Mengding Ganlu or Ganlu tea is a

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

from Meng Mountain (Meng Shan), Sichuan Province in the southwest part of China. Meng Shan is reputed to be the place where tea was first cultivated. ''Mengding Ganlu'' means "Sweet Dew of Mengding" where Mengding refers to "the top of Meng Shan".

History

According to legend, a

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Tao ...

Master Wu Lizhen (吴理真) first planted seven tea bushes on Meng Mountain during the Ganlu era (53-50 BCE) of Emperor Xuan of

Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...

. Prior to this, tea were picked from wild tea bushes. After he died, the tea was called "tea of the

immortals Immortality is the ability to live forever, or eternal life. Immortal or Immortality may also refer to: Film * ''The Immortals'' (1995 film), an American crime film * ''Immortality'', an alternate title for the 1998 British film '' The Wisdom of ...

" (仙茶). Buddhist monasteries were later established on the five peaks of the mountain, and from the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

to the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

, 360 tea leaves were picked and prepared each spring by the Buddhist monks to be presented to the emperor. The tea was used as ceremonial offering by the emperor. Wu Lizhen was conferred the posthumous honorific title of Master of Ganlu (meaning "Sweet Dew", full title ''Ganlu Puhui Miaoji Dashi'' 甘露普惠妙济大师) by Emperor Xiaozong of the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

, from which the tea acquired its name. Before the mid-Tang dynasty, tea from the Meng Mountain was rare and highly prized; and as demand grew, more tea bushes were planted. Mengding Ganlu is one of the teas produced in the Meng Mountain and it is a green tea, other teas from Meng Mountain include "Mengding Huangya" (蒙顶黄芽) and "Mengding Shihua" (蒙顶石花) which are

yellow tea Yellow tea can refer to Chinese ''huángchá'' () and Korean ''hwangcha'' (). Chinese ''huangcha'' It is an increasingly rare and expensive variety of tea. The process for making yellow tea is similar to that of green but with an added step ...

s. According to the 16th century scholar

Li Shizhen Li Shizhen (July 3, 1518 – 1593), courtesy name Dongbi, was a Chinese acupuncturist, herbalist, naturalist, pharmacologist, physician, and writer of the Ming dynasty. He is the author of a 27-year work, found in the ''Compendium o ...

who compiled ''

Compendium of Materia Medica The ''Bencao gangmu'', known in English as the ''Compendium of Materia Medica'' or ''Great Pharmacopoeia'', is an encyclopedic gathering of medicine, natural history, and Chinese herbology compiled and edited by Li Shizhen and published in the ...

'', tea produced from Meng Mountain is "warm and able to take charge of disease," unlike other kinds of tea which are generally cool in nature.

References

Chinese teas Chinese tea grown in Sichuan Green tea {{Tea-stub