sign in sign up
<<
Home , Cao (state), Deng (state), Hongwu Emperor, Tea classics, Yu the Great, Zhou Bao

Tea Classics Emperor Ming Taizu & The Abolition of 皇 Caked Tea 帝 明 茶人: Steven D. Owyoung

太 We are very honored this issue to have so many renowned 祖 tea scholars brushing scrolls of insight on the . Last, but certainly not least, Steven Owyoung illuminates the 廢 royal decree in all of ’s long history that had the greatest 除 impact on tea lovers, then to now. After having read so many tea classics, this article explains why there is such a mixture 餅 of tea, teaware and brewing methods in the Ming Dynasty. 茶 This fascinating topic, revealed in such a well-researched and articulate form, is one for posterity!

n the autumn of 1391, the dragon flected in his commands on tea and the gols. Yuanzhang rose swiftly in I throne issued a declaration abol- extent to which he was obeyed. On oc- the military and in the eyes of Guo ishing the production of caked casion, transgressors included his fol- Zixing, who proposed the marriage of tea at the imperial estate in . lowers and family, their crimes forcing the young soldier to Lady Ma (1332– As recorded in the Veritable Records him to choose between the rule of law 1382), Guo’s adopted daughter. On of Emperor Taizu of the Great Ming and nepotism. The emperor’s attitude the death of Guo Zixing in 1355 and Dynasty, the Imperial Decree on the towards tea was stirred by his peasant the demise of the general’s male heirs, Jianning Annual Offering of Tribute Tea background and common touch but Zhu Yuanzhang became commander was proclaimed on the sixteenth day more often informed by his experience in chief of the army and took as his of the ninth lunar month of the twen- and talent as a civil and military ad- concubine Guo Zixing’s other daugh- ty-fourth year of the Hongwu era. The ministrator. In private, Taizu’s personal ter, known as Guo Huifei (active ca. palace order began with the simple but taste for tea was possibly influenced by 1355–). The following year, Zhu severe command: “Obey.” the religious observances of his family. Yuanzhang captured , the ma- The author of the decree was Zhu Born in 1328 among the impov- jor city from which he ruled, and cam- Yuanzhang (1328–1398), who as erished Fengyang peasantry of An- paigned for over a decade against other founder and first emperor of the Ming hui, Zhu Yuanzhang lost his parents warlords for control of the south. Be- dynasty acquired the posthumous tem- and siblings to hardship, and tween 1361 and 1364, he took the title ple name of Ming Taizu, Great Pro- plague, saving himself by honoring his of Duke of and then that of Prince genitor of the Ming. Emperor Taizu dead father’s wish for him to join the of Wu, establishing his aristocratic if ruled imperial China from the year local Buddhist monastery of Huangjue not imperial ambitions. In 1367, Su- 1368 to 1398, a regnal period known Temple where the boy lived as a no- zhou fell under siege, followed by the as Hongwu, the Era of Great Martial vitiate. When the abbey’s poverty fall of Fujian on January 21, 1368: Attainment, in honor of his fame as a forced him to leave, he wandered the within two days Zhu Yuanzhang - warrior and military general. The state countryside as a mendicant monk. Re- clared himself emperor and ruler of the tea monopoly played an important turning later to the friary, he learned Ming Dynasty. The successive surren- role in the economic and legal reforms to read and write until the monastery ders of and Fujian brought un- of Taizu’s government and exemplified was destroyed by warfare in 1352. At der his control the empire’s two most his efforts to restructure agriculture, age twenty-four, he enlisted with Guo celebrated tea regions, but it took years trade and taxes while dealing with Zixing (1312–1355), a Muslim gener- for the emperor to issue the stunning fraud and corruption. The effective- al of insurgent forces rebelling against decrees that changed the forms of tea ness of the emperor’s policies was re- the and the alien Mon- as imperial tribute.

