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Why did Lei Cha fall?

Lei Cha used to be popular all over the country, but it gradually fell into obscurity, so that people thought Lei Cha was unique to Hakkas. In fact, it is not so, so why did Lei Cha decline? Beginning in the Northern Song Dynasty, a trend of “tea fighting” quietly emerged, and people’s attention began to shift to taste the original taste of tea. Therefore, Lei Cha mixed with ginger and salt was not only ridiculed by the scholar-bureaucrats, but also in the vast areas of the south. Gradually abandoned.

Cause of decline

Since the popularity of fighting tea, people have gradually shifted their attention to the original taste of tea. Lei Cha mixed with ginger and salt was not only ridiculed by the scholar-bureaucrats, but also gradually abandoned in the vast areas of the south.

For example, Su Dongpo once wrote dozens of tea poems. Among them, “Ciyun Cao Fu Sends Heyuan Trial Cultivation of New Buds” describes Fujian Tuancha as a tribute tea: the fairy mountain spirit grass is wet and the clouds are washed all over, and the fragrant muscle sand powder is evenly distributed. The bright moon comes to cast Yuchuanzi, and the spring breeze blows through the martial arts spring. You must know that Bingxue has a good heart, not a new face of ointment. The little poet who plays the game smiles, and good tea is always like a beautiful woman.

Su Dongpo is also very particular about the spring water used for making tea. In the poem “Jianjiang Jiancha”, it says: “The running water must be boiled, and it is deep and clear from the fishing stone.” The big ladle stores the moon and returns to the spring urn, and the small ladle divides the river into the night clang. The snow milk has been frying the feet, and the pine wind suddenly makes the sound of diarrhea. It’s not easy to ban three bowls with a dry mind, and sit and listen to the length of the deserted city.

What these poems sing about is obviously not Lei Cha. The so-called “Xinya” refers to the bud tea that “has always been a good tea like a beautiful woman”. Naturally, good spring water is required to make bud tea, which shows that before the Northern Song Dynasty, the method of brewing bud tea had already begun. As a result, Lei Cha mixed with ginger and salt was not only ridiculed by the scholar-official class, but also gradually abandoned in the vast areas of the south.

This phenomenon can be seen from “Dongpo Zhilin”: “People in the Tang Dynasty used ginger for frying sticks, so Xue Neng wrote in his poem, ‘Salt damage adds to the constant warning, and ginger should be cooked more’… Those who use these two things in modern times I laughed out loud.” However, due to various reasons, Leicha is still very popular in the northern folks. Su Zhe’s poem “He Zizhan Jiancha” can prove: “There is nothing wrong with drinking tea in the north. Salt, cheese, pepper, and ginger are full of praise. Tired of wandering and thinking about hometown, not learning from the south and the north…”

Once swept the country

Tea is a major feature of Chinese civilization. China’s tea world is the best in the world: China was the first to discover and utilize tea trees in the world. That is to say, it is as far back as the matrilineal clan period of Yangshao Culture in the primitive society, with a history of more than 4,700 years. According to records, the way of drinking tea in our country seems to be related to porridge Leicha from the beginning, that is, the tea leaves are ground into powder and mixed with rice to make porridge, which is called rice tea, or Ming porridge.

There are records about rice tea in “Guang Ya” written by Wei Zhangyi of the Three Kingdoms, and people at that time were accustomed to using green onions, ginger, orange peel, etc. as ingredients.

In 1973, jammed tea leaves and bitter soup made from tea leaves were unearthed from Mawangdui Tomb No. 1 and No. 3 in Changsha. Some experts believe that this kind of bitter soup is porridge made from tea and rice. In this way, before the Qin and Han Dynasties, it had become a common custom for people to eat tea and soup.

In the Tang Dynasty, tea production technology has been greatly improved, people’s tea drinking style has also undergone great changes, rice tea gradually disappeared, but the custom of mixing green onions, ginger, orange peel, etc. exist.

Some people think that Lei Cha is a specialty of the Hakka people. It seems that there are no people who make and eat Lei Cha in other places except Hakka. After reading the previous introduction, we can see that this understanding is biased. In fact, before the formation of the Hakka ethnic group, the custom of making Lei Cha and eating Lei Cha already existed in the Central Plains, and it was popular in many parts of the country.

However, with the passage of time, after the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Lei Cha gradually disappeared in the Central Plains and other areas. Only the Hakka people, some She people and individual ethnic minorities in Southwest my country inherited and continued to innovate and flourish.

According to relevant records, Hakkas in southern Jiangxi, western Fujian, eastern Guangdong, southern Hunan, northern Sichuan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other places still retain the custom of eating Lei Cha, and in some places it is even very popular. There is a folk saying “No Lei Cha”. The proverb “not a guest” is quite illustrative.