Let's see why Shiping is the origin of these Pu 'er tea houses:
Since the middle and late Ming Dynasty, a business gang has been active on the "Tea-Horse Ancient Road" in southern Yunnan for a long time. Based on the local kinship of Shiping, this business group has more than a dozen Shiping guildhalls in Tong Tong Province and even Yanjing, providing accommodation and storage for Shiping businessmen and Confucian scholars engaged in scientific research, and holding regular gatherings of Renping Chamber of Commerce and literati, thus forming a folk business group with regional characteristics and characteristics of Confucian businessmen. Among them, there are tens of thousands of people in Pu 'er, a branch of Shiping Commercial Gang, which has a history of more than 500 years in the west. Screen people developed the six major tea mountains in Yiwu, developed the royal tribute tea, and achieved the grand occasion of "800 weeks, 100,000 people went to the mountains to make tea" (Cui's "Yunnan's"), making Yiwu a second hometown. Shiping tea merchants have traveled all over Yunnan, as far as neighboring provinces and countries. Their grades of Pu 'er tea, such as Tongxing, Tongqing and Songpin. Cheshun has become an important commercial benchmark and cultural code in the history of Pu 'er tea trade in southern Yunnan.
In Mr. Yu's Tasting Pu 'er Tea, we see such a ranking of Pu 'er tea tasting value. The first place is Song Pin; Second place: Fu Yuanchang, third place: Xiang Zhiqing; Fourth place: Double Lion Celebration; Fifth place: Chen.
As we all know, historically Pu 'er tea was produced in six tea mountains in Xishuangbanna, southern Yunnan Province. During the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods of the Qing Dynasty (1796 to 1850), many foreign tea farmers and merchants began to open tea houses in the six major tea mountains. At that time, teahouses were mainly concentrated near Yibang Street. The most famous of these teahouses are Hengsheng, Ganli Town, Tongchang, Songqing, Songping, Song Yin, Songyuan and Yuanchang. Many founders here are from Shiping, Yunnan.
There used to be a saying in Shiping: If you are poor, you will leave the factory in a hurry. In other words, if you commit a crime or have no place to make a living, you can go to various mines to dig and call the factory away; If you want to get rich, you should go to the smoky Yi people, that is, where ethnic minorities live in concentrated communities. Yiwu belongs to the Yi people. Since 1789, when the Han people were allowed to enter Yiwu and its surrounding areas, a large number of Shiping people came to Yiwu. They set up offices, built Shiping Guild Hall, and planted, picked and sold tea. Around 1765, tribes in eastern Myanmar attacked Xishuangbanna, and a large number of ethnic minority residents in six tea mountains in Yiwu fled to Laos. After the war, the people were in poverty, and the court tribute tea could not be handed in. To this end, local officials went to Shiping to attract investment, allowing Ren Ping to enter Chashan to pick tea, grow tea, make tea and sell tea. This historical opportunity inspired Shiping tea merchants' entrepreneurial dreams, and a large number of screen people poured into Yi Wu, opening a new chapter in the six major tea mountains in Yi Wu.
So on New Year's Day, we came to Shiping to look for it. Shiping Academy was discovered in the old city in a quiet small county town, which is probably the best preserved cultural place in Shengpu. All the wooden structures, quaint and elegant courtyards are full of books. Here, we specially drink coffee in the deepest part of the courtyard and feel the atmosphere here-the sun shines through the carved wooden doors in the depths of the academy and through the orchids at the door.
Shiping is a small town with profound cultural heritage. It has Yuan Jiagu, a famous Confucian and sinologist called "unparalleled national scholar" by Emperor Guangxu of Qing Dynasty, and a unique scholar in Yunnan. Yuan Jiagu created his own ci, which is called "Yuan Jiashu" in the world. He is the only one in the world, from the top scholar of feudal dynasty to the professor of modern colleges and universities. In his former residence, there is his scholarly legacy, which is dark and fragrant. It was Yuan Jiagu's brothers who founded the famous teahouse "Gan Lizhen and Songpin", and the story of that era made people excited.