Chapter 96 Xiangyin Ginger Salt Tea

Xiangyin is located in the north of Changsha. Its people are abundant and its culture is at its peak. Southern Chu is known as the first, and it is known as the state of literature in history.More than 4,000 years ago, when Xia Yu was controlling the floods, Zhang Bo, a descendant of the Yellow Emperor, was enfeoffed in Xiangyin, known as Luo in history.The name of Xiangyin began in the second year of Liu Song Yuanhui (474) in the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The governor of Xiangzhou, Sengqian, established the county in the north of Huangling Mountain.Xiangyin has been established for more than 1,500 years, and there are many historical sites in the past dynasties, such as the tomb of the second concubine of Emperor Shun in Huangling Mountain, the Temple of Emperor Shun in Huanghualing, and Yuezhou Kiln, the four famous kilns in Tang Dynasty.

Xiangyin is located in the northeast of Hunan, between the Xiangjiang River and the end of Zishui, bordering Dongting Lake in the south, bordering on Miluo in the east, Yiyang in the west, Wangcheng in the south and Yuanjiang in the north.He is very particular about his diet. He likes to eat chili. Small fish, shrimp, chicken and duck eggs are called small meat, and fish meat is called big meat. To entertain guests, chickens and ducks must be slaughtered, and soft-shelled turtles, turtles, and mandarin fish are cooked.Fish eating is very particular: catfish in spring, carp in summer, crucian carp in autumn, bream in winter, snail head in March and eel in April, mandarin fish and bonito in four seasons.Scallion and white fish balls, spicy wild duck, red eel slices, and salt and pepper mandarin fish have become famous local dishes.

Xiangyin people like to drink grain wine, and they pay attention to drinking bean, sesame, ginger and salt tea.When the guests come in, the housewife puts tea leaves and a small amount of salt into the earthen pot, brews them with boiling water, then adds crushed ginger, fried beans (soybeans, black beans or mung beans, small peas, rice beans), and sesame seeds to respect the guests. You can drink as you go, until the guests are sweating profusely, it is considered a courtesy.Bean Sesame Ginger Salt Tea clears heat in summer and relieves heat, dispels cold and wind in winter, invigorates the spleen and appetizers, nourishes qi and refreshes the mind.The tea has the spicy taste of ginger, the sweetness of sesame, the refreshingness of beans, and the thirst-quenching of tea leaves. After drinking it, the guests feel refreshed and like to drink it.

Bean Sesame Ginger Salt Tea is referred to as Jiangyan Tea, also known as Yuefei Tea. Yuefei in the Southern Song Dynasty was stationed in Xiangyin for five years in Shaoxing. He fought against Yang Yao, the bandit leader of Dongting Lake. Bring tea, ginger, salt, and beans into the camp, and teach them how to adjust them.After Yue Fei took it, he suddenly felt relieved and his mouth full of saliva. He ordered the big pot to make tea for the whole army to drink together.A few days later, the whole army recovered and wiped out Yang Yao in one fell swoop.And this food custom has been handed down in the Xiangyin area.

Lu Yu said in "The Classic of Tea": "Both Zhaozhou porcelain and Yue porcelain are green, and green is good for tea." It refers to the celadon tea bowl produced by Yuezhou kiln, which is a fine tea drinker.Yuezhou Kiln is located in Xiangyin County and Lingbei Town. It belonged to Yuezhou in Tang Dynasty, so it is called Yuezhou Kiln. Ginger salt tea strengthens the spleen and stomach, dispels wind and cold, removes greasy and strengthens the body. It is still popular in every family in Xiangyin.In fact, ginger salt tea was not created by Yue Fei. It first appeared in the Tang Dynasty.Su Shi's "Heji Tea": The old wife and the childish child don't know how to love, and half of them have been fried with ginger and salt.It can be seen that the style of making tea with ginger and salt has prevailed in the Northern Song Dynasty.Su Zhe's "Poetry on Fried Tea": There is nothing wrong with drinking tea, and salt, cheese, pepper, and ginger are full of praise.Yue Fei added soybeans and sesame seeds to the ginger salt to enhance the aroma and taste.

It is not unreasonable to add ginger and salt to boil tea. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, tea is cold in nature and ginger is hot in nature. One cold and one hot, just balance yin and yang.In Yang Shiying's "Medical Discourse", there is a prescription for ginger tea to treat dysentery, and its principle is based on this. The tea produced in Yuezhou is called Junshan, but it is far away from Xiangyin.Most of the tea leaves used in Xiangyin are pine needles from Anhua. Anhua’s tea is produced in Xiao’an, the hometown of Tao Shu. There are deep forests and dense trees here, and it is rich in alpine cloud tea.The ancient edge-marketed tea, that is, the Fu tea in the northwest, is Anhua dark tea. The main traffic artery is Zijiang, and Xiangyin is the exit of Zijiang.

In the Qing Dynasty, Tao Shu, the governor of Liangjiang, was returning to his hometown to visit his relatives. When he passed Liling, he met Zuo Zongtang, a teacher at Lujiang Academy.Less than two years later, Tao Shu died in Nanjing and entrusted his son to Zuo Zongtang to be raised. Zuo Zongtang stayed in Anhua Xiaoan for eight years, and asked Tao Shu's son to study while planting tea.Back to Liuzhuang in Xiangyin, I planted a tea garden by myself.After pacifying the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zuo Zongtang went to Xinjiang and promoted Anhua dark tea to the foot of Tianshan Mountains, becoming the most widely used dark tea in Northwest China.

This time drinking bean sesame ginger salt tea was held in the tea lake of my friend Luo Zhengkun’s hometown in Lingbei Town, Xiangyin County. There were also a few local literary friends and poetry friends. While tasting bean sesame ginger salt tea, I read some Xiangyin tea. The historical and cultural anecdotes, feel another flavor of ginger salt tea.