Solar terms :
The secret of tea in the space-time

When it comes to the twenty-four solar terms are among the “Fifth greatest inventions” in Chinese history. It is not only because it contains a long cultural connotation and historical accumulation but also because it is the “controller” of the growth of all things. The twenty-four solar terms are a product of farming civilization and originated from the Yellow River Basin. It starts with “Spring Begins” (立春) and ends with “Greater Cold” (大寒). We can see that our ancestors had adapted to the farming seasons in the early stages. They observed the movements of astronomical objects and got to understand the patterns of changing seasons, climate, phenology, and other changes in a year. They used solar terms to promote farming with guidance and practice. All things grow in different seasons, and tea is also the same. If we break down the Chinese character of tea “茶”, it means people “人” are among the plants (“艹”, the top half of “茶”) and trees (“木”, the bottom half of “茶”), which reminds us to drink tea in line with the truth of the cycle of heaven and earth. If time is simply divided into spring, summer, fall and winter, then the tea harvesting season also corresponds to each other.

After the dormancy in winter, the tea trees have accumulated abundant energy in spring. Its branches grow rich, and the tea leaves grow bright green. The leaves are fresh and rich in amino acids. It results in the spring tea's aroma, fragrance, and fresh taste. The poet Li Fu (李復, 1052-?) in Song Dynasty once described the excellent taste of spring tea with the words, "I tasted the spring tea since it is made. Its color is fresh, the taste is sweet with fragrant. (春茶自造始开尝，色味甘新气芬馥。)

There are three periods for spring tea picking. The best time for picking the tenderest tea leaves is early spring or before Qingming Festival. The tea harvested during this period is also called Ming Qian tea (明前茶)¹.Its picking time is from late March to Qingming (early April). The second period for picking spring tea is from Qingming (early April) to Corn Rain (mid-April), and the third period is from Corn Rain (mid-April) to Summer Solstice (mid-June). The picked teas in spring are mainly green teas, such as Bi Luo Chun (碧螺春)^₂, Long Jing (龍井)³, Lu An Gua Pian (六安瓜片)⁴,Tai Ping Hou Kui (太平猴魁)⁵, Zhu Ye Qing (竹葉青)⁶and so on.

Bi Luo Chun (碧螺春, Upper Left), Long Jing (龍井, Upper Right), Tai Ping Hou Kui (太平猴魁, Left Lower) and Zhu Ye Qing (竹葉青, Right Lower)

The summer tea is usually picked during mid-to-late May to mid-August. The buds and leaves proliferate in summer because of the hot weather and heavy rainfall. Therefore, summer tea will only have a relatively small extractive content dissolved when brewed. The amino acids in the buds and leaves are lower than in the spring.

Autumn tea is picked around the autumnal equinox. It is generally picked between late August and late October. The climate in autumn is in between the conditions of spring and summer. The temperature difference between day and night is significant, and the humidity is low. The sultry climate has converged, and the leaves of the tea trees grow thicker. The tea leaves inner density is strengthened, and more aromatic substances are preserved. The tea soup is “spring water with autumn fragrance (春水秋香)”. Oolong tea is one of the representatives of autumn tea, such as Tie Guan Yin (鐵觀音), Wu Yi Rock Tea (武夷岩茶), Taiwan Oolong (臺灣烏龍), etc.

Tie Guan Yin (鐵觀音, Left) and Wu Yi Rock Tea (武夷岩茶, Right)

There are plentiful tea resources in each season; therefore, people have diverse tea choices, which is different from the tea-drinking culture in European and American countries. Due to the limited types of tea in Europe and America, people in these countries will focus more on the taste of the tea when choosing tea products. In our country, people's tea-drinking choices are more affected by factors such as solar terms, region, culture, customs, health, price, etc. Among these factors, the influence of solar terms is the most significant. So how about we choose the tea that suits us at the right time?

