My family and I all like to drink tea, so we have to go to Mengding Mountain, the birthplace of tea civilization. Therefore, Mengding Mountain has become a place where my family and I go again and again.
It was the Mingqian tea picking season, and I remembered my several trips to Mengding Mountain.
The first time I came to Mengding Mountain was a long time ago, in 2005; the second time I came to Mengding Mountain was in 2013; and the second time I came to Mengding Mountain was again for 5 years.
At the foot of the mountain at that time, the rustic atmosphere was heart-stirring——
At that time, the tea mountains were quite perfect and green——
At that time, the mountain roads were... The migrant workers who carried goods and building materials on the mountain were quite lucky -
At that time, Mengding Mountain was full of vitality, and it was really "a thousand trees spring before the diseased trees"-
… ………
Mengding Mountain Scenic Area is the birthplace of world tea civilization and the birthplace of world tea culture. Since the altitude, soil, and climate of Mengding Mountain are most suitable for the growth of tea, as early as the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, Wu Lizhen, the founder of tea in Mengding Mountain, began to domesticate and plant wild tea trees in Mengding Mountain, and began to cultivate tea artificially. history.
The road up the mountain was so well built that we forgot what it was like to go up the mountain. However, the big teapot still stands tall and high-profile on the top of the mountain.
For those over 60 years old, half-price admission is 30 yuan; the cable car up the mountain is 15 yuan (I wanted to climb the mountain like last time, but it’s better to be careful). From the cable car, you can see ridges of tea trees planted on the hillside. It is August and the picking season has long passed. It is rare to see tea farmers in the tea gardens.
But it was not like this last time. It was the right time before dawn and the tea farmers were busy.
Although my legs and feet were weak, I took the cable car up the mountain and walked down the mountain, but the recorded sequence still starts with the walking route up the mountain:
Among the people, Mengshan tea has always been regarded as a god that can cure diseases. thing. Therefore, Mengding tea with a long history is called "Fairy Tea", and Mengding Mountain is known as the "Hometown of Fairy Tea".
I remember the last time I was picking spring tea, the farmhouse provided a tea-picking experience.
It seems that on a weekend, I drove two hours to reach the famous mountain Mengding Mountain in Ya'an. I also heard on TV that you can experience tea picking, and I haven’t been there for many years. Taking advantage of the great weather, the family went there with great interest.
Tea is grown everywhere in the green mountains. When you eat at any farmer's house, you can go to the tea garden to pick tea for free, and the farmer can help you brew it.
It was an experience. I cooled and dried the tips of the young tea leaves I picked, and then pulled them with my hands in a pot to dry them (I have seen tea farmers in Mengding Mountain and West Lake in Hangzhou). Tea masters have made tea), brew it with 70-degree boiling water, and take a sip. It’s pretty good. Although it is not "water from the Yangtze River", it is really "tea from Mengding Mountain". This is something to talk about later.
The road up the mountain (we were going down the mountain "refreshingly" at this time, but in fact it was really difficult to go down the mountain, my feet were so weak...) was very steep, and the stone stairs were uneven.
This was indeed how we went up the mountain last time.
There are temples along the mountain. However, these temples have deteriorated over the years since the earthquake.
The last time I came here, this temple was not like this. The incense in Ganlu Temple was flourishing and the peonies were in full bloom:
The mountain road was quiet and green, and the moss leaves were green, and there were no passers-by. The buzz surged through.
Going all the way up, you can enjoy the panoramic view of Mengding Mountain. In summer and autumn, you can see the sea of ??clouds below the mountain.
When taking a break, everyone feels comfortable both physically and mentally. According to measurements, the negative oxygen ion content in Mengding Mountain reaches 12,000/cn3 all year round, making it the best place for outdoor mountain climbing activities, leisure, vacation, and health preservation.
The height of the cable car station up the mountain is the main temple of Mengding Mountain - Tiangai Temple.
