Yunnan Tea in the Song, Yuan, and Ming: The Tea-Horse Trade and the Emergence of "Pu Tea"

Between the Tang-dynasty Manshu and the Qing's founding of Pu'er Prefecture lie nearly 900 years. Yunnan tea appears only rarely in the written record during this stretch, but the period is pivotal: the tea-horse trade made "tea for horses" a matter of state, tea showed up in Yuan-dynasty markets, and the Ming saw the first appearance of the name "Pu tea."

Are There Song-Dynasty Records of Yunnan Tea?

Yes, but very few, and mostly repeating Tang accounts. The Southern Song writer Li Shi's Xu Bowu Zhi says "tea comes from the mountains of Yinsheng, picked at no fixed time, boiled with pepper and ginger and drunk," which means almost exactly what the Manshu says: the mountains around Yinsheng produce tea, it can be picked at any time, and it's boiled with Sichuan pepper and ginger.

During the Song, Yunnan was ruled by the Kingdom of Dali, a separate regime from the Song, and Song writers knew little about what Dali produced. The Qing scholar Tan Cui, reading the Southern Song writer Fan Chengda's account that the Southern Song traded tea for horses from the southwest around Guilin, reasoned that Yunnan wasn't known for tea at the time; otherwise there'd have been no need to bring in tea from elsewhere for the trade. Tan Cui also said that Pu'er anciently belonged to Yinsheng, and that the peoples of the southwest had been drinking Pu tea since the Tang; the Song simply didn't know it. This discussion was later included in Ruan Fu's Record of Pu'er Tea (Pu'er Cha Ji).

What Was the Tea-Horse Trade?

The tea-horse trade was a system by which central Chinese dynasties exchanged tea for horses with frontier peoples. It was more than commerce; it was also a defense and frontier policy:

• Tang dynasty: There are already records of the Uyghurs and other peoples bringing horses to court and taking tea home, the beginning of the tea-horse trade.
• Song dynasty: Formally institutionalized. The Northern Song, facing off against the Liao and Western Xia, was desperately short of warhorses. In 1074 (the seventh year of Xining), it set up Tea and Horse Superintendencies in Chengdu, Qinzhou (today's Tianshui, Gansu), and elsewhere, with the government holding a monopoly on Sichuan tea and trading it for horses with the Tibetans and other groups.
• Ming dynasty: The most tightly controlled period. Tea and Horse Offices were established, trading sites were designated, and the growing, transport, and sale of tea were strictly regulated.
• Qing dynasty: Controls gradually loosened, and the tea trade shifted to ordinary commerce.

So the main players in the tea-horse trade were Sichuan tea, the frontier markets of Shaanxi and Gansu, and horses from the northwest and Tibetan regions. Yunnan tea wasn't a lead player in the Song system. Its later journey to Tibetan regions along caravan routes is a different story; see The Ancient Tea Horse Road.

What Did the Song Trade Tea For?

Mainly horses, especially warhorses. The Northern Song traded Sichuan tea for horses with peoples of the northwest and Tibetan regions. After the Southern Song lost the north, its northwestern horse supply was cut off, so it turned to buying horses from the Kingdom of Dali and southwestern peoples at places like Hengshan Stockade in Yongzhou, Guangxi. These were the so-called "Guang horses."

Scholars of the Southern Song horse markets in Guangxi note that at Hengshan Stockade, horses were mostly traded for salt early on, and later mainly for brocade and silk, with Fujian brocade and Guangxi cinnabar also involved. Tea wasn't a major item of exchange. In other words, the Southern Song did buy horses from Yunnan, but Yunnan tea didn't flow into Song territory in large quantities as a result.

The Yunnan Tea Trade in the Yuan Dynasty

In 1253 the Mongols conquered Dali, and Yunnan became part of Yuan territory. The Yunnan Branch Secretariat was established, and native officials were appointed in ethnic regions, an early form of what later became the tusi (native chieftain) system.

