People who have studied tea a little know that there is a saying in the tea industry that "tea before the Ming Dynasty is as expensive as gold". As the name suggests, Ming Qian tea is the tea picked before the Qingming Festival, which is characterized by less insect infestation, delicate buds and leaves, green and fragrant color, mellow taste and beautiful shape, and is the best product in tea. So, in addition to the high quality, what exactly makes Ming Qian tea "as expensive as gold"?

In the Tang Dynasty, the concept of tea before the Ming Dynasty began to become clear. In the fifth year of the Tang Dynasty Zong calendar (770 years), Huzhou Thorn Shi Yu Di set up a tribute tea house in Guzhu Mountain, and the "Tang Hui Yao" recorded: "Every year to pay tribute to the Qingming Dynasty, first recommend the temple, and then give it to the close ministers." Behind this decree, there is an ancient tradition of "spring festival with new". "The Book of Rites: The Order of the Month" states that "in the month of Meng Chun, the Son of Heaven prays to God on the first day", and the first stubble and tender shoots of the tea tree that have been revived through winter are endowed with the spirituality of communicating with heaven and earth.

This transformation of sacredness into secular power is particularly evident in the tea ceremony of the Qingming feast. During the first year of Zhenyuan, every day after the Qingming Festival, Dezong set up a "new fire banquet" in Qujiang Pavilion, and gave the purple bamboo shoot tea cooked with the "divine fire" drilled by the Qingming willow to the important ministers. Bai Juyi's poem "Xie Li Liulang Zhongji Xinshu Tea": "The soup is fried with a spoon of water, and the last knife is stirred to stir the dust", which depicts the cooking of this kind of imperial tea soup. Dunhuang testament No. P.2504 "On Tea and Wine" records that "the king drinks it and sacrifices to heaven and earth; Drink it without losing etiquette", which shows the symbolic function of tea in the power field of the Tang Dynasty.

During the Kaiyuan Tianbao period, another silent revolution sprouted among the literati and elegant gatherings. Wang Xizhi's Lanting "Qushui Liuzhen" tradition gradually evolved into a new custom of "replacing wine with tea" in the Tang Dynasty. Lu Wen's "Preface to the Tea Banquet on March 3rd" recorded: "It is to set flowers and build trees, rest in the shade, chase people in the breeze, and leave the sun in the sun." Lying on the green elbows, sitting on the incense branches, smelling the warbler close to the table but not flying, the red stamen brushing the clothes but not scattering", the lonely beauty of the tea banquet is in stark contrast to the noise of the wine banquet.

Liu Songnian's "Tóng Cooking Tea" in the Southern Song Dynasty depicts Lu Tong getting a new tea from his friend Meng Xun, a doctor from the imperial court, and cooking it immediately. Lu Tong is a poet of the Tang Dynasty, self-named Yuchuanzi, a native of Fanyang (now Zhuozhou City, Hebei), his family is poor and still studies hard, unwilling to enter the office, and is known for drinking tea, and is respected as "tea fairy".

The new custom of "replacing wine with tea" has left a deep imprint on the culture of utensils. The secret color porcelain tea cup unearthed in Famen Temple, its "thousand peaks and green color" is the green and blue that sets off the tea soup before the Ming Dynasty; The inscription "Yigong Soup Lu's Tea" is cast in the "Twenty-four Vessels" in the wind furnace designed by Lu Yu, juxtaposing the tea ceremony with the way of Shang Minister Yi Yin's way of governing the country.

最耐人尋味的是顏真卿等人在《竹山連句》中記錄的茶會：二十位文士環坐竹林，傳飲的卻不是酒觥而是茶甌，詩句中“流華凈肌骨，疏瀹滌心原”的體悟，標誌著茶飲正式成為士人精神修鍊的載體。

太平興國二年（977年），宋太宗趙光義下詔改制貢茶，北苑官焙從此誕生中國茶史上最奢華的製品——龍鳳團茶。據《宣和北苑貢茶錄》載，其製作“始於驚蟄，采以穀雨，造經百日”，僅揀茶環節就需“去膏務盡，團模務緊”。蔡襄監造的小龍團“每片計工值四萬錢”，歐陽修感慨：“黃金可得，而此茶不可得也。”

This ultimate luxury translates into a visual carnival in the culture of tea fighting. Song Huizong's "Daguan Tea Treatise" stipulates the standard of tea fighting: "The color of the cup is noble, green and black, and the jade is the best", which describes the "snow tao" effect produced by the fusion of the rabbit hao pot and the tea soup in the Ming Dynasty. Fan Zhongyan's "Song of Fighting Tea with Zhang Min" shows not only a technical competition, but also a dual performance of wealth and taste. The Southern Song Dynasty Zhou Mi's "Wulin Old Things" recorded the birthday banquet of Zhangfu: "The tea pots are all golden edges and secret colors, and the tea is given, and the music is played through", and the tea before the Ming Dynasty at this time has become a mobile gold that highlights the class identity.

The symbolic meaning of tea before the Ming Dynasty underwent a threefold transformation: in the Tang Dynasty, it was shaped into a "drink of the gods", and a bridge between heaven and man was built through sacrificial rituals; From the Tang Dynasty to the early Northern Song Dynasty, it was transformed into the "drink of power", consolidating the order of monarchs and ministers in the tea ceremony; In the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty, it turned into a "drink of desire", releasing material desires in the game of tea fighting. This transmutation coincides with the transformation of Chinese society from religious to secular, just as Zhu Xi said: "The tea of the Tang people is a heavy gift, and the tea of the Song people is heavy taste." ”

Pre-Ming tea carries the subtle perception of time in Chinese farming civilization. Wang Zhen's "Book of Agriculture" in the Yuan Dynasty detailed the agricultural law of tea cultivation "cultivating after autumn and pruning before spring". This kind of wisdom that conforms to the time of day is refined in Yuan Hongdao's "Bottle History" as the life aesthetics of "tea appreciators are also on the sky". Zhuang Wanfang, a contemporary tea scientist, pointed out: "The preciousness of tea before the Ming Dynasty lies in the fact that it condenses the Chinese's philosophical thinking on the rhythm of nature. ”

Today, with the popularization of mechanized production, Hangzhou Shifeng Mountain still continues the tradition of burning incense and worshiping ancestors during the "Tea Festival", and Suzhou Dongshan tea farmers still adhere to the ancient precept of "seven do not pick". From the morning bell of the Tang Dynasty to the terrace of the modern tea garden, Ming Qian tea has always been the jade ruler for Chinese to measure spring.

When the buds stretched out in the tea cup reflect the reincarnation of the 24 solar terms, what we taste is not only the essence of plants and trees, but also the unfading time code in the long river of civilization.

Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Chen Pin

Editor/Ni Jianing