Famous mountains in the world are known for producing miraculous herbs. When discussing Tea, ancient people would always start with Mount Mengding. The city of Ya'an is renowned as the source of world Tea culture, and Mount Mengding, with its millennium-old history of tribute teas.
Visiting Mount Mengding is not just about asking questions about tea, nor merely a pilgrimage or a search for roots, but rather a veneration of the sacred tea and a spiritual refuge deep within one's faith.
The story of the world's first tea leaf unfolds gently on Mount Mengding…
1. Mountains Receiving Heavenly Rain, Tea Blessing Mankind
China is the birthplace of tea, Sichuan is where tea was nurtured, and Ya'an is the cradle of world tea culture. In Ya'an, the “Rain City,” there is a feng shui treasure spot that ancient astronomer Yuan Tian Gang called “the cycle of heaven, the great gathering of water and qi.” This place, revered by tea lovers worldwide as the “Holy Mountain of World Tea Culture,” is Mount Mengding.
Upon entering Mount Mengding, one feels a sense of pilgrimage, much like Buddhists visiting Lumbini or scholars going to Qufu. Just as Lumbini is associated with the Buddha and Qufu with Confucius, Mount Mengding is linked to Wu Lizhen. After being nourished by sunlight and rain for over 2,000 years, Mount Mengding has become a living fossil, witnessing the origin, development, and inheritance of tea. It attracts tea enthusiasts from all corners of the earth.
Mount Mengding is named for its perennial “rainy mist.” Anciently known as “Western Sichuan's Skywater,” it has been ranked alongside Qingcheng and Emei as one of Sichuan's three great mountains and is celebrated as “Mengding, Elegant Under Heaven.” To visit Mount Mengding, one must follow a ritual path: ascending an ancient stairway to Tian Gai Temple and the Imperial Tea Garden, paying homage to the tea patriarch and admiring the imperial tea garden, and savoring a cup of Mengding Sweet Dew. Mount Mengding is the earliest recorded place where humans cultivated and utilized tea trees. For over 2,000 years, it has stood tall, firmly rooted in the hearts of tea lovers around the world.
2. The Holy Mountain of World Tea Culture, Resounding Through Ages
On September 19, 2004, the “Eighth International Tea Culture Symposium and the First Mount Mengding International Tea Tourism Festival,” hailed as the “Olympics of the international tea world,” was held here. Representatives from 28 countries, including the United States, the European Union, South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, and regions such as Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, jointly issued the “Mount Mengding Declaration,” officially recognizing Mount Mengding as the “birthplace of world tea culture, the cradle of world tea civilization, and the holy mountain of world tea culture.” Thus, a world-renowned holy mountain of tea culture emerged, captivating the world.
Zhu Zizhen, a renowned tea culture expert and researcher at Nanjing Agricultural University's China Agricultural Heritage Research Office, who has long studied tea history and concluded that “Sichuan is the cradle of Chinese Tea drinking culture,” evaluated the event as follows: “This is the most exciting tea culture conference I have attended, both domestically and internationally. This meeting will be recorded in the annals of world tea culture as unprecedented.”
Since then, Ya'an has held the Mount Mengding Tea Tourism Festival annually, conducting a ceremony to pay homage to tea patriarch Wu Lizhen at Tian Gai Temple or at the Wu Lizhen Square. Tea giants, experts, and international tea enthusiasts from France, South Korea, Japan, and other countries have visited Mount Mengding multiple times to trace their roots and witness the incense-burning ancestral worship ceremony.
The fame of Mount Mengding stems from its association with Nuwa patching the sky, Yu the Great sacrificing to heaven during his flood control efforts, and tea patriarch Wu Lizhen planting tea here. It is the “Holy Mountain” of tea culture, unique in nurturing the culture of tea patriarchs, tribute teas, Zen teas, tea-horse culture, and tea art.