53

Classics of Tea

Tribute in ancient China was the passing over boiling water, and fanning been encouraged by his two wives, presentation of goods from the nobili- to the luster of dark lacquer. The pro- Lady Ma and Guo Huifei, both of ty to the sovereign, a system by which cess took over two weeks before the fin- whom were raised Muslim and taught the specialties of a province were sent ished cakes were placed in pouches of to eschew alcohol. As noted in the His- as taxes to the palace. Such levies were yellow silk gauze, wrapped in bamboo tory of the Ming, Lady Ma personally first suggested in the Tribute of leaves and cushioned within linings of prepared Taizu’s meals and in all like- wherein the legendary Yu the Great more silk, and sealed in a red lacquered lihood followed halal, the dietary laws described the geography of the empire, casket with a gilt lock. By custom, of Islam. Among Chinese rulers, Taizu its mountains and rivers, and the lo- forty to one hundred measures of the was notable for his support of the Mus- cal products that might be sent to the tea were sent north by special courier lim community, the emperor canoniz- mythical . As an herb, to the emperor, the precious tribute ing seven Muslim generals as princes, tea was initially a southern rarity used arriving before the Festival of Purity constructing mosques throughout the for its medicinal and culinary proper- and Light and the spring sacrifices to south, and writing the One Hundred ties. Tea was recorded as tribute in the the imperial ancestors. When Emperor Word Eulogy in praise of the Prophet Records of the Southern Realms beyond Taizu declared the abolition of caked Mohammad and Islam. According to Mount and included in the diplo- tea, he ended a form of tea that had the lost work Secret History of Chinese matic exchanges between the dynastic flourished for over six hundred years. Muslims by Ma Wensheng (1426– Zhou and the and of distant The first elimination of caked tea 1510), Taizu’s commanders were all . Modern archaeology has re- by Taizu actually occurred in 1375 followers of the Prophet, and Taizu vealed that tea was received as tribute when he nullified the Yuan imperial tea governed his Muslim generals by im- from at least the second century BCE office at and ordered the halt of posing on them Islamic proscriptions at capitals in the north and south. In its caked tea production. Mount - and harsh penalties, especially against , excavations at Mawangdui zhu was a place on the southwestern alcohol—even personally executing near Changsha unearthed tea from shores of Lake Tai, near the town of the drunkard son of his closest military the grave of Xizui (died ca. 168–164 in northern . Tea aide. BCE), otherwise known as Lady Dai, had been produced there since before After Guzhu, it was a further six- the consort of the nobleman Mar- the third century, and the local leaf was teen years before Taizu acted in 1391 quis of Dai (died 186 BCE). Kept in known in history variously as Zisun or on the tribute of caked tea from Jian- a bamboo basket, the tea was labeled Russet Shoot, Yangxian, or Guzhu. In ning, Fujian. Fujian was a mountain- and registered in the tomb’s funerary 770, Yu recommended the tea as a ous province far to the south where the inventory. In the north near ’an, ar- superior leaf to the local prefect, and cliffs, rocky soil and good drainage en- chaeologists uncovered at the tomb of thereafter Guzhu caked tea was sent hanced the quality of its tea. The herb Emperor Jingdi (188–141 BCE) a sac- north as tribute to the capital. had been grown in Jianning since the rificial pit that contained a compressed Taizu waited seven years after his , but it was in the tenth dark brown vegetal matrix, the rem- inauguration in 1368 to act at Guzhu. century that Fujian tea gained aristo- nants of a block of fine tea comprised In lieu of caked tea, he directed the pre- cratic cachet. In 933, during the Five of uniform leaf buds. From the sentation of two , about two and a Dynasties period, the farmer Zhang through the Qing dynasties, tea was half pounds, of whole-leaf tea as annu- Tinghui (tenth century) presented used as imperial tribute for over two al tribute to the palace. Just why Taizu his extensive tea gardens at Phoenix thousand years, most famously during ended the production of caked tea at Mountain to the King of Min, who the Northern when emperors Guzhu was unknown, but tradition then designated the gift as a royal estate were presented with highly refined had it that he preferred his tea steeped and kept Zhang as its overseer. Locat- caked teas. from dried whole leaves. Boiling or ed along the northern tributaries of the Caked tea was first described by steeping whole-leaf tea produced an Min River, the tea gardens were known the Tang scholar (733–804) in infusion, a practical and efficient and as North Park or Beiyuan. Beiyuan and 780 when he completed the Tea Sutra: rather soldierly technique that recalled its tea mills became the primary sourc- “By steaming the tea leaves, pounding the medicinal and culinary origins of es of imperial tribute tea during the them to a paste, shaping the paste into tea as well as common custom. Steep- Northern when North molds, drying the cakes, tying them ing whole leaves required only water, Park tea was such the epitome of ex- together, and sealing them, tea is thus fire, a pot and cups—a very direct way cellence that certain caked teas became dried and preserved.” During the Song of drinking tea that removed the need synonymous with the specific reigns of Dynasty, the processing of caked tea for the elaborate paraphernalia requi- rulers. Indeed, in the , the was even more sophisticated, requiring site to the preparation of powdered possession of North Park and its pre- the picking and selection of the small- caked tea: pounder, pestle and mortar, cious tribute conferred legitimacy to est buds, frequent washing of leaves, sieve, spoon, ewer, bowl and whisk. In any claim of sovereignty, dynasty, and steaming and pressing to express water, time, Taizu’s legendary fondness for power over the empire. juices, and oils, pounding and knead- Guzhu was connected to the emperor’s Fujian tea was especially appre- ing into a pasty pulp, filling decorative peasant background and the virtuous ciated by Emperor Huizong (1082– molds, alternately heating and boil- frugality inherent in the simple steep- 1135), an aesthete of the highest or- ing the hardening cakes, drying over ing of leaf tea. Within Taizu’s family, der who promoted the caked teas of a low fire, curing lightly with smoke, however, tea drinking may well have Beiyuan at court. Early in his reign,

