Chinese Tea Terminology
Note: The Gregorian dates presented in this post are only relevant in 2021 as they are based on the Lunar calendar.
Hello everyone! Let’s run through an advanced lesson on Chinese tea terminology that corresponds to harvesting. Armed with this knowledge, you can make more informed purchases (if the information is conveyed), and garner a stronger appreciation for the teas you consume. This information is most relevant to white and green teas, but to a lesser extent Pu’erh and black teas as well!
I think most people who have had a few Chinese teas would be familiar with the term Qing Ming 清明. The pronunciation of Qing is similar to ‘Ching’ in English. Qing Ming refers to the first day of the 5th ‘Solar Term’ of the 24 term calendar. Qing Ming starts 15 days after the Vernal (Spring) Equinox, so it will be between April 4th~6th of any given year.
For someone new to Chinese tea terminology, teas picked before Qing Ming are simply known as ‘Pre-Qing Ming’, after that you could simply say that they are not Pre-Qing Ming anymore. One who knows that would be off to a good start.
Digging a little deeper, someone with a bit more interest would learn about gǔ yǔ 谷雨 (The Grain Rain) and lì xià 立夏 (The Beginning of Summer). Neither of those terms relate to Qing Ming, but are good to understand because the quality and cost of tea is lower. Teas produced during Gu Yu (April 5th-19th) are called Yu Qian. This is the rainy season where the fields will quickly become lush and vibrant. The tea bushes grow quickly during this time, the finished tea’s flavor is more pronounced, but so is the bitterness and perhaps other undesirable aspects (sour notes, astringency, etc.) though it is still a spring tea, and spring tea is certainly better than summer tea lì xià 立夏!
If you don’t see tea being sold with a harvest date or reference to ‘Qingming’ (or one of the other terms we’ll cover next), it is most likely produced in Gu Yu or Li Xia, especially if it’s on the cheaper side; or in the least desirable case — an unsold tea carried over from the previous year.
I think it would do you a bit of good to glance at this table before continuing. Study it as much as you would like, but the first 7 are the only ones really relevant to this topic.
The 24 Solar Terms in 2021
Taken from http://www.chinahighlights.com
| Solar Terms | Chinese | Month and Date | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start of Spring | lì chūn 立春 | Feb 3/4th | A dubiously premature name, as it’s not the beginning of spring in most of China; only in the extreme south. |
| Rain Water | yǔ shuǐ 雨水 | Feb 19th | There is an increase of rainfall from then on. |
| Awakening of Insects | jīng zhé 惊蛰 | Mar 5th | Thunder begins and hibernating insects wake up. |
| Vernal Equinox | chūn fēn 春分 | Mar 20th | With an equal length of day and night. |
| Clear and Bright | qīng míng 清明 | Apr 4th | It is clear and bright (when it’s not raining), and the weather becomes noticeably warmer. A misnomer, particularly in southern China. |
| Grain Rain | gǔ yǔ 谷雨 | Apr 19th | The early crops show their shoots. |
| Start of Summer | lì xià 立夏 | May 5th | The beginning of summer (in southern China). |
| Small Full (Grain) | xiǎo mǎn 小满 | May 20th | The seeds of summer crops begin to become plump, but are not yet ripe. |
| Grain in Ear | máng zhǒng 芒种 | Jun 5th | The wheat becomes ripe; and the summer planting starts (in southern China). |
| Summer Solstice | xià zhì 夏至 | Jun 21st | The daytime is the longest and the nighttime is the shortest of the year. |
| Minor Heat | xiǎo shǔ 小暑 | Jul 6th | The beginning of the hottest period. |
| Major Heat | dà shǔ 大暑 | Jul 22nd | It is the time of year when the duration of the sunshine is the longest, the average temperature is the highest, the rainfall is the greatest, and the thunderstorms are the most frequent (in some parts of northern China). |
| Start of Autumn | lì qiū 立秋 | Aug 7th | An anomaly: nowhere is this true. Like the “start of spring” it is about a month premature. |
| Limit of Heat | chù shǔ 处暑 | Aug 22nd | The end of the hot summer. |
