Tea, the natural essence of this heaven and earth, moisturizes me and makes me have a potential and close connection with my hometown every day.
Hometown Yixing, because of the unique geographical and climatic conditions, since ancient times to produce tea. When I was a child, I didn't pay much attention to tea, and when I was thirsty, I drank whatever I wanted. Looking back now, in the hot season, the family always uses the sauce-colored glazed large canned tea produced by the ceramic factory where my father is located, there is barley tea, there is beef tendon grass tea, and more and more common, it is Yixing real estate coarse black tea. A large can of tea, placed on a long table, who is thirsty will be spooned with an enamel tea jar to drink.
When the weather turns colder, the family will also use a teapot to make tea. I remember that what is commonly used is a traditional cow lid bucket pot, and the copper wire pot handle has been polished delicately and shiny. This pot was made by the famous pot maker Zhu Kexin. At that time, from his home near Dongpo Academy, he went to Dingshu Middle School to go to school, and in the west of the Hongyang Bridge, he had to pass by the door of the old man Zhu Kexin every day. This cow lid bucket pot was accidentally broken by a relative in the 1980s. Broken is broken, the family is not particularly sorry, but later there are pot dealers to come to the door to inquire about the news of this pot. In addition to this cow lid foreign bucket pot, the impression is that the family also used a large birthday pot, which can be filled with boiling water from most of the hot water bottles. When guests arrive home, sometimes they don't use a teapot, but directly put the tea leaves into cups and brew them. This kind of cup is produced by Dingshan Celadon Factory, with a lid, the cup color is light blue, warm as jade.
As a teenager, he lived in a ceramic production area, with neighbors and familiar or unfamiliar passers-by, often carrying teapots in his hands. Ceramic workers sweat a lot, physical exertion, carrying a teapot to drink tea is often a common habit, and is only drinking black tea, not green tea. In the ceramic factory in Dingshu Town, almost every family has a large bathroom, and when you go to the factory bathroom to take a bath, you can always see the potters who take a bath, and comfortably sip a sip of hot tea on the spout. When I was a child, there were many tea houses in the town, and the tea houses at dawn were particularly lively, with the sound of people boiling and the aroma of tea.
After getting older, I began to feel for tea, slowly knew the benefits of Chinese tea, and slowly liked tea.
There are many famous tea producing areas in southern China, because of the love of tea, I have visited some tea areas, and some of them are indeed very impressed.
Like the Pu'er tea area in Yunnan. Local friends carried steamed sticky rice balls and accompanied us to climb in the primeval jungle of Ailao Mountain for half a day, and finally at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters, we visited a wild ancient tea tree with a long history. This tea tree, "is 2,700 years old, with a height of 25.6 meters and a trunk bust of 2.82 meters." Around this tree, there are 10,000 acres of wild ancient tea tree communities. The tea tree in front of you has moist green branches and leaves, and its appearance is independent. I had to look up hard to see the crown.
Like the Keemun tea area in Anhui. One spring, in order to search for the relics of the Ming Dynasty dramatist Zheng Zhizhen and for the tea of Keemun, I went deep into Keemun alone. Zheng Zhizhen is a native of Qingxi Village, Zhukou Township, Qimen County, and under the leadership of a young man named Zheng Huaihuai in Qingxi Village, I found the tomb of Zheng Zhizhen in the dense forest and drank the newly made Keemun tea made by the Huaihuai family.
There is also the Wuyi Tea District at the junction of Jiangxi and Fujian. Hekou Town, Lianshan County, Jiangxi Province, is a large pier in ancient times. This place produces a kind of black tea, known as "river red", which is drunk at friends and has a special taste.
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There are too many good teas in China, but in the end, I still think that the black tea in my hometown Yixing is delicious, and the unique sweet taste is especially in line with me - this is the quality of the hometown tea, or there are emotional factors, I don't know. Perhaps because of this, when I read this passage in Xu Xiutang's teacher "I Love Yixing Black Tea", I had a special feeling of knowing - "It is strange to say that there are things that are busy forgetting to eat tea, I will feel a little dizzy, uncomfortable, as long as I drink black tea, there will be obvious improvement... I think Yixing black tea warms the stomach, so drinking Yixing black tea is normalized. ”
In their hometown, several township sages, in line with their love for Yixing tea, consciously assumed a responsibility, initiated the establishment of the Yixing Tea Culture Promotion Association, and used every opportunity to vigorously promote Yixing tea to the outside world. Because of them, I have the privilege of knowing a number of tea people who are dedicated to the cultivation and production of Yixing tea. Among them, Mr. Xu Qunfeng of Wuxi Tea Research Institute can be regarded as a typical representative of Yixing tea people. He made "Danning" Yixing black tea, the tea taste is mellow, the soup color is bright and red, and it is really unforgettable to drink!
That day, in Mr. Qunfeng's foothill studio, in the background of a window of green mountain rain, while drinking tea, listening to him talk about tea was a great enjoyment. In the meantime, two details touched me. One detail is the object: on his huge tea table, there are several huge turquoise fresh wild tea leaves, mr. Qunfeng introduced, which was just picked from the mountain road at the junction of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. These leaves of fresh tea, smelling, have a rich and fresh orchid aroma. Another detail is the words: he specifically introduced the "picking" technique when picking tea in Yixing, using this method to pick tea, you can carefully care for each tea leaf that is picked, so that it does not hurt the tea - "a fresh tea leaf, if it is folded, there are creases, it will be injured." Tea made with such fresh tea leaves is definitely not good to drink. This seemingly simple sentence deeply shocked me.
From Mr. Xu Qunfeng's words, I am reminded of the requirements of Gu Jingzhou, a contemporary purple sand master, when teaching his apprentices to play mud pieces: "Since then, thousands of mud pieces have been beaten every day to practice basic skills." According to the requirements of the gentleman thirteen times to shoot flat mud pieces, more hits will be the mud door scattered, less hit then the mud door has not 'woken up'. Stacked into a foot high, cut with a bow, each piece should be the same 2.5 mm thick, the middle of the slightly thick edge slightly thinner, Mr. said 'sharpen the knife without mistakenly cutting wood'..."
Living and working in other places, the first thing to do every morning now is to boil water and brew tea in Yixing, my hometown. Tea, the essence of nature between heaven and earth, moisturizes me and makes me have a potential and close connection with my hometown every day.
People's Daily ( 2019-04-20 08 edition)