In people’s minds, temples are expressions of Buddhist culture, and most of the statues enshrined in them are Buddha statues. However, in Tiangai Temple, the largest temple in Mengding Mountain, it is Wu Lizhen, the tea ancestor of Mengding Mountain, who is enshrined. . Tiangai Temple is said to be the place where Wu Lizhen grew tea in his hut. It was first built during the Three Kingdoms period and later destroyed by war. It was rebuilt by Buddhists during the Chunxi period of the Southern Song Dynasty and repaired many times during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
According to "Sichuan General Chronicles", "This is the only temple in the city that is ancient." The name of Tiangai Temple comes from the legend of Nuwa mending the sky. According to legend, Nuwa made colorful stones to mend the sky. When she reached the sky above Mengding Mountain, her vitality was exhausted and her body melted into the earth, leaving a funnel with nectar flowing out, so it is called " There is a saying that when rain leaks into Shutian, the center is covered with mountains." Building a temple here means "a cover that leaks out of the sky". The existing temple is an old thing from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The main hall, the Tea Temple, has a full-length statue of Master Wu Lizhen.
In the temple, you can offer incense and worship the gods, have a cup of tea, relax and admire the towering ancient ginkgo trees.
Tiangai Temple is surrounded by more than 10 thousand-year-old ginkgo trees, which are towering and blooming, blocking out the sun. It is said that these ginkgo trees were planted by Wu Lizhen himself, more than 2,000 years ago.
This place also had tea art performances back then:
As a digression, on the mountainside to the west of Mengding, there is also a Yongxing Temple with an altitude of 1,000 meters. The temple is located near mountains and rivers, with a construction area of ??5,000 square meters. The stone carvings of the mountain gate include nine dragons, an openwork "Yongxing Ancient Temple", and a pair of unicorn reliefs. Daxiong Hall is in the style of a mountain with double eaves and three stone towers. It is 12 meters wide. The columns, beams, walls and towers are all made of stone, giving it a dignified atmosphere. Around the temple, there are more than ten stone carvings such as poem stele, edicts and couplets by Huang Yunhu, the observer of Jiannan in the Qing Dynasty. There are rare flowers and trees such as seven-hearted camellia and red and white magnolias planted in the temple. One of them, a red azalea, was planted in the Ming Dynasty. In late spring and early summer, the branches are full of flowers.
After passing through the temple and continuing up the mountain (of course, the place where the cable car reaches is usually not the top of the mountain), you can reach the height of the roof of the main hall, and you can see the forest of steles. Among them, the middle school Gong Jiaziqiu wrote, "The Yangzi River is in the middle of the water, and the top of the mountain is Meng." "Serve Tea" is the most eye-catching.
Behind the stele corridor, there is a thousand-year-old tea tree. According to experts, the age of the tree is more than 1,000 years old. This is a wild shrub-type ancient tea tree, with a height of 3.5 meters, a width of 2.54 meters, a trunk diameter of 13 cm from the ground, a leaf length of 17 cm, a leaf width of 7.3 cm, 810 pairs of leaf veins, and 9 plants per plant. Large leaf tea tree.
There is a stone screen in front of the Yin Yang Stone Archway. The archway and screen were both built in the second year of Tianqi (1622) in the Ming Dynasty. The unicorn relief on the screen, with the vast sky overhead and the rolling sea water beneath its feet, is a wonder of Mengding Mountain. The archway has a three-door layout. The reason why it is called the "Yin Yang Stone Archway" is because the relief of two lions playing with a ball above the right door of the archway is dry all year round, while the relief of two phoenixes rising to the sun above the left door and the relief of dragon and phoenix above the middle door. It will be wet all year round. The banners on the front of the archway are "Dharma from the West", "A ladle of nectar" and "Dragon gathered by the dew". The fonts are simple and powerful. These three inscriptions combine the essence of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.
On the back of the screen is a Yin and Yang diagram imitated by Yuan Tiangang in the Tang Dynasty.
On both sides of the Shinto behind the archway are flying dragon reliefs built along the stone stairs. These two flying dragons guard the Longquan Ancient Well here.
The ancient well is also known as Mengquan Well and Ganlu Well. The stone fence is engraved with two dragons playing with beads. It is said that this is the place where Master Ganlu (Wu Lizhen) drew water when growing tea. The county annals record that "the well was fighting for water, but the rain did not stop. If the well is not dry, cover it with a stone, and the water from this well will have a strange fragrance. If you uncover it without authorization, it will rain heavily immediately. "This spring is named above Huiquan (the second spring in the world).
