Historical Research On The Origin And The Development Of Xinyang Tea

This paper studied the history of Xinyang tea and its effect to the local district.As the development of tea industry and under the advocation of social scientists,scholars and tea experts,the tea culture is further unearthed,inherited and promoted in China.With kinds of booming activities and cultural communications,the tea culture is not only boosting the productivity and sales of tea,but also driving the developments of relevant industries.What's more important is that the living standard and artistic appreciation of ordinary people were improved,and the traditional culture is carried forward.Meanwhile,the socialistic spiritual civilization is constructed and developed.Xinyang Maojian tea,with the famous characteristics of "slim,cylindrical,tight,straight,green,pekoe covered,strong aroma and taste",is produced in traditional tea-grown district Xinyang,which has a history over two thousand years.Xinyang Maojian tea won the gold medal in the world fair in Panama in 1915,and was regarded as one of the top ten teas of China in 1959.The Xinyang tea culture is booming these years as the production and sales increased.At the same time,the tea industry chain is being extended and driving other relevant industries developing prosperously,such as catering,conferences and exhibition,tourism,etc.The people of Xinyang are benefit from tea culture both by materials and spirituals.This thesis studies the origin and development of Xinyang tea,the time which has definite records for tea cultivating and drinking is as early as Han dynasty.Through detailed information inquiries and on-the-spot investigation,a lot of ancient statistics about Xinyang tea and tea culture was unearthed from Tang dynasty to Qing dynasty.The direct seeding was adopted at first,then the technology of cutting propagation turned out.Till Qing dynasty,kinds of grafting methods were used in Xinyang.As to the scales and yieldings,they were developed most prosperously in Tang and Song dynasties,while declined during Ming and Qing,which was embodied in the tea taxes in the history.As for the finished tea,they were cake tea in Tang,braised loose tea in Song,and roasted green tea in Ming,Qing and until present day.The way of drinking was also developed from fried tea ceremony in Tang to brew tea ceremony after Ming.As a result,a number of ancient famous tea for tribute were sorted out,and the effect of ancient Xinyang tea culture to the local people was discovered,especially to the Confucianism,Buddhism,Taoism,folk tradition and folk customs.After the analysis of those materials,the important historical status and influence of Xinyang tea and tea culture were discovered as follows:Firstly,it attributed to social stability by increasing fiscal revenue and supporting the military.Secondly,the monopoly and function as exchange product for army provisions promoted the formation and development of commercial economy.Thirdly,the fundamental reason for the decline of Xinyang tea,was the the transfer of political and economic center as well as other important reasons.There were two suggestions advanced in this thesis.On the one hand,great attention must be paid to the product development,on the other hand,Xinyang tea culture must be inherited and development to enhance the competitiveness of Xinyang Maojian brand and promote the sustainable development of xinyang tea.