Recently, a piece of "Forbidden City Tree-shaped Flower Roll Tea" collected by the Palace Museum during the Qing Jiaqing Period was transported to its birthplace, Anhua County, Hunan Province, the hometown of black tea.
"Jiaqing Imperial Tea" returned to its hometown and unveiled the past and present lives of Anhua Black Tea such as "Thousand Two Flower Scrolls".
The "Forbidden City Tree-shaped Flower Roll Tea" welcomed by the Chinese Black Tea Museum in Anhua County is 27.5 cm high and 17 cm in diameter. The solid, complete body of the tea has clear grooves, the color is black and golden, and the whole body is slightly fragrant.
Liu Songhua, director of the Cultural Protection Center of the Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, introduced that this tea was a tribute tea that entered the court during the Jiaqing period, and was found by the staff of the Forbidden City in 1983 when cleaning up the daily necessities of the Jiaqing Emperor.
At the beginning of the discovery of the "Forbidden City Tree-shaped Flower Roll Tea", it was once considered Pu'er tea, and was marked with the words "Tea Character No. 25 Tree-shaped Pu'er Total Two Pieces Weigh Ten Pounds Each". After careful observation and examination of historical materials by researchers, it was found that the indentations of this tea body were left by the unique "Qianliang Tea" of Anhua Black Tea by binding the tea body with bamboo hoops during production. In 2010, this cultural relic was officially identified as the earliest surviving Anhua "Qianliang Tea" object.
"Forbidden City Tree-shaped Flower Roll Tea". Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Anhua County CPC Committee
Anhua County, the birthplace of the "Forbidden City Tree-shaped Flower Roll Tea", is located in the "Golden Tea Belt" at 30 degrees north latitude, which belongs to the Xuefeng MountainOus Area. The beautiful mountains and rivers, the deep fog of the forest, and the unique influence of the moraine rock landform have bred a well-known and excellent tea plant variety in China - Yuntai Mountain Large Leaf Species. This tea leaf is soft and thick, highly malleable, and is used to make Anhua black tea, which has special mellow aroma and health benefits. This "Forbidden City Tree-shaped Flower Roll Tea" of Jiaqing "Hoard" is made of Anhua black hair tea as raw material, and the quality is in line with the modern Anhua "Qianliang Tea" and other Anhua black teas.
Local tea farmers picking spring tea in a tea garden in Malu Town, Anhua County, on March 20, 2020 (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Zhenhai
Xiao Weiqun, vice chairman of the Anhua County CPPCC Committee and deputy head of the county tea tourism industry development leading group, introduced that the production process of "Qianliang Tea", represented by the "Forbidden City Tree-shaped Flower Roll Tea", is very exquisite. It is necessary to pour the black hair tea into a long cylindrical bamboo basket cushioned with indigo leaves and brown flakes, use sticks, hammers and other construction tools, use steaming, irrigation, twisting, pressing, pounding, rolling, hoops and other processes, after repeated hammering and tightening, so that the tea branch reaches the requirements of dense and solid, and finally forms a tree-like cylinder with a height of about 160 cm and a diameter of about 20 cm. After that, it is also "sun and night dew" for forty-nine days, which is naturally dried. This unique tea-making process has now become a national intangible cultural heritage.
Workers use traditional techniques to make Anhua black tea. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Anhua County CPC Committee
Liu Songhua said that the "Forbidden City Tree-shaped Flower Roll Tea" is one of the oldest cultural relics of the world-renowned "Wanli Tea Ceremony" era, and its historical and cultural connotations are rich.
In the past, there was a saying of "Daoguang Hundred and Two, Tongzhi Thousand Two", and it was believed that "Thousand Two Teas" was founded during the Qing Dynasty. The discovery of the "Forbidden City Tree-shaped Flower Roll Tea" traces the creation date of "Qianye Tea" back to the Qing Jiaqing period.
Nature and time carved out, brewed out of the "Thousand Two Tea", and the lighter weight of "Hundred Two Tea", "Twelve Tea", "Flower Brick" and other Anhua black tea, small size, resistant to storage, well-preserved aged tea taste and quality will become better, very suitable for "Tea Horse Ancient Road" long-distance transportation and perennial sales in remote areas. In the long-established "side tea" trade, it is a long-standing "explosive model".
This is the Qianliang tea drying ground photographed at a tea farm in Anhua County on March 20, 2020. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Zhenhai
The Collection of the Forbidden City, Qing Jiaqing "Forbidden City Tree-shaped Flower Roll Tea", is a section of a long flower roll "Thousand Two Teas". Xiao Weiqun said that the standard net weight of each piece of modern Qianliang tea is about 36.25 kilograms. From ancient times to 1959, China's weighing instruments were sixteen pounds. In the Qing Dynasty, one thousand two was 62.5 kilograms, and according to the calculation of one kilogram at that time, which was about equivalent to the current 580 to 590 grams, then one thousand two was equivalent to the current 36.25 kilograms to 36.88 kilograms, which was basically the same as the weight of modern thousand two teas.
The "Forbidden City Tree-shaped Flower Roll Tea" arrived in Anhua County on October 21. Liu Ganggui, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the Anhua County CPC Committee, introduced that the local government held a welcome ceremony for the return of "Jiaqing Imperial Tea" to his hometown, and then placed the cultural relics in the China Black Tea Museum, which was exhibited to the public from October 22 to January 10, 2022.
Reporters: Su Xiaozhou, Chen Zhenhai, Ruan around
Editors: Li Zhengyan, Chen Dongshu