..
A philosophical approach
en.hangzhou.com.cn   2023-04-27 10:38   Source: China Daily

Editor's note: There are 43 items inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage lists that not only bear witness to the past glories of Chinese civilization, but also continue to shine today. China Daily looks at the protection and inheritance of some of these cultural legacies. In this installment, we retrace the footprints of the "tea saint" to discover the origins, and understand the evolution, of Chinese tea culture.

In his 20s, Lu Yu, revered as the "tea saint", traversed the expanse of China, particularly the Huaihe River Basin and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, researching all there is to know about tea.

Eventually, he completed The Classic of Tea, the first compendium of the drink in China, outlining the knowledge he garnered, from the explanation of tea, its tools and vessels, to its production, brewing and customs.

Some might say that taste is subjective, but Lu decided on a set of criteria for the most superior variety of tea — those resembling bamboo shoots and having a purple hue.

This type of tea was, not surprisingly, named Zisun Tea, literally meaning "purple bamboo shoot", and produced as a tribute exclusive to the emperors. It is said that Lu was the one who recommended it to the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

China's first imperial tea factory was then established to produce the Zisun Tea, located in Changxing county, Zhejiang province's Huzhou, the city being deemed by Lu as the best tea-producing area in what is today's northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu province.

On its original site — Guzhu Hill in Changxing — the Tang Dynasty Imperial Tea Factory has now been rebuilt, and is where contemporary tea masters are working to preserve and refine the ancient Zisun Tea production techniques.

"Poet Geng Wei once visited Lu Yu, and the pair enjoyed a lyrical discourse. When Geng expressed his awe at Guzhu Hill's misty beauty and longing for Lu's life, Lu replied that he has to climb up the hill every day before dawn and study the tea leaves, which confirms that Lu worked at the tea factory," says Lin Ruiyang, director of the organization.

While contemporary people typically brew processed tea leaves, as recorded in The Classic of Tea, the manufacture of Zisun Tea involved seven procedures, before the tea leaves were compressed into its distinctive flat and round shape with a hole in the middle.

Since the 1970s, the Changxing government has been engaging tea experts in the restoration of the traditional tea-making technique. As a provincial-level inheritor of the Zisun tea-making craft himself, Lin embarked on a journey to make improvements and innovations.

One day, while delving into ancient texts, Lin stumbled upon a steaming technique used during the Tang Dynasty, which transforms the enzymes in the tea and prevents the leaves from turning brown.

This led him to rethink the process of making Zisun Tea.

After countless attempts, and much trial and error, he finally came up with a modernized steaming technique that helps preserve the tea's distinct flavor, as well as substantially increasing its shelf life.

"Based on many ancient records, Zisun Tea enjoyed immense popularity. So, as an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, it is my duty to pass down the ancient tea-making technique from one generation to the next," Lin says.

Apart from producing tea, the factory is also a tourist destination, where visitors can admire the cliffside inscriptions left by Tang Dynasty scholars, study tea culture and history, or simply spend a quiet afternoon sipping tea amid the soothing scenery.

Author:   Editor: Ye Lijiao
Back