The changing of solar terms often leads to different conditions in health, emotions, and thinking. In Spring Begins (立春), everything comes back to life, and people are prone to depress in this season. It is suitable for people to drink a cup of jasmine tea in spring because it has the functions of regulating qi (氣)-flowing⁷,relieving depression, removing liver fire, and improving eyesight. Jasmine comes from a foreign country. It spread from India to Guangzhou and Fujian in the Han Dynasty and began to be cultivated. Zhu Quan (1378-1448)'s “Tea Book” (《茶譜》) stated, " Plum, osmanthus and jasmine are the best three flowers. We can put a few buds of these flowers into the pot to make tea. This means that there is no better combination of these flowers with tea. We put a few flowers on a small plate and cover them with tea leaves." This is a beautiful encounter between jasmine and tea across space-time, and fumigating tea was started at that time. During the Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty (1831-1861), drinking jasmine tea was most popular. One reason is the Qing aristocracy liked the jasmine-scented snuff bottles. Secondly, the water pumped from the wells in the north was bitter and hard. When people added jasmine tea to the water, it changed the flavor of the water. The northern people like jasmine tea, which has continued until now. It is no less than the current fashion item milk tea.

Jasmine Tea

As the native of Beijing, Lao She (老舍, 1899-1966) also likes jasmine tea. He likes to prepare a cup of thick jasmine tea while writing. Lao She once went to Bing Xin (冰心, 1900-1999)'s home to ask for tea. Bing Xin served Lao She with fine jasmine tea. Imagine using a blue and white tureen from the Ming Dynasty to taste a cup of jasmine tea in Beijing Lao She Teahouse and feel the vicissitudes of time brought to the old teahouse. But in a daze, these vicissitudes have already dissolved in the fragrance of jasmine. Isn’t it a beautiful feeling?

The choice of tea during the Summer Commences is interesting. It is because we need to consider the differences in regional environments when choosing suitable tea. For example, in places such as Guangxi, the weather is muggy, and the human body has a lot of moisture. Liu Bao Tea (六堡茶)⁸ clears heat and dehumidifies, making it very suitable for local people to drink. At this time, the climate in the north is ideal for drinking Tai Ping Hou Kui because it contains powerful antioxidants and vitamin C, which can keep people happy and peaceful at the turn of spring and summer. It is easy to feel irritable during the great heat. A cup of Qi Men Black Tea (祁門紅茶)⁹ containing caffeine, theaflavins and thearubigins can stimulate the nerve center and help people focus.

From the Autumn commences to the Autumn Equinox, the temperature drops daily. It is suitable for people to drink tea with neutral fragrances such as Zhang Ping Shui Xian (漳平水仙)¹⁰, Tie Guan Yin (鐵觀音) and so on to moisten the lungs, promote the production of body fluid, and strengthen the spleen and stomach. Tie Guan Yin is a semi-fermented tea categorized as green tea, also known as oolong tea. A natural orchid fragrance after brewing is known as “having a lingering fragrance after seven brews” (七泡有餘香). What is the origin of the name? As the legend said, a general, Wu Long (烏龍), retired to be a hunter and went up the mountain to pick tea one day. When he was chasing his prey on the hillside with a bamboo basket full of green tea on his back, he accidentally invented green tea's shaking and fermentation processes. It helps to bring out the aroma of the tea and make it taste sweeter. The tea made by using these processes is called oolong tea. In the sixth year of Qianlong's reign (1741), Wang Shirang (王士讓, ?-?) was summoned to Beijing to pay a visit to Fang Bao (方苞, 1688-1749), the Minister of Rites, and brought the oolong tea as a gift to him. After tasting the tea, Fang Bao felt it was extraordinary, so he presented it to Emperor Qianlong. Emperor Qianlong saw the shape of the tea looked like the face of Guanyin (觀音, a Bodhisattva associated with compassion) and was as heavy as iron, so he called it as Tie Guan Yin. Smelling the lingering orchid fragrance from the blue-and-white porcelain magnolia cup is like being in a beautiful garden with birds singing and flowers fragrant, and you feel peaceful physically and mentally. From the camera lens, looking at the green and black distant mountains, the rustling drizzle seems like the falling snow in the cold winter.

Qi Men Black Tea (祁門紅茶, Left) and Liu Bao Tea (六堡茶, Right)

The temperature drops rapidly during the period from Winter Commences to Winter Solstice. At this time, when people choose tea, they should be divided into different groups according to their effectiveness. For middle-aged and older people, fermented dark pure tea is mild. It has slight irritation to the stomach and has the effect of lowering blood lipids and blood pressure. Young people can choose Guangxi Liu Bao Tea, which is profoundly fermented and can help digestion after a full meal.