55/ Emperor Ming Taizu and the Abolition of Caked Tea Huizong wrote his from the Reign of Great Vision (1107) in which he buoyantly described the caked tea of Fujian as a reflection of 大觀茶論 the harmonious condition of the State:

“As for tea, it possesses the elegance of Ou and Min, endowed with the essence “擅甌閩之秀氣，鐘山川之靈 of their hills and streams. Tea dispels and cleanses obstructions and leads to 稟，祛襟滌滯，致清導和...本朝 clarity and balance... Since the beginning of the present dynasty, the annual 之興，歲修建溪之貢，尤團鳳 tribute from Jianxi has consisted of dragon rounds and phoenix cakes: the most 餅，名冠天下，而壑源之品，亦 famous and best tea under Heaven, the products of Heyuan, ever flourishing. 自此而盛。延及於今，百廢俱 Now, we have undertaken the hundred neglected tasks and all within the em- pire is serene, tranquil, and absent of strife, all achieved favorably without 興，海內晏然，垂拱密勿，幸致 effort. Scholars and commoners alike are immersed in our beneficence and 無為. 縉紳之士，韋布之流，沐 imbued with our transformative virtue, such that all may partake in the noble 浴膏澤，熏陶德化，盛以雅尚相 elegance of drinking tea. Thus in recent years, the merit of picking and select- 推，從事茗飲，故近歲以來，採 ing tea, the skill of processing it, the excellence of grading it, and the wonder of 擇之精，制作之工，品第之勝， preparing and serving tea, all have attained the utmost degree of perfection… 烹點之妙，莫不盛造其極。且物 As for the rise and fall of things, each has its time… But in an era compli- 之興廢；固自有時...世既累洽， mented by peace and unchanging normalcy, when all is calm and prosperous, 人恬物熙。則常須而日用者，固 when daily necessities are finally satisfied and when even essentials are just 久厭飫狼籍，而天下之士，勵志 carelessly strewn about, then all scholars under Heaven incline to purity and follow leisurely pursuits, everyone in the quest for tea: seeking its literary gems 清白，兢為閒暇修索之玩，莫不 and pretty sounding bits of golden verse, sipping from its flowers and sucking 碎玉鏘金，啜英咀華。較筐篋之 on its blossoms, weighing the value of its literature, debating the distinctions in 精，爭鑒裁之別，雖下士於此 its appraisal and judgment. In such a time, even minor scholars unabashedly 時，不以蓄茶為羞，可謂盛世之 cherish tea; such may be called the flourishing of sensibility and esteem… I 情尚也...偶因暇日，研究精微， happened to have a day of leisure to dwell upon the subtleties and wonders of 所得之妙，後人有不自知為利害 tea. For those of later generations who may not know the benefits and demerits 者，敘本末列於二十篇，號曰茶 of tea, I have at the end of this preface set out twenty articles to be known as 論.” the Treatise on Tea.”

