Talking about the story of "Tea-Horse Mutual Trade" from a historical perspective

"Fengshi Hearing and Seeing Notes" states: "(Tea drinking)... originated from the middle ground and flowed outside the Great Wall. In previous years, when the Uighurs came to the court, they drove back Mingma to sell tea, which was quite strange. "It can be seen that the exchange of tea with foreign countries did not begin in the Song Dynasty, but actually began in the Tang Dynasty. It can also be seen that the import of Chinese tea to foreign countries began in the Tang Dynasty. There is also a reason for the foreigners to like Chinese tea lids. "History of the Song Dynasty· Officials "Zhi" says: "At the end of the Yuan Dynasty (Zhezong of the Song Dynasty), Shao Yan of the Cheng Yuan Dynasty, Rong customs eat meat and drink cheese, so tea makes people sick because it is rare, so Shu Yi is the best. "History of the Ming Dynasty·Shihuo Zhi" says: "The Tibetan people are addicted to cheese and cannot drink tea, which makes them sleepy and sick. Therefore, since the Tang and Song Dynasties, tea has been used to make horses and Qiang and Rong." "This is exactly the same. Lu You's "Book of the Southern Tang Dynasty" mentions: Although the Khitan did trade with the Southern Tang Dynasty, they only used empty words to benefit southern tea leaves and oysters. This is indeed true. Northern Tibetan people like to eat meat and must drink tea, because tea can The strong flavor of pure meat. Today, Mongolians like to drink tea. This can be used as an example. If they don’t drink tea, they often suffer from diseases. No wonder they often call it Tuancha, which was named after the Han people in the Tang and Song Dynasties. The Tibetan people are especially fond of it. They were often bought at high prices. Song Zhang Shunmin's "Hua Man Lu" said: "Su Zirong from Xining sent Yao Lin from Liao as his deputy, saying: 'Gai carry some small tea balls.' ’ Zirong said, ‘This is the offering from the Lord. ’ I dared to talk to the people from the north. Not long ago, a distinguished prince came to Liao to store Tuan tea. Since the people in the North would not accept Tuan tea if it was not Tuan tea, and it would not be expensive if it was not a small Tuan tea, they offered two Tuan tea to Yifan. ”

Like Hui Que in the Tang Dynasty, Khitan in the Song Dynasty, and even the Zanggu people in the Xia and Jin Kingdoms who ate meat and drank cheese, all the people were not good at tea. Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, the Tibetan people in the Tiaohexining area all The tea horse was used as a guard.

...Although the Ming Dynasty was not authoritarian about the tea trade, private tea was prohibited from leaving the country, and offenders were killed, and a tea horse department was established to facilitate relations with Western Tibet. Tea changes horses. At the same time, in the tea-producing areas, one out of ten tea trees and eight out of ten unowned tea trees are needed. The need for tea can be done with all one's heart, but it is nothing more than "the art of subduing Xirong". . From this we can see that Chinese tea was introduced to Tibet, on the one hand, because of Tibet’s living requirements, and on the other hand, because China was unable to pacify Tibet or needed Tibet, so it had to do what it wanted and trade with them in tea. Or because of it. Therefore, after tea was taxed in the Tang Dynasty, it was not only controlled by the treasury internally, but also controlled by external security. (Excerpted from "A Preliminary Study on the Interpretation of Ancient Books" by Huang Xianfan, Guangxi Normal University Press, July 2004. 1st edition)

The origin of the “Tea-Horse Trade”

[Anhua Ancient Road Map of Tea-Horse Trade during the Tang and Song Dynasties]

Anhua Ancient Road for Tea-Horse Trade during the Tang and Song Dynasties Ancient Road Map

The "tea-horse trade" originated in the Tang and Song Dynasties. It was a traditional trade between the Han and Tibetan peoples in western my country that centered on the exchange of tea for horses or horses for tea. --Tea-Horse Mutual Market Huangyuan County is adjacent to Tibet in the west and is the most peripheral area to the west of ancient Han Dynasty. This geographical location has made it a "port" for Sino-Tibetan trade since ancient times and is a famous "Tea-Horse Mutual Trade" The old place. The tea-horse trade was the main form of commercial trade between the Central Plains and the northwest minority areas in ancient times. It was actually a fiscal measure implemented by the imperial court in areas where the nomadic peoples in the west did not have the conditions for taxation.

