Legend of Da Hong Pao

Da Hong Pao is an extremely famous tea from Wuyi Mountains of Fujian Province. It is no wonder that the history of its name, which is literally a Big Red Robe in English, has a number of legends.

According to some sources, it is called a Red Robe because of the hand-feed monkeys who were picking tea leaves and wearing red robes, so that people could discern them from other monkeys. According to other sources, only high-ranking officials were drinking Da Hong Pao. They noticed that the tea leaves have a red edging, so it looks like they are wearing a red robe.

But only one legend is told in every part of Fujian Mountains: the legend about a scholar named Ju Zi Ding.

The story starts as follows: In 1385 during the Ming Dynasty, a scholar Ju Zi Ding was on his way to attend the Imperial exam. Unfortunately, he became ill on his way to Beijing. Illness knocked him down when he arrived in Wuyishan. Luckily, a monk from the ‘Tian Xin Yong Le’ temple passed by and brewed a bowl of tea picked from Wuyi Mountains for the scholar. After drinking the tea, Ju Zi Ding felt much better, so he continued his way on the exam.

Few days later, he passed the exam with the highest score and was awarded an imperial red robe.

The scholar was so grateful that he travelled back to Wuyishan to visit the monk and ask where he got the tea from that healed him. Once he arrived at the tea bushes, he took off his red robe and wrapped it 3 circles around the bush as a symbol of gratitude and took a few leaves of Da Hong Pao back to the palace. After that, the tea trees were named Big Red Robe which in chinese pronunciation is Da Hong Pao.

Authors:

Illustrations: Vlada Morgun

Text: Vlada Morgun