乌龙茶铁观音发源地

安溪，居山近海，置县逾千年，境内巍巍戴云山绵延而至，与纵横交错的溪流河涧，形成云雾缭绕、雨水充沛、气候温润的微域气候。得益于这一奇特的生态环境，以及拥有千年茶史的丰厚积淀，还有像苏龙、魏荫、王士让等茶叶种制能手，乌龙茶铁观音在安溪县西坪镇横空出世。历经数代人努力，反复研究筛选，发明创制出乌龙茶“半发酵”制作技艺，培育了安溪铁观音这一茶中极品。

苏龙创艺乌龙茶

明成化年间（公元1465-1487年），在安溪县崇信里（今西坪镇）南山一带，住着一位退隐的游猎将军，名叫“苏龙”，因长年上山打猎采茶，被烈日晒得黝黑，乡亲们都亲切地称他“乌龙”（闽南语“苏龙”与“乌龙”谐音）。

有一天，苏龙背着茶箩和弓箭在后山采茶。过午时分，采完茶叶的苏龙忽见一只山獐，苏龙拔步紧追不放，被山獐引至石鼓坑，万金土坎，三斗子山洞，竹脚大邱田，最终捕获。扛回家中，天色已晚，将山獐绑在大门口石柱边。准备次日清晨，宰杀山獐，为老母亲治疗多年的头疼病。当晚，精疲力尽的苏龙，一觉到天蒙亮，将箩里的茶叶停放了一个晚上，第二天清晨，苏龙才动手炒茶，这时奇迹出现——茶叶已经萎软，捧在手心有股奇异的香味，炒制后更是香气扑鼻。冲泡品尝，往日的苦涩之味尽除，香气更足，味更甘醇。苏龙非常高兴，连忙邀请近邻好友前来品尝，大家连声称赞：“好茶！”苏龙若有所悟，赶紧去看绑在大门口的山獐，竟然不见了。

此后，苏龙便依照此法进行制作，经过一次又一次试验，终于明白茶青在篓筐中经过抖动，叶缘频繁撞击，才会形成红边，有了红边所制作的茶叶才能形成天然花果香味。由此，苏龙摸索出一整套“半发酵”制茶技艺，并传授给乡亲。苏龙去世以后，乡民为了纪念他的贡献，寄托对他的思念，就把依其法所制的茶都叫作“乌龙茶”，并在南山上苏龙居住的地方建了一座小庙宇，塑其像供奉，庙为“乌龙将军庙”。

之后，苏龙发明的乌龙茶制作技术，迅速向邻近产茶县及台湾地区传播。清光绪年间，安溪乌龙茶就已传播至邻近的永春、南安、长泰、漳平、华安等地和闽北建瓯、武夷山等地，以及广东、台湾等茶区。解放后，江西、浙江、安徽、湖南、湖北、广西、四川、云南等省（自治区）亦陆续引种。

观音托梦魏荫种

清雍正三年（1725年）前后，安溪崇信里南岩村邻村松林头（今西坪镇松岩村），有位制茶师傅，姓魏名荫，一生勤于种茶。他信奉观音，每日晨昏都要在观音佛座前点三炷香，敬奉三杯清茶，十分虔诚。一天夜里，魏荫做了个梦：自己荷锄出门，沿着林间小径来到一道山涧旁，周围古松耸立，水雾缭绕，一片迷蒙。恍惚间，他隐约看见水潭边石缝中长有一株茶树。正当他准备上前细看时，有个声音从上空飘来：“这是一棵茶树，念你虔诚，特赐予你。望你悉心培育，广为传播，造福人间。”魏荫好生奇怪，正欲探身采摘，忽传来一阵犬吠，把好梦扰醒。

次日清晨，魏荫循梦中途径寻觅，果然在观音仑“打石坑”小溪边的石隙间发现一株与众不同的茶树，只见其叶形椭圆，叶肉肥厚，嫩芽紫红，清翠欲滴，枝繁叶茂。魏荫将茶树压条繁殖，种在自家的茶田里细心栽培，依照苏龙制茶技艺采制成茶,凡饮过此茶者，均赞不绝口。由于该茶苗是魏荫发现栽培的，人们都称之为“魏荫种”。

此后，魏荫繁殖出一批批茶苗即铁观音茶苗，送给茶农们栽种。不久，“魏荫种”便在安溪各地安家落户，并世代相传，香飘四海。

乾隆赐名铁观音

“铁观音”的得名与清代桐城派创始人方苞颇有渊源。方苞初入国子监游学京城时，安溪名儒李光地已是朝中内阁大学士。看到方苞文章后，李光地惊叹方苞是“韩（愈）欧（阳修）复出，北宋后未有”之才。受茶乡影响，李光地颇喜欢饮茶，时常邀约方苞等人至府邸品赏家乡安溪乌龙茶。茶水泡开，常有一股兰花香弥漫室内，幽静绵长，韵味无限，丝丝缕缕刻在方苞的记忆深处。

