Wuyi Mountain Shouting Mountain is an ancient sacrificial custom in Wuyi camellia culture, reflecting the local tea people’s reverence for nature and their prayer for a good tea harvest. Here’s a closer look:
Historical origins
The custom of shouting mountains in Wuyi Mountain can be traced back to the Yuan Dynasty. In the second year of Yuan Zhishun (1331), Wuyi rock tea became a tribute to the imperial court, and the governor of Jianning Prefecture, who had jurisdiction over Chong’an County, built a “Shouting Mountain Terrace” on the side of Tongxianjing, which was dedicated to the imperial tea garden for royal roasted tea, and also built a “Shouting Mountain Temple” on the mountain to worship the tea god. Every year on the day of awakening, the officials of the imperial tea garden, together with the local county magistrate, led the servants who made tea, personally climbed the Shouting Mountain Terrace, worshipped the tea god, and begged the gods to protect the weather and rain in the coming year, and the tea harvest was abundant.
Ceremony process and content
Sacrifice time: Every year before and after the awakening, each mountain will hold a grand mountain shouting ceremony, and activities such as opening the mountain and picking tea before and after the “valley rain” will be carried out.
Sacrifice process: In ancient times, local officials would lead the officials of the imperial tea garden and the tea garden staff to shout the mountain platform, offer three animals, wine and food, light incense and candles, worship, and read the sacrificial text. Nowadays, in the main venues such as Kowloon Nest, there will be intangible cultural heritage inheritors, tea company representatives, etc. to participate in the tea sacrifice and prayer, and they will shout “tea sprouting” in unison to the tea mountains with a pious heart, so as to awaken the sleeping tea trees and express their gratitude and awe for the gifts of nature.
Cultural significance
In October 2021, the folk customs of “Shouting Mountain Sacrificial Tea” were included in the ninth batch of municipal intangible cultural heritage projects in Nanping City. It is not only an important part of Wuyi camellia culture, carrying the awe and gratitude of tea people to nature, embodying their beautiful expectations for the development of the tea industry, but also adding confidence and motivation to strengthening the tea industry, and promoting the inheritance and promotion of Wuyi tea culture.
In Wuyi Mountain, the act of finding a backer with a stick originates from the local custom of “Zhishan” that has been passed down for thousands of years, and the wooden sticks used are called “Zhishan sticks”.
This custom has several meanings:
Health prayers: The older generation has a saying that “the wooden stick supports the mountainside and legs are not sore”, and people hope that in this way, the elderly at home will not have back pain, or the elderly who already have back and leg pain can recover as soon as possible.
Pray for peace: Legend has it that in ancient times, people used this method to pray for the blessing of the mountain gods, hoping that their families would stand tall and prosper.
Symbolizes having a backer: People put sticks in the cracks of the stones, which means that they have a backer, and the mountain god can bless themselves and their families with all the best. This is also a kind of psychological sustenance, hoping that when encountering difficulties in life, there will be noble people to help and become auspicious.
In addition, there is a more scientific saying that when a mountain disaster occurs, these sticks will be broken and make a breaking sound, so as to warn people not to approach to avoid casualties.
