Editor's note: This article is published exclusively by the author's Xiaode is the only network, and this article was included in the book "History of Modern Customs and Foreign Trade in Yunnan" compiled by the Yunnan Provincial Archives. This time authorized the "Xiaode ISBN" public account to publish, and the content of the article was modified and supplemented.
The whole article is about 6800 words, which is the author's research on the "discovery of the new tea road in Yunnan, Burma, India and Tibet", and the discovery of the new tea road has had a great impact on the production and sales center of Pu'er tea from Yibang and Yiwu to Menghai, and has a profound impact on the sale and collection of Pu'er tea, and has a profound impact on the Pu'er tea industry and even the Yunnan tea industry at that time.
About the Author:
Li Lu is a special academic committee member of the Yunnan Tea Horse Ancient Road Society and a freelance writer. In 2005, he initiated and organized the integrity self-discipline activity of Yunnan Pu'er tea industry and issued the industry-wide "Kunming Joint Declaration". In 2007, he participated in the Second International Symposium on Pu'er Tea and published the paper "Self-Improvement and Unremitting Virtue Carrier". Since then, he has focused on the history of the tea industry in Yunnan, the Republic of China, and has published dozens of articles in newspapers and periodicals. Five articles written in 2019 were included in monographs published by the Yunnan Provincial Archives.
This article is 6800 words and has been read for about 12min.
The Yunnan-Tibet Trade Route (or the popular Yunnan-Tibet Tea Horse Ancient Road) always comes to mind the herds of horse gangs and cattle gangs that run through primeval forests, rapids, canyon trails, snow-capped glaciers, and the roof of the world. From ancient times to the present, this difficult and mysterious ancient road has attracted the attention of many people.
There are always major turning points in history, and in the early twentieth century, the discovery of the new tea road between Yunnan and Burma, India and Tibet has rewritten the history of the Yunnan-Tibet Ancient Road for thousands of years!
▲ Tibetan butter tea
Let's travel back in time to this important moment in history.
First, the traditional Northern Yunnan-Tibet Line has become a dangerous road
In March of the second year of the Republic of China (1913), a man flew on a horse in the valley from Batang, Sichuan to Adunzi (present-day Deqin) in Yunnan. On the rugged mountain roads, the snow and ice are still left, the roads are treacherous, the horses are tired, and the cyclists are still running wildly.
On this day, Li Guanchen, a merchant in Heqing Prefecture who was trading in Adunzi, finally waited for the person he had been waiting for for a long time. It turned out that his brother Li Yunchen went to Batang by Adunzi on the second day of the first winter month of the old calendar of last year, and carried with him and later brought more than 1120 taels of silver with him. This road used to be a common one, but this time there was no news for several months. On the sixteenth day of the first month, Li Guanchen sent ah dunzi to Visit Jiangka.
Onion is back, but what he brings back is bad news! Li Yunchen was shot and killed in Jiangka a few months ago, and Kurama, Xingfu, and goods were all forcibly taken into captivity.
In August of the second year of the Republic of China (1913), Li Huaizhen, the Crane Qing merchant Tianshunchang, reported that the ship carried a total of 15 pieces of cargo and luggage, and that 40 or 50 thieves and bandits from Muli to the middle of the arrow furnace rushed to the middle of the arrow furnace, each with a fast gun, and shot his brother Xiao Chen and the hired old Liu, and took two seriously injured people. The golden and silver mules and horses were robbed. The lost gold and silver cargo luggage counted as 30,000 gold.
The Yunnan-Tibet trade route is plagued by banditry, and the long-established trade route has become a dangerous road.
From the Kangxi to the Tongzhi period (1662-1874), which lasted about 200 years, Yunnan and Kangzang maintained a historically recorded tea trade. However, the Yunnan-Tibet trade route has always been known for its dangerous traffic. The traditional trade route into Tibet runs from Xiaguan to the northwest, to Lijiang, Zhongdian (or Weixi), Adunzi (Deqin), Bitu, to Bunda, north to Qamdo, covering the Ganzi in Sichuan and the Yushu Tibetan area in Qinghai; those who enter Tibet then enter Lhasa from Qamdo and cover Houzang. The whole journey from Lijiang to Lhasa takes about 110 days (about 80 horse stations with straight feet). It operates only once a year.
