The Tea Master Trilogy (3 volumes)

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 long life echoed across his kingdom and the court. The year before, the Western British Empire, under the guise of a birthday celebration, had sent an embassy to China led by the former ambassador to Russia, Macartney, aiming for the first meaningful meeting between a modern Eastern and Western empire. The entire cost of the mission was borne by the East India Company. The British East India Company, founded in 1600, had presented a two-pound, two-ounce tin of tea imported from China as a valuable gift to the British King in 1664, marking the beginning of Britain's direct importation of Chinese tea. Over a century later, in 1785, Britain's imports of Chinese tea had reached 1,050 pounds. The British writer Disraeli remarked on it: "Tea is somewhat like the discovery of truth; at first it is doubted, but in the end it prevails. The mystical green leaves of the East have a legend in the British Isles, inspiring the East India Company's thoughts. 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 had a perfect dream: to transplant Chinese tea to the Indian colonies. It was this dream of tea that sent the East India Company and Macartney on the same ship sailing 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 was enough to justify the mission, and in the next century, the cost 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 governor (the newly appointed Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Changlin) himself is very magnanimous and is not comparable to petty officials with narrow minds. 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 thrive, it will meet our wishes. The several varieties of growing plants I have obtained will surely flourish if properly cultivated; looking to the future, I am filled with joy."
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 tea cultivation. Fortunately, the current governor of Guangdong and Guangxi (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 trees. 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 have now settled and taken root in Calcutta on the Ganges River in South Asia."
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 "Tiger Shark" warship of Macartney's mission 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 the favor. But the fragrance of one plant still attracted the enchantment of another. The two plants set out 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 verdant, gentle, calm, elegant, and life-affirming; the poppy flower is colorful, passionate, unrestrained, and destructive; while tea went westward, opium rushed eastward. The poets of the East and the West depicted these imported plants 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: "Ghostly lanterns scatter like autumn fireflies; the fallen soldier's tear-lit eyes gleam; why not become a magistrate in Huaxian? Spring sleep and the cold food festival have not yet awakened."—Why not become a magistrate in Guangdong's Huaxian? There, the opium is imported, and one can indulge without restraint, even disregarding the cold food festival, which prohibits smoking.
At that time, places like Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, and Guangzhou became famous tea trading centers. After the signing of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, which opened five ports for trade, fast ships carried Chinese tea in all directions toward the Pacific and the Atlantic. Like this vast Eastern nation, after two thousand years of isolation and self-sufficiency, Chinese tea entered its next great era.