The day for the picking and processing of Wuyi rock Tea is locally referred to as “Opening the Mountain.” The “Opening the Mountain” period typically falls two or three days before the beginning of summer according to the lunar calendar, which the local tea farmers regard as a “legally mandated” time that cannot be altered. According to recollections from local elders, there have been only two exceptions to this schedule over the past forty years. One occurred in the first year of Xuantong when, due to early warm weather, the opening was advanced seventeen days before the start of summer, that is, three days after the Grain Rain; the other was in 1925, when the opening was moved nineteen days earlier, with the tea just being picked the day before the beginning of summer. Apart from these exceptions, the “Opening the Mountain” period has always fallen between four days earlier and one day later than the start of summer over the past forty years. Every year, when the Wuyi mountain tea farmers begin to ascend the mountains to pick and process tea, they first perform a mountain worship ritual. On the first day of the dawn of the mountain opening, all the tea workers rise and finish washing up, then are led by the “Foreman” (alternatively known as the factory owner) to pay respects in front of the shrine of Lord Yang Taibai, where incense is burned. During this time, various taboos apply, the most important of which is the prohibition of speech. According to superstition, this prohibition is to avoid offending the mountain god and ensure favorable conditions for the spring's picking and processing. Breakfast should be eaten standing up, not sitting down. After breakfast, the “Foreman” and the “Mountain Tea Master” lead the way to the tea garden to commence picking. The foreman sets off firecrackers to send them off. [The terms “Foreman,” “Factory Owner” (also known as the “Rock Owner”), and “Mountain Tea Master” are specific job titles within the production process of Wuyi rock tea. The “Foreman” is responsible for recruiting a group of tea workers from Jiangxi for a particular tea factory and leading them to Mount Wuyi, and also manages the workers during the Spring Tea picking season. This role is similar to today's “construction foreman.” The “Factory Owner,” also called the “Rock Owner,” is the owner of the tea factory. The “Mountain Tea Master” is the leader who guides, instructs, and supervises the tea pickers at each tea factory in Mount Wuyi. Note from the author.] No one is allowed to speak or look back from the factory until they reach the tea garden, as superstition holds that looking back on the day of “Opening the Mountain” will cause eye diseases throughout the spring. Upon arriving at the tea garden, the Mountain Tea Master points out areas for the tea pickers to begin work. About an hour later, when the factory owner arrives at the tea garden to distribute cigarettes to the tea workers, the ban on talking is lifted.
This “Opening the Mountain” ceremony was more prevalent during the Republican era. In addition, once the famous varieties of tea were processed into tea leaves, they would immediately be brewed into tea soup and offered in front of the statue of the deity. Then incense would be burned and reverent salutes made. After the ceremony, the tea factory owner would serve tea to each worker, wishing them safety and prosperity in their work. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially after 1966 when the central government called for the elimination of “old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits,” rural areas underwent a series of campaigns to eradicate feudal superstitions. Even traditional festivals such as the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and Spring Festival were impacted and “reformed,” and activities like “Opening the Mountain,” which were steeped in superstitious beliefs, were largely abolished. According to Lin Fuchuan's investigation, “According to the custom of tea picking in Mount Wuyi, regardless of whether it's sunny or rainy, and no matter how far away, lunch is delivered to the mountain for consumption. Even if it's Pouring rain and the workers are just a few steps away from the factory door, the pickers refuse to enter the factory for lunch. When asked why, they all say it's a rule set by the ancestor of ‘Opening the Mountain,' Lord Yang Taibai, and no one dares to violate it. Little do they know that this was one of the countless methods of exploitation devised by the hermit monks who used to manage the tea factories, who were idle and well-fed all day long, using divine power to subdue the people's hearts.”
From an anthropological perspective, the ritual itself is also a process of constructing a discourse of power. In other words, the ritual is a “constructive discourse of power” and not merely a tool that is borrowed. If we introduce the concept of a “field of power” into the context of rituals, rituals seem to become tools that assist social roles in enhancing their social power and prestige. [Peng Zhaorong, The Theory and Practice of Anthropological Ritual, Minzu Publishing House, 2007, pp. 149-150.] This power and prestige are usually constructed through different roles played within the ritual. In many ritual occasions, the host and the main figures play significant roles, as they are the key communicators between humans and deities. Through this “communication” with the deities, the organizers establish their prestige within the ritual community. In the “Opening the Mountain” ritual of Mount Wuyi, the Foreman's sacrifice to the tea deity “Lord Yang Taibai” and the Mountain Tea Master's setting off of firecrackers to notify the “Mountain God” are the most critical parts of the communication with the divine. By assuming these sacrificial roles, the Foreman and the Mountain Tea Master establish a special, purposeful, and religiously colored hierarchical system, making them the “rulers” of the moment and the scene.
According to the elderly, in the old days, the head of the hall or the upper seat of the dining hall in Wuyi mountain tea factories had the shrine of Lord Yang Taibo. Some were inscribed on red paper, while others were carved from hardwood. Normally, a stick of incense and a lamp were lit, but during the “Opening the Mountain,” market day, and the return from the mountains in the tea picking season, not only incense and candles were lit, but dishes were also prepared for him to enjoy. In some records, Lord Yang Taibo is intertwined with the “Mountain God,” making it difficult to clearly distinguish between them. For example, Zheng Fengren recorded in his book “Tea”:
The original Wuyi tea was wild and not planted by human hands. It is said that the first discoverer was an elder, and the townspeople built a temple to worship him. The monk Chaoquan wrote in his “Tea Song”: “It is said that the elder first presented tea, and upon his death became a mountain god to receive offerings and worship.”
According to legend, Lord Yang Taibo was a man of the Tang Dynasty, whose real name is now unknown. He was born in Fuzhou, Jiangxi, and was the first person to go to Mount Wuyi to open the mountains and plant tea. He died in Mount Wuyi, and the tea farmers revered him as a deity, enshrining him in a place of honor and bestowing the title “Lord” upon him as a sign of Respect. His wife, Lady Li, was called “Lady Li Tai” by the townspeople, and after her death, she was worshipped alongside her husband, bearing the title “Lady Li Tai.” Although Lord Yang Taibo has been deified as the patron deity of tea-making, he also has a very human side in local legends. The Foremen of Mount Wuyi were extremely devout in their worship of Lord Yang Taibo. Legend has it that when Lord Yang Taibo received the offerings from the Foreman, he would sit in the bamboo baskets filled with tea during the tea processing, while Lady Li gently lifted the weight on the scale, thereby increasing the weight of the tea. Since there was a weigher sent by the tea merchants (traders) present in the factory to oversee the weighing and counting, when the tea arrived at the traders' premises and was short in weight, it naturally had nothing to do with the Foreman. There was a folk song in the old-style rock tea factories: “Lord Yang, Lady Li, one sits in the basket, the other lifts the weight.”
There are also ghost stories circulating in the mountains, and these ghosts are depicted with human characteristics, such as those who like to play pranks and those who are gluttonous. Stories of hauntings in the mountains were common, and both the