The Beiyuan garden on the hills north-east of Jian'ou was a private estate under the Min kingdom, nationalised under the Southern Tang, and has been state-controlled since the Song; it is the empire's most important supplier of tribute tea, pressed into the "wax tea" cakes (lacha) stamped with dragons and phoenixes that go to court each spring (Wikipedia, "Wuyi tea").
Two handbooks describe the manufacture, by our recollection: Xiong Fan's account of about 1121 and Zhao Ruli's Beiyuan bielu of 1186. The garden makes Jianning fu a tea town whose merchants fill the Min river with boats, and it is why the Jian kilns of Shuiji, at Jianyang, make the black "hare's fur" bowls in which the whipped tea is drunk. The overseer in the winter of 1199-1200 is not known.
Who he is
- Title
- Overseer of the Beiyuan imperial tea garden (a Jianning fu official of the tea office)
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No source available to me names the holder in the winter of 1199-1200.
Overlord
The Fujian circuit tea commissioner and the court
What it holds
- The Beiyuan garden and its press-houses
- Tea farms of the Jian'an hills under licence
How it was acquired
State-controlled since the Song.
Allies and rivals
The Fujian tea commissioner; the court's buyers; the private tea merchants; the monasteries of Wuyi that farm tea.
How things stand that morning
The spring picking is about to begin; the cakes go to Lin'an in spring 1200 as in every year (likely course). The "false learning" ban is irrelevant to tea.
Wealth
The tribute and the licensed trade in the other teas of Fujian; no figures.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The garden and its function are well attested; the overseer and the output are not given.
On the map: A disc at Jian'ou; the real site is on the Fenghuang hills just north-east of the city.
Primary sources for Southern Song
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
- Outline and Details of Two Reigns (thirteenth century, after 1224). A Song outline-and-detail chronicle of exactly the two reigns around 1200, drawn from the court's daily records. Read online
- Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
- History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. Read online
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Record of the Great Jin State, Attributed to Yuwen Maozhao (宇文懋昭); the attribution is doubtful (preface dated 1234; probably assembled in the Southern Song from Song and Jin material, with later accretions). A Song-side history of the Jin, with annals for each emperor and chapters on institutions, customs, the capitals and the Jurchen way of life. Read online
12 more in the sources library for South China.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.