Five Generations of Inheritance Continue the Century-old Wei Family Tea-making Story
"Yangtze River Zhongshui, Mengshan top tea." Mengding Mountain is located in the famous mountainous area of Ya'an City, Sichuan Province. It is a national 4A tourist attraction, the first batch of provincial scenic spots in Sichuan Province, and a provincial natural and cultural heritage. It is a documented artificial The earliest place to grow tea, "Mengding Mountain Tea" is also one of the top ten tea brands in China.
The preciousness of Ya'an Mengding tea is due to its unique terroir. "The sky in Ya'an is leaking, and the center is Mengshan Mountain." Yazhou (Ya'an, Sichuan), which is famous for its rainy weather, has Mengshan (Mengding Mountain, Sichuan) as the most rainy place. It has many clouds, fog, and misty rain all year round. Coupled with the lush forests on the mountain slopes, it is undoubtedly an ideal living environment for tea trees that love water and require good drainage. In this unique natural environment, tea trees grow luxuriantly, the tea buds are fresh and tender, and they last forever. They are refined through historical traditional handcrafts, thus forming the unique quality of this top-grade Mengding Huangya. The tea buds are uniform in shape, flat and straight, with a yellow and moist color, and all the hairs are exposed; the tea soup is bright yellow and translucent, sweet, fresh, mellow and refreshing; the leaf bottom is all tender yellow.
In the modern history of the inheritance of the traditional production technology of Mengshan tea, the Wei family, as the guardian of the traditional tea-making skills of Mengshan tea, has always maintained its love and awe for this green leaf. Their tea-making inheritance history can be traced back to the 1850s, when the first-generation inheritor Wei Zhizhong, as a horse caravan transporter on the Ancient Tea Horse Road and a tea processor at Yuanhua Tea House, forged an indissoluble bond with tea. Subsequently, Wei Dexin took over the baton of the family's tea-making, officially opening a new chapter in the Wei family's tea-making, and laying a solid foundation for the subsequent inheritance of skills.
The third-generation inheritor Wei Zhengpin is undoubtedly one of the milestone characters. He once joined the expeditionary army to fight in Burma and contributed to the defense of his country. After liberation, Wei Zhengpin returned to Mingshan County with a deep attachment to his hometown and devoted his enthusiasm to the planting, production, and purchase of tea.
In 1958, under the commission of the tea factory leader of the supply and marketing cooperative, Wei Zhengpin led a group of senior tea technicians to make Mengshan tea overnight. This batch of tea won high praise from the great man for its excellent quality and received the important instruction that "Mengshan tea should be developed and meet the masses". This not only strengthened Wei Zhengpin's determination to vigorously develop Mengding Mountain tea, but also injected new vitality into the inheritance of the Wei family's tea making skills.
The fourth-generation inheritor Wei Zhiwen has also made remarkable achievements in the tea industry. Since the age of 18, he has devoted himself to tea production and manufacturing. With his profound understanding of the traditional production process of Mengshan tea and his superb skills, he was awarded the honor of the provincial representative inheritor of the traditional production process of Mengshan tea in 2008. At the same time, Wei Zhiwen's brother Wei Zhirong also chose to return to Mingshan County after retiring from the army, took over the family's tea-making business, and continued to contribute to the inheritance and development of the Wei family's tea-making skills.
Today, the tea-making skills of the Wei family have been passed down to the fifth generation, Wei Jiusong. He grew up under the influence of tea culture, and at the age of 16, he followed his father and second uncle to learn the traditional tea-making skills of Mengshan tea. With the inheritance and development of the traditional production technology of Mengshan tea, Wei Jiusong has won many awards in the industry, including national senior tea artist, national first-level tea evaluation technician, national first-level tea maker, and provincial green tea, black tea, and scented tea planting technicians. These honors not only highlight his status in the industry, but also reflect his deep feelings and persistent pursuit of tea culture.
While inheriting and promoting the traditional production skills of the Wei family Mengding Huangya, Wei Jiusong also actively seeks to combine with modern technology to innovate and optimize the tea-making process. Today, he has been successfully awarded as the representative inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of the traditional production skills of Mengding Huangya. This honor fully demonstrates his outstanding contribution to the inheritance and innovation of skills. After hundreds of years of ingenuity passed down by the Wei family, Mengding Huangya's production techniques include many fine handcrafts such as selecting green tea, high-temperature greening, stewing for the first time, and high-temperature re-frying, ensuring the excellence of Mengding Huangya tea. quality. It is Wei Jiusong's unswerving determination that has enabled the traditional production skills of Mengding Huangya to be passed down from generation to generation, and it is expected to be recognized and inherited in a wider range of fields.
"People are the foundation for inheriting and promoting intangible cultural heritage skills." As the guardian of the traditional tea-making skills of Mengshan tea, the Wei family has always been committed to promoting and inheriting this unique tea-making skill.