The long-standing traditional trade route between Yunnan and Tibet is also known as the Northern Yunnan-Tibet Route.
Historically, what we are accustomed to call the "Tibetan area" roughly includes the Qamdo region of the present-day Tibet Autonomous Region, the eastern part of the Nagqu region (Nierong, Baqing, Suoxian, Rulai, Jiali county), the eastern part of the Nyingchi region (Chayu, Bomi, and Metuo counties), the Ganzi, Aba, Yushu in Qinghai, and the Diqing region in Yunnan.
▲ Tibetan village
Yunnan tea was not sold historically only to Weizang, centered on Lhasa and Shigatse, as many articles have described, but to the entire Kangzang region.
Since the 1856 Dali Du Wenxiu Uprising, in the nearly 17-year war with the Qing Court, the tea road on the northern line of Yunnan and Tibet has been cut off, and the tea leaves sold in Yunnan have decreased. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic of China, due to the fact that the upper echelons of Tibet at that time were under the sway of the British imperialist forces, Sino-Tibetan relations tended to be tense, several Sichuan-Tibet Wars occurred, and social turmoil persisted frequently, which hindered the already very difficult transportation of Yunnan and Tibet, seriously affected the road of selling Tea to Tibet, and the Merchants of Yunnan also fell into difficulties. According to intelligence collected by British officials, in 1921, the number of teas transported into Tibet from Zhongdian, Yunnan, was only 150 per year, and by 1928 it had been reduced to 120. The trade routes are withering, the dreams of the horse gangs are broken, and countless ancient towns are dying.
Second, the discovery of the new tea road in Yunnan, Burma, India and Tibet
Outside yunnan, 1886-1917 was a period of full-scale British colonial formation in Burma. Myanmar, as a province of British India, has undergone tremendous changes. The colonial economy grew rapidly, with the railway mileage expanding from 500 km to 2,500 km, and the port of Yangon became the third largest port in British India after Calcutta and Mumbai.
The sea trip from Yangon to Kolkata is very convenient. This provides a new possibility for Yunnan tea to enter Tibet.
Yunnan tea merchants began to explore new routes into Tibet in the late Qing Dynasty and early Min.
According to the historical records of the Republic of China, the dian merchants who did business in the Tibet region of India in the early days mainly included "Hengsheng Gong", "Zhu Ji", "Hong Shengxiang", and Lijiang merchant Yang Shouqi.
"Hengsheng Gong" is a family business that operated in the Tibetan area of Zhongdian from the late Qing Dynasty to 1956, which lasted for three generations. According to Zhang Xiangshi (the third generation of Hengsheng Gong, the head of the Kunming General Number, from 1979 to 1993, he was the vice chairman of the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. According to the text, before 1900, his father Zhang Zewan left Burma from Yunnan and then went to India, and then from Glennberg, India, into Tibet to investigate tea matters. In 1919, Zhang Zewan sent his sixth son Zhang Xiangcheng to India and Tibet to prepare for the opening of the trumpet.
▲ Hengsheng Gong History, the content is scanned from the "Yunnan Literature and History Materials Selected Series 42 : Yunnan Import and Export Trade", Xiaode BOOK Number Collection
After three years of in-depth and practical investigation and understanding of the commodity markets in India and Tibet, especially on the procurement, transportation of goods, and the application of funds, turnover and exchange, semicolons were established in Calcutta, Grundborg, Yadongpali and Lhasa in India from 1920 to 1924.
"Zhu Ji" is a business name opened by the Zhongdian Tibetan merchant Ma Zhucai in 1920 in Grundborg, India. According to his son Ma Jiakui, his father began to engage in trade from Grundberg to Zhongdian and Lijiang in 1912.
"Hong Shengxiang" belongs to the Tengchong Merchant Gang. It is said that it opened a trade name in Kolkata, India, around 1920. Combined with other historical materials, this time will not be too different.
Yang Shouqi is a merchant of the Naxi ethnic group in Lijiang. According to Mr. Li Fuyi, Yang Shouqi entered Lhasa around 1910 to learn business. After 1921, he took a boat from Lhasa to Yangon via Kolkata and returned to Lijiang via northern Myanmar. A few years later, the family moved to Kolkata via Myanmar. After Yang returned to India, he wrote a letter suggesting that Zhang Tangjie, a Hengchun Tea House in Fohai, transport some of the tea to Jingdong in Burma and transfer it to India to be sold by Yang into Tibet. After the first success, the profit is not small. This is the beginning of the new tea road in Yunnan and Tibet. Later, due to the shortage of funds and insufficient manpower, Zhang Tangjie suggested that the "Hong Shengxiang" operate this tea route.
