【Prose】 The Road to Tea】 Cao Rong

Road of tea

Cao Rong

Rotate mountains and water in the rain and rain, pass through the quiet ancient village, and set foot on a rugged mountain trail. Unconsciously, walk into the vast ancient road of history.

This is a twisty and narrow gravel mountain road. From the roadside of the village entrance, the Erlang Mountain, which stands towards the wall, extends to the wall, and the snakes are rolling up. At the end, I don't know how long, how far, and how high.

At the village entrance, there is a red sandstone wet from rainwater, and a line of words are engraved: Ganxi Po Tea Horse Ancient Road site.

It turned out that under my feet, there was the road of tea that stretched for thousands of miles to Tibet. The trading business of traders that had been ignored by history and was cherished today, the road of thrilling and difficulty with the road. And I am on a mysterious ancient road in history!

I was startled, how could I walk here lightly?

Looking at the winding mountain road in the rain, I asked the wind, when did the wind go to this west? The wind does not speak. I asked the rainy rain, even more than a thousand years? The rain was silent.

I looked at it from a distance, and there was no figure on the vast ancient road. And I can only find the traces of the slate roads on the slate road at that time, from the twists and turns they stepped out, to find the prosperity and vicissitudes of the past.

The old leaves fell slowly from the tree. I suspect it was an ancient tea tree. The wind spoke, a leaf, a sound, saying that there was no way for ancient times a long time ago. From Ya'an to Ganzi Kangding and the snowy area of ​​Lhasa, Tibet, high and far away. There are no roads across the mountains and waters.

Can't you walk without a way? How will the tens of thousands of tons of tea be trapped in the snowy plateau? I asked stubbornly.

The road came out, and the civilization in the world also set off from the road. I opened the historical dust -filled book and found the answer.

Tea Horse Ancient Road is the name given to it today. In fact, it is an ancient tea road that we measures with his feet. There are three main lines on this road: Sichuan -Tibet Road, Yunnan -Tibet Road, Qinghai -Tibet Road (Ganqing Road). Among the three avenues, from the beginning of the Sichuan -Tibet Road. The beginning is very loud, called "Niu Niu Dao". It is the oldest tea path in China and the earliest ancient tea road in the world.

More than 2,000 years ago, Ya'an's tea was transported to the west of the Dadu River.

In the Tang Dynasty, tea horse transactions appeared.

In order to maintain the stability of the frontier region and the integration of ethnicity, the Central Regime of the Song Dynasty set up a government agency "Tea Horse" that specializes in the management of tea and horse trade in Ya'an. Trade -oriented to content- "Tea Horse City".

This ancient road was out of the country from Shigatse, entered Nepal, Myanmar, India and other countries, and went to East Asia and European countries until it arrived in West Asia and West Africa's Red Coast. On the land in southwestern China, this commercial road is mainly based on the horses and yaks of the Tibetan districts in Sichuan. Thousands of horse gangs and Sichuan -Tibet tea roads stepped out of the back husband are staggered with the historical Southern Silk Road. Overlapping has not only become another center of the Han and Tibetan trade, but also opens an important channel to the world and spreads ancient Chinese civilizations. It is not inferior to the Silk Road.

Who first opened the mysterious door of the Snowfield Lhasa? Take the hot tea from the first cup of Han Dynasty?

I think it should be Princess Wencheng? More than a thousand years ago, Princess Wencheng and his party set off from Chang'an, full of silk, porcelain, and the royal books, gold, and silver, mighty, and along the long ancient road, rushing towards Lhasa.

On that day, Princess Wencheng entered Tibet and brought a lot of tea from Yazhou (Ya'an). Ya'an is a place for Chinese tea and tea production, and the birthplace of Chinese and world tea civilization. Since then, Ya'an Tea has continued to enter Tibet.

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the court stipulated that the tea in Ya'an and other places was specially sold in Kangzang. Because Ya'an is located in the southwestern part of Chengdu, the official tea patrol officials all went to the south gate of Chengdu for supervision, also known as "South Road Tea". Therefore, Jazu tea is another title of tea on the southern road.

