Wu Lizhen, a native of Yandao (famous mountain area of Ya’an, Sichuan Province) in the Western Han Dynasty, was a Taoist school figure named Ganlu- Sweet Dew Taoist, he successively presided over the monasteries of Meng Mountain. In 153 BC, Wu Lizhen discovered the medicinal function of wild tea in Meng Mountain, When the villagers were ill, he enthusiastically soaked the leaves in water for them to drink, and the effect was also very good. Unfortunately, there were not many such trees, and the leaves could not meet the needs of curing diseases and saving people. He was determined to cultivate more tea trees, so he planted seven tea trees from seeds on a hollow land between the five peaks of Meng Mountain. Wu Lizhen is regarded as the earliest tea grower in China and even in the world, which was clearly recorded in words, he is also known as the tea ancestor and tea ceremony master of Meng Mountain.
Mengding Mountain ancient tea garden
Bai Juyi loved tea and was the poet who wrote the most tea poems in Tang Dynasty. He was banished to Jiangzhou (today’s Jiujiang City), it was famous of tea at that time. Bai Juyi lived in the north of Xianglu peak in Lu Mountains. As soon as Bai Juyi arrived, he didn’t even have his house repaired. He started to cultivate a tea garden himself. It can be seen that he loved tea, and he used tea as a medium to get closer to nature and feel the beauty of rural scenery. He could not see the unhappiness of being demoted to Jiangzhou, his poem records: “frame the rock to build a humble cottage, cultivate the hillside ravine to open a tea garden 架岩结茅宇,斫壑开茶园” which reflects the real situation of Bai Juyi planting tea personally.
Hundred Characters of Tea – Wenzhuo Liu
The famous tea of Tang Dynasty is not easy to get. Scholars often give tea as a gift to friends or invite them to drink tea at home to show their deep feelings. And poets receiveed tea, mostly thank back their friends with poetry, tea poetry exchanges, it can be regarded as a kind of elegant interest. Bai Juyi’s tea poems record that he was very happy when he received the tea collected one or two days before the Qingming Festival, which was wrapped in red paper by his old friend. He immediately boiled the water, the water was heated to show the fish’s eye size bubbles. Then he brewed new Sichuan tea with tea making utensils. Bai Juyi had a lot of research on tea drinking, he liked drinking tea very much. He claimed that “he as a tea people could identify the quality of tea, so his friend woud send tea to him before sending it to others. 不寄他人先寄我,应缘我是别茶人”
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