Cloud tea is like life; life is learning, wisdom is cultivation.<\/p>\n
The first time I ever heard of Bingdao tea was on an afternoon in the early 1990s. An old tea merchant who had just returned from Shuangjiang drew a small packet of tea from his coat and unfolded the oiled paper \u2014 a gentle, elegant honey-floral fragrance rose to meet me. He said, “This is tea from Bingdao village. Mr. Xiao Shiying went there to survey it.” The rock-sugar sweetness of that cup remains vivid in my memory to this day, and from that moment the name Xiao Shiying was etched deep in my heart.<\/p>\n
Xiao Shiying was born in 1933 in Xinhua, Hunan. He was one of the founders of Yunnan’s modern tea industry, honored as “Master Tea Craftsman of a Great Nation” and “Father of Yunnan’s Clonal Tea Cultivars.” He lived through and witnessed the modern tea history of Yunnan, leaving behind a rich legacy of tea scholarship and practical achievement. Over the years I have traveled through every major tea region of Yunnan, and everywhere I went I could feel the academic heritage Mr. Xiao left behind \u2014 the cultivar records, the cultivation techniques, the garden-management philosophies that still guide generation after generation of tea people.<\/p>\n
In 1954, Xiao Shiying traveled to Mengku to survey Bingdao tea. He held that Bingdao tea tastes unique precisely because the cultivar is pure. The detailed survey records were first-hand material noted down stroke by stroke back then. He confirmed, from a scientific standpoint, the decisive influence of the tea cultivar on the quality of the leaf \u2014 and this was the conviction of his entire life: Pu-erh tea is a matter of cultivars. I later visited Bingdao village many times, and with every pot I brewed I could feel the distinctive character that pure breeding brings: a rock-sugar sweetness lingering through the mouth, a double gift of nature and science. From a health perspective, Bingdao tea is high in amino acids, with a well-balanced proportion of tea polyphenols; it feels gentle on the body and suits long-term drinking for well-being.<\/p>\n
The judgment that the great tea tree of Bangwai, Lancang, is of the “transitional type” came precisely from Xiao Shiying. By “transitional” he meant that the tree is a cultivated type yet also bears characteristics of the wild type, and is therefore morphologically transitional. He took special care to clarify: this does not mean it occupies a place in the evolutionary chain of the tea tree later than wild tea trees and earlier than cultivated ones. This precise definition corrected many people’s misunderstanding of the “transitional type.” In 1992, he co-published the paper “The Great Tea Tree of Bangwai, Yunnan,” frankly acknowledging that academic opinion at the time differed on how the tree should be classified. Such candor toward scholarly truth is especially precious in the world of tea studies.<\/p>\n
Tea has grades high and low, but everyone may enjoy it regardless of status. All his life, Xiao Shiying cared nothing for grade labels on tea; what he cared about was the scientific truth behind every leaf. He would squat on the tea mountains for hours at a stretch, his fingers tracing the veins of the leaves as if reading a wordless book of heaven. He also advanced Vavilov’s theory of centers of variation, which carries important methodological significance for research into the origins of the tea tree \u2014 when we discuss the “world birthplace of tea,” we must return to the sources of scientific theory rather than echo what others say.<\/p>\n
Xiao Shiying was not only a theorist but a practitioner. In Pu’er he established the “Shimu Tea Garden” to put his three-dimensional ecological tea-garden philosophy into practice \u2014 interplanting shade trees, intercropping fine tree species, building a multi-layered ecosystem. Tea bushes grow among tall arbors; beneath them lies a thick bed of leaf litter, and beneficial and pest insects keep a natural balance. This aligns closely with the core principles of contemporary organic agriculture. I once visited the Shimu Tea Garden: walking among the tea bushes and great trees, the air moist and fresh, sunlight dappling down, I felt as though I were inside a miniature primeval forest. Tea leaves grown in such an environment come with guaranteed ecological safety and zero pesticide residue \u2014 a tea you can drink with peace of mind.<\/p>\n
He often told the younger generation: “Only by understanding the past and the present can we pioneer the future of Yunnan’s tea industry. We must both apply and absorb the achievements of modern science and technology, and inherit and carry forward traditional techniques and experience.” These words have been the most important lamp on my own road of tea learning.<\/p>\n
Making friends through tea \u2014 please, have a cup.<\/p>\n
Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
ZENTEA MANOR
Alliance Supply Chain Services Limited
www.zentea-shop.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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