How the Ancients Wrote About Pu'er: Poetry, Notes, and *Dream of the Red Chamber*

Pu'er tea was made a tribute tea during the Yongzheng reign of the Qing dynasty, traveling from Yunnan's mountains all the way to the imperial court in Beijing. As its fame grew, it naturally appeared in the notebooks and novels of the literati. Through these writings, we can see how people two or three hundred years ago understood and drank pu'er.

Is There Pu'er in Dream of the Red Chamber?

Yes. The most often cited passage is in Chapter 63, "Celebrating Yihong's Birthday, the Maidens Hold a Night Banquet."

This chapter takes place on the evening of Jia Baoyu's birthday. The steward Lin Zhixiao's wife makes her usual night rounds with her staff and comes to Yihong Courtyard. Hearing that Baoyu had noodles that evening, she reminds the maids that they ought to brew him some pu'er tea. Xiren and Qingwen reply that they've already brewed a pot of "daughter tea" (女兒茶), that Baoyu has already had two bowls, and they invite Lin Zhixiao's wife to have a taste as well.

The exchange is brief, but it reveals several things:

• Pu'er was a familiar tea in aristocratic households of the time; the steward mentions it offhand;
• Pu'er was regarded as an after-meal tea, much like the habit many people have today of drinking ripe pu'er after meals;
• "Pu'er tea" and "daughter tea" appear together here.

The author of Dream of the Red Chamber, Cao Xueqin, lived from the late Kangxi to the Qianlong era of the Qing dynasty, exactly when pu'er had become a tribute tea and was popular in Beijing; see Pu'er as Imperial Tribute Tea.

What Is Daughter Tea?

What "daughter tea" refers to in this passage has long been debated:

• One view holds it's a type of pu'er: Qing-dynasty Yunnan notebooks record the name "daughter tea," describing it as fine, tender bud tea picked and made by local women at a particular time of year and pressed into small balls. When Ruan Fu's Record of Pu'er Tea describes the categories of pu'er tribute tea, it also mentions daughter tea. By this view, the daughter tea Xiren and the others brewed may well have been a kind of pu'er.
• Another view holds it's Mount Tai daughter tea: Around Mount Tai in Shandong there's also a tea drink called "daughter tea," and some believe this is what Dream of the Red Chamber refers to.

Both views have supporters, and there's no settled conclusion. Either way, it shows that "daughter tea" was a well-known tea name in the Qing dynasty. Daughter tea among the pu'er tribute teas is introduced in Pu'er as Imperial Tribute Tea.

How Did Qing Poets and Literati Write About Pu'er?

Most Qing-dynasty writing about pu'er isn't ornate poetry but notebooks, gazetteers, and records. Frequently cited works include:

• Ruan Fu's Record of Pu'er Tea: Ruan Fu was the son of the prominent Qing official Ruan Yuan and wrote this piece while with his father in Yunnan, generally dated to around 1825. It records pu'er's growing areas and the categories and specifications of tribute tea, and it's an important document for studying pu'er's history; see Ruan Fu's Record of Pu'er Tea.
• Tan Cui's Dianhai Yuheng Zhi: A record of Yunnan's customs and products from the Qianlong and Jiaqing eras, in which pu'er tea is described as "renowned throughout the realm," often cited to show pu'er's fame at the time.
• Local gazetteers: For example, the Qing-dynasty Gazetteer of Pu'er Prefecture and others, which recorded tea mountains, tea taxes, and the tea trade.

In addition, Qing palace archives preserve extensive records of pu'er tribute shipments, and Beijing's Palace Museum still holds actual Qing-dynasty pu'er tea, including the famous "Wanshou Longtuan" (Longevity Dragon Ball).

What Other Works Mention Pu'er?

• Fan Chuo's Manshu (Tang dynasty): Although it doesn't use the word "pu'er," it records that "tea comes from the mountains of the Yinsheng city region," and is considered one of the earliest written records of Yunnan tea; see The Manshu and the Mountains of Yinsheng.
• Qing novels and notebooks: Besides Dream of the Red Chamber, some Qing notebooks also make scattered mention of pu'er's popularity in the capital.
• Modern and contemporary tea books: Pu'er Tea, published by Deng Shihai in 1995, sparked a pu'er collecting craze in Taiwan and Hong Kong; see Taiwan's Pu'er Collecting Boom.

The Pleasure of Reading These Texts

These ancient records aren't just historical material; they're also conversation pieces over tea. The next time you brew a pot of ripe pu'er after a meal, imagine Yihong Courtyard over two hundred years ago: Lin Zhixiao's wife saying "you ought to brew some pu'er" isn't really so far from us today. The overall history of pu'er is in From the Manshu to Tribute Tea: The History of Pu'er.

FAQ

Is there pu'er in Dream of the Red Chamber? Yes. In Chapter 63, while making her night rounds, Lin Zhixiao's wife reminds the maids to brew some pu'er tea for Baoyu, who had eaten noodles.

What is daughter tea? One view holds it was a category of Qing pu'er tribute tea, fine, tender bud tea picked and made by local women; another holds it was Mount Tai daughter tea from Shandong. There's no settled conclusion.

How did Qing literati write about pu'er? Mostly in notebooks and gazetteers: Ruan Fu's Record of Pu'er Tea records growing areas and tribute categories, and Tan Cui's Dianhai Yuheng Zhi calls pu'er tea renowned throughout the realm.

What other works mention pu'er? The Tang-dynasty Manshu records Yunnan tea, Qing gazetteers and palace archives record tribute tea, and Deng Shihai's 1995 Pu'er Tea sparked the modern collecting craze.