On Friday afternoon, I received Mr. Ni Qun's gift of "The cradle of modern tea technology in China - Qimen Tea Industry Improvement Field", and was very happy. On the weekend, I put down all the things and couldn't wait to read it, and soon immersed myself in it, such as drinking sweet Yi, such as bathing the breeze, after reading with emotion: In today's highly developed Internet, people acquire knowledge and information through extremely rich channels, but reading is always the most important way, "books are the ladder of human progress" this sentence is not outdated. A good book can not only make readers increase knowledge, broaden their horizons, but also enlighten their minds, purify their hearts, and make people feel physically and mentally happy and invigorated. Mr. Ni Qun's new book with ink fragrance is undoubtedly such a good book.

"The cradle of modern tea technology in China - Qimen Tea Industry Improvement Farm" is a highly directed monograph of tea history, a panoramic record of the Qimen Tea Industry Improvement Farm (hereinafter referred to as Qichang) from its establishment in October 1915 to the reorganization in January 1950 as long as 35 years of ups and downs of development, a systematic summary of the brilliant scientific and technological achievements and historical achievements of Qichang. It vividly tells the struggle course of many tea people represented by Mr. Wu Juenong in Qichang. This book is rich in content, detailed in information, clear in theme, ideological, academic, informative and interesting in one, is one of the best domestic tea history books in recent years, and can be called a milestone in the historical and cultural research of Keemen black tea (hereinafter referred to as Keemen Hong).

Reading this book, you can fully understand the prominent historical position of Qi Hong in China's modern tea industry. Tea originated in China, in a long period of time has been China's export of the fist commodity, on the then political, economic, social impact can not be ignored. After the Opium War, the international tea market was in turmoil, and in just a few decades, China's tea export trade turned from prosperity to decline, and even plummeted, which had a huge impact on China's economy and society at that time. Born in the early years of Guangxu Qi Hong is in such an upturning historical process, in that period of Chinese tea internal and external difficulties in the rough years, Qi Hong with its highest quality reputation in the world, doggedly carried the flag of China's tea export.

The rise and fall of Qi Hong is directly related to the rise and fall of Hua tea, and the important significance of improving Qi Hong for China's tea industry is explained in the book. The ancestors of Qi Field were also very clear about this, so they "drew up the national tea industry revival plan, and Anhui in the first province of tea production, Qimen for the Lord of Qimen, because that is the starting point of Qimen for this plan, with commercial vision, by planting system marketing, respectively improved." The success of Qimen, that is, the success of the national tea industry revival plan; If Keemon fails, this whole project will suffer a major blow. Therefore, the Qimen cause is related to the future of our tea industry, which is indescribable." The passage quoted in the book not only highly highlights the irreplaceable role of Qi Hong in China's tea industry, but also fully highlights the extreme importance of the establishment of Qi Chang and its work, which left a particularly deep impression on me.

It is also worth mentioning that the book for the first time relates to an important historical fact about Qi Hong, that is, in the difficult period of the Anti-Japanese War, "tea has become a national defense item, it can be exchanged for military supplies, to win the fighter", Qi Hong and Qi field in addition to the export in exchange for supplies, support for the war of resistance played a huge role, there are many Qi field tea people dispersed to the rear, open up new tea export producing areas, Strive to "save the country with tea". Among them, Feng Shaoqiu's creation of "Yunnan Hong" has been mentioned in many articles before and is known, but Fan Hejun, Wu Guoying, Tong Yiyun, Qi Zengpei and other tea people developed "hero tea" in Yunnan, so that all the tea factories in Yunnan at that time were all tea people in the past as factory directors, which was rarely mentioned in the past and no one has concentrated on the record. The book tells the story of that character in detail in a larger length, which also indirectly explains another great contribution of Qi Hong and Qi Field in the war of resistance, which is also a new achievement of Qi Hong's historical and cultural research.

Reading this book, you can give a comprehensive understanding of the ups and downs of the development of Qi field and brilliant scientific research achievements. Qichang is the first agricultural organization established by the Chinese government, and the history of Qichang's difficult development is a true portrayal of the tortuous and turbulent modern Chinese history.

The author takes time as the main line, and records the history of Qichang and the events that happen year by year clearly with meticulous writing. The narrative is orderly, the context is clear, the focus is prominent, and the complexity and simplicity are appropriate. A large number of historical events involving Qichang contained in the book are disclosed for the first time, and a large number of precious historical data and picture archives have never been seen before, which is precious enough to have an important reference value for the study of the history of the development of tea science and technology in China during the Republic of China.

The book is also divided into categories and systematically summarizes Qichang's scientific research results in three aspects of tea cultivation, production and sales, so that people can deeply understand why this place is called "the cradle of modern tea technology in China." As said in the book, the period of Qi field's existence was a semi-feudal and semi-colonial old China, weak and poor, unstable, at that time, China's science and technology lagged far behind the world's advanced level, modern tea technology is like a blank sheet of paper. Many aspiring tea people in Qichang are striving to explore the method of Qichang's improvement and the road of China's tea revival, "for our country to create the preliminary foundation of tea professional scientific research", Qichang's scientific research involves modern tea botany, tea making technology, biochemistry, review and inspection, economic trade, tea culture and other aspects. Here were born many of the first in the history of Chinese tea technology, some even in the world's leading level at that time. Such as high trapezoidal tea gardens such as drill planting, mechanical tea making, tea distribution cooperatives...