The prototype of the tea-horse mutual trade

The prototype of the tea-horse mutual trade originated in the 5th century AD. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, rules gradually formed during the Tang Dynasty, and were further improved during the Song Dynasty, and even specialized management such as the "Reporting Tea Supervision Department" was set up. The Ming Dynasty basically followed the practice of the Song Dynasty in terms of tea and horse trading institutions, setting up a "tea and horse department" at the place of trading.

Tea and horse trading

Tea and horse trading was the first to appear. In the Tang Dynasty, it did not become a custom until the Song Dynasty. Why did the ruling class of the Song Dynasty attach so much importance to the "tea and horse trade"? The main reason was to maintain the border security of the Song Dynasty. In the early years of the Song Dynasty, the mainland used copper coins to purchase horses from border ethnic minorities, but these areas The herdsmen gradually used the copper coins from selling horses to cast weapons, which to some extent threatened the Song Dynasty's border security. Therefore, in the eighth year of Taiping and Xingguo's reign, the Song Dynasty officially banned the use of copper coins to buy horses, and instead used cloth, tea, and medicinal materials. In order to carry out barter exchange in the future, in order to carry out border trade in an orderly manner, a tea horse department was specially established. The responsibilities of the tea horse department are: "to take charge of the benefits of tea to assist the country; whenever the market comes to Siyi, lead the people with it" Tea is easy. "This is the origin of the tea-horse trade.

Moreover, the tea-horse trade is also an important way to restrict Tibetans. Due to the natural environment, Tibetans are very dependent on tea. Tea can detoxify and cure diseases, relieve greasiness, and aid digestion. Therefore, controlling the supply of tea is equivalent to controlling the lives of Tibetan people. Therefore, tea has not only It became a large economic and trade product between the Central Plains Dynasty and the Tibetans in the northwest and southwest regions, and also became a material means to maintain friendly relations with the Tibetans. The "tea-horse trade" played an important role in maintaining the security and stability of the Song Dynasty in the southwest region. It was a border governance policy of important strategic significance for the two Song Dynasties. Secondly, through the tea-horse trade, it also met the feudal dynasty's need for war horses and provided the court with a huge amount of tea profits to meet its military needs.

The policy of tea-horse mutual trade was established

After the policy of tea-horse mutual trade was established, the Song Dynasty opened horse markets widely in modern Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan and other places, and exchanged large quantities of Tibetan, The fine horses of the Huihe, Dangxiang and other ethnic groups were used to defend the dynasty's borders. By the Southern Song Dynasty, the tea and horse trading institutions were relatively fixed at eight places: five in Sichuan and three in Gansu. The five in Sichuan are mainly used to trade with ethnic minorities in the southwest, and the three in Gansu are used to trade with ethnic minorities in the northwest. There was no shortage of horses in the Yuan Dynasty, so Biancha was mainly traded in silver and local goods. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the tea-horse trade was restored again, and it was still in use until the middle of the Qing Dynasty, when it was gradually abolished.

