Listen to Chen Xinghua talk about the time of Fuding White Tea

It has become a natural habit for many Fuding people to keep a bag of white tea in their bags for business or travel. Rest, first boil a pot of water, make a cup of tea, sit down and drink slowly, the wind and dust along the way and the fatigue of the journey are washed away. So calm down and think calmly about things related to or unrelated to this trip.

Hard work is the norm of life. For Fuding people, the first choice to make their body and mind feel relaxed and refreshed is to drink tea. Friends who have lived in the countryside must have the impression that as soon as they come back from the fields, as soon as they put down their farm tools, they run to the kitchen, pick up the big teapot at the corner, pour a large bowl of tea, raise their necks and purr, drink the bowl upside down, and exhale boldly. That sound dripping manner, let people believe that, not only to quench thirst, the real enjoyment, is half a day of hard work in a drink and a breath of vanishing. Labor, life, because of this bowl of tea, there is a relaxation rhythm.

In the past, this kind of large pot of tea was the main kind of tea in rural farmers. Farmers are simple and thrifty, and those high-quality core leaves are sent to the tea market to sell money, which are processed by the tea factory into elegant and noble silver needles and peonies, but the remaining rough leaves and tea stalks are reluctant to be discarded and spread out in a round bamboo dustpan to dry, remove moisture, and store them for their own brewing and drinking. Even this crude big-leaf tea has extraordinary quality. Large bowls of tea, crisp taste, quench thirst and fatigue, is the comfort of the whole body.

The more exquisite way of drinking tea is taste, and the significance of relieving thirst has been watered down to nothing, but what we care about is to enjoy the tranquil, leisurely and elegant pleasure in the process of tasting. At least in the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were many teahouses in Fuding, tea house. Even in populous villages, there are many tea shops, and one or two elegant rooms are specially set up to talk about friendship, elegance and business with good friends and business partners.

The teahouse must be carefully arranged, elegant and clear, with a faint fragrance of tea, making people feel clear and quiet as soon as they enter it; tea sets, must be exquisite and classical, pottery, celadon, or bamboo wood, all have a special power, as if they can make time stop. Tea, must be excellent, or silver needle, or peony, or Shoumei Gongmei, they soak, open, light in the pure hot water. What a peaceful and beautiful process! All kinds of unpleasantness of life and all kinds of troubles among people have been forgotten. The friendship between friends seems to be more meaningful, but the calculation in the business world is no longer important. What we get is a long lasting charm that can nourish the body and mind but is unclear, such as poetry, or music, singing and singing, wandering in the heart.

The beautiful tradition has been passed on so far, the abundance of life makes people have the conditions to taste tea, and the pursuit of the quality of life makes people have the feelings of tasting tea.

When it comes to white tea, Fuding people are full of pride. Yes, white tea and Fuding have long been in love with each other for thousands of years. In Fuding and the border area of Fujian and Zhejiang, the beautiful legend of Tai Grandu Niang growing tea to make tea and using tea as medicine to save lives has long spread. Or think that the great grandmother is the ancestor of the Fujian-Yue region, which can be traced back to the ancient matrilineal society. It is also said that Emperor Yao's mother became an immortal in Mount Lushan because of her nostalgia for the beautiful scenery of Mount Tamu. The legend may just imply that the time is long, but it is true that the Tang Dynasty began to plant and produce tea in the mountains of Taigrandi. After that, the records of Fuding tea production continued in history, and as for the Ming and Qing dynasties, it reached its peak and became a famous tea producer, while the famous tea represented by the treasures of Fuding white tea, such as Baihao silver needle and white peony, was not only famous in China, but also drifted across the sea and mountains, from the south along the "Belt and Road Initiative" to Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States.

It is the thousands of years of snuggling together that Fuding people's understanding of white tea goes far beyond the concept of crops and specialties. White tea, in the life of Fuding people, has undoubtedly been sublimated into a cultural symbol, and even given a kind of collective spiritual sustenance. When the origin of white tea has been raised to a myth, it has become a sacred object in the minds of people on one side, soil and water, and it never allows itself to sit on the altar or cover itself with layers of mysterious veils, but integrates and moistens people's lives. it has become a "flyover" for people to savor life and improve their quality of life.

And when you drink a cup of white tea with pure apricot and yellow soup, your heart is clear and transparent, as if you have just read a meaningful poem, and the lingering poetic flavor is still lingering in your chest.

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