Da Hong Pao Legends: What's History and What's Modern?
Short answer
The best-known Da Hong Pao story, of a sick scholar cured by monks' tea who later draped his red robe over the bushes, is a legend with no contemporary record. Documented facts include the six mother trees on the Jiulongke cliff, a 2005 auction where 20 grams sold for ¥208,000, and the 2006 decision to stop picking them. One scholar, anthropologist Jean DeBernardi, argues that much of the Da Hong Pao story as told today took shape in the late 20th century.
By D² Tea Lab, Burnaby · Updated
Few teas come with as many stories as Da Hong Pao (大红袍, "Big Red Robe"). Some are centuries-old legends, some are well documented and some are modern, yet they're often told together as if they were all the same kind of truth.
The legend: the scholar and the red robe
The version most often told: a scholar travelling to the imperial examinations fell ill near the Wuyi Mountains. Monks at a local temple revived him with tea from bushes growing on the cliff. He went on to come first in the exams and, in gratitude, returned to drape his red official robe over the bushes, which gave the tea its name.
Details vary (the dynasty, the scholar, whether it was an emperor's mother who was cured). People's Daily, writing about Wuyi tea in 2024, also recounts a separate legend of monkeys trained to pick tea from the high cliffs.
It's a beautiful story and part of Wuyi's culture, but there's no contemporary record of it, so it stays a legend.
Documented: the mother trees
| Fact | Source |
|---|---|
| Six Da Hong Pao mother trees grow on the cliff at Jiulongke (九龙窠), Tianxin Rock area | Xinhua 2006; People's Daily 2024 |
| Their yield was under 1 kg a year | Xinhua 2006 |
| On 13 May 2006, Wuyishan stopped picking them to protect them | Xinhua 2006; People's Daily 2024 |
| Cuttings were propagated successfully in the early 1980s; a 1995 appraisal found the clones kept the mother trees' traits | Xinhua 2006 |
| In 2005, 20 g of mother-tree tea sold for ¥208,000 (RMB) at the 7th Wuyishan Da Hong Pao Tea Culture Festival | Xinhua 2006 |
| The craft of making Wuyi rock tea (Da Hong Pao) is a national intangible cultural heritage item in China | China Intangible Cultural Heritage |
The modern story: a scholar's view
In 2021, the University of Oxford's project on authenticity in China's cultural heritage hosted a talk titled "The Modern Invention of Big Red Robe Tea: History, Story, and Performance", by anthropologist Jean DeBernardi of the University of Alberta. It was later published as a chapter in Understanding Authenticity in Chinese Cultural Heritage (Routledge, 2023). Its argument, in summary:
- Before the revolution, the bushes belonged to the Tianxin Yongle Chan Temple, founded in 874 CE.
- Until 2005, tea from the so-called mother trees was used as a state gift and auctioned by the government.
- Tea from cloned bushes has been sold as Da Hong Pao since 1985.
- The scholar-and-robe story is often dated to 1385, and the trees are often called "over 600 years old", a claim the talk calls questionable, noting that monks reported in the 1950s that the trees had died after over-fertilising.
- The story continues to be retold and reshaped, for example in Zhang Yimou's stage show Impression Dahongpao (印象大红袍), which replaces the monks with villagers.
This is one scholar's well-researched argument rather than a settled verdict, though it suggests that stories told as "ancient" or "traditional" are often shaped by recent history.
Stories we couldn't verify
You'll often read that:
- Mao Zedong gave US President Nixon a small amount of Da Hong Pao in 1972, with a famous quip about giving away "half the country";
- the mother trees were insured for ¥100 million;
- the last mother-tree tea was given to a national museum.
These appear widely in popular articles, but we couldn't find primary sources for them and the versions conflict, so we treat them as popular stories.
Why it matters for what's in your cup
The legends explain the name. The documented history explains why no one drinks mother-tree tea today, and why the Da Hong Pao on the market is commercial Da Hong Pao, usually a blend of Wuyi rock tea cultivars. (See What is Da Hong Pao today: a cultivar, a blend or a style?)
Tasting it at D²
Our Roasted Oolong Tea Latte is built on Da Hong Pao. There's no red robe, but there's plenty of roast.
Sources
- Xinhua via Sina, Wuyishan stops picking the Da Hong Pao mother trees (includes the 2005 auction and cloning history), 2006-05-14: sina.cn
- People's Daily, on the mother trees and Wuyi legends, 2024-03-20: people.com.cn
- University of Oxford, "The Modern Invention of Big Red Robe Tea: History, Story, and Performance" (2021): ox.ac.uk
- Hein & Foster (eds.), Understanding Authenticity in Chinese Cultural Heritage, Routledge 2023: routledge.com
- China Intangible Cultural Heritage, Da Hong Pao: ihchina.cn