Cultural Scholar and Calligrapher Wang Xiongyue China s tea culture has a long and profound history

Mondo Culture Updated on 2024-02-01

Wang Xiongyue, born in 1959, is a native of Huangshan City, Anhui Province. He enlisted in the army in 1978 and was engaged in artistic creation and training of grassroots cultural cadres in the cultural section of the Political Department of a division in Shanghai. In 2015, he studied at Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts and was taught by Mr. Lu Xuedong and Mr. Lin Shujie. In the field of calligraphy, on the basis of learning from others' strengths, he mainly practiced the calligraphy of Wang Xizhi, Wen Zhengming and Zhao Mengfu. He has studied under Lin Shujie, a teacher from the Institute of Calligraphy of Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts, for many years.

In 1985, he won the first prize in calligraphy in the calligraphy and painting exhibition of Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces. In terms of Chinese painting, he started with flower and bird painting, and later studied landscape painting, mainly small green landscapes and shallow landscapes, thanks to Lu Xuedong, a teacher from Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts. His works have been collected by the Anhui Provincial Trade Union and the Huangshan Museum. In 2019, in the calligraphy and painting competition organized by the Painting and Calligraphy Institute of CCB Head Office, his work won the first place and was collected. In 2022, he won the first prize of Chinese painting in the Anhui Provincial Financial System Staff Calligraphy and Painting Competition, and was hired as a director of the Anhui Financial Calligraphy and Painting Institute. In 2021, the article "Talking about My Experience in the Study of Green Landscape Painting" and a group of green landscape works were published in the largest Chinese publication in the United States, "Chinese World". His works have also been recommended to be exhibited in Japan, South Korea, Russia and other countries. He is now a member of the Huangshan Artists Association, a member of the Painting and Calligraphy Institute of the Construction Head Office, a director of the Anhui Financial Calligraphy and Painting Institute, a member of the Xin'an Calligraphy and Painting Society of Huangshan City, and a member of the Municipal Calligraphy and Painting Association.

China's tea culture has a long history, and according to the literature, tea may have been used as an ingredient in early days. As a special drink, it should be no later than the Western Han Dynasty. By the time of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, tea had become a luxury drink. After the Sui and Tang dynasties, tea drinking became more popular, from the royal family to the common people, all of whom loved tea, and tea tasting and tea discussion also became a fashion, but it was not until Lu Yu's "Book of Tea" that the tea culture was systematically sorted out and written.

Tea is said to have been discovered and used by the Chinese for at least four thousand years. Around the time of the Northern and Southern Dynasties in the 5th century AD, Chinese tea began to be exported to neighboring countries in Southeast Asia and other parts of Asia. In the 10th century, Mongolian caravans came to China to engage in **, and Chinese brick tea was brought to Central Asia through Siberia. In the 17th century, tea was brought to Europe by the Dutch, and the British brought the fashion of drinking tea to the Americas, Australia, and spread to the world.

Green tea. The most produced type of green tea in China is unfermented tea, that is, the fresh leaves are dried and fried directly in a hot pot to maintain its green characteristics. Green tea has the characteristics of high aroma, mellow taste, and beautiful shape. Its production process has gone through the process of killing, rolling and drying, and some green tea is not rolled, and the shape is flat, such as West Lake Longjing. Due to the different methods of killing and drying during processing, green tea can be divided into roasted green tea (Longjing, manna), roasted green tea (Huangshan Maofeng, Jixian Muya), steamed green tea (Enshi Yulu) and sun-dried green tea (Yunnan green). China's green tea varieties rank first in the world, exporting tens of thousands of tons every year, accounting for about 70% of the world's tea market. Traditional Chinese green teas, Mei Tea and Zhu Tea, are very popular with consumers at home and abroad.