With youthful optimism, Emper- or Huizong extolled the virtues of his 大明太祖高皇帝實錄 reign, describing the peace, prosperity, and concord of the empire as manifest in the simple but noble act of drink- 洪武二十四年九月庚子 ing tea. For centuries thereafter, the caked teas of North Park remained, in 詔建寧歲貢上供茶 the eyes of emperors, among the most important tribute sent to the imperial capital. “聽. 茶戶採進 有司勿與. 天下產茶去處歲貢皆有定額, 而建寧茶 Nearly five hundred years later, 品為上. 其所進者必碾而揉之, 壓以銀板, 大小龍團上以重勞民 Emperor Taizu expressed a less san- 力. 罷造龍團. 惟採茶芽以進.其品有四 曰探春, 屯春, 次春, 紫筍. guine view of tea when he issued his resounding decree of 1391 to the ad- 置茶戶五百, 免其徭役, 俾專事採植. 既而有司恐其後時常遣人 ministrators at North Park: 督之. 茶戶畏其逼迫. 往往納賂. 上聞之. 故有是命.”

“The officials of the tea households are ordered to cease harvesting and presenting caked tea. Of all the empire’s tea pro- ducers of annual tribute on fixed quotas, the tea of Jianning is supreme. To produce tribute tea, leaves must be crushed and kneaded into pulp and pressed into silver molds to make large and small dragon rounds, a method that greatly strains the resources of the people. Abolish the production of dragon rounds. Pick only tea buds to present as tribute. There are four kinds: Seeking Springtime, Gathering Springtime, Staying Spring and Russet Shoots. We established five hundred tea households, exempted them from corvée labor, and allowed them to specialize in planting and harvesting tea. Afterwards, there were officials who feared these later reforms and sent overseers to abuse the householders, who dreaded their tyranny. Everywhere bribes were taken. This was reported to the imperial court; thus, We issue this com- mand.”

56 Classics of Tea

These are some replica dragon and phoenix cakes from Zhejiang. They are made from Zisun (Purple Bamboo Shoot Tea). They are organic. However, though the producer claimed they are made just as the cakes of the Tang, Song and early Ming would have been made, cakes from those different dynasties were no doubt different and people nowadays do not have the skills needed to make authentic cakes. They smell delicious, though. We are happily trying them out, boiled and whisked!

57/ Emperor Ming Taizu and the Abolition of Caked Tea A portrait of an elderly 洪 Ming Taizu. The Hongwu emperor lived a long life of seventy years, and seems 武 kindly in this depiction.

