Jianyang

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jianyang

Nanping district south of Wuyishan. Dahu village (now in Xiaohu town) is the usual origin of the Shuixian cultivar; Zhangdun is the cradle of Jianyang white tea.

Level: County
district (区)
Within: Fujian › Nanping

At a glance#

Rainfall

1,742 mm a year

南平市建阳区人民政府

Mean temperature

18.1 °C

南平市建阳区人民政府

Location

27.335 °N118.116 °E

Wikipedia

Cultivation#

Cultivars grown: Shuixian
Landraces: Small-leaf landrace bushes ('南坑白' / 小白茶) were the original Jianyang white-tea material. Gongmei and Shoumei are still made from small-leaf group bushes; Bai Mudan blends Dabai with Shuixian leaf; Silver Needle uses Zhenghe Dabai buds.

南平市建阳区人民政府

Local words#

闽北乌龙 Minbei oolong 白茶 white tea 品种 cultivar

Market#

Output: No current district tea output found. Historic white-tea output: 82 t (1954), 650 t (1979), under 200 t (1988). Roasted green tea about 1,000 t a year in 1988–1990.

南平市建阳区人民政府

History#

205Jianyang county established; one of Fujian's five oldest counties.
南平市建阳区人民政府 (Jianyang District People's Government)
1736Start of the Qianlong era (1736–1795), during which the Xiao family of Nankeng, Zhangdun, is credited with creating Jianyang white tea.
南平市建阳区人民政府
1821Daoguang era: traditional start of Shuixian tea production from the bush at Zhuxian cave, Yanyi mountain, Dahu village.
百度百科 (Baidu Baike)
1913Shuixian white (水仙白) first made, according to the recollection of Dahu village tea farmer Huang Binglun.
南平市建阳区人民政府
1929The Jian'ou county gazetteer records Shuixian tea at Dahu (then under Jian'ou's Heyi li).
百度百科 (Baidu Baike)
1954Jianyang white-tea output 82 t, about 80% of Fujian's white tea.
南平市建阳区人民政府
1956Shuiji county abolished; Zhangdun, Huilong, Shuiji and Xiaohu transferred to Jianyang.
南平市建阳区人民政府
1985Fujian Shuixian recognised as a national cultivar (GS13009-1985).
百度百科 (Baidu Baike)
1994Jianyang county becomes a county-level city.
南平市建阳区人民政府
2015-03-18Jianyang becomes a district of Nanping.
南平市建阳区人民政府

Other names and written forms 1#

Chinese variants

建阳市 / 建阳县Jiànyáng shì / Jiànyáng xiànJianyang — city / countyCounty until 1994, county-level city 1994–2015, district of Nanping since 18 March 2015.

Names and ambiguities#

Shuixian origin: Shuiji, Xiaohu or Jian'ou?

All accounts point to Dahu (大湖) and the Zhuxian site on Yanyi mountain, but name the place differently. The 1929 Jian'ou gazetteer files it under Jian'ou's Heyi li. Baidu Baike says both 'Xiaohu township, Jianyang' and 'Shuiji township, Jianyang'. The Jianyang government now writes 小湖镇大湖村. The differences follow boundary changes: Shuiji county was abolished in 1956 and its towns, including Xiaohu and Shuiji, went to Jianyang. Jian'ou is today the main Minbei Shuixian producer and is sometimes treated as the home of the cultivar. Chinese Wikipedia adds an unsourced claim that the tree grew around Jianyang and Jian'ou a thousand years ago and was cultivated from the Kangxi era. Treat the 1821 date as traditional.

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Why 'Shuixian' (水仙)

The 1929 gazetteer (as quoted) says the name comes from a taste like narcissus flowers. A popular etymology reads 祝仙 (Zhuxian, the cave) as becoming 水仙 in local speech. Chinese Wikipedia gives a third, folk explanation based on Minnan '水' = 'beautiful'. None is verified linguistically.

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