Tea, a magical leaf, has been shining brightly on the land of Sichuan since ancient times.
Looking back on history, Sichuan is one of the birthplaces of tea planting and tea drinking, with a flourishing tea culture.
On November 29, 2022, “Traditional Chinese tea-making techniques and related customs” were included in the UNESCO Representative List of Human Intangible Cultural Heritage, and Sichuan tea was included.
Tea was first discovered in Shu (The ancient name for Sichuan is Shu)
Drinking tea has been a custom that has been carried out by Chinese people for thousands of years. Pu’er, Tieguanyin, Longjing, Mount Emei Tea, Queton… the fragrance of tea soothes the hearts of ordinary people. So, when did the Chinese first start drinking tea?
Su Donglai, associate researcher at the Institute of History of the Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, who co-edited the book “History of Sichuan Tea Culture”, said, “Judging from the existing ancient document records, all records about tea before the Six Dynasties in China originated from Bashu. Therefore, most scholars believe that the earliest custom of discovering and utilizing tea in our country and even the world began in Sichuan.”
As early as more than 3,000 years ago, the ancestors of Bashu discovered that the leaves of wild tea trees were edible.
Chang Xu, a native of Jin, recorded in “Huayang Guozhi·Ba Zhi” that after Ba was canonized as the Bazi Kingdom by the Zhou royal family, in addition to mulberry, silkworms, and hemp, tea was also among the tributes paid to the Zhou Dynasty. Chang Xu also wrote that “there are fragrant jade and fragrant tea in the garden” in Ba. Xiangming, that is, tea. The Ba people were canonized by the Western Zhou royal family as early as the 11th century BC, more than 3,000 years ago.
Tea was already a valuable tribute at that time.
Sichuan produces tea, but also produces good tea
Sichuan is one of the origins of tea trees and one of the birthplaces of artificial tea cultivation. It has a long tradition and glorious achievements in tea production. In 2022, the area, scale and efficiency of Sichuan’s tea industry will rank among the first in the country. The comprehensive output value of Sichuan’s tea industry will reach 108 billion yuan, and the per capita tea industry income of tea farmers will exceed 5,000 yuan. It has truly made “big results” from “small specialties” .
In the national tea industry landscape, where does the historical heritage and current status of Sichuan tea come from? Tracing back to the origin, this is related to the natural conditions of Sichuan. Sichuan is located between 26 degrees to 34 degrees north latitude and 97 degrees to 108 degrees east longitude. The tea area has a mild climate, less extreme high and low temperature weather, abundant rainfall, less sunlight, more clouds and fog, and much acidic soil, all of which are suitable for the growth of tea trees. The Sichuan tea area is rich in diffuse light, which is conducive to the production of amino acids and is especially suitable for the growth of green tea. In the current Sichuan tea industry, green tea production accounts for more than 70%.
Sichuan tea areas are mainly distributed around the mountainous areas around the Sichuan Basin, forming a “C” shape. Within the Sichuan tea area, it can be further subdivided into different tea-producing areas based on administrative divisions, natural conditions, and other standards. It can be said that the natural conditions in different regions of Sichuan have created a diversity of tea quality, allowing Sichuan to produce not only tea, but also good tea and famous tea. In 2022, the Palace Museum sorted out the existing tribute tea objects and found that 11 of the 50 types of tribute tea from 11 provinces originated from Sichuan.
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