From the above historical materials, we can see that the discovery of the new tea road in Yunnan, Burma, India and Tibet in the early days was made a reality by the efforts of these years of printing merchants and merchants. Therefore, Ma Jiakui, a descendant of "Zhu Ji", will say:
"In 1923, his father and the Indian merchants Hong Shengxiang (Tengchong Dong Yaoting), Hengshenggong (Heqing Zhang Xiangcheng, Zhang Xiangru), Yang Shouqi (Lijiang Naxi ethnic group, who have traveled to India for many years, familiar with India and Burma business conditions) opened up tea transportation routes through Burma and India to Tibet."
Corresponding to the development of Myanmar's transportation, fohai, the most conditional tea producing area in southern Yunnan, adjacent to Myanmar Jingdong, has gradually developed into a joint point for the new tea road for selling Tibetan tea in Yunnan. As a result, major businesses have seized the mountain in Fohai.
At the beginning of this century, Li Fuyi recalled the situation after Hengsheng Gong entered the Fohai Sea after the opening of the new tea road in Yunnan and Tibet:
In the spring of 1928, Hengsheng sent a large amount of money to menghai to set up a tea house, which was shorter and longer than Hong Ji (Hong Shengxiang). Before the factory was set up, it rushed to buy 1,000 donkeys from Hengchun Tea House (Zhang Tangjie) at a high price of 12 yuan a car, and transported them for printing and sales.
At that time, the market price was only 8 or 9 yuan (a car). Such a high price, so the fierce sea tea was greatly encouraged, vigorous development, tea factories mushroomed, has set up twenty or thirty. Every year, menghai exports up to 30,000 quintals of tight tea shipped into Tibet through Myanmar and India.
Every winter, thousands of horses from Xiangyun, Zhennan, Menghua, Jingdong and other counties rush to the fierce sea to drive tea exports on behalf of various tea estates.
From the fierce sea to The Jingdong, more than 300 miles, the mountains are all over the field, the tents are like clouds, the cooking smoke is everywhere, and the people shout Ma Teng, which is very lively. The rendering of a lonely and unknown frontier area is suddenly loud and colorful. Dozens of trucks carrying tea from Jingdong to Ruiyanghai and the railway station are in an endless stream day and night. Along the way, thousands of miles, there are many people living on it.
At this time, Fohai held up the banner of Yunnan tea.
▲ Tea gardens around Fohai (present-day Menghai).
In 1938, the "Tea Industry Experimental Field in Sipu District, Yunnan Province" invested and established by the Yunnan Provincial Department of Finance and the "Fohai Experimental Tea Factory" invested by the China Tea Company and the Yunnan Fudian New Bank in 1940 both joined the ranks of the tea sales to Tibet by the Yunnan Burma India-Tibet New Tea Road.
On May 3, 1939, Fan Hejun wrote in a letter to Mr. Wu Kyaw Nong (then commissioner of the Trade Committee of the Ministry of Finance and deputy general manager of the Hong Kong Fuhua Trading Company in charge of tea production and marketing) in Jingdong, Burma, that:
"Kyaw Nong my brother gave me:
The brother went from the Burma Highway to La peng, turned to Yangon, and then folded the scenery into the Buddha Sea.
The summary report of the situation of Fohai tea is as follows: Fohai Tea District includes the three counties of Fohai, Cheli and Nanjiao, south of Simao, 26 stations away from Kunming, which is the border of Yunnan Province, and the economic strength of the provincial government is not reached.
The types of tea made are tight teas; they are heart-shaped and have the coarsest quality. The basic ingredient is summer tea, which is made into a pack of seven and weighed as a barrel. Eighteen cylinders are packed with one blue, and two blues are one pack, weighing about one hundred and ten pounds of old heng.
