The Tea Master Trilogy (3 Volumes) (Representative Novel Works of Famous Contemporary Chinese Writers)

Author: Wang Xufeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: In 1793, in Eastern China, the Emperor known as Qianlong had been on the throne for fifty-eight years. In September, it was his eighty-third birthday, and the songs of "Longevity and Immortality" echoed across his kingdom and the court. The year before, the Western British Empire, under the guise of celebrating his birthday, had sent an embassy to China led by the former ambassador to Russia, Macartney, aiming for the first meaningful meeting between a modern Western and Eastern empire. The entire cost of the mission was borne by the East India Company. The British East India Company, established in 1600, had presented a of two pounds and two ounces of tea to the British King as a precious gift in 1664, marking the beginning of British direct imports of Chinese tea. Over a century later, in 1785, Britain's imports of Chinese tea had reached 1,050 pounds. British writer Disraeli remarked on it: "Tea is somewhat like the discovery of truth—first suspected, then triumphant." The legend of the mysterious green leaves of the East in the British Isles inspired the East India Company. It was a company that both had an army and sold tea, holding a sword in one hand and ledgers in the other. At this time, it dreamt of transplanting Chinese tea to its colonial India. It was this dream of tea that sent the East India Company and Macartney on the same ship toward the land of the Great Qing Dynasty.
On September 8, 1792, the East India Company issued an order to Macartney to obtain intelligence on Chinese tea cultivation: "Tea, cotton, and silk are the items frequently imported from China or well-known to the company, among which tea is the most important. The quantity and value of tea are very large, and it would be the best if it could be planted within the territory of India." Macartney's diplomatic mission initially failed due to the controversy over whether to kneel with both knees or one knee before the Chinese emperor. But Chinese tea made up for everything, introducing high-quality seedlings to India. This alone made the mission worthwhile, and in the next century, the expenses of the mission would be repaid a hundredfold.
On their way south from Beijing to return to their homeland, Macartney's embassy traveled from Beijing to Hangzhou, then via land through Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Guangzhou. At the border of Zhejiang and Jiangxi, they obtained tea plant specimens. On December 23, 1793, Macartney reported to the East India Company in Guangzhou, China: "The Viceroy (the newly appointed Viceroy of Liangguang, Changlin) himself is very magnanimous and is not comparable to petty officials. With his permission, I found some tea plants, which are the several young trees and seeds suitable for planting that I now possess. I also agree with the company that if we can plant this plant in some place within our territory instead of relying on China, and if it can grow lushly, it will meet our wishes. The several growing plants I have obtained will surely thrive if carefully cultivated; looking to the future, I am overjoyed."
In February 1794, Macartney wrote to the Governor of Bengal, Sur, saying: "Agricultural experts believe that the soil in the Limpur region is suitable for growing tea. Fortunately, the current Viceroy of Liangguang (Changlin) took the opportunity of his appointment to travel through Zhejiang with me, guiding me through the tea-growing areas and generously allowing me to select several excellent tea plants. I have specially ordered them to be placed in appropriate boxes and rooted with soil to prevent them from withering." The rare tea plants hidden in the deep mountains at the border of Zhejiang and Jiangxi were thus settled in Calcutta, the capital of the Indian subcontinent.
In his book The Stagnant Empire, published in 1989, the French Academy member Pére specifically mentioned the early introduction of Chinese tea to India. He said: "The Botanical Garden in Calcutta sent descendants of the Chinese seedlings dug up by the embassy to all the nurseries in India. In 1823, a wild tea plant was discovered in Assam, and these two varieties were crossbred. But it can be said that a significant portion of today's 'Indian tea' comes from the Chinese tea seedlings dug up by Macartney." It can be said that without the Chinese tea carried on the "Jaguar" warship of Macartney's embassy to China two hundred years ago, there would be no India today as the world's largest tea exporter.
When the Celestial Empire of China offered peaches to the West, it did not expect them to return plums. But the fragrance of one plant still attracted the enchantment of another. The two plants set off from the East and the West, beginning their unique journeys in modern history.
From 1813 to 1833, the trade volume of Chinese tea and British opium was four to one. The Qing Empire was shaken by the drug. Tea is green, gentle, calm, elegant, and life-affirming; the poppy flower is colorful, passionate, unrestrained, and destructive. As tea went west, opium rushed east. Eastern and Western poets depicted these imported goods with completely opposing sentiments. When the British Wal? sang of "soft, refreshing, and uplifting, like a woman's tender tongue in motion," the Chinese poet Gong Zizhen in Hangzhou wrote: "Ghost-lit troops scatter like autumn fireflies; disheveled soldiers weep with flickering eyes; why not become a magistrate in Huaxian? Spring sleep and cold fasting have not yet awakened."—Why not become a magistrate in Guangdong's Huaxian? There, the port of opium import, one can indulge in addiction without restraint, even disregarding the cold fasting day of the Lantern Festival.
At that time, places like Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, and Guangzhou became famous tea trading hubs. After the Qing Empire signed the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 and opened five ports for trade, fast ships carried Chinese tea in all directions toward the Pacific and the Atlantic. Like this vast Eastern nation, which had lived in seclusion and self-sufficiency for two thousand years, Chinese tea entered its next great era.