Fang Jifan

01 · Lineage & Regional School

For generations his family has lived in Houkeng, the birthplace of Taiping Houkui; he is a fourth-generation descendant of Fang Nanshan, the fifth-generation transmitter of Taiping Houkui. Within the regional tradition and school record of Green Tea Processing Craftsmanship in Huangshanshihuangshan, Anhui: Most residents of Taiping County made their living from tea production, and locally the building of tea pavilions to benefit travelers was regarded as an act of kindness and merit, long practiced and established as a custom. Tea culture flourished greatly in the Tang dynasty. Emperor Xuanzong changed the character "tu" to "cha" in the Kaiyuan Wenzi Yinyi, and afterwards Lu Yu's Classic of Tea (Cha Jing) also appeared. Before the Song dynasty, the tea consumed was mostly compressed tea—the leaves were steamed, pounded, and formed into lumps or cakes, then boiled in water for drinking, sometimes with dried fruits such as melon seeds and pine nuts added. In the Qing dynasty this changed to brewing with boiling water, a practice that continues to this day. In the Tang dynasty it was already popular to pluck the tiny newly sprouted tea buds; these tender buds were sharp like spears, with small leaves shaped like banners growing beside them, and so they were called "banner-spear" (qiqiang), a name that has endured to the present. Huangshan District has a long history of tea production; as early as the Tianbao reign of the Tang dynasty, over a thousand years ago, there were records of tea production here. Taiping Houkui tea was created in the twenty-sixth year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1900). At that time Taiping tea was extremely popular along the Yangtze River, and some tea merchants asked farmers to separately pick out the neatly tipped buds and leaves from the "jian" tea and sell them at high prices, reaping great profits. Taiping Houkui has long enjoyed a strong reputation at home and abroad for its fine quality: it won a quality award at the Agriculture, Industry and Commerce Exhibition in 1912, a gold award at the "Panama–Pacific International Exposition" in 1915, was named one of the nation's ten famous teas in 1955, and after 2004 repeatedly received honors at domestic and international tea expos and became a national gift tea.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in January 1965 in Huangshan, Anhui Province. National representative bearer of Green Tea Processing Craftsmanship (Taiping Houkui), a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Technician of Taiping Houkui green tea production. He learned tea cultivation and tea processing from childhood and has rich experience and considerable attainments in the production and cultivation of Taiping Houkui. In 2007 Houkeng Brand Taiping Houkui was designated a national gift tea. He built the Taiping Houkui Tea Culture Museum, took part in the revision of the National Standard for Taiping Houkui Tea and the Technical Regulations for Taiping Houkui Tea, and created the management model of company plus farmers plus base, bringing the Taiping Houkui making technique to thousands of households. Within the documented technical tradition of Green Tea Processing Craftsmanship in Huangshanshihuangshan, Anhui: China's tea-making craft has a long history. More than three thousand years ago, tea used as an accompaniment to drinking already appeared in the ritual ceremonies of the Western Zhou dynasty. In ancient times tea was called "tu," a name that appears in the Book of Songs (Shijing). By the Three Kingdoms and Western Jin periods, tea drinking had become a common custom in the Jiangnan region. Green tea is a type of tea that is fixed (kill-green) at high temperature without oxidation or fermentation, also known as "non-fermented tea." Its production process mainly includes plucking fresh leaves, fixation (kill-green), rolling, and drying. Top-grade green tea is made from the delicate young buds that first emerge, generally plucked before the Qingming or Grain Rain solar terms; the finished tea is commonly called "pre-Qingming" or "pre-Grain Rain." Fixation uses high-temperature processes such as steaming or pan-firing to enhance the green tea's bright color and clear fragrance, and can be divided into steaming fixation and pan-firing fixation. In ancient China, high-temperature steam was used for fixation, called "steam fixation"; in modern times this changed to pan-firing in an iron wok, giving rise to "pan-fired fixation." Fixation makes the leaves soft, and gently rolling them between the fingers twists them into tight, slender strips—this is called "rolling." Rolling helps the brewed tea release its infusion and also reduces the leaves' volume, making storage and transport easier. Huangshan District, Huangshan City, Anhui Province has a mild climate and abundant rainfall, with over two hundred foggy days each year, extremely suitable for the growth of tea plants. The district's tea-garden area reaches over 3,400 hectares, with an annual tea output of over a thousand tons, of which famous and fine tea accounts for more than 80%. At that time this place was called Taiping County, so the tea produced was called "Taiping tea." Wang Kuicheng, a tea farmer living in Hougang, was inspired: rather than selecting after the tea is made, it is better to carefully choose and craft from the plucking of fresh leaves; so in the high-mountain tea gardens he specially selected sturdy, upright one-bud-two-leaf sets and meticulously made the tea. Thus the tea produced in the Houkeng and Hougang area of Taiping County was the champion among "jian" teas, and the originator of the tea-making craft was also named "Kuicheng," hence the name "Taiping Houkui" (Taiping monkey champion). Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Four sorts and eight exclusions": Leaf is sorted and cleaned before the pan; anything off-spec is refused so only the best shoots go in. "Charcoal-heated pan kill-green": Charcoal gives the steady high heat needed for kill-green, the step that fixes the tea's base character. "Drying to full dryness in bamboo baskets": Bamboo drying baskets let the leaf lose moisture slowly, giving firm leaf that survives transport and storage. "The Houkeng and Hougang tea gardens": With over two hundred foggy days a year, the Houkeng and Hougang slopes grow slow, plump shoots.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He has consistently adhered to the techniques handed down in his family, including the four pickings and eight rejections for the fresh leaves, charcoal-fired pan-firing, and full drying in bamboo baskets, thereby safeguarding the traditional quality of Houkui; his products have won numerous national awards, including the Golden Bud Award.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Fang Jifan · National Representative Bearer Archive