Every year, starting in December after the rainy season, it runs through Jingdong to Enter Tibet in India, selling 15,000 quintals per year. ”
The discovery of the new tea road in Yunnan and Burma, India and Tibet, from the Indian and Yunnan merchants Lijiang Yang Shouqi advocated the beginning of this line, and then Hong Shengxiang, Hengshenggong, Zhu Ji and so on in the Indian business to turn the new tea road into reality. Due to the small capital strength of Yang Shouqi and Zhuji Business, the two have always cooperated with other large businesses to operate after the opening of the new tea road. In particular, Yang Shouqi also cooperated with Fohai Experimental Tea Factory. Hong Shengxiang's splendor came to an abrupt end in 1942 and withdrew from the stage of history, and only Hengshenggong's caravan was still advancing in the primeval forest of Fohai until the end of 1954, in the lofty mountains of Pari, Tibet (interrupted by the Japanese occupation of Burma and post-war chaos from 1942 to the first half of 1946).
Third, the specific route of the new tea road in Yunnan, Burma, India and Tibet
After the opening of the new tea road in Yunnan and Tibet, Fohai quickly became a tea sales center for Sippu. So what is the specific route of the new tea road from Fohai to Tibet through Myanmar and India?
After the founding of New China, the memories of Ma Jiakui, a descendant of "Zhu Ji":
"From Fo Hai to Myanmar Jingdongda Yangon, turn to Kolkata, India to Grundborg and fold into Lhasa. Its schedule is to transport from Fo Hai Mule horse to Jingdong for 8 days, change cars to Dong Ji for 2 days, Dong Ji to Yangon for 2 days, Yangon to Kolkata for 3-4 days, and Kolkata to Silignli (the location name is marked by the author according to the English map, the same below). 2 days, then change cars to Grundborg for half a day, from Grundborg with mules and horses to Lhasa for 20 days, a total of more than 40 days."
Although the current historical data do not see Ma Jiakui personally participating in the practice of the new tea road, this memory is basically consistent with the historical materials found later.
After the liberation, Mr. Zhang Xiangshi's account is basically consistent with Ma Jiakui's statement, but he provides another valuable historical material:
"In the three years when Hengshenggong began to operate, it was transported from horse's foot to Shab (tin foil) in Burma, and then transferred to train to Yangon and transferred to India. Later, due to the development of the Burmese highway, it was changed to a new route of Jingdong."
The earliest record of the new tea road in Yunnan, Burma, India and Tibet is a person named "Zhang Fengqi". In the 23rd year of the Republic of China and the 25th year of the Republic of China, he twice spent nine months of actual investigation work in the area along the border of Pu'er Simao. In the January 1938 issue of New Trends magazine he published an article entitled "Tea in Southern Yunnan". It mentions:
"Tea in southern Yunnan is shipped to Tibet, and the main export entrepots are Myanmar and India, and Fohai County is the center of tea sales:
(a) Entering Tibet by the Burmese Seal of the Buddha Sea:
(1) Fo Hai jing Mengsha, Meng Ma, Meng Ah (Chinese Shan Land) into burma's Northern Shan Province, Bang Sa, Bang Yang, Nu River Meng Gao (Burmese Shan Department) and to tin foil (Hsipaw), a total of twenty-three days horse journey.
(2) The Buddha Sea is mixed with fiercely, fiercely plated, and entered Jingdong (that is, The Kunggung of Menggun Tusidi, formerly known in China) into the Southern Shan Department of Myanmar, and the ninth day of The Journey of All Horses. Dajiao River, (Nu River), Guixing (Kunhing) Van Ma Cheng three days, and to tin foil. A total of twenty-eight days.
After the Dian tea is transported to tin foil, it is transported to Yangon by train, and the road is 510 kilometers long. The freight rate from tin foil to Mandalay is doubled compared to tin foil to Yangon. Transported from Yangon to Kolkata, the water journey is 723 nautical miles, which can be reached in three days. The water freight rate is fifteen rupees per cubic ton. It was transported by train from Calcutta to Siliguri, or Jemengxiong, a total of three or three or five miles by land. From there was an ox cart to Kalimpong for ten miles. He also transported it to Pakri in Tibet with a mule, and the horse journey lasted for eight days. On another twelve days, the horse traveled to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. ”
Zhang Fengqi records the early route of fohai out of Burma, when the Burmese Jingdong had not yet passed the car.