Black tea. Black tea, on the contrary to green tea, is a fully fermented tea (fermented to greater than 80%). Black tea gets its name from the red color of its soup. The main varieties of Chinese black tea are: Qihong, which is produced in Qimen, Zhide and Fuliang, Jiangxi, Anhui; Yunnan red - produced in Lincang, Fohai, Shunning and other places in Yunnan; Huo Hong - produced in Lu'an, Huoshan and other places in Anhui; Yihong - produced in Yixing, Jiangsu; Yuehong - produced in Anhua, Hunan (Anhua Tea Factory, Hunan Province), Xinhua, Taoyuan and other places; Chuanhong - produced in Yibin, Gaoxian and other places in Sichuan; Yinghong - produced in Yingde, Guangdong and other places. Among them, Keemun black tea is the most famous. There are many varieties of black tea in the world, and the production area is also very wide, in addition to China, India and Sri Lanka also have similar black broken tea production. Kung Fu Black Tea is a unique black tea variety in China and is also our traditional export commodity.

Black tea. Black tea was originally mainly sold to the border area, the raw materials were coarse and old, and the fermentation time was long during processing, so that the leaf color was dark brown. There are "Hunan Black Tea", "Hubei Laoqing Tea", "Guangxi Liubao Tea", Sichuan's "West Roadside Tea" and "Tibetan Tea", Yunnan's "Tight Tea", "Cake Tea", "Square Tea" and "Round Tea", Shaanxi Fu Tea and other varieties. Yunnan Pu'er tea and Hunan Anhua black tea are traditional Chinese classic black teas. Pu'er tea is divided into two kinds, "one is traditional Pu'er tea, that is, raw tea", which is a special tea formed by drying Qingmao tea with a unique large-leaf species in Yunnan and being naturally dried by autoclaving and stored for a certain time. The other is "modern Pu'er tea, that is, ripe tea", which is formed by the solid fermentation of tide microorganisms.

Anhua black tea is also divided into two kinds, one is black brick tea, which is shaped like a brick and is pressed by a brick mold after fermentation. The other is a thousand taels of tea, shaped like a stump, after fermentation, steaming by multi-layer bamboo strips bundled and pressed, each piece weighs 1000 taels according to 16 taels of ancient city scale, modern in order to facilitate sales and carrying, generally made into 100 taels of tea or 10 taels of tea. Black tea has the effect of lowering lipids, ** and blood pressure, and is very popular in Southeast Asia and Japan, referred to as "**tea" and "*tea". But if you really want to say **, the most significant effect may be oolong tea.

Oolong. Oolong tea, also known as green tea, is a type of semi-fermented tea that is intermediate between red and green tea. That is, it is properly fermented during production, so that the leaves are slightly red, and it is a kind of tea between green tea and black tea. It has both the freshness of green tea and the richness of black tea. Because the middle of the leaf is green, and the leaf edge is red, it is called "green leaf red border". Oolong tea is the most complex and time-consuming among the six types of tea, among which the green process is the key step to form the quality of oolong tea. The method of brewing oolong tea is also very particular, so drinking oolong tea is also called drinking kung fu tea.

Yellow tea. Junshan silver needle tea belongs to yellow tea. In the process of making tea, it is stuffy and yellow, thus forming yellow leaves and yellow soup. It is divided into three categories: "Yellow Bud Tea" (including Junshan Silver Bud in Dongting Lake, Hunan, Mengding Yellow Bud in Ya'an, Sichuan and Mingshan County, and Huo Nei Bud in Huoshan County, Anhui), "Yellow Small Tea" (including Beigang in Yueyang, Hunan, Weishan Maojian in Ningxiang, Hunan, Pingyang Yellow Tang in Pingyang, Zhejiang, and Luyuan in Yuan'an, Hubei), and "Huang Da Tea" (including Guangdong Dayeqing and Huoshan Huangda Tea in Anhui).

