Li Hong, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, reigned for 60 years at the age of 88. Even now, this life expectancy is very high, ranking first among the ancient emperors in China. There are many stories about Qianlong and tea, which involve all aspects related to tea, such as planting tea, drinking tea, fetching water, tea names, tea poems and so on. According to legend, Emperor Qianlong visited Hangzhou six times and the West Lake tea area four times. When he was drinking Longjing tea in front of Gong Hu Temple at Lion Peak in Longjing, he got a taste of the mellow tea in Qing Xiang, so he named the eighteen tea trees in front of the temple "Imperial Tea" and sent someone to take care of them. Every year, the tea drinker is himself, and "Imperial Tea" still exists in the site. In the 16th year of Qianlong, 1752, I visited Hangzhou for the first time and watched the tea-picking process in Tianzhu. He has a good impression and wrote "Watching Tea Picking and Singing", including "slowly add a small fire to the ground stove and spin the kettle with a soft wind. Slow frying and fine roasting have a second time, and there is a lot of hard work. It is also commendable that the emperor can understand the hard work of tea farmers and the difficulty of making tea through observation.
Emperor Qianlong did not die in office, but "gave way to the old." Legend has it that when he decided to give the throne to fifteen sons (later Daoguang), an old minister protested regretfully: "The country can't live without a king for a day!" After drinking tea all his life, Emperor Qianlong picked up a cup of tea from the imperial cabinet and said, "A day can't be without tea." This may be a humorous joke, it may mean "I should return the leisure drink", or both.
In the tea business, Qianlong's respect for the emperor, extravagance, Excellence, omnipotent. The tea banquet he proposed to hold in China Palace was luxurious, grand and exquisite. According to Tsui Hark's Notes on the Qing Dynasty, "On the third day after New Year's Day, those who hand-picked princes to write poems gave a banquet at the China Palace, giving tea by play, and ordered them to imitate Bailiang couplets to remember their prosperity, followed by two chapters of imperial poems, and ordered the ministers to make peace with them." He also stipulated that whenever a banquet is held, tea must be served before wine, which is of great significance to China people who attach great importance to order. Sixty years after Qianlong's reign (1796 abdicated), he hosted more than a thousand banquets with 800 tables, which is known as "the law of unprecedented prosperity". There were 3056 people at the banquet and more than 3000 poems were written. The people who attended the banquet were absolutely extraordinary people at that time, but they didn't seem to leave any famous sentences.
Tea and water are unique in Qianlong. After tasting the "Junshan Silver Needle" produced in Dongting, he won endless praise, which made the local people pay 18 Jin of tribute every year. He also named Anxi, Fujian "Tieguanyin". Since then, Anxi tea has become famous and has never been lost.
After Gan Long abdicated in his later years, he was still addicted to tea, so he set up a "tea-baking dock" in Jing Qing Zhai, Beihai, for idle people to enjoy tea. He lived 88 years and was the longest-lived emperor in China, so his longevity should be related to this. Of course, as an emperor, he must have used many techniques to prolong life, and drinking tea is one of his health preservation methods. In ancient China, many anti-aging technologies were ineffective, and some "pills" did more harm than good. Only drinking tea may be the only hobby that can last for many years and benefit a lot.
==================================================================================
The Legend of Emperor Qianlong and Longjing Tea
When Emperor Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River, he came to the foot of Shifeng Mountain in Longjing, Hangzhou, and saw a country girl picking tea to show her love. On this day, Emperor Qianlong saw several country girls picking tea in front of a dozen shady tea trees. He was very happy and learned to pick tea. Just picked one, suddenly the eunuch came to report: "The Queen Mother is ill, please return to Beijing as soon as possible." When Emperor Qianlong heard that Empress Dowager Cixi was ill, he put a handful of tea in his bag and returned to Beijing day and night. In fact, it is because the queen mother ate too many delicacies, her anger rose, her eyes were red and swollen, and her stomach upset. As a matter of fact, she is not seriously ill. At this time, when I saw the arrival of the prince, I only felt a faint fragrance, so I asked what good things I had brought. The emperor also wondered where it came from. He touched it casually. Ah, it turned out to be a handful of tea from Longjing, Hangzhou. After a few days, it dried up and gave off a strong aroma. The queen mother wants to taste this tea. The maid-in-waiting made tea and sent it to the queen mother. Sure enough, the smell is fragrant. The queen mother took a sip and suddenly felt a lot more comfortable in her eyes. After drinking tea, the redness disappeared and her stomach did not swell. The queen mother said happily, "Hangzhou Longjing tea is really a panacea." Emperor Qianlong was so happy to see the Empress Dowager, and immediately ordered the eighteen tea trees in front of Gong Hu Temple at the foot of Shifeng Mountain in Longjing, Hangzhou to be named imperial tea, and the new tea was picked every year to pay tribute to the Empress Dowager. Today, there are still 18 imperial teas in Longjing, Hangzhou, and many tourists from Hangzhou come to visit and take photos as a souvenir.
==================================================================================
See how Gan Long uses children's tea to "reduce fire"
Liu Yuduo, known as "the best medical officer in Beijing", served as a physician in the palace during Yongzheng and Qianlong years, and his diagnosis and treatment level was quite high. Once the taste of the stem is dry, there will be a burning feeling. Liu Yuduo and others turned a blind eye to children's tea, and let the stem be applied to the hair or taken with clothes, which quickly cleared the floating fire in the mouth.
In fact, children's tea is not tea, but a dry extract made by decocting branches of Leguminosae tea tree or branches of Rubiaceae catechu in water and concentrating, which can be taken orally to clear away heat and resolve phlegm and treat diarrhea. Local wound healing and hemostasis, such as skin ulceration, toothache, gingival ulcer, etc.
Dr. Zhao Wenshuo of Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine pointed out that children's tea is called Udi mud in Compendium of Materia Medica, also known as catechu paste, children's tea and catechu black. Bitter, astringent and cold in nature, belonging to lung meridian. Dry mouth is probably caused by upper jiao and lower fire in lung and stomach. Catechu tastes bitter and cool, and bitterness can purge heat, which can really play the role of clearing heat and removing fire.
Catechu paste is usually made by picking branches in winter, drying them in the sun, peeling them, cutting them into pieces, decocting them in water, concentrating them into syrup, cooling and drying them to make models. Generally for external use, it is often used in clinic to treat wet sores and long-term unclosed sores caused by running water (yellow water or yellow pus). But it needs to be used with borneol, and the effect is obvious. It can also be used for treating aphtha, chancre, traumatic injury and hemorrhage.
Children's tea is recorded in pharmacopoeia or pharmaceutical works in Europe, America, Japan and other countries, and is used as an astringent or combined with other astringents to treat diarrhea. In the treatment of diarrhea, patients need to take it orally, and the dose is very small. Although children's tea can be bought in pharmacies, patients still need to take it under the guidance of doctors, because not all diarrhea can be applied. It is effective for persistent diarrhea and bloody stool diarrhea, but it is not suitable for early bacterial dysentery, because catechu has astringent effect, and bacterial dysentery should not be stopped prematurely, which is not conducive to the discharge of bacteria.
......