4 Ancient Tales Behind Xinyang Maojian Tea
Among the famous Chinese teas, Xinyang Mao Jian is famous for its unique fragrance and fresh taste. However, its charm lies not only in the taste of the tea, but also in the touching legends that have been passed down for thousands of years – the sacrifice of the painted eyebrow bird, the approval of Wu Zetian, the admiration of Su Shi, and the mysterious story of the White Dragon Pool. These legends are intertwined to make Xinyang Mao Jian not only a cup of tea, but also a piece of history and a culture.
From the ancient myth of Shennong’s giving tea to the royal legend of the Queen’s healing due to tea; from the elegant stories of great writers sipping tea and discussing the water to the immortal buds nourished by the clouds of the White Dragon Pool, the story of Xinyang Mao Jian has dedication, wisdom, poetry, and the gift of nature. Today, let’s go into these legends and savor the thousand-year tea fragrance behind Xinyang Mao Jian.
1. The Painted Bird and the Tea Tree
In Xinyang tea mountain, there is a beautiful painting bird, it likes to fall on the tea tree, pecking pests, is a good friend of the tea tree, but also the help of tea farmers.
A long time ago, Xinyang mountainous area is poor and backward, tea farmers often suffer from a disease called “fatigue cholera”. A kind village girl was determined to find the antidote. She met an old man picking herbs, the old man told her that there is a kind of magic tree in the southwest, the leaves can cure the disease.
After a lot of hard work, the village girl finally fell sick by a stream. At that moment, Shennong’s appeared and saved her life with tea leaves and told her that this was the tea tree that could cure diseases. Shennong told the village girl to turn into a painted bird and fly back to her hometown with the tea seeds, but instructed her not to sing until the tea tree grew up.
The village girl planted the seeds and the tea tree sprouted quickly. But she was so happy that she couldn’t help singing, and as a result, she could never become a human being again, and became a painted bird forever. And that tea tree grew and multiplied, becoming today’s Xinyang Mao Jian. Nowadays, Xinyang tea mountain of the painted bird, is said to be the village girl changed.
2. Wu Zetian and the Thousand Buddha Pagoda
Wu Zetian was the only female emperor in Chinese history. In her later years, she suffered from gastrointestinal problems due to over-eating, which could not be cured for a long time.
One day, a medical officer advised her to drink Cheyunshan tea from Yiyang County (present-day Xinyang) with fear and trepidation, saying that the tea could cure the disease. Wu Zetian originally do not like to drink tea, but in order to cure, reluctantly try. Unexpectedly, after drinking a few days, her disease was cured.
Wu Zetian was very happy, rewarded the medical officer, and ordered to build a thousand Buddha Pagoda in the Cheyun Mountain, in recognition of the merits of the tea. From then on, the tea of Cheyunshan became a tribute, and the fame of Xinyang Mao Jian spread all over the world.
3. Su Shi came to Xinyang to taste tea
Su Shi, a great writer in the Song Dynasty, not only loved wine, but also tea. He was deported for the “Wutai Poetry Case”, and when he passed by Xinyang, he was attracted by the landscape and tea here.
One day, Su Shi came to a temple on Xianshou Mountain to visit the abbot. But the young monk, seeing his ordinary clothes, refused to let him in. Su Shi was not angry and wrote the word “Pure” and left.
Later, the abbot guessed that the visitor may be Su Shi, hurry to bring good tea and Shihe water, chased to the temple. Su Shi drank the tea and exclaimed: “really Shi River center water, car clouds on top of the tea! And wrote “Huainan tea, Xinyang first” comment, so that Xinyang tea fame.
4. White Dragon pool tea legend
Xinyang southwest of the mountains, there is a beautiful white dragon pool waterfall, surrounded by tea trees, the output of Longtan Mao Jian tea of excellent quality.
Legend has it that there are two small black and white dragons in the Dragon Palace, which ran to Xinyang privately because of their greed for the beauty of the earth, leading to constant natural disasters. The Dragon King was furious and pressed them under the Cat Mountain. The two little dragons repented and their tears turned into Black Dragon Pool and White Dragon Pool, and the hot air they exhaled turned into clouds to nourish the tea trees.
The Qing Dynasty Longtan Xinzhi recorded that the tea here was even better than Longjing and Bird’s Tongue, making it the top origin of Xinyang Mao Jian.
