not fall all year round, and the ancient Pu people can pick tea leaves to boil soup and drink whenever they eat roast meat.
Yunnan Gupu people boil tea to eat, boil tea soup to drink is not taught by Shennong, speakIng Meng Khmer language Gupu people have not been to the north of the Dadu River, they do not know where Shennong is, nor can they understand the language of the Shenlong tribe, Yunnan Gupu people call tea "la", eating wax, drinking wax is the ancient Pu people are still in the era of gathering economy, still in the era of hunting economy, but also in the era of roast meat as the main food has learned the way of survival, eating methods, is what they perceive from the practice of life.
Ancient Pu into the ancient food customs have been handed down to this day, the Brown people in the Shuangjiang area still retain the custom of eating roast meat, drinking bamboo tube tea, whenever they want to go to the distant mountains to do farm work, when they go out, they wrap a bag of rice with banana leaves, and then bring a piece of bacon and a live chicken, when resting and eating, the chicken is slaughtered and roasted together with the bacon on the fire, and before eating, they fold down a few tea branches from the branches and leaves of the tea tree and then put them on the fire to roast, and then wipe them down and add water to the bamboo tube to boil the soup.
The Brown method of roasting fresh tea leaves with fire and boiling soup with bamboo tubes and eating them with roasted meat conveys the information of ancient ways of survival, and is a way of eating that the Brown people have learned when they are still in the safari economy and have not yet used tile tools.
It can be conservatively concluded that at least five thousand years ago, when the Gupu people in the Lancang River Basin ate barbecue meat by the fire, they were already drinking tea boiled with bamboo, otherwise how could they maintain the habit of eating barbecue for thousands of years, how they could survive healthily from generation to generation, and how they could survive the thousands of years of hunting and survival. The Gupu people took the fire roast meat as the main food in the last dry year, and there must be auxiliary food behind this, that is, tea and salt, and salt Bayu helped the Gupu people to complete the era of hunting economy. Gu Pu into the long-term eating tea, often eat tea, the tea leaves with depyretic detoxification, detoxification and digestion of the function and role will inevitably be very clear.
When the Gupu people began to slash and slash farming and enter the era of semi-farming and semi-hunting from wandering to settlement, it was natural to introduce the wild tea trees they had known as home species. Ancient Pu people settled on the cultivation of tea left a clear relic, in Yunnan guan which place as long as the discovery of extra-large artificial cultivation of ancient tea trees (tree circumference of more than 2 meters), carefully examine the history of that place, that place must have been inhabited by the Brown, Deang, Wa. On the other hand, as long as it is a place where the ancient Pu people slashed and burned, there will always be extra-large ancient tea trees cultivated nearby. The ancient Pu people planted tea as soon as they settled down and built a village, indicating that they have realized that tea not only has edible value but also medicinal value, and is an essential food for their healthy survival.
The Deang and Brown people have a family relationship and are both descendants of the Gupu people. The Recognition, Memory and Respect for Tea by the Deang People are infused into the blood, and they connect tea with the life of the entire nation.
The ancient creation song of the Deang people, "DaguDa Lengglebiao", recounts that the Deang people once lived in caves, and said that the ancestors of the Deang tribe were changed from 102 tea leaves. The ancient song is a memory of life in ancient times, and it can be seen from the ancient song of the creation of the Deang tribe that the Deang tribe already knew about tea when they lived in the cave. The Deang people claim that they have changed their tea leaves, indicating that the life of the Deang people in ancient times was connected with tea leaves, and tea has always been in their memory. Tea is related to the survival and reproduction of the Deang people. The ancestors of the Deang people left a testament to warn future generations not to forget tea, the ancestors of the Deang people have such respect for tea, reflecting their deep memory and understanding of tea, can vaguely read that in ancient times, tea drinking and planting tea used to be the ethnic symbol of the Pu people.
The Gupu people of Yunnan know that tea can be eaten at least 10,000 years ago, know that tea has the effect of clearing heat, detoxifying, degreasing and eliminating food, and has health care and disease treatment functions at least five years ago. The ancient Pu people lived in the origin of tea plants, swam in wild tea forests, and began to eat tea and camellias from the era of collection economy, and tea accompanied them through the era of collection economy, hunting economy, and agricultural civilization, and this process will not be less than 10,000 years.
