Anxi Tieguanyin

Description

“Wei Shuo” – Guanyin’s Dream
According to legend, around 1720, there was an old tea farmer named Wei Yin (1703-1775) in Songyan Village (also known as Songlintou Village), Yaoyang, Anxi. He was diligent in growing tea, and was a devout Buddhist who worshipped Guanyin. Every morning and evening, he would offer a cup of tea to Guanyin Buddha, and he had been doing this for decades without interruption. One night, he fell asleep and dreamed that he was carrying a hoe and walking out of the house. He came to a stream and suddenly found a tea tree in the cracks of the rocks. It had strong branches and leaves, and was fragrant and different from the tea trees he had seen before… The next morning, he followed the path in his dream last night and found the tea tree in the cracks of the Guanyinlun stone pit. Looking carefully, he saw that the tea leaves were oval, the mesophyll was thick, the tender buds were purple-red, and they were green and juicy: Wei Yin was very happy, so he dug the tea tree back and planted it in a small iron tripod at home, and cultivated it carefully. Because this tea was obtained from Guanyin’s dream, it was named “Iron Guanyin”.

“Wang Shuo” – Named by Emperor Qianlong
According to legend, Wang Turang, a scholar from Nanyan, Xiping, Anxi, who served as deputy tribute in the 10th year of Yongzheng’s reign in the Qing Dynasty and served as the magistrate of Jinzhou in Huangzhou Prefecture, Huguang in the 6th year of Qianlong’s reign, built a study at the foot of Nanshan Mountain and named it “Nanxuan”. In the spring of the first year of Qianlong’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (1736), Wang and his friends met in “Nanxuan” to write. Whenever the sun set, he would wander around Nanxuan. One day, he accidentally discovered a tea tree that was different from others in the deserted garden with layers of rocks. He transplanted it to the tea garden of Nanxuan, managed it day and night, cultivated it carefully, and reproduced it year after year. The tea trees were lush with leaves, round leaves and red hearts. The finished products were black, moist and plump. After brewing, they were fragrant and mellow, refreshing. In the sixth year of Emperor Qianlong’s reign, Wang Shirang was summoned to Beijing to meet Fang Bao, the Minister of Rites, and gave this tea to Fang Bao. Fang Bao tasted it and found it extraordinary, so he sent it to the inner court. The emperor praised it highly after drinking it and asked about the history of Yaoyang tea. Therefore, the tea was dark, moist, and solid, heavy like iron, fragrant and beautiful in shape, just like “Guanyin”, so it was named “Iron Guanyin”. Therefore, the birthplace is Xiping, Anxi.

There are some other legends similar to the above two. The common point of these legends is that tea trees are related to Guanyin Bodhisattva, so the word “Guanyin” is included in the name of tea. There are two explanations for the word “iron”: one is that the leaves of tea trees shine with “iron-colored” light under the sun, and the other is that after the tea is fermented, the “tea color is like iron.”

Origin: Anxi County, Fujian Province
The main production area of ??Anxi Tieguanyin is in the western “Inner Anxi”, which is surrounded by mountains, rolling peaks, and shrouded in clouds and mist. Most of the soil is acidic red soil with a thick soil layer, which is particularly suitable for the growth of tea trees. Tieguanyin is native to Xiping, Anxi County, Fujian. “Inner Anxi” has a subtropical monsoon climate. The local proverb says: “There are flowers and rain in all seasons, and there is thunder in the severe winter without snow.” It can be said that it is blessed by nature, surrounded by mountains, and the soil is mostly red soil, which is slightly acidic, very suitable for the growth of tea, and it can be said to have the spiritual energy of the land.

Tieguanyin is a shrub with spreading branches and horizontal leaves. The leaves are oval, with sparse and blunt teeth on the margins, wavy and ridged leaves with obvious ribs, slightly curled back, thick mesophyll, dark green and glossy, slightly blunt at the base, slightly concave at the tip, slightly tilted to the left, and slightly drooping. The young buds are purple-red, so it is called “red bud crooked tail peach”.