Ⅲ.Period of the Sui and Tang Dynasties
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Yunnan tea developed rapidly and was gradually commercialized.The central government also noticed the importance of Pu’er tea for the ethnic minorities in the Western Regions, and implemented the strategy of“ruling the border with tea”, which cast a political color on the early Pu’er tea.
In the third year of Xiantong of the Tang Dynasty (862), Fan Chuo, an envoy of the Tang Dynasty personally visited Nanzhao, Yunnan and recorded in Volume 7 of his book Biography of Aboriginal Tribes:“Tea grows in the mountains at the boundary of Yinsheng City, which is picked in a scattered way,because there is no specific method of picking and processing.People of Mengshe Aboriginal Tribe drink the tea boiled with pepper, ginger and cinnamon.”The“Yinsheng City”mentioned here was built by the King of Nanzhao, who ruled Yunnan at that time, i.e.today’s Yuanjiang County, Zhenyuan County,Jingdong County, Lancang County and Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, which are roughly consistent with the later main producing areas of Pu’er tea.This record also shows that the tea produced in Yunnan during the Tang and Song Dynasties was concentrated in the south of Yunnan, and widely picked in a casual way.For drinking, it was boiled with spicy ingredients.
Fig.1-2 Records in Volume 7 of Biography of Aboriginal Tribes (picture source: Yunnan International Tea Trading Center)
唐太宗李世民去世后，唐朝与吐蕃的关系一度恶化，之后朝廷决定实施“以茶治边”战略，禁止普洱茶进入吐蕃。此时，普洱茶已经作为政治筹码参与到国家治理之中。“以茶治边”的策略十分奏效，大唐西部逐渐安宁，唐王朝与吐蕃的关系逐渐趋于缓和。至唐玄宗时期，朝廷开始以普洱茶换吐蕃的马，普洱茶成为了维系唐蕃关系的重要纽带之一。