ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea(Wuyi Bohea Black Tea) is the ancestor of Black TeaTongmuGuan in Wuyi Mountain of China is the original place of Black Tea
China is the original country of tea. Many kinds of great tea grow in China. But in China, only few Chinese know that China is the original place of Black Tea and ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea is the ancestor of Black Tea.
ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea was invented in the late period of Ming Dynasty（about the beginning of 17century） in China. It was called as Wuyi Bohea tea when it was send to Europe at the early .The history of it is nearly 400 years, but we have not ascertained the exactly time of ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea. And according to the record of the family tree of Jiang, whose family is the hire to the noble ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea producing in Tongmu Guan for 400 years, I can say that ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea is the first kind of Black Tea in the world. And according to the development of tea production technology and some historical data, we can be sure that ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea is the ancestor of Black Tea and Tongmu Guan in Wuyi Mountain is the original place of Black Tea.
Mr. Jiang Yuanxun is the 24th generation of ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea producing family. According to the record in Mr. Jiang Yuanxun`s family tree, we gained the message that Jiang`s Family moved into Tongmu Guan at the end of South-Song Dynasty. Jiang`s Family lived in the village depending on cultivating tea trees and tea production .The tea production technology had been passed generation to generation. In Jiang`s Family, there is a legend about the invention of Black Tea and this legend had been passed for hundreds of years too. Nearly 400 years ago, in a spring time of the late Ming Dynasty, Jiang`s Family picked many fresh tea and stored them in a wooden factory which used for producing tea. A team of army passed Miaowan in Tongmu Guan one night, and they stopped at wooden factory and slept on the fresh tea for that night. When the army left Miaowan next morning, Jiang`s Family found that the fresh tea had changed a lot. Because of lacking of necessary and timely machining, the color had changed from green to slightly red and purple, the shape became distorted and soft, and the fresh tea with viscosity too. Jiang`s Family wanted to save the cost and decided to drying the tea leaf through pine torches, because pine torches is a kind of common fuel in Tongmu Guan and has a slight fragrance. After drying, Jiang`s Family detected the soft leaf became stiff and fragility, the color become black, with special fragrance too. But in Tongmu Guan, this special tea were not be accepted by common people. Jiang`s Family decided to take them to Xincun, a center of tea business, in order to retrieved some cost. Nobody had expected that when the next tea producing season was coming, tea business man quoted high price to order the special tea and paid Jiang`s Family cash. Although this was out of the villagers` expectation, this special tea was produced and the amount became larger and larger. Jiang`s Family called this kind of tea “乌茶” according to its black color, “乌茶”means black tea ,so black tea is red tea now. Many years later , Jiang`s Family named “乌茶”as ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea ,in order to distinguish the fake tea, ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea means the tea from real high mountain and the tea is orthodox.
This special tea is the ancestor of Black Tea. But at that time, nobody was aware that the fresh tea leaf which had been slept by army had been fermented. And the special tea is the first kind of black tea .This may be a wonderful coincidence. And this kind of version was also recorded in 《Encyclopedia of China Tea》（《中国茶经》）。
We can also infer that black tea was invented in Wuyi Mountain area in the late period of Ming Dynasty by the fermentation method for producing tea which extended in Wuyi Mountain area. Black tea is a kind of full-fermentation tea, so the method of producing black tea is more complication than the method of producing green tea. And the fermentation method for producing tea extended in Wuyi Mountain area in late Ming Dynasty.
《Summary of Fujian》《闽小记》, author is ZhouGongliang who was the savant in the times of ChongZhen. In his book, he wrote, “ the official in ChongAn county employed Buddhist monk from Huang Mountain to produced Wuyi Mountain Tea by a new method which called “crate made by pine”, it is a kind method of fermentation. It also recorded, “on the top of Wuyi Mountain, tea trees grow everywhere , Buddhist monk selected some fresh tea leaf and dry them .They also evaporate leaf and then drying them. So the tea color is almost red and purple, these tea only drunk in the temple by Buddhist monk. Later , Buddhist monk produced tea by the method of “crate made by pine”，and then, the product is black and be full of fragrance. After some months, the color and the fragrance are still wonderful.” This short record noticed that producing by the method of “crate made by pine”，the tea soup became red and be full of fragrance, and these are the advantages of fermented tea. So we can know that tea producers in Wuyi Moutain produced new kind of tea through the fermentation method of tea producing. In my opinion, I can not be sure that this new tea was black tea, it was half-fermentation Oolong Tea possibly. Because Black Tea may not be invented step by step, according to the fermentation method of tea producing which was an non-maturity method at that time. Most parts of Wuyi Mountain produced Wuyi Rock Tea (Oolong Tea) and only Tongmu Guan produced black tea. What is more, there is no common understanding about the invention time for Black Tea and Oolong Tea. Did oolong tea invented earlier than Black tea or did black tea has longer history than oolong tea? We can not be sure about it. But invention of black tea and fermentation method of producing tea should not be separated. It was possible that fermentation method of producing tea came from the process of producing ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea, or black tea was invented through the fermentation method of tea producing, or the invention of black tea and fermented method of producing tea invented at the same time. In a short, invention of black tea and the fermentation method of producing tea are affinity. And black tea was invented in Tongmu Guan in the late period of Ming Dynasty.