乾隆六年（1741年）秋天的一个午后，方苞正伏案捧读《皇清文颖》，侍从呈报门外有位儒生求见，进来的便是李光地的同乡邑人王士让。王士让，康熙二十六年（1687年）生于安溪崇信里尧阳乡（今西坪镇南岩村），自幼苦读经书，却屡试不第。直到四年前，已届四十五岁才考中进士。此次依例奉召进京，前来拜谒方苞，并将随身携带的家乡茶叶赠送方苞。

方苞一见王士让拿出的茶叶便觉眼熟，知是昔日李光地府邸品赏过的安溪茶，但又与昔时所饮之茶略有不同。面前的茶叶更沉甸厚实，投入杯盏铿锵有声，尚未注水，已有轻微的香气溢于杯外。次日，方苞入朝觐见乾隆皇帝，举荐王士让，并把此茶献给皇帝。乾隆发现此茶绿叶赤边、条索密实，命人注水，一启杯盖，芳香扑鼻而来；轻饮一口，则齿颊留香，心醉神怡。心下大异，便传来王士让详询此茶来历。王士让细细讲述了“观音托梦”和安溪茶繁育传播的故事。

王士让一番奏禀，让乾隆也暗暗称奇，细细观察掂量，感觉此茶乌润茁实，粒沉似铁，味香形美，犹如观音，又有魏荫“观音托梦”一说，因而赐名“铁观音”。王士让一听，赶紧跪谢。自此，铁观音声名遍传天下。

Anxi, inhabited by mountains near the sea, has been in the county for more than a thousand years. The towering Daiyun Mountain stretches across the territory, forming a micro-climate with clouds and mists, abundant rain, and mild climate. Thanks to this peculiar ecological environment and the rich accumulation of tea history with a thousand years, as well as expert tea planters like Sulong, Wei Yin, and Wang Shirang, Oolong tea Tieguanyin was born in Xiping Town, Anxi County. After several generations of hard work, repeated research and selection, invented the "semi-fermented" production technique of oolong tea, and cultivated the best tea in Anxi Tieguanyin.

Sulong Chuangyi Oolong Tea

During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1465-1487), in the Nanshan area of Chongxinli (now Xiping Town) in Anxi County, there lived a retired hunting general named "Su Long". The scorching sun was so dark that the villagers kindly called him "Oolong" (the Hokkien dialect "Sulong" is a homonym for "Oolong").

One day, Su Long was picking tea in Houshan with a tea basket and bow and arrows on his back. After noon, Su Long, who had finished picking tea, suddenly saw a mountain deer. Su Long was eager to pursue him, and was led by the mountain deer to Shigukeng, Wanjin Ridge, Sandouzi Cave, Zhujiao Daqiutian, and finally capture. As it was getting late when I was carrying home, I tied the mountain deer to the stone pillar at the gate. Prepare to kill the mountain deer the next morning to treat the old mother's headache for many years. That night, the exhausted Su Long, as soon as it was dawn, he parked the tea in the pan for one night. In the early morning of the next day, Su Long started to fry the tea. At this time, a miracle appeared-the tea was weakened and held it. There is a strange fragrance in the palm of the hand, and it is even more fragrant after frying. After brewing and tasting, the bitter and astringent flavors of the past are removed, the aroma is fuller and the taste is more mellow. Su Long was very happy and hurriedly invited his neighbors and friends to come and taste it. Everyone even praised them: "Good tea!" If Su Long had realized something, he quickly went to see the mountain deer tied to the gate, but it was gone.

After that, Su Long followed this method to make it. After repeated experiments, he finally understood that the green tea was shaken in the basket, and the leaf edge frequently hits, and then the red edge can be formed. Only the tea made with the red edge can become natural. Flower and fruit fragrance. As a result, Su Long explored a complete set of "semi-fermented" tea making skills and taught them to the villagers. After Su Long passed away, in order to commemorate his contribution and place their thoughts on him, the villagers called all the tea made according to the law "Oolong Tea" and built a small temple in the place where Su Long lived in Nanshan. The statue is enshrined, and the temple is the "Oolong General Temple".