In late 1938, traffic in Burma changed again. At this time, Li Fu also had a new description of the route out of Myanmar from the Buddha Sea:
"Eight or nine years ago, in the territory of The Burmese Menggen (Jingdong) Toast, when there was no car traffic, Fohai exported tea every year, and it was necessary to take the Menglian Toast Land of the Lancang River out of Burma.
The tin foil train from the northwest to the center of the Burmese state of Northern Shan state is transported from the southwest through Wacheng and then directly through Thazi to Yangon.
...... The journey from Fohai to Tin Foil takes at least 18 days to reach. Tin foil to Yangon takes 3 to 5 days. The fastest time to reach Garinbeng (Grundborg) is january.
In the past, The only way out for Fohai to sell Tibetan tea leaves. Subsequently, the Burmese East Highway was built to Gongxin (also known as Guixing), and the Fohai tea was exported, so that some of them gave up the northwest tin foil route and the southwest Menggen route. From the southwest of Fohai through Menggen, and then west through Dacheng (Dage) to Gongxin, the journey is only 14 days. It is transported by public trust to Ruiyang or Haihe, and then changes trains and travels west to Dashi. Going straight from the big city to Yangon can reduce the trip by at least four or five days.
A section of horse station from Fohai to Menggen lasts for only 6 days, and the latest is only one week. A two-day drive from Menggun can be reached in Ruiyang. Another day of direct express trains will take you to Yangon.
The journey has been reduced by more than half compared to the Northwest Tin Foil Route, so there are no longer any people who take the tin foil route so far."
▲Kolkata Railway Station, India
At the beginning of the 21st century, Mr. Li Fuyi wrote a special article in Taiwan to commemorate Yang Shouqi's advocacy of the new tea road. The sections of the New Tea Road are described in more detail, which differs somewhat from his 1938 account. Its basis for each journey is the route marking of the Twelve Banna Chronicles and the Sino-Indian National Border Study. The importance of this article is beyond doubt. But after many years of recollection, after all, it is somewhat different from the situation at that time.
Let's look at the more accurate record left by other sources of the same period.
In 1940, Fohai Tea Factory was officially established. On October 9, led by Fohai Tea Factory, eight-quarters of the tea numbers in Fohai County participated in the establishment of the Tibetan-pinned Tea Intermodal Office, and elected Zhou Wenqing as the chairman and Li Fuyi as the manager. On December 1, 1941, the Provincial Tea Department dispatched Jiang Xizhan as the director of the Fohai Intermodal Transport Office and hired Li Fuyi, the manager of the service agency, as the deputy director.
In order to strengthen the work of the Tibet And Marketing Tight Tea Intermodal Transport Office, Fan Hejun of fohai Tea Factory has strictly defined the institutions and responsibilities of the stations in Yunnan, Burma, and India. The main station of tea transportation and marketing is set up in Fohai, which is subordinate to the Fohai Intermodal Transport Office. The name of Jingdong substation is Jingdong Office of Yunnan China Tea Trading Company, and the English name is .... Dongzhi (Gangji, Dongji) substation follows the old name of Dongzhi Station of the Joint Operation Office of Tibetan Pinnacle Tea, and the English name is .... Yangon station is represented by Qinan Company, India's Kolkata station is temporarily represented by Yang Shouqi, and Galingbrune is also temporarily represented by Yang Shouqi.
Although Fohai Tea Factory is a central enterprise with strong strength, it still needs some effort to organize the work of tibet and selling tight tea. In that year, the Buddhist factory sent personnel to conduct a field investigation of the transportation route of Tibetan-sold tight tea and left a detailed record, that is, the "Instruction manual for the transportation route of Tibetan-sold tight tea" (hereinafter referred to as the "Instruction").
▲《Instruction manual for the transportation route of Tibetan-sold tight tea》
History is sometimes fortunate for later generations to have preserved this precious "Instruction Manual" in the water-stained and moldy pile of old paper.
The "Instruction Manual" records the various historical routes of Yunnan tea into Tibet, including the traditional Dianzang Yidao, whose importance is far from being recognized by scholars today.
The Manual states:
"In the past, in addition to the ancient merchants of the North Road who prepared their own mules and horses to transport them into Tibet through Xiaguan, Lijiang, and Adunzi, the transportation of tea by road was mostly based on Jingdong (that is, Mengliang, and also written menggong) as the distribution point, and also relied on mules and horses to transport them.