The Tang and Song Dynasties were the heyday of Mengshan tea. Mengding tea was listed as a tribute in the first year of Tianbao (724) of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. It was used as a special product for the emperor to offer sacrifices to the ancestors of heaven and earth. It continued uninterrupted for more than 1,200 years until the Qing Dynasty. This special tea is collected from the seven immortal tea plants planted by the tea ancestor Wu Lizhen. By the Qing Dynasty, the five peaks of Mengding were designated as forbidden areas, and the seven fairy tea plants were surrounded by stone fences and turned into the "Imperial Tea Garden", which remains today.
The Imperial Tea Garden is located among the five hills of the main peak of Mengding. Because the surrounding peaks resemble lotus flowers, the Imperial Tea Garden is located in the heart of the lotus, forming a "fengshui treasure land". Plant "seven plants here." The Tang and Song Dynasties were the heyday of Mengding Mountain tea. In the first year of Tianbao, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (724), Mengding Mountain tea was listed as a tribute. Every year, 360 leaves were collected from the Seven Immortals. The emperor used it to worship heaven and the Taimiao, and it was called Zhenggong; the tea enjoyed by the emperor was called deputy. Gong is collected among the five peaks; tribute, which is enjoyed by princes, princes and ministers, is collected from below the five peaks. From the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, Mengding tea "was offered as tribute year after year" without interruption for more than 1,200 years, which is unique in Chinese history.
Wu Lizhen is known as the founder of Mengshan tea. In the thirteenth year of Chunxi (1186), Emperor Xiaozong of the Song Dynasty also named Wu Lizhen the "Master of Manna Puhui Miaoji" and the place where he planted seven immortals. It is called "Imperial Tea Garden". The garden is surrounded by stone railings, with double stone gates on the front. On both sides are stone couplets "The heart of the Yangtze River, tea on the top of Mengshan Mountain" and the banner "Imperial Tea Garden".
The couplet "The water in the Yangtze River, the tea on the top of Mengshan Mountain" first came from a ditty "Early Spring on the Top of Mengshan Mountain" by Li Desai in the Yuan Dynasty. The water tastes great. "Jiangxin Water" here refers to Zhongling Spring located in Jinshan, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province. Zhongling Spring was rated as "the best spring in the world" in Zhang Youxin's "Jiancha Water". Later, in the process of spreading, "water in the center of the river" was passed down as "water in the middle of the river".
On the Imperial Tea Garden is the highest point of Mengding Mountain - Jade Girl Peak. On the peak are the Mengcha Fairy Girl and the Manlu Stone House. This fairy is said to be Fairy Yuye, the daughter of the Qingyi River God. She came to Mengding Mountain and fell in love with Wu Li. When the River God found out about it, he became furious and firmly disagreed with the two falling in love. He also adopted various means to separate them alive. , took Fairy Yuye away. Finally, Fairy Yuye escaped from the River God Mansion and came to Mengding Mountain to transform into a mountain peak to accompany Wu Lizhen.
The Ganlu Stone House is located on Ganlu Peak on the left side of the Imperial Tea Garden. It is also known as the Mengding Stone Palace. It has a stone door, stone pillars, stone chamber, and stone beams. It is a double-eaves resting mountain-style all-stone structure building with an area of ??12 square meters. The stone pillars, stone halls, stone brackets, and stone roofs leak light and rain, and the architectural style is very unique. According to legend, this house was a resting place for Wu Lizhen during the Han Dynasty when he was planting tea on Mengding Mountain. In the 19th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, monk Hongyin built a stone room for worship and worship, and inscribed "Scenic Scenery of Mengshan Mountain" on the stone door. The left and right couplets read : "The sudden and dangerous peaks show the traces of Yu, and the beautiful scenery of Pengying was created by nature."
From Tiangai Temple, you can take the cableway down the mountain, or you can go down the ladder to King Yu's Palace. The ladder to heaven has 1436 steps and stands steeply. It is said that after Dayu succeeded in controlling the floods, he led people to climb Mengding via this road to offer sacrifices. Therefore, Mengding Mountain has been known as "Yu Gongmeng Mountain" and "the first mountain for ancestors of China to worship heaven" since ancient times.