| White Dew | bái lù 白露 | Sep 7th | The transition from summer to autumn. The temperature drops sharply, and the autumn rains come. |
| Autumnal Equinox | qiū fēn 秋分 | Sep 22nd | With an equal length of day and night. |
| Cold Dew | hán lù 寒露 | Oct 8th | The weather becomes cold enough to reach dew point, but not cold enough to reach frost point. |
| Frost Descent | shuāng jiàng 霜降 | Oct 23rd | The weather becomes cold and frost begins to form (in North China). |
| Start of Winter | lì dōng 立冬 | Nov 7th | True of northern China, but winter comes later in the south. |
| Minor Snow | xiǎo xuě 小雪 | Nov 22nd | Snow begins to fall, the weather becomes cold. |
| Major Snow | dà xuě 大雪 | Dec 7th | It snows heavily for the first time in the year (in northern China). |
| Winter Solstice | dōng zhì 冬至 | Dec 21st | The daytime is the shortest and the nighttime is the longest of the year. |
| Minor Cold | xiǎo hán 小寒 | Jan 5th， 2022 | The weather rapidly reaches its coldest. |
| Major Cold | dà hán 大寒 | Jan 20th， 2022 | ‘Major Cold’ It is the coldest time of the year. |
jīng zhé (March 5th), chūn fēn (March 20th), qīng míng (April 4th), and gǔ yǔ (April 19th) were the major dates to watch for Chinese Green tea harvesting in 2021. Of course, the quality of tea made on April 5th will be almost impossible to distinguish from a tea made on April 4th, but the price will be VERY DIFFERENT because it does not fall into the ‘Pre-Qing Ming’ category anymore.
Pre-Qingming tea is a status statement and a solid distinction for many of the great teas made in a year; but for a connoisseur, great may not be good enough. If one is looking for the best — then there are more specific terms to distinguish when the tea is picked: She Qian 社前 and Ming Qian 明前. It is handy to know the term Qian means ‘Before/Prior to’ — so before ‘She’ and before ‘Ming’.
Any teas made between ‘The Beginning of Spring’ (Feb 3rd~4th 2021) and the Spring She Ri 社日 Festival (March 21st, 2021) are known as ‘She Qian’ teas. The tea cultivars that bud the earliest are harvestable around the time of Jing Zhe (Awakening of Insects, March 5th, 2021). She Qian teas are the youngest, tenderest, and most expensive of all green teas.
There aren’t many teas picked in She Qian to my knowledge. Zi Sun Cha 紫笋 ’Purple Bamboo Sprout’, a tribute level green tea from Zhejiang Province, and Liu Bao Cha 六堡 ‘6th Fortress’, a Heicha (dark tea) from Guangxi. Those two seem to be the ones that come up most often. There should, of course, be She Qian pickings in every famous style: Long Jing, Bi Luo Chun, Anji Bai Cha, etc. but they won’t be easily found outside of major high-quality tea-consuming areas.
The She Ri festival date is calculated in the sexagenary cycle, the system of astrological dating that China used before the Lunar and Gregorian calendars. The day of She Ri typically falls very close to the day of the Vernal Equinox, so it might be easier to remember that She Qian teas are made ‘between the first day of spring and the spring equinox’ rather than an obscure festival with a 9-day sliding date.
Ming Qian 明前 is synonymous with ‘Pre-Qing Ming’ but would inform the buyer that it is not She Qian. It is so because if a producer or merchant created a She Qian product, they would use the best term available and not devalue their tea by calling it an inferior name. In 2021 the Ming Qian teas were created between She Ri (March 21st ) to Qing Ming (April 4th).
Thanks for reading!
PS. If you have any comments about things I missed or made an error on, I’d love to update this and make it better. Please get in touch!
PPS. The Sexagenary Cycle is mind-boggling, and maybe you haven’t heard of it. It’s worth taking a peek at. Here’s a link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagenary_cycle
PPPS. Do you want to buy some delicious green tea? I have 2 this year, both are Mao Jian ‘Fur Tip’ from Henan Province. Take your pick! (both are links) Either March 15th She Qian or March 22nd Ming Qian (you know what that means right?)
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