"Tea-Horse Mutual Trading" as an important system

During the Qing Dynasty, especially after Qianlong, the "Tea-Horse Mutual Trading" as an important system gradually faded from the horizon of history. Instead, the "border tea trade" system emerged. Due to the development of transportation and economy and the increase in Sino-Tibetan exchanges, the types of commodities entering along the Tea Horse Road have increased significantly. Tibetans’ demand for tea has continued to increase, and their demand for other products such as silk, cloth, ironware, and necessities of production and living has also begun to increase; while the mainland has a demand for leather, gold, and precious medicinal materials such as Cordyceps and Fritillaria from Tibetan areas. greater demand. In this way, the scope of trade between Han and Tibet became more extensive, and folk trade along the "Ancient Tea Horse Road" became increasingly prosperous. Until Emperor Wenzong of the Qing Dynasty, local horse farms were ordered to be abolished, and the horses needed by the armies in various places were all purchased by themselves. The tea-horse trade set up by the government was discontinued, and the tea-horse mutual market trade that had lasted for more than 400 years was terminated.

The evolution of the tea-horse trade in the Tang and Song dynasties

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, there were specialized government agencies for the trade. For example, in the Sui Dynasty, there was a "trading market supervision" agency to manage matters including trade between ethnic groups. [⑥] In the early Tang Dynasty, the "Jiaoshijian" mutual market management organization of the Sui Dynasty was followed. In the sixth year of Zhenguan (632 years) of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, the Jiaoshijian was renamed "Mutual Market Supervisor". In the first year of Wu Zetian's reign (685), it was once renamed "Tongshi Jian", but soon it was restored to "Mu Shi Jian". [⑦] The multiple adjustments of the organization show that the top decision-makers attach great importance to the inter-ethnic trade and have a positive attitude towards straightening out the management channels for the inter-trade.

Before the emergence of the tea-horse trade in the Tang Dynasty, the Central Plains dynasties or farming peoples mainly used gold, silver, silk and various handicrafts to exchange horses and other livestock products from surrounding ethnic minorities. Historically, this exchange has Unique national trade is called "silk horse trade". The silk horse trade lasted for a relatively long time in history. It was once one of the main forms of political contact and economic exchange between the Central Plains dynasties or farming peoples and surrounding ethnic minorities. Records of tea in our country are relatively early, and tea as a necessity closely related to people's lives dates from the Tang Dynasty or, to be precise, after the mid-Tang Dynasty.

It is also sold everywhere in the Central Plains

Tea was not eaten in ancient times. In the recent Jin and Song Dynasties, Wu people picked its leaves and cooked them to make tea porridge. From Kaiyuan Tianbao (713-756), there was a slight increase, to De Dali (756-779) there were many, and after Jianzhong (780-783) it flourished.

According to "Fengshi Hearing and Seeing Records": In the Tang Dynasty, in addition to tea being abundant in the south and tea drinking becoming popular, tea was also sold and drunk everywhere in the Central Plains. Not only that, tea drinking at that time had reached the point where "it was almost a custom that started in the middle of the country and spread outside the Great Wall". In the Tang Dynasty, there was an example of "the county was named after the tea mountain in the south".

In the Tang Dynasty, the word "tea" began to appear after the word "tea" was deleted; Lu Yu wrote the classic book "The Book of Tea", which marked the emergence of tea science; the taxation of tea began, which meant that there was a more systematic tea policy; tea Began selling side products and started tea and horse trading. [⑩] In the Tang Dynasty, tea production in my country further expanded and tea drinking became more popular. Tea drinking customs have expanded from the southern region to the vast northern region. Even the surrounding ethnic minorities also regard tea drinking as an essential part of their lives. one. The immortal book "The Book of Tea" written by Lu Yu, a tea expert in the Tang Dynasty, was not only widely circulated in the mainland, but also had a profound impact on ethnic minorities in the border areas.

