The Tea Horse Road
The Tea Horse Road exists in southwestern China, with horse caravans as the main mode of transportation for international trade. It is a corridor for economic and cultural exchange among the southwestern ethnic groups. The Tea Horse Road is a unique regional designation, a premier travel route featuring spectacular natural scenery and mysterious culture. Spanning nearly four thousand kilometers, it has a history of over one thousand three hundred years, with deep historical and cultural significance. It served as an essential bridge and bond between ancient Tibet and the mainland, harboring an inexhaustible wealth of cultural heritage with profound historical and cultural meaning.
Historical Origins
According to historical records, the earliest overseas spread of Chinese tea can be traced back to the Southern and Northern Dynasties period. At that time, Chinese merchants traded tea for goods with Turkey along the border adjacent to Mongolia.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, with the development of border trade markets and the opening of the Silk Road, Chinese tea was transported via tea-horse exchanges through the Uyghur and Western Regions to West Asia, Central Asia, and Arab countries. The route passed through Siberia before ultimately reaching Russia and European countries.
From the Tang Dynasty onwards, successive rulers adopted measures to control tea-horse transactions. In the first year of Emperor Suzong's Zhide era (756 AD) up to the Qianyuan era, horse trading occurred in the Uyghur region of Mongolia, marking the beginning of tea-horse exchanges.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, tea-horse trading primarily took place in the Shaanxi and Gansu regions. The tea used for trading horses was sourced locally from Sichuan and special administrative offices were set up in Chengdu and Qin Prefecture (today's Tianshui, Gansu) for the regulation of tea sales and horse purchases.
In the Yuan Dynasty, the government abolished the tea-horse border governance policy implemented during the Song Dynasty.
In the Ming Dynasty, the relay station system of the Yuan Dynasty continued, with damaged stations required to be restored within a specified timeframe. The management of key points and ferry crossings along the roads was also strengthened. The Ming Dynasty established tea-horse offices in Ya Prefecture and Diao Gate. Millions of catties of tea entered Tibet via Kham each year, greatly increasing the economic value of the Sichuan-Tibet route, which became the main “tea route.” During the Hongwu period of the Ming dynasty, a top-quality horse could be exchanged for up to 120 catties of tea. By the Wanli period, a top-quality horse could be exchanged for thirty bundles of tea, twenty for medium quality, and fifteen for low quality. The Ming dynasty writer Tang Xianzu wrote in his poem “Tea and Horses,” “How beautiful is black tea, how extraordinary are the Qiang horses.” “Qiang horses seek gold and pearls for yellow tea.” These lines reflect the prosperity of the tea-horse market at the time.
By the Qing Dynasty, the tea-horse border governance policy had relaxed, and there were many private tea traders. In tea-horse exchanges, more tea was spent but fewer horses were acquired. In the thirteenth year of Emperor Yongzheng's reign, the official tea-horse trading system was terminated.
The tea-horse border governance system started in the Sui and Tang dynasties and lasted almost a millennium until the Qing Dynasty. Over these long years of tea-horse market trading, Chinese merchants created a rugged and winding ancient road on the borders of the northwest and southwest with their own feet.
Due to social unrest, wars, and the corruption of the Qing government, the Tea Horse Road was abandoned alongside the rapid decline of the Pu'er tea industry.
Name Origin
In the summer of 1990, Professor Mu Jihong of Yunnan University and others traveled to the triangular area where Sichuan, Yunnan, and Tibet meet. They aimed to verify the real existence of the tea-horse road and conduct academic research along the way.
They faced various unexpected challenges and dangers on this journey, constantly being reminded of its difficulties by piles of bones in deep mountain caves and under steep cliffs. After more than three months, they walked over two thousand kilometers, crossing dozens of mountains higher than 4,700 meters, and numerous dangerous rivers such as the Jinsha, Nu, and Lancang Rivers. They conducted systematic linguistic and cultural studies in the Sichuan-Tibet-Yunnan triangle, collecting nearly a million words of data, taking over three thousand documentary photographs, recording hundreds of tapes of folk stories and music, and gathering thousands of physical specimens.
At the conclusion of their journey, they named the vast ancient network of roads, tied together by tea, the Tea Horse Road.
Historical Significance
With the rise of modern transportation, the Tea Horse Road, which had been in continuous operation for over a thousand years and played a significant role in linking Han and Tibetan peoples, has lost its former status and function. However, as a historical witness to the formation of the Chinese nation and a precious part of the historical and cultural heritage of today's multi-ethnic Chinese family, its significance and value shine ever brighter over time.
The term “Tea Horse Road” imbues Pu'er tea with cultural fragrance, rescuing it from near-oblivion in the dust of history.
Over the course of two hundred years, dynasties changed and people rose and fell, but the Tea Horse Road witnessed the transformations in Pu'er tea history from start to finish. Ultimately, the Tea Horse Road became the soul of Pu'er tea culture!