Tea, with a long history, began in Shennong and flourished today. It is a clear spring that originated from ancient times and flows in the world with endless charm. It is the essence of nature, the embodiment of mellow beauty. It is a good friend of health, a messenger of moderate prosperity, and a symbol of culture.
Today, Shennong discovered the large-leaf tea planted by tea trees, and the "Shennong Red" stained with Shennong's immortal qi has long been widely planted in beautiful mountains and rivers, becoming the foundation of human health, the source of people's prosperity, the pillar of economic development, and the opportunity of social prosperity. Blessed land of Huaxia, blessed by ancestors! The children of this land feel the health brought by tea, enjoy the richness brought by tea, taste the fragrance brought by tea, and feel the tranquility brought by tea. At this moment, how can people not deeply miss the kindness of Shennong's ancestors.
Photo by Cheng Lu
Shennong is the god of agriculture, the ancestor of Chinese farming culture, Lu Yu's "Tea Classic" said, "Tea is to drink, originated from the Shennong clan." "So Shennong is also the ancestor of Chinese tea." The mausoleum of the Tea Ancestor Yan Emperor Shennong is placed in Luyuanpi in Yanling County, and there are also many legends and stories of Tea Ancestor Shennong and Tea in Yanling County:
Shennong discovered the tea tree and gave the tea leaf its name
According to legend, the Yandi Shennong Clan is a linglong jade body, and he can see his own five intestines and six internal organs. One day, when Emperor Shennongyan came to Wanyang Mountain to collect medicine and taste hundreds of herbs, he was unfortunately poisoned. He saw that his stomach was slowly darkening into spots, and there were colicks. At this time, he was leaning against a tree that was a little taller than a man but evergreen (an ancient variety of tea), and in a hurry he reached out and picked a few leaves and ate them. After a while, "strange things" happened, and the Yandi Shennong Clan found that the leaf was up and down in his stomach, rubbing back and forth, like the soldiers who patrolled back and forth, wherever the leaves were rubbed, the black spots faded and then slowly disappeared. Shen Nong immediately realized that this leaf had a detoxifying effect and was a good antidote. After that, when Shennong collected medicine, if he tasted the poisonous herbs, he took tea leaves to detoxify. The Huainan Zi also records that "Shennong tasted the taste of a hundred herbs and encountered seventy-two poisons in one day", all of which were solved with tea leaves.
It is said that after Shennong escaped from danger, he was ready to give a name to this antidote, and Shennong named it "Cha" according to the leaf in his stomach like a patrolling soldier. Later, when Cangjie made characters, according to the environment when people picked tea leaves, they changed "cha" to "tea" characters that "people are in the grass and trees", which is homophonous with the "cha" named by Shennong. Who knows this change, this "tea" word, has been used until now. Therefore, tea was first discovered by Shennong, and the name was also given by Shennong.
Shennong planted large-leaf tea
In Yanling County, there are still hundreds of tree-type large-leaf tea trees in the townships of Chuangai, Shuikou, Luyuan and other townships, and this tree-type large-leaf tea tree is still the oldest tea tree variety that was personally discovered by the tea ancestor Shennong and then planted and preserved by hand. Shennong collected tea seeds to teach everyone to plant tree-type large-leaf tea trees, commonly known as "big-leaf bitter tea". Because most of them are planted in the mountains, later generations also called it "mountain bitter tea". When excavating the Mawangdui Western Han Ancient Tomb in Changsha, it was found that there was "Dashan Bitter Tea" among the burial items of the ancient tomb.
Large-leaf tea tree
Although dashan bitter tea has gone through thousands of years, the variety is ancient, but the "kung fu" is not old, and the "divine power" is not reduced. Boil a bowl of dashan bitter tea soup, next to the arrangement of five bowls of boiled water, and then at the junction of each bowl with tea leaves to connect, after a while, five bowls of boiled water all turned into orange yellow orange yellow tea soup, folk joke called "through the five levels to cut six generals", its "divine power" can be seen. Tao Hongjing's "Miscellaneous Records" records: "Bitter tea, light body and bone, Xidan Qiuzi, Huangshan Junfuzhi". He told you that in the past, Dan qiuzi and Huang Shanjun insisted on taking Dashan bitter tea before they could change their bones and feather into immortals.
Autumn wind, singing beautiful songs to the fields
After the tea ancestor Shennong discovered the efficacy of tea, the tea leaves were planted more and more. At that time, it was still mainly to chew fresh tea leaves or use fresh tea leaves to boil soup and drink. The fresh tea leaves that cannot be eaten are dried or roasted at high temperatures, which is the earliest green tea in history.
Legend has it that one day Shennong returned from collecting medicine and saw that everyone had picked a lot of tea leaves and stacked them in the house. He took a piece of tea and put it in his mouth while chewing it, thinking about burning several large clay pots to hold the dried tea leaves, thinking about lying down on the tea pile and falling asleep. Who knew that Emperor Shennongyan had slept on the tea pile for a proper hour. After Shen Nong woke up, he found that the tea leaves under his body were completely slept by him, and it was a little hot to touch (actually fermented). Shennong instructed everyone to dispose of these tea leaves separately. After the tea leaves were dried, Shennong immediately boiled a bowl of tea soup, the tea soup was actually dark red, he did not hesitate to take a sip of the tea soup, felt that the fragrance was high and lasting, and the taste was strong. Shen Nong was happy in his heart, and as soon as he leaned back on his neck, he drank a bowl of tea soup cleanly.
Since then, the category of tea has added another kind of black tea, shennong tribe people call this black tea "Shennong red", the ancient famous "Shennong red" has been registered as "Wanyang red".
Xiangtan people like to chew tea leaves is a habit of inheriting tea ancestors
There is a scene in the TV series "Looking for Dreams": Mao Zedong is thinking about what problems, casually pick up the teacup on the table and drink it, and then Mao Zedong grabs the tea in the teacup with his fingers and puts it in his mouth and chews it slowly... At this time, He Zizhen came in, just in time to see Mao Zedong's action of chewing tea leaves. He Zizhen said half seriously: "Why can't you change this habit of chewing tea?" Apparently, He Zizhen regarded chewing tea leaves as a bad habit. Mao Zedong smiled at He Zizhen and replied: "I can't change it, this is a habit left by the old ancestors." After saying that, he grabbed a few tea leaves and threw them into his mouth...
People in Changsha, Northern Hunan and Xiangzhong have the habit of chewing tea leaves. The "old ancestor" mentioned by Mao Zedong should refer to the Shennong clan of the Yan Emperor, the ancestor of China. Because when Shennong tasted the hundred herbs, he encountered seventy-two poisons in one day, and he solved them by chewing fresh tea leaves. Shennong discovered the detoxification effect of tea and promoted it to the tribesmen, so chewing tea became a habitual action of the Shennong tribe. Although methods such as boiling soup and brewing were later adopted, the habit of chewing tea leaves was still passed down by later generations.
According to tea experts, the water-soluble components of tea only account for 40% of the weight, and 60% of the nutrients are discarded as tea residue. If you only drink tea soup, the human body can absorb up to 25% of the active ingredients, and only if you eat the tea leaves together, the human body can absorb 75% of the active ingredients. It can be seen that chewing tea leaves is not a bad habit, but the correct method passed down by the tea ancestor Shennong.
Content source: Chaling Tourism
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