Bai Tea Processing Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
In his Ming-dynasty "Zhupo Shupin" (Tasting Spring Water and Its Grades of Quality), Tian Yihheng held that: "Among teas, those fired over fire rank lower, while those sun-dried in the raw state rank highest, for they are closer to nature." The modern craft of white tea flourished in Fuding during the Qing dynasty; the Qing writer Zhou Lianggong recorded in his "Minxiao Ji" (Minor Notes on Fujian): "On Mount Taimu there was of old the Green Snow Bud; today it is called the White Down, surpassing all in colour and fragrance, and the finest of all comes from the Hongxue Cave." According to records, in 1857 Chen Huan and Zhang Xiaqin of Bailiu in Diantou, Fuding, transplanted and propagated the plant at home; then in the first year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing (1875) Zhou Kaichen again transplanted it and spread it to Huanggang, and the history of manufacturing white tea thus began in Fuding.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Fuding City lies in northeastern Fujian, on the border between Fujian and Zhejiang; its distinctive elevation, terrain, soil and climate provide natural conditions suited to the production of white tea. Mount Taimu in Fuding is the birthplace of white tea and has a long history. Lu Yu of the Tang dynasty wrote in his "Cha Jing" (The Classic of Tea): "Three hundred li east of Yongjia County there is a White Tea Mountain." Scholars believe this to be Mount Taimu in Fuding. … When sun-dried tea is steeped in a bowl, the standard for plucking the fresh leaf and the craft of making tea, as reflected in the banner-and-spear buds, is regarded as the embryonic form of white-tea making. This shows that Fuding white tea has a fairly remote history of appearance. Fuding white tea takes its name from the plump, sturdy buds of the finished product, thickly coated with white down, silvery and snow-white; in its making it is neither fried nor rolled, but slowly dried over a gentle fire, and through moderate natural oxidation it retains abundant active enzymes and polyphenolic substances. Its initial-processing principle and procedure consist mainly of two process steps: withering and drying. The initial-processing flow of white tea runs: fresh leaves — withering — piling — drying — sorting. The refining flow runs: rough tea — sorting (by hand) — graded tea — blending — baking — boxing. Affected by air temperature, the white-tea making craft is divided into normal-climate initial processing and abnormal-climate initial processing. The products of Fuding white tea mainly comprise such categories as Baihao Yinzhen (Silver Needle), Baimudan (White Peony), Gongmei (Shoumei), and the newly developed craft white tea.
Documented process record
The initial-processing principle and procedure of white tea consist mainly of two process steps — withering and drying. The initial-processing flow runs: fresh leaves — withering — piling — drying — sorting. The refining flow runs: rough tea — sorting (by hand) — graded tea — blending — baking — boxing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The craft of Fuding white tea is concentrated in the line of Mount Taimu, with earlier distinctions among small production areas: during the Tongzhi reign of the Qing, Chen Huan and Zhang Xiaqin of Bailiu in Diantou first propagated the white-down tea at home, and in the first year of the Guangxu reign Zhou Kaichen again moved and spread it to Huanggang. The plucking times differ from place to place; precisely because the initial processing passes only through the two steps of withering and drying, the colour produced on clear days versus rainy days shows a clear difference in quality.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Mei Xiangjing (recorded in the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in June 1945, a native of Fuding City, Fujian Province. A representative inheritor of the craft of making white tea (the craft of making Fuding white tea), a project under the fourth national-level batch of the national intangible cultural heritage. A Fuding white-tea making technician. Born into a family of tea specialists, from childhood he learned from his elders Mei Yufang, Mei Yuhou, Mei Yuhuai and others to cultivate white-down tea seedlings and to make white tea. Inheriting the tea craft from his ancestors, he takes the two process steps of withering and drying as the mainstay; the principal procedures include two forms, natural withering and compound withering, and the craft procedures of tea making embody the character of the natural sciences. He improved the raw material for white-tea making, and the white tea made today largely uses fine tea-plant varieties that he has cultivated himself.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Mei Xiangjing 04-1931
- Lin Zhenchuan
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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