In his decree, Taizu was absolute the palace actually received the tribute: As shown by Hu’s memorial– regarding his ban on caked tea, repeat- whereas the amount of tea collected ex- written well over a hundred years after ing emphatically to stop and eliminate ceeded one thousand jin, the tea sub- the death of Emperor Taizu—the con- the making of dragon rounds. He re- mitted totaled no more than twenty. ditions and corruption affecting tea garded the labor-intensive process as a In his Memorial Requesting the Reform endured. Imagine the ghost of Taizu burden to the householders even as he of Tribute Tea, Cao Hu defined in de- evaluating Cao’s plea for reform and praised them highly for the quality of tail the many problems of the imperial learning that his decrees of 1375 and their tea. Taizu also revealed his grave tribute system and its levies of tea: 1391 went ignored and his improve- concern for the farmers whose welfare ments to farm life unfulfilled; more- he pursued through his early reforms, One: The picking and processing of trib- over, he would have been apoplectic changes that organized them into a ute tea happens just at the spring tilling to know that eunuchs—the castrated stable agricultural corps and excused season. Among the peasants, the men servants he once decreed be strictly them and their families from forced must abandon the plow and the women confined to the inner palace—not only labor, permitting all to focus exclu- must abandon weaving, leaving them moved and exercised extensive powers sively on cultivating tea. Moreover, by without food or clothing for the entire abroad but also exploited the peasants designating just four bud teas, which year. and engaged in fraud against the very were far easier to produce than caked state he founded. teas, the emperor vastly lightened Two: In early spring, barley and wheat Near the end of his reign, the prob- their workload. Then, Taizu finally are not ripe. The peasants starve, stom- lems of tea overtook Taizu and dealt addressed the true reasons for his de- achs in torment. To pick and process him a personal blow, an unexpected cree: the maltreatment of the farmers tea, their suffering and bitterness are treason that affected directly the impe- by government officials who further unbearable. rial family and the fate of his daugh- exploited the peasants by demanding Three: The officials collecting the tea ter. Of the sixteen princesses sired by bribes from them. are extremely quibbling; only one in Taizu, he was closest to the young- The corruption surrounding tea ten passes inspection. The peasants are er of two daughters he fathered with during the Ming was once described forced to bear usurious rates, and those his first wife and empress Lady Ma. by the official Cao Hu (1478–1517) in who are better off buy good tea to fulfill Princess Anqing (born ca. 1366), was a memorial sent to the throne. In the their quotas. married in 1381 to Lun (died early sixteenth century, Cao Hu served 1397), the wayward son of a scholar. In in Guangxi prefecture, present North- Four: Without means of meeting the 1397, Ouyang Lun was sent as an im- eastern Jiangxi, where he resisted the quotas, peasants seeking exemption perial envoy to Sichuan and , a profiteering of the Grand Defender, bribe the officials. march region strategically linked to the the official sent from the pal- vital tea and horse trade. ace to oversee the annual collection of Five: The officials take advantage of the Historically, China was depen- tribute teas from the region. On not- tea trade, coercing and extorting. The dent on the nomadic cultures of the ing discrepancies in the recording of entire peasantry is impoverished and Asian Steppe for equine mounts, tribute bud teas, Cao Hu wondered if production is squandered. trading iron, cloth and tea for horses,

