Tea-Blog

13.06.2017

Wudang Daoist Tea

Wudang Mountian is in Hubei Province, which has a long history of producing good tea: in the <History of Song Dynasty 宋史> recorded that in the Song Dynasty, Wudang Daoist Chen Tuan to be fond of drinking tea; and in the Yuan Dynasty documents, Wudang daoists planted and produced tea by themselves; Wudang Qian Lin 骞林tea had been paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty’s imperial court for 200 years, and in the <Collected Taoist Scriptures 道藏> , a picture called “Qian Lin Ying Xiang Tu骞林应祥图” described the grand occasion of harvesting, producing and paying tribute Qian Lin tea; the Qing Dynasty poems records that Wudang daoists brewed tea to receive guests.

In the <Ming Dynasty Xiang Mansion Tea Nunnery Inscription Record大明襄府茶庵碑记>, since in the Ming Dynasty it prevailed that, people from the whole nation went on pilgrimages to offer incense on the Wudang Mountain, these believers needed to climb up mountains to reach the golden peak, King Xiang decided to build a tea nunnery in order to serve these believers tea water. This stela now is kept in the Wudang Museum.

<Zhou Mansion Tea Nunnery 周府茶庵> of <Wudang Travel Notes Twenty-four Pictures武当纪游二十四图> was painted by Zhou Kai (Qing Dynasty) and followed by three poems, he stopped for a rest there and drank tea with a young daoist Ye Wenmei, they both were interested in drinking tea and writing poems. After his first visit, Zhou Kai revisited the nunnery another two times. This painting describes the Zhou masion tea nunnery that built by Ming Dynasty King Zhou on the ancient Wudang pilgrimage road.

Nowadays, there are a few natural wild ancient Qianlin tea trees that have been discovered at four places in rock massifs of Wudang mountains since 2008, the biggest one, the latest finding No.3 ancient tea tree is about 10 meter high, 3.3 meter circumference and 1.2 meter diameter of the tree base. Because Wudang Mountain is also called Taihe Mountain 太和山, this tea is used to be called Taihe tea by Wudang daoists. Taihe tea is made of these tea leaves and is rich in amino acids, tea polyphenols, saponins, flavonoids and many beneficial trace elements (germanium, selenium, zinc, cobalt, vanadium and molybdenum). In the 1970s, tea seedlings from the Ying Mountains 英山 in the Northeast of Hubei province were transplanted and in the 1980s, Fuding Da Hao and Fuding Da Bai tea were also planted at Wudang.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvXTCe47MRs[/embedyt]

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