From an old lady selling teas on the street at the beginning to having the teahouses selling teas with a specific commercial scale, from a cup of tea picked up every day to the beautiful experience of enjoying tea in a professional teahouse, people’s choice of tea does not need to follow the rules of solar terms strictly. The ancient solar terms are not entirely consistent with modern solar terms. The quality of teas requires us to drink and feel them diligently, and solar terms are only an auxiliary judgment. The office workers in office buildings, the food delivery guys walking across the streets, and the white-collar workers on Financial Street will have different definitions and feelings about tea. It is like Moutai Luckin¹¹; perhaps we should consider tea with variety standards. We use tea as a carrier, break the boundaries of space-time to talk with the ancients and ourselves, start to view our own needs and find a cup of tea that suits us in the changing of solar terms.

Notes

1、Ming (明) here refers to Qingming Festival (清明節), Qian (前) means “earlier than something”, so here “Ming Qian Tea” means the tea leaf which picked before Qing Ming Festival.

2、With the record of Wang Yingkui (王應奎，1683-1760), the name of Bi Luo Chun (碧螺春) may be given by the Qianlong Emperor (乾隆帝愛新覺羅弘歷，1711-1799), Reference: 王應奎撰，王彬、嚴英俊點校：《柳南隨筆續筆》，（北京：中華書局，1983年），頁157。;Bi Luo Chun (碧螺春) is a variety of Green Tea, Bi (碧) shows the green color of the tea leaf (in Chinese, “碧” means green); Luo (螺) in Chinese refer to the conch, as the tea leaf with curving which similar with the shell of conch; Chun (春) in Chinese means Spring, here refer to the picking season of the tea leaf.

3、Long Jing is a variety of Green Tea, Long Jing (龍井, in today’s Hangzhou City [杭州市], Zhejiang Province [浙江省]) is also the origin place of the tea leaf.

4、Lu An Gua Pian is a variety of Green Tea, Lu An (六安, is the city in today’s Anhui Province [安徽省]; as the local accent, here the pronounce of “六” is “Lù” rather “Liù”) is the place of origin of “Lu An Gua Pian”, “Gua Pian (瓜片)” means “Roasted Plant Seed” in Chinese, here refer in particular to “Sunflower Seed” as the shape of the tea leaf.

5、Tai Ping Hou Kui (太平猴魁) is a variety of Green Tea, Tai Ping (太平，in today’s Huangshan City [黃山市], Anhui Province [安徽省]) is the origin place of the tea leaf; Hou (猴) means to Monkey in Chinese, here refer to a story of Anhui tea grower, that they would train the monkey to pick the precious rock tea which grow in the cliff in ancient China, the intention that people use “Hou” as the name, may advertise the tea; Kui (魁) may in memory of Wang Kuicheng (王魁成), the tear grower who cultivate this new variety; Reference: 王振忠：〈王振忠说徽州︱徽商“走广”：到广东发洋财〉，澎湃·私家歷史，https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1733186；劉嘉酈：〈一盏春茶，清润你的生活〉，澎湃·生活方式，https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_12067856。

6、The name of Zhu Ye Qing (竹葉青) was given by Chen Yi (陳毅, 1901-1972), Reference: 徐德貴：〈陳毅同志與峨眉山茶〉，《農業考古》，1991年第4期，頁205-206；Zhu Ye Qing (竹葉青) is a variety of Green Tea, Zhu Ye (竹葉) means Bamboo Leaf, which refer to the shape of the tea leaf; Qing (青) in Chinese means grass, also refer to the grass green color.

7、Qi (氣) is a conception in traditional Chinese medicine, which is the source material to maintaining normal body functions.

8、Liu Bao (六堡, in today’s Wuzhou City [梧州市], Guangxi Province [廣西省]) is the origin of place of the Liu Bao Tea.

9、Qi Men (祁門, in today’s Huangshan City [黃山市], Anhui Province [安徽省]) is the origin of place of the Qi Men Black Tea.

10、Zhang Ping (漳平, in the southwest of today’s Fujian Province [福建省]), is the place of the origin of the tea; In Hokkien, Shui (水) means beauty; Xian (仙) refer to the celestial mountain (仙山, the ancient Chinese people believe that the celestial being was live in the heart of the high mountain); Shui Xian (水仙) means the tea was picked from the beautiful celestial mountain.

11、Which also called as “sauce-flavored latte”, is a new variety coffee which launched by Luckin (瑞信), the Chinese multinational chain of coffeehouses in 2023. The sauce-flavored latte mixed the latte and Moutai (a common brand of liquor in China).