Section I　Ancient Pu’er Tea (before 1840)

As one of the origin centers of tea in the world, Yunnan has a long history of tea planting and processing.According to Local Chronicles of Huayang (Southwest)· Records of Ba:“The King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty conquered the Shang Dynasty and occupied Ba and Shu...and then received tributes such as cinnabar, raw lacquer, tea and honey from these two regions.”As early as more than 3,000 years ago, Yunnan ancestors presented tea as a tribute to the King Wu of Zhou Dynasty.According to the county annals of Luoping and Shizong, as early as 2,100 years ago,wild tea trees were domesticated and cultivated in Luoping and Shizong areas.With the changes of the times, Yunnan tea was depicted by literati of the Han Dynasty, Three Kingdoms, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Song and Yuan Dynasties in their poetry, and appeared in historical materials of all generations.Yunnan tea, after developing for thousands of years gradually became an important material related to the national economy and people’s livelihood until the Ming and Qing Dynasties due to“Pu’er tea enjoying tremendous popularity throughout the land”.This time, let’s walk through time and space on the historical timeline to appreciate the beauty of Pu’er tea in different periods, and feel the imprint of times of Pu’er tea.