The Ma Gang of Zhennan, Yunxian, Tengchong and Longling counties gathers in the Fohai area every year before and after the frost falls. Years are the norm. During the same year, Qing Xian returned to chaos. The north road was blocked and changed to Lancang, and Mengsha, Mengma, and Meng'a left the country.
To Lashio, tin foil (twenty-three horse station) turned into Tibet (its tea in the Area of Mianning and Shuangjiang can be rolled from Mengku, Nasai, Mengding, Ruolao'a out to Lashio, Tin Foil. Fifteen horse stations in total).
During the sixteen or seventeen years of the Republic of China, he discovered a new route from Jingdong to Gang, which was originally called convenient.
From Jingdong westbound car for two days to Gangji and Ruiyang. Then change trains to Oichi and Yangon for two days. ”
There are two important contents to note in the above passage: First, it is clearly mentioned that the earliest route of the New Tea Road in Yunnan and Burma was from Lancang or Mengku in Yunnan to Lashio and Tin Foil. This confirms the claims of Mr. Zhang Fengqi and Mr. Zhang Xiangshi; second, it affirms that it is more convenient to discover a new route from Jingdong to Gang in the sixteenth and seventh years of the Republic of China. This also opened the prelude to the glory of Fohai tea.
▲Myanmar Jingdong Mountain
The "Manual" also details the specific mileage of each section of the line:
“...... 2. South Road:
(1) From Fohai (17 km) - Mengchao (28 km) - Mengban (20 km) - Daluo (20 km) - Mengma (20 km) - Dabing River (34 km) - Jingdong. A total of 139 kilometers, Liuma Station.
(2) Zijingdong (28.6 km) - Dage (20 km) - Gongxin (141.4 km) - Gangji (12 km) Ruiyang. A total of 202 km. Car for two days.
(3) Self-tilting, train 9.5 hours (102 km) - Big City, Big City, train 11 hours (306 km) - Yangon. A total of 408 km, two days.
(4) From Yangon (737 km, four days by ship) – Kolkata, Kolkata (345 km, 12 hours by train) – Galinbeng (Grundborg)".
The emergence of the "Instructions for the Transportation Route of Tibetan Tea selling tightly" for the first time provides us with a detailed road map of the transportation route for Tibetan tea from the perspective of historical materials! Its historical value is precious! This "Instruction Manual" records the most authentic and reliable Yunnan Burma India-Tibet New Tea Road Route at that time!
Due to the convenient transportation of cars, trains and seas, the time and freight are greatly reduced compared with the madao transportation, and the 110 days of tea entering Tibet from the traditional Lijiang to Lhasa North Yunnan Road is reduced to the nearly 50-day journey from Fohai through Myanmar Jingdong, to Yangon to Glenbourg, India, and then through the Nathu La Pass into Tibet, so the new tea road between Yunnan and Burma, India and Tibet quickly replaced the traditional Yunnan-Tibet historical trade route with the Mabang overland road to become the main route for the sale of Yunnan tea to Tibet.
According to the article published in the Republic of China's "Public Theory of Border Politics", in 1928, Fohai tea was sold through Burma and Tibet to reach 5,000 quintals, and in 1938 it reached 18,000 quintals. From the 120 quintals of tea leaves from the traditional North Yunnan-Tibet Road into Tibet in 1928 to the 18,000 quintals of tea leaves from Fohai into Tibet in 1938, this is the change brought about by the new tea road in Yunnan-Tibet!
According to a 1942 survey by the China Tea Company of the Republic of China, after Fohai became the manufacturing center for tea with tight sales in Tibet, no less than 15,000 quintals were transported to Tibet through Burma every year, and in 1942, yunnan produced and sold 38,000 quintals of tea to Tibet, of which 15,000 quintals were produced and sold to Tibet in Yunnan, of which 15,000 quintals were produced in Fohai, 8,000 quintals in the car, 6,000 quintals in Nanyue, 4,000 quintals in Zhenyue, 3,000 quintals in Lancang and 2,000 quintals in Jiangcheng.