3. A Pilgrimage Up 1,456 Steps
To delve deeper into Mount Mengding, one should not take the cable car but instead ascend the 1,456-step ancient stairway to trace the thousand-year-old roots of Mengding tea culture, expressing the sincerity of pilgrimage. Walking up the ancient stairway, one feels the strain and perspiration, recalling the record in “The Book of History” that “the journey through Cailong and Meng was level and peaceful, and the harmony of the Yi people was achieved.” One imagines the scene of the Great Yu leading soldiers to Mount Mengding, bowing and prostrating step by step after successfully controlling the floods. This cannot be considered anything less than devout and sacred.
The gate of Mount Mengding has become a symbol of the holy mountain. Everyone who visits Mount Mengding stops here for photos, due to the well-known couplet hanging above the gate: “Yangzi River Heart Water, Mengding Mountain Top Tea.” Perhaps this is the simplest reason for pilgrims coming to Mount Mengding – to taste the visually appealing and delicious tea of Mount Mengding.
A cup of tea from Mount Mengding contains the essence of heaven, earth, and humanity. The perfect humidity, temperature, and unique ecological environment created by the abundant clouds, rain, and fog of Ya'an, the Western Sichuan Skywater, and the central Mount Meng, are gifts of heaven. The ideal latitude of 30 degrees north, the recognized optimal altitude of 800 to 1,200 meters for growing high-quality tea, and the acidic fertile soil are geographical advantages. The selection of suitable tea tree varieties and the superb traditional technique of “three stir-fryings and three kneadings” represent the human element. All these factors together create the distinctive qualities of Mengding tea: beautiful appearance, lustrous color, fragrant aroma, and sweet taste.
Mengding tea has been historically hailed as “the first tea among mortals,” admired by countless tea-producing areas and desired by many tea enthusiasts. Since the Tang Dynasty's Heavenly Treasure Year (742 AD), Mengding tea has been designated as tribute tea, serving as the exclusive tea for imperial sacrifices and ceremonies throughout the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, for a total of 1,169 years. Numerous historical records attest to the exceptional quality and reputation of Mengding tea, with various accolades throughout its history, including “first” in the Tang Dynasty, “especially excellent” in the Five Dynasties, “best” and “unique” in the Song Dynasty, “highest quality” in the Ming Dynasty, and “best” and “uniformly excellent” in the Qing Dynasty. More than 2,000 poems and songs praising Mengding tea have been written over the centuries. The famous saying “Yangzi River Heart Water, Mengding Mountain Top Tea” expresses the unparalleled and incomparable nature of Mengding tea.
4. Seven Tea Trees Open New Horizons for Humanity
Tian Gai Temple is a place where every tea enthusiast burns incense in homage when visiting Mount Mengding. In the center of the temple stands the Tea Patriarch Hall, dedicated to tea patriarch Wu Lizhen and tea sage Lu Yu. Among temples across the country, only Tian Gai Temple venerates a person, while others worship bodhisattvas.
Before Wu Lizhen, people in Ba and Shu also drank tea, but they consumed wild tea. Wu Lizhen transitioned tea from the wild to artificial cultivation, from barbarism to civilization.
Historical records and evidence indicate that Mount Mengding is the earliest recorded place where humans cultivated tea artificially. In the third year of the Han Dynasty's Ganlu era (51 BC), Wu Lizhen domesticated seven wild tea trees on Mount Mengding, “the seeds of divine tea, planted between the five peaks, not exceeding a foot in height, neither growing nor dying, distinct from ordinary.” He became the first person on record to cultivate tea artificially. The splendid civilization of tea began with this first page and later spread worldwide via the Silk Road and the Tea-Horse Road, dyeing the world green with the magic of the oriental leaf.
No matter what has happened here over the centuries, since Wu Lizhen planted the seven tea trees, this place has been destined to be the birthplace of tea civilization.
The ritual of burning incense to honor the tea patriarch is followed by a visit to the Imperial Tea Garden, a royal garden site. Here, the seven “immortal tea” trees have deep roots, ex