After that, the oolong tea production technology invented by Su Long quickly spread to neighboring tea-producing counties and Taiwan. During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, Anxi Oolong tea spread to neighboring places such as Yongchun, Nan'an, Changtai, Zhangping, Hua'an, Jianou, Wuyishan and other places in northern Fujian, as well as tea areas in Guangdong and Taiwan. After liberation, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Anhui, Hunan, Hubei, Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan and other provinces (autonomous regions) also introduced them one after another.

Guanyin Tuomeng Wei Yinzhong

Around the third year of Emperor Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (1725), there was a tea maker at Songlintou (now Songyan Village, Xiping Town), a neighboring village of Nanyan Village, Chongxinli, Anxi. He believed in Guanyin, and he would light three sticks of incense in front of the Guanyin Buddha seat every morning and evening, and worship three cups of tea. He was very religious. One night, Wei Yin had a dream: he went out with a lotus hoe, and walked along the forest path to a mountain stream, surrounded by ancient pine towering, misty and misty. In a daze, he vaguely saw a tea tree growing in a crack on the edge of the pool. Just as he was about to step forward to take a closer look, a voice floated from the sky: "This is a tea tree. I think you are pious and bestowed on you. I hope you will cultivate it, spread it widely, and benefit the world." Wei Yin was very strange. When I was about to lean over to pick, a dog bark suddenly awakened the dream.

In the early morning of the next day, Wei Yin followed his dream to find a tea tree in the rocky crevice by the "Dashikeng" creek in Guanyinlun. He saw an oval leaf shape, thick leaf flesh, and purple buds. The green is dripping and the branches are luxuriant. Wei Yin layered and reproduced tea trees, planted them in his own tea fields, carefully cultivated them, and made tea according to Sulong's tea-making skills. Those who have drunk this tea are full of praise. Because the tea seedlings were discovered and cultivated by Wei Yin, they are called "Wei Yin species".

After that, Wei Yin bred batches of tea seedlings, namely Tieguanyin tea seedlings, and sent them to tea farmers for planting. Soon, "Wei Yinzhong" settled in various places in Anxi and passed on from generation to generation.

Qianlong gave the name Tieguanyin

The name "Tieguanyin" has a lot to do with Fang Bao, the founder of the Tongcheng School in Qing Dynasty. When Fang Baochu entered the Imperial College to study in Beijing, Li Guangdi, a well-known scholar in Anxi, was already a bachelor of the Korean Cabinet. After reading Fang Bao's article, Li Guangdi exclaimed that Fang Bao was a talent of "Han (Yu) and Ou (Yang Xiu) came back, not after the Northern Song Dynasty". Affected by the tea township, Li Guangdi likes to drink tea, and often invites Fang Bao and others to the mansion to enjoy Anxi Oolong tea in his hometown. When the tea is soaked, there is often an orchid fragrance permeating the room, quiet and long, with infinite charm, and the threads are engraved deep in Fang Bao's memory.

One afternoon in the autumn of the sixth year of Qianlong (1741), Fang Baozheng was reading "Huang Qing Wenying" at his desk. The attendant reported that there was a Confucian student outside the door asking for advice. It was Li Guangdi's fellow township Wang Shirang who came in. Wang Shirang was born in Yaoyang Township (now Nanyan Village, Xiping Town) in Chongxinli, Anxi in the twenty-sixth year of Kangxi (1687). It was not until four years ago that he was admitted to the Jinshi at the age of forty-five. This time, he was called to Beijing in accordance with the law to pay homage to Fang Bao and present the tea from his hometown with him to Fang Bao.

When Fang Bao saw the tea that Wang Shirang took out, he knew it was the Anxi tea tasted at Li Guangdi's mansion in the past, but it was slightly different from the tea he drank in the past. The tea in front of me is thicker and thicker, thrown into the cup clanging loudly. It has not been filled with water, and there is a slight aroma overflowing out of the cup. The next day, Fang Bao entered the pilgrimage to see Emperor Qianlong, recommended Wang Shirang, and offered this tea to the emperor. Qianlong found that the green leaves of this tea were red, and the strips were dense. He ordered people to inject water, open the lid of the cup, and the fragrance came out; a light drink will leave the cheeks with fragrance and be intoxicated. With a big difference in my heart, Wang Shirang came to inquire about the origin of this tea. Wang Shirang told the story of "Avalokitesvara's Dream" and the propagation and propagation of Anxi tea.

Wang Shirang made some performances and made Qianlong secretly surprised. After careful observation and weighing, he felt that the tea was black and strong, the grains were as heavy as iron, and the taste was beautiful and beautiful. The name is "Tieguanyin". When Wang Shirang heard this, he knelt down and thanked him. Since then, Tieguanyin's reputation has spread all over the world.