In 1888 and 1903, the British opened the door to trade in Tibet by force by launching two wars of aggression against Tibet, and since then, British and Indian goods have poured into Tibet like a tidal wave. In 1893, an agreement was reached in the Sino-British-Tibetan-Indian Renewal Treaty, on the condition that Indian tea would not be admitted to Tibet for five years. However, in fact, Indian tea has developed by leaps and bounds after several years of operation, and when China and Britain revised the "Lhasa Treaty" in 1905, the issue of Indian tea entering Tibet once again became the focus of dispute, and the amount of taxes collected on Indian tea into Tibet was not consistent. At this time, the number of Indian tea into Tibet far exceeded 4 million kilograms, which was more than half of the total amount of Sichuan tea exported to Tibet. According to intelligence collected by British officials, in 1921, the number of teas transported into Tibet from Zhongdian, Yunnan, was only 150 per year, and by 1928 it had been reduced to 120. According to the statistics of the Republic of China government, in 1940, the annual shipment of inland tea to the arrow furnace in Sichuan Province dropped to more than 2 million catties, which was not enough for consumption in the Xikang Tibetan area. Around 1942, only 20,000 to 30,000 tons of tea were shipped to Tibet every year through Qamdo, less than 2 million catties (the annual sales of tea in Tibet should not be less than 12 million catties), until the eve of the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the entire Tea Market in Tibet was basically occupied by Indian tea.
▲ Yang Shouqi's letter to Zheng Hechun
The discovery and development of the new tea road between Yunnan, Burma, India and Tibet has opened a new chapter in the development of tea in Yunnan, and has also strengthened the ties of economic ties between Yunnan and Tibet, which is of great significance.
On December 27, 1944, Zheng Hechun, manager of the Yunnan China Tea Trading Company, said the significance of selling Tibetan tea:
"The establishment of this factory is of great significance to the economic connection between the economic and Tibetan compatriots in the lively border area, and it does not play a political role in commercial activities..."
The distribution and marketing of Tibetan tea is no longer just a purely commercial activity.
The author of the Republic of China's "Minutes of Judgments" has historical records:
"By the end of the twenty-ninth year of the Republic of China (1940), Yunnan tea was printed to Tibetans, with an annual age of more than 40,000 bags, and about three million pounds of old system. After the entire Sichuan tea market in Tibet has been replaced by Dian tea, and then entered the former Tibet Lhasa, Yunnan tea is everywhere, and people below the middle level are competing to buy it. ”
At the time when Indian tea entered Tibet in a big way and Sichuan tea collapsed, Dian tea contributed greatly to maintaining economic ties with Tibet in the interior!
On October 1, 1949, after the founding of New China, until the public-private partnership in 1954, Hengshenggong continued to transport tea to Tibet through the New Tea Road in Yunnan, Burma, India and Tibet (see the author's article "Hengshenggong Era - Fohai Tea Industry after World War II").
In 1954, 175 tons of tight tea of the Yunnan Provincial Company of the Southwest Region of China Tea Passed through Myanmar through India through the Hachi-cho Port into Tibet.
In 1956, 5,000 baskets of tight tea produced by the Menghai and Xiaguan Tea Factories of China Tea Yunnan Provincial Company still entered Tibet along the Yunnan Burma India-Tibet New Tea Road.
The mountains are ancient and modern, and the bright moon comes and goes. Yang Shouqi, Hengshenggong, Hong Shengxiang, Zhu Ji and others discovered and opened up the new tea road in Yunnan and Tibet is a major node in the history of Yunnan-Tibet tea. It has changed the traditional route of Yunnan tea into Tibet for hundreds of years, created a new pattern of production, processing and sales of Yunnan tea, formed a new trend in the development of Yunnan tea, and left a heavy mark in the history of economic relations between Yunnan and Tibet. Such an important history deserves the attention of later scholars.
The mountain wind blows, the bell is far away, the Slovaks have passed away, and the snowy mountains are still there. Regardless of the fate of these businesses and individuals later, history will not forget that their stories are still legendary.
Li
2020, 8, 25, Fifth Draft
Disclaimer: The views of the article only represent the author himself, and do not represent the position of Xiaode ISBN. Discussions with different views are welcome. Illustrations are provided by the author.
Related Reading Recommendations:
1. "Tea Horse Ancient Road", written by Mu Jihong, etc., Yunnan People's Publishing House
2. "Tea Trade in Modern Yunnan", by Wen Yunfeng, Yunnan People's Publishing House
The above books are available in the Taobao shop "Xiaode ISBN".