Ethnic minorities requested to make peace with the city

In the eighth year of Wude (625), the eighth year of Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, Turks, Tuyuhun and other northwest ethnic minorities requested to make peace with the city. The Tang Dynasty, which was full of waste and waiting for prosperity, issued an order to approve it. met this requirement. The Tang Dynasty agreed to trade with each other in Chengfeng garrison (now in Guide, Qinghai Province). The Tang Dynasty once sent envoys Li Yuan and others to Tuyuhun to "make peace with Dun". Some scholars pointed out that the mutual trade between Tuyuhun and the Tang Dynasty was actually initiated by the Tang Dynasty in the first place. Rather than Tuyuhun requesting mutual trade, it is better to say that it was the Tang Dynasty that actively requested mutual trade, which makes sense. On the one hand, this reflects that the restoration and development of agricultural and animal husbandry production was the top priority faced by the Tang Dynasty at that time. In addition, the urgent need for war horses and animal power, as well as easing relations with powerful ethnic minorities, were also inevitable for the development of the objective situation. The Tang Dynasty resumed "mutual trade" with ethnic minorities in a timely manner, and received obvious economic and social benefits in a relatively short period of time. It is difficult for us today to determine what the two sides used to trade with each other at that time, but at least one thing is relatively clear, which is that the silk fabrics and tea produced in the mainland were the basic contents of the mutual trade in the Tang Dynasty, while livestock was used by ethnic minorities. The main commodities on the mutual market. During the Kaiyuan period of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (713-741), the Chang'an government once "sent envoys, certificates, seals, etc., and sent large pieces of silk and brocade to Shiguohe City Dogs and Horses." It is clearly the nature of official organizations to carry out mutual trade in ethnic minority areas, rather than tribute trade with strong political overtones. At that time, mutual trade was not only the wish and requirement of the Central Plains dynasty, but also the needs of ethnic minorities. For example, during the Kaiyuan period of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (713-741), the Turkic Tuqi Shi Khan Sulu once sent a tooth officer to deliver 1,000 horses to the Anxi mutual market. [15] Although it was not successful due to problems in specific links, it reflected the strong demand among all ethnic groups for mutual trading.

Have an in-depth understanding of normal ethnic trade

In the early Tang Dynasty, the supreme ruler had a relatively in-depth understanding of normal ethnic trade and understood that it was a matter of mutual benefit in peaceful times. Economic activities, as Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty pointed out in the ninth year of Kaiyuan (721): "When the old country was at peace with the Turks, the Tibetan Han people were very happy. The armored soldiers were resting, trading with each other, the country was buying Turkic horses and sheep, and the Turks were conquering the country. Colorful silks are abundant for each other, and they are both convenient." [16] In fact, according to Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, it was realized at that time that the role of ethnic trade far exceeded its economic significance. Even so, the ethnic trade between the central government and ethnic minorities in the Tang Dynasty - such as the silk horse trade - could only be maintained within a certain range in order to make the central dynasty accept the financial burden. If there was a deficit, it would inevitably become a financial pressure. In the twenty-fourth year of Kaiyuan (736), Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty expressed his dissatisfaction and concern about the silk horse deficit with the Turks:

In the past, the Khan Xian (Viga) was in Japan, and every year there was no horse. Three or four thousand horses are not many, and things are easy to handle. The total amount of this amount is 14,000. Yuan'er first became Khan, and I became father and son. The kindness and righteousness are mutual and cannot be turned back, so I always keep them. The total amount is 500,000 pieces, which is also a great gift from the country. Rent and transfer all over the world, the cost is endless.

It is not a special market. Due to the price of horses, the accommodation is a little delayed. The Luo Dagan has not been returned. It is not because of the delay. After thinking about this, you should reply. Be relieved. Now I see the continued changes in the market, and after a while I look at it and send it off immediately. It will not be on credit when I come back. It is still like being in charge here, and it will be no different if I go to live there. From now on, there must not be too many horses, just like when the Khan was the first, the agreement was fixed, the transaction was made, the dispatch was easy, the matter must be long-term, not limited.

[17]

According to Tang Xuanzong’s view, the silk horse trade between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks at that time was suitable for 3,000-4,000 horses per year. If the annual transaction volume reached 14,000 horses Horses would cost up to 500,000 pieces of silk, which was actually beyond the normal affordability of the Tang Dynasty. Of course, we can also see from the imperial edict of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty that the silk horse trade between the central government and the Turks was quite active in the early Tang Dynasty.