The preparation method of yellow tea is a bit like green tea, but it needs to be yellowed in the middle. The main colors are: Junshan silver needle; Mengding yellow buds; Beigang Maojian; Deer Park hairy tip; Huoshan yellow bud; Weijiang white hair tip; Wenzhou yellow soup; West Anhui Yellow Tea; Guangdong Dayeqing; Seahorse Palace tea. Yellow tea: The production of yellow tea is similar to that of green tea, but the difference is that there is an additional stuffing process. This stuffing process is the main feature of yellow tea making, and it is also the basic difference between it and green tea. Green tea is unfermented, whereas yellow tea is a type of fermented tea.

White tea. White tea is a specialty of China and is mainly made by withering and drying. The appearance, aroma and taste of white tea are very good. It is not fried or kneaded when it is processed, and only the delicate tea leaves with hairy leaves are dried or dried with a simmer, so that the white hairs are completely preserved. White tea is mainly produced in Fuding, Zhenghe, Songxi and Jianyang counties in Fujian, and there are several kinds of "silver needle", "white peony", "Gongmei" and "Shoumei".

The main flower colors are white silver needle and white peony. White tea: White tea is a type of tea that is neither fermented nor rolled. It has a natural fragrance, and the tea is divided into big white, narcissus white, mountain white and other categories, so it is called white tea. Among them, the silver needle Baihao is the most precious, characterized by being covered with white hair, and with silver flowers, the soup color is slightly yellow and the taste is sweet and mellow. The main production area is in Fuding City and Zhenghe County, Fujian.

Processed teas. It is called reprocessed tea by reprocessing various wool teas or refined teas, including flower tea, pressed tea, extracted tea, fragrant fruity tea, medicinal health tea and tea-containing beverages. There are tea names that are not actually the "tea" of tea: gynostemma tea, eucommia tea, pine needle rice tea, Luobu hemp tea, ginseng tea, chrysanthemum tea, mulberry bud tea, honeysuckle tea, osmanthus tea, thin jade tea, acanthogasus tea, insect tea, persimmon leaf tea, green bean tea, brown rice tea, pot tea, eagle tea, old ginger tea, red date tea, bamboo leaf tea, corn whisker tea, plantain tea, salvia tea, fat sea tea, senna leaf tea, hook vine tea.

1) Flower tea. Flower tea, also known as fragrant tablets, uses the characteristics of tea to absorb peculiar smells, the fragrant flowers and new tea are stuffy together, and the tea absorbs the fragrance and then sifts off the dried flowers, and the flower tea made is rich in fragrance and dark in color, which is deeply loved by the people of northern China who prefer heavy taste. The most common flower tea is jasmine tea made from jasmine flowers, and ordinary flower teas are made from green tea, and there are also made with black tea.

Flower tea is mainly made of green tea, black tea or oolong tea as the tea blank, with flowers that can spit fragrance as raw materials, and is made by the kiln process. According to the different varieties of fragrant flowers used, it is divided into jasmine tea, magnolia tea, osmanthus tea, pearl orchid tea, etc., among which jasmine tea has the largest output. Flower tea: Flower tea is one of the finished green teas. It is made by placing fragrant flowers in the tea embryo. Commonly used fragrant flowers are jasmine, pearl orchid, tortoiseshell, rose, pomelo and so on. Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Sichuan are the main production areas. Suzhou jasmine tea is a famous product in flower tea; Fujian jasmine tea is a strong aroma type tea, the tea soup is mellow, the fragrance is strong, the soup is yellow and green, and the umami taste is long-lasting.

2) Medicinal tea. Medicinal tea is a combination of medicine and tea to make medicinal tea, in order to exert and strengthen the effect of medicine, conducive to the dissolution of medicine, increase the aroma, and reconcile the taste of medicine. There are many types of this tea, such as "Afternoon Tea", "Ginger Tea San", "Yishou Tea", "Tea", etc.

3) Pressed tea.

Tuocha; bamboo tube fragrant tea; Pu'er square tea; rice brick tea; Black Brick Tea; Flower tile tea; Fu brick tea; Xiangjian tea; Green brick tea; Kang brick; Golden Tip; square bag tea; Liubao Tea; round tea; Cake tea.

Related Pages