History will always be obliterated but will not be completely annihilated. Ganxi Po, Tianquan County is the ancient Sichuan -Tibet tea horse trail that has been preserved to this day. This road is called a "small road". Starting from Ya'an, upside to the Qingyi River, via Tianquan and Angzhou River, turn over Erlang Mountain, go to the arrow furnace (Kangding) through Luding, and then go to Tibet. "Shu Dao is difficult, it is difficult to go to the sky." Since ancient times, Shu Dao is difficult and dangerous. Because of this along the river, the mountains are all over the river. Both feet can be climbed. These accumulated tea bags can only carry their backs on their backs. I leaned down, on the winding and rugged stone mountain road, faintly discerned the potholes, and was deeply embedded in the mud and bone soil and exactly in the earth. , Tieni tied on the stone traces of the stone- "Touring Nest". I couldn't help feeling that it did not disappear between the mountains with history, but kept on the ancient road of this relic, witnessing the vicissitudes and hardships of carrying tea to carry tea.

At the village entrance, a house of tile -roof wooden house, and above the black lacquer door, "Tea Horse Ancient Road Exhibition Hall". When I stopped in front of the wall, the yellowish black and white photos that were magnified made me shock.

In the photo, a ravioli back, wearing a straw hat, a thin shoulders carrying a layered long tea bag with more than 300 pounds, as if a mountain was pressed on him. With a long years of load, his thin body was so tired that he was bent with a hug. Tired, he stood on the rugged mountain road, behind the steep rock wall. He turned his hands, let him take a long back. How can his thin shoulders support the tea bag heavily like a stone? How did the feet wearing a mango go to the Snow Plateau step by step? Here, he knew that he might be exhausted halfway, or he might be buried under the dangerous cliff. However, the dark and yellow face showed a cheerful smile, so serene, so calm, no sigh, no fear, as if I didn't know that I would continue to move forward. I looked at him for a long time and moved. This is the simplicity of the Chinese nation who always retain the strong and optimistic spirit and personality.

Another old photo: Under the sun, on the ancient road of the west wind, the back husband carried a heavy tea bag, one by one climbing between the mountains and mountains, bent into a bow -shaped body, the thin and overwhelming back, slow and slow and slower back Firmly to the distance, move forward step by step. I can't help but respect, some people come back, but go back with despair. However, there are tenacious people, such as these back husbands, wearing thorns, after thousands of dangers, resisting the wind, frost, rain, and fighting against the wolf beasts, step by step, with blood and tears on this thousand -year -old long road full of tea.

West to west, the Sichuan -Tibet tea road, which is a thousand years, is the most magnificent landscape in the world, and on the other hand is the most difficult and mysterious ancient road in the world. It is destined to be an extraordinary legend, and it is also destined to be a difficult trek.

This is the most difficult and tough load.

This is the most sincere and sacred walking and crossing.

The ancient Sichuan -Tibet Tea Horse Road, deeply in history, has witnessed the intersection and identification of two great ethnic groups in Han and Tibet, and also witnessed the exchanges and integration of different civilizations in the world.

One leaf tea, a tree, a road. The prosperity has become desolate, and desolate has become prosperous. This is the past. In the rainy rain, I seemed to cross the morning and early Republic of China. I saw those back husbands with heavy tea bags on their shoulders and walked towards Tibet. I seemed to smell the strands of tea that once wandered all the way, as if he heard the backbone hood in the echo mountain, and the breath of the back of the back of the station on the station, as if seeing the slow and firmness on the ancient road to the distance from the distance. The figure trek step by step.

Suddenly, I found that in the setting sun, the ancient roads were not all sighed by the ancient poets holding thin horses.

Source: Sichuan Provincial Local House Work Office

Author: Cao Rong (member of the Chinese Writers Association, a contractor signed by the Pakistan Academy of Literature, the work has won the Bingxin Prose Award, the Silk Road Prose Award, the Sichuan Literature Award, and the Prose Communication Award at home and abroad.

Supply: Ya'an Local Chronicle Compilation Center

Picture: Fang Zhi Sichuan

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