The most frequently cited Yuan source on Yunnan tea is Li Jing's Yunnan Zhilüe (Brief Account of Yunnan). Li Jing was sent to Yunnan around 1301, and over 2 years he traveled through the lands of the Wuman, Jinchi, Baiyi, and others, recording their customs. Writing about the Jinchi Baiyi, he noted that a market was held every 5 days: women did the trading in the morning, men took over at midday, and people exchanged felt, cloth, tea, and salt.

Brief as it is, the passage shows that in the markets of southwestern Yunnan during the Yuan, tea was already an everyday trade good alongside salt and cloth. As for the Pu'er area, some scholars have concluded that the place name was written "Buri" (步日) in the Nanzhao and Dali periods and "Puri" (普日) in the Yuan, simply different spellings of similar sounds.

What Was Pu'er in the Ming Dynasty?

In the Ming, Pu'er was written "普耳" and fell under the Cheli Pacification Commission, a tusi office the Ming established in what is now Xishuangbanna, governed hereditarily by local Dai chiefs.

The Wanli-era Yunnan Gazetteer (Yunnan Tongzhi), describing the "tribute elephant road" to Burma, says: from Jingdong via Zheledian to Zhenyuan Prefecture, then a few days more to the border of Cheli, and another 2 days "to Pu'er of Cheli, where tea is produced." Nearby stood a graceful mountain called Guangshan, home to one of Cheli's chieftains. This was the first time Pu'er and tea were linked in an official gazetteer.

In the late Ming and early Qing, the place name gradually came to be written "普洱." When the Qing established Pu'er Prefecture, it used this name; see Where the Name "Pu'er" Comes From.

Which Book First Mentions "Pu Tea"?

As far as we know, the earliest appearance is in the Ming writer Xie Zhaozhe's Dian Lüe (Brief Account of Yunnan). Xie Zhaozhe was from Fujian. Starting in 1618 (the 46th year of Wanli), he served in Yunnan as Right Administration Vice Commissioner, and during his tenure he wrote the Dian Lüe in 10 volumes, recording Yunnan's geography, products, and customs.

How the Dian Lüe Describes Pu Tea

Volume 3 of the Dian Lüe, "On Products," discusses Yunnan tea. The gist: it's not that Yunnan doesn't produce tea, but that the locals don't know how to pick and process it and aren't particular about brewing. Tea from Kunming's Taihua Mountain, picked at the first spring thunder, rivals Songluo tea from Jiangnan in color and aroma, only it isn't rolled evenly or finely enough. Tea from Gantong Temple on Dali's Diancang Mountain is even better, and not cheap. Then it says:

What gentry and commoners alike use is all Pu tea, steamed and formed into balls.

In other words, everyone in Yunnan, from scholar-officials to commoners, drank Pu tea day to day, and it was made by steaming and pressing into balls. Xie Zhaozhe added that this tea has a grassy note when brewed and is only slightly better than plain water.

That less-than-flattering remark is actually valuable: it shows that by the late Ming, Pu tea was already Yunnan's most common everyday tea, and the "steamed and formed into balls" compression method was already established. It's just that to an outside official used to Jiangnan's famous teas, it wasn't yet a fine tea. From here to the Qing's "famous throughout the land" would take roughly another 200 years.

FAQ

Did people in the Song dynasty drink pu'er? The name "pu'er tea" didn't exist yet in the Song, and Song writers knew little about Yunnan tea. The only record is Li Shi's Xu Bowu Zhi, which repeats the Tang account that "tea comes from the mountains of Yinsheng."

Did the tea name "pu'er" exist in the Ming? Xie Zhaozhe's Dian Lüe from the late Ming already mentions "Pu tea," the earliest known record. The name "pu'er tea" really caught on after Pu'er Prefecture was established in 1729.

What was tea traded for in the tea-horse trade? Mainly horses. The Northern Song set up Tea and Horse Superintendencies in Chengdu and Qinzhou to trade Sichuan tea for warhorses with peoples of the northwest and Tibetan regions. The Southern Song bought horses from Dali in Guangxi, mostly in exchange for salt and brocade.

Where was Pu'er in the Ming dynasty? It was written "普耳" and belonged to the Cheli Pacification Commission, roughly today's Ning'er area of Pu'er City.