The ancient Pu people in the Lancang River Basin ate tea for tens of thousands of years and planted 3,000 teas, but because they had no writing, they failed to record the history of their eating and growing tea. The Ancient Pu people spoke Meng Khmer, and during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the central government set up Yongchang County in Yunnan, but those who could write Chinese did not know whether they could not understand Meng or some other reason, and did not leave a few lines of tea for Yongchang Pu. Only the wild tea trees in the primeval forests of Bangma Mountain, Wuliang Mountain, and Ailao Mountain, and the ancient tea kings who were cultivated in the old village where the Pu people lived on the edge of the original forest testify to the history of the ancient Pu people discovering and eating tea.
The Ancient Pu people in the Lancang River Basin, who were the first to discover tea, were the first to eat tea and grow tea, did not have anyone to write books and biographies for their tea affairs, but Shennong, who ate tea thousands of years later than the ancient Pu people, wrote articles, wrote books, and compiled myths for him.
The Eastern Han Dynasty's "Sacred Dragon Materia Medica" records that "the divine dragon tasted hundreds of herbs, encountered seventy-two poisons every day, and obtained tea to solve it." According to this record, some people said that tea was discovered by Shennong, and Shennong was the ancestor of tea. Carefully analyzed, this statement is deliberate and suspicious. There are many theories about how the ancient tea characters are written, and whether the plant that the dragon tasted can solve 72 kinds of poisons is tea cannot be verified. There are only 24 hours a day, there are 8 hours for the night, the dragon only has 16 hours to see the grass, 16 hours to encounter 72 kinds of poisonous tea and solve, tea can solve 72 kinds of poison in a short period of time? Tea is not a poison that can be solved. Shennong found that tea can detoxify, indicating that he is looking for medicine, the medicinal function contained in tea is felt by him, Shennong treats tea as medicine, and does not treat tea as a charged food. When human beings already knew to find medicines to cure diseases, it meant that humans had entered the era of settled farming, and Shenyi found that tea was found when he was looking for medicine for his tribe, indicating that his tribe had entered the agricultural civilization at that time. The Gupu people in Yunnan initially looked for tea, collected tea, and ate tea as a food that can fill hunger and can be ingested, and the history of human beings looking for food is far earlier than the history of finding drugs.
Oracle bones do not know whether there is tea characters, but the Han history books talk about tea a lot, but there is no page that says that before Shennong, the Yellow River Basin, the Yangtze River Basin who knows who can eat vegetables, who is eating tea, is the Yellow River Basin, the Yangtze River Basin at that time there are no tea trees or tea trees are too few, people did not find tea trees, do not know that tea leaves can be eaten raw, but also cooked, and finally Shennong found tea trees when looking for medicine, picking a few tea leaves in the import was lifted in the body of the 72 kinds of poisonous Shennong put in the import of those leaves are not tea is questionable, Is there any fresh tea in the world that can detoxify 72 kinds of poisons?
Tea has a certain medicinal function, but the medicinal function of the forbidden leaf cannot be suddenly discovered by a person at a certain time when encountering some poison, it should be human beings, especially those ancestors who live in areas with more wild tea trees in the origin of tea plants, first discovered that tea can be eaten, and after a long time of consumption, they felt that tea also has the function of health and disease. The medicinal value of tea is realized by the ancients after many years and many generations of life practice, and it is impossible for a person to discover it at a certain moment.
It is said that Shennong because he encountered 72 poisons one day to get tea solution, so as to know tea, so that the mythical component of the tea ancestor is too heavy, there are obvious traces of the ancestor culture of Han culture, and all important industries must find a grandfather to provide.
Tea has not been included in the medicinal products until today, it is still in the scope of food, so only the first to find that tea is non-toxic and edible, only those with edible value are qualified to be tea ancestors, and the Gupu people living in Yunnan, where the tea plant originated, were the first to discover tea, collect tea, eat tea, and plant tea, and the Gupu people (Yongchangpu) are the real tea ancestors. (The descendants of the Gupu people are the present-day Brown, Wa, and Deang tribes.)