We can gain much important information from many historical data too, which can prove that ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea in Tongmu Guan, Wuyi Moutain is the ancestor of Black tea.
There is an important notes on 《Encyclopedia of China Tea》（《中国茶经》），“when Dutch ships transported Chinese tea to Europe in 1610 for the first time. Chinese tea is welcome and be fashionable very quickly.” The year of 1610 is the late period of Ming Dynasty. And according to 《The Research for the market Economy of Chinese Tea》(《中国茶叶商品经济研究》)，whose author is TaoDechen, “black tea shipped to Europe coming from Wuyi Mountain area of Fujian Province to Europe .” And at that time ,most parts of Wuyi Mountain produced Oolong Tea , only in Tongmu Guan, black tea was produced. So we can check that the black tea send to Europe in 1610 is ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea.《Drinking Afternoon Tea with Renoir》 (Auguste Renoir, who is a famous artist.《与雷诺阿共进下午茶》) also proved this reality. “In 17th century, China began to produce black tea, which came from Tongmu Guan, Wuyi Mountain, Fuiian Province, the black tea was shipped to western world when Dutch ships shipped Chinese tea to Europe.” So, we can be sure that ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea was invented before 1610 in Tongmu Guang, Wuyi Mountain.
Keemum Black Tea in Anhui Province, Yi Black Tea in Hubei Province, Dian Black Tea in Yunnan Province and so on. All these famous Chinese black tea were produced in 19century. ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea is the ancestor for these kinds of black tea. Taking keemum black tea for example, keemum black tea is one of the most famous black tea in the world. How did keemum black tea invented? In 1876, the official of Chongan County, whose name is YuGancheng and hometown is in Anhui province, retirement and went back to his hometown. But when he retirement, he had already collected the tea saplings in Wuyi Mountain and grasped the method of producing ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea. He set up a village for producing black tea at ZhiDeDu in Anhui. After studying for several years, he produced keemum black tea successful. The similar history is suitable for most parts of the other kinds of Chinese black tea. According to 《Local Record of Baling Count》（《巴陵县志》of Hunan Province, it recorded, “ the 23th year in Daoguang ( it was 1843), after run business with foreign ,business man from Guangdong Province took a lot of money to produce black tea.” 《Local Record of Chongyan Count》(《崇阳县志》)records , “ In the years of Daoguang (it was about 1850), Business from GuangDong Province bought tea ,the method is pick fresh leaves and writhe them in sharp sunshine, and drying it by carbon in rainy days. They selling them to foreign and named it as Black Tea.” Many other Chinese Local Record of Count contain similar record about black tea . According to these historical data, we can declare that ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea is the first kind of black tea in China.
India is the largest country for black tea exporting in the world now. But hundred years ago, there were no tea trees grew in India. Where did India tea come from? To answer this question, we should involve an English man whose named is Robert Fortune. Fortune stayed in China from 1843---1845 for the first time, as the partner of the Association of Gardening for England. He can spoke fluent Chinese, understood Chinese custom and he was the expert on gardening. East India Company focused on him and employed him as a “spy”. His mission was that collecting tea trees and learning the method of producing tea, and then took them to India, in order to make India became the tea base for England. In 1848, he was send to Huang Mountain, he stolen many tea trees` seedlings and the method of producing green tea. In Feb 1849, he sneaked into Wuyi Mountain with his Chinese suites. He pretended to be a Chinese and asked the villagers about the method of producing black tea. He knew the fermentation method of producing tea this time. After he got the tea trees seedlings and learned the method of producing Chinese tea, he prepared to India. He realized that only Chinese people who were experienced at tea growing and tea producing can teach Indians how to grow tea trees and produce tea, only can they passed the method completely. So he employed 8 Chinese, and took them and the tea seedlings to India in 1851, and at last, they reached Assam. 3 years later, Fortune grasped the complete method of producing Black Tea, And India began to produced and exported black tea to the world. Chinese tea trade encountered tremendous difficulty.
There is one more point to explain. ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea in Tongmu Guan, Wuyi Mountain is a wonderful black tea and welcome by Europeans. But Tongmu Guan is not very big, the amount of ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea is only 250tons.But the market was becoming more and more big, and ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea is the main goods in Chinese tea trade. Attracted by the tremendous profit，some tea business men began to produce fake ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea. Because the main step is that drying the fresh tea leaf by burn the pine torches, the taste of fake Zhangshan Souchong Black Tea is little similar with original ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea ,and the fake ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea also accepted by Europeans quickly. The fake ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea is lapsang souchong tea.
Tongmu Guan in Wuyi Mountain is the original place for black tea, ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea is the ancestor of black tea. When tea-eminent authority, Mr. Zhang Tianfu came back to MiaoWan Tongmu Guan, that is the kernel zone for producing ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea, he wrote inscription——the original place of ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea，and he also wrote inscription——the noble tea producing family for Mr. JiangYuanxun, who is the 24th generation of the noble ZhengShan Souchong Black Tea black tea producing family.
Written By：Jiang Zhidong
Email :zhidongjiang2010@yahoo.com Lapsang@lapsang.cn
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