These unprecedented innovations in the history of Chinese tea were born here and then promoted to the whole country and the world. Even those experiments and achievements that seem insignificant today are a big step or even a leap in China's tea industry at that time, "is an important symbol of Chinese traditional tea making technology to absorb the achievements of modern industrial civilization and transform into modern tea making technology." The reform of China's tea industry started in Qimen has developed vigorously, has far-reaching influence, and has been honored for a hundred years. It still has important reference value and guiding significance for us today, which is also the most important value of this book.

Reading this book can make people deeply understand the spirit of the ancestors of Qi field to serve tea and serve the country with tea. Qi field "is the longest history of a tea industry improvement organ, the national tea industry experts, almost all have some origin relationship with it", "became almost all tea science and technology personnel yearning for learning experimental base", gathered a group of domestic top tea elites at that time, trained many tea science and technology talents, Therefore, it is also known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" in the tea industry.

The book records in detail the stories of several generations of tea workers represented by Lu, Wu Juenong and Hu Hao Chuan who were trying to find the road to the revival of the tea industry in Qimen. It mentions that there were more than 100 famous people who worked or studied in Qichan, almost including all the important people in the field of Chinese tea in the last century.

Among them, there are more than 40 tea people whose stories are introduced. The author vividly tells their anecdotes and stories, and portrays many images of the older generation of tea people with flesh and blood. As the book said in September 1934, when Mr. Hu Haochuan took office as the president of Qi Field, the conditions were extremely difficult, so that "rice and salt have no, two porridge, and for light food", but he "calmly, hard business, bleak management, not by the temptation of" senior officials and rich salaries "at that time, for years as a day, satisfied with the poor life of Qimen", This spirit of tea people who are not afraid of hardship and willing to live in poverty is admirable. The book also said that from 1935 to the spring of 1937, Mr. Feng Shaoqiu led a group of scientific and technological personnel in Qi field to carry out Qi Hongchu, refining and mechanical tea making tests, in order to understand the influence of different temperatures on tea making, they once raised the temperature repeatedly test and compare, from which to find the best solution. It was very difficult to accurately control the temperature because the facilities were very simple at that time, and the spirit of tea people who were meticulous and kept improving was very impressive.

Such examples abound in the book, vividly explaining what is the "spirit of Qichang Tea people", as Mr. Wu Kyunong said: "I have been engaged in tea work all my life, and many tea workers, my colleagues and my students have worked together with me. They do not seek fame and fortune, promotion, fancy houses, splendid clothes and delicious food, none of them indulge in sex and sex, and most of them work hard all their lives, are honest and selfless, and have the integrity of a gentleman. This is the style of tea people." These precious spiritual wealth is never out of date, and still has important educational significance and incentive effect.

I have known Mr. Ni Qun for many years. As early as the middle and late 1990s, when I first began to pay attention to tea culture, I often read his tea articles in newspapers and magazines, especially the two most famous tea culture magazines in China at that time, Tea Expo and Agricultural Archaeology · Tea Culture Album, published his tea articles almost continuously for several years. I was impressed by the name.

In the summer vacation of 2001, I went to Huangshan City to collect information for preparing a paper for an international academic seminar. I took the time to visit Mr. Ni Qun in Qimen. I felt very familiar with him and got a lot of help from him. In the following years, I communicated with him more and more, and only then did I know that he was not only a well-known scholar of tea culture, but also a fruitful expert on Hui culture. He has been in Qimen for decades, focusing on the study of literature and history and devoting himself to hard work. He has written and edited more than ten books on Qimen history and culture, with a wide range of content and no shortage of precision. His profound knowledge and extensive reading let me admire him. You should know that he is an administrative officer in Keemen, usually busy with official chores, and can achieve such remarkable achievements, which shows that he is diligent in learning, which makes me feel ashamed as a so-called "professional" social science personnel.

The last time we met was in December 2023, when the Anhui Hui Society 2023 academic annual meeting and "Hui and the new Cultural Mission" academic seminar was held in Qimen (at this meeting, he was co-elected as the executive director of Anhui Hui Society, which can be said to be deserved). This is the second time we met after four years of separation since the epidemic, naturally we talked a lot. Learned that he has been committed to Qimen County since 2019, "thousands of miles of Tea Ceremony World Cultural Heritage" declaration work (afterwards, a friend told me that Qimen County was able to successfully represent Huangshan City as the only city in Anhui Province to join the domestic heritage alliance and Qimen tea industry improvement site site included in the preferred heritage point, Mr. Ni Qun is credited to Wei), to promote the application of heritage is writing a book about Qimen field. I can still remember the conversation at that time, and I saw his new book in a blink of an eye, which is really gratifying.

Mr. Ni Qun is rigorous in academic studies and has a correct writing attitude. According to the later record, he spared no effort to collect data for the writing of this book for as long as 20 years, during which he went through the numerous archives and literatures, and found the information involving Qi field bit by bit, and carefully researched and analyzed it. And many times visited the old tea people who worked in Qichang and their descendants, recorded a large number of first-hand oral information. It can be described as a wide range of efforts, painstaking, painstaking, and finally to make a small, great view. The most outstanding feeling of this book is that the information is especially rich and detailed, and the writing technique of describing historical facts and saying that the characters have been produced has constructed a standing history of faith.