58 Classics of Tea acquired for civil and military use. In North Park were the last jewels in the Taizu’s own son, the tea adept Zhu the Ming, a standing herd of an esti- imperial crown, and their possession (1378–1448) eventually admit- mated eight hundred thousand head by Taizu was assured by his victories ted in his Tea Manual of 1440 that was available with nearly four hundred at Suzhou and Fujian. Initially aimed tea “need not be made into paste for thousand arrayed in defense at the at purging the historic but oppressive cakes” even as he wistfully described all border. Close to the frontier, Sichuan Mongol institutions haunting Huzhou the old accouterments he used in pre- was the greatest and preferred source and Jianning, Taizu’s decrees of 1375 paring whisked powdered tea. Indeed, of tea; Tibetan herdsmen had been ha- and 1391 also meant to establish his the disappearance of caked tea forced bituated to the herb for centuries and own benevolent reforms on tea in the the development of alternative arts were especially fond of the Sichuan face of the endemic corruption infect- of tea, skillful techniques and proper leaf. However, southern Shaanxi and ing the industry. The ban belatedly ac- utensils newly devised for the steeping the region also produced knowledged that whole-leaf had long of the leaf. tea, and according to the History of the been the universal form of tea pre- But the greater import of Emper- Ming Dynasty, a mere three million jin pared and served throughout much of or Taizu’s historic decrees may well lie of tea from Shaanxi and Hanzhong the empire and beyond. By the early in the often forgotten fact that fine bought thirty thousand horses. Highly fourteenth century, numerous com- tea, caked or otherwise, was and re- regulated as a monopoly by the Ming mentaries described caked tea and even mains an extremely labor intensive and government, the exchange of tea for its powdered form as passé and retar- highly regulated endeavor, a challeng- horses was not only important to the dataire, its use confined to the deep ing pursuit worthy of the regard and security of the state but also a large tar- south in and Fujian and concern expressed so long ago by the get for corruption, attracting criminals its dwindling practice as an art contin- Tang poet Lu Tong (775–835) in the and the attention of the throne. ued only among the conservative elite. Song of Tea: In the spring of 1397, Taizu sent a number of envoys, including the high official Jing Qing (died 1402) and the Assistant Censor in Chief Wen- “Where are the Immortal Isles of Mount Penglai? keng (1360–1427), to investigate the I, Master Jade Stream, wish instead to ride this pure wind back smuggling of tea on the Sichuan and to the tea mountain where other immortals gather to oversee the land, Shaanxi border. Shortly thereafter, the protecting the pure, high places from wind and rain. imperial son-in-law Ouyang Lun ar- Yet, how can I bear knowing the bitter fate of the myriad peasants toiling rived, ostensibly to begin his own in- beneath the tumbled tea cliffs! quiries on behalf of the emperor but I have but to ask Grand Master Meng about them; actually to engage in the highly lucra- tive but illegal trafficking of tea. En- whether they can ever regain some peace.” trusted to do one thing, Ouyang Lun betrayed Taizu to do exactly the op- posite. Ouyang employed henchmen led by one Zhou Bao (died 1397) to buy and transport tea, commandeer- ing scores of carts from local officials for the purpose. Intimidated by Ouy- ang’s connections to the imperial fam- 走筆謝孟諫議寄新茶 ily, none dared oppose him until the convoy reached an inspection point at –盧仝– a river crossing where Zhou Bao struck an officer who filed a complaint. On 日高丈五睡正濃，軍將打門驚周公。口云諫議送書信， learning of the incident and the iden- tities of those involved, the imperial 白絹斜封三道印。開緘宛見諫議面，手閱月團三百片。 censor Deng Wenkeng impeached 聞道新年入山裏，蟄蟲驚動春風起。天子須嘗陽羨茶， Ouyang Lun in a report that reached 百草不敢先開花。仁風暗結珠琲瓃，先春抽出黃金芽。 the emperor. Taizu was furious. And 摘鮮焙芳旋封裹，至精至好且不奢。至尊之餘合王公， despite his affection for his daughter, 何事便到山人家。柴門反關無俗客，紗帽籠頭自煎吃。 Taizu ordered Ouyang Lun punished by death. Though unrecorded further 碧雲引風吹不斷，白花浮光凝碗面。一碗喉吻潤， by history, Princess Anqing was tainted 兩碗破孤悶。三碗搜枯腸，唯有文字五千卷。四碗發輕汗， by the scandal and likely never married 平生不平事，盡向毛孔散。五碗肌骨清，六碗通仙靈。 again. 七碗吃不得也，唯覺兩腋習習清風生。蓬萊山，在何處。 The abolition of caked tea by Taizu 玉川子，乘此清風欲歸去。山上群仙司下土， signified many things. Culturally and politically, the imperial dragon and 地位清高隔風雨。安得知百萬億蒼生命， phoenix rounds of Mount Guzhu and 墮在巔崖受辛苦。便為諫議問蒼生，到頭還得蘇息否。

59/ Emperor Ming Taizu and the Abolition of Caked Tea 明孝陵

This is the impressive of the Hongwu emperor (明孝陵) in Nanjing. It lies at the southern foot of Purple Moun- tain. Construction began during the emperor’s lifetime, in 1381, and was completed in 1405, during his son’s reign. They say that thirteen separate funeral processions left the capital so that grave robbers wouldn’t know where the emperor was really buried. Is he actually entombed here? There is a very impressive old inside commemorating the emperor, the “Shengong Shengde Stele” (神功圣德碑), literally, “The Stele of Godly Merit and Saintly Virtue,” and many officials since have also add- ed memorials as well.

60