Pengshan · Two thousand years of tea
In 59 BC, the Western Han writer Wang Bao dashed off a half-joking "slave contract" in Chengdu — the Tong Yue. Two phrases in it, "brewing tea and keeping the ware clean" and "going to Wuyang to buy tea," became the earliest reliable written evidence of tea trading on earth. The "Wuyang" of the text is today's Pengshan District, Meishan: the first tea market ever written down stood on this stretch of the Min River.
In the first month of 59 BC, Wang Bao of Zizhong (modern Ziyang, Sichuan) was lodging in Chengdu at the home of a widow, Yang Hui. Her bearded slave Bianliao bristled at running errands for a guest — "I'm this household's servant; I owe no wine runs to another family's man!" Wang Bao's answer was to buy the man outright and draft a contract spelling out every chore. The result, the Tong Yue, became a classic.
Tea appears twice in the chore list (written with the ancient character tu, the early form of cha): "slice the fish, braise the turtle, brew the tea and keep the ware clean" and "go to Wuyang to buy tea, and carry loads for the Yang household." Buying tea at Wuyang sits on the list beside sweeping and dishwashing — proof that tea buying was already an everyday errand in a Chengdu household.
Before the Tong Yue, tea appears in early texts only as a botanical shadow. These two phrases record three things at once for the first time: people brewing tea (chong tu), dedicated teaware (jin ju), and a dedicated tea market (buying at Wuyang). It is the earliest reliable written evidence of tea drinking, tea utensils and tea trade — dated 59 BC, more than eight centuries before Lu Yu's Classic of Tea.
On that basis, Chinese and world tea history alike recognize Wuyang as the first tea market named in writing. The modern character for "tea" itself was only fixed under Lu Yu in the Tang — but the buying and selling of tea was already happening in Han-dynasty Pengshan.
Tea supply: Sichuan is one of the birthplaces of the tea plant. The Huayang Guo Zhi records that "Nan'an and Wuyang both produce famous tea" — Nan'an is modern Leshan, next door to Wuyang. The hills of Mengding, Pengshan and Huanglongxi already grew tea on scale in the Qin–Han era, with many workshops. Goods make a market.
Political weight: after Qin conquered Shu, the governor Li Bing built Dujiangyan and cut the Tongji Weir at Wuyang, making the plain "free of flood and drought." Under Emperor Wu of Han, the Jianwei commandery seat moved to Wuyang — both county town and commandery capital (see our one-page history of Pengshan).
Waterways: north, the Jin River ran straight to Chengdu and on by land toward Mianyang, Guangyuan and Shaanxi; northwest, the Qionglai "tea-and-salt roads" reached toward Kangding and Liangshan; south, the Min River ran down to Yibin and out onto the Yangtze. Jiangkou was the first great wharf in and out of Chengdu — boats stopped, cargo consolidated. A tea market here was geography's own doing.
Two main views compete. One puts the market at Jiangkou (the old county seat), around Shangchangqiao Louzi and Heng Street, where the Min and Jin rivers meet. The other puts it at Huanglongxi, then under Wuyang's jurisdiction — calm water, ideal mooring, and one step closer to Chengdu.
Researchers at Chengdu's local chronicles office lean toward Huanglongxi: the market served Chengdu, goods moved by water, and Huanglongxi was the better port. But under either view the conclusion stands — a dedicated, large tea market existed near Chengdu in the Western Han, and the document files it under "Wuyang."
Just years after the Tong Yue, on Mount Mengding in Ya'an, the monk Wu Lizhen planted seven tea bushes (53–50 BC) — the earliest recorded cultivation of tea. Han-dynasty Sichuan thus holds both "first cultivated tea" (Mengding) and "first tea market" (Wuyang) at once.
Looking downstream: Gu Yanwu wrote that "only after Qin took Shu did tea drinking begin" — the habit spread from Sichuan down the Yangtze. The Jin poet Zhang Zai praised Chengdu tea as "finest of the six beverages, its fragrance spreading through the nine provinces." By the Tang, Lu Yu fixed the character and the canon. The first stroke of that long scroll was written at Pengshan.
No ground-level ruins of the market survive, but a "documents plus objects" day route works well:
Shuangjiang Village, Jiangkou — free entry. Displays include the Wuyang tea-trade documents and Han pictorial bricks of market scenes: the weights, measures and stalls of the very commercial world the tea market belonged to.
The old wharf layout where the Fu and Nan rivers meet is still readable — stand there and picture porters "carrying loads" of tea and riverside taverns.
See Zhang Xianzhong's sunken gold at the Jiangkou Shipwreck Museum, or head to Gongyi town for a meal — the old braised-meat shop on Guanbao Road is about 13 km away, and liangban pork with a bowl of Sichuan hawk tea is the most down-to-earth ending for this tea-history route.
Q: Is "tu" really "tea"? A: Yes. The character "cha" was only standardized under Lu Yu in the Tang; earlier texts wrote "tu." In the Tong Yue, "brew tu and keep the ware clean" — bitter herbs need no special utensils, so the tu here must be tea.
Q: Are there physical remains of the Wuyang tea market? A: No above-ground remains; its status rests on the Tong Yue's explicit record, corroborated by the Huayang Guo Zhi. That is exactly why these four characters weigh so much academically — this is documentary evidence, not legend.
Q: Does this conflict with Mengding's "first cultivated tea"? A: Not at all. Mengding is the earliest recorded tea cultivation (Wu Lizhen, 53–50 BC); Wuyang is the earliest recorded tea market (documented 59 BC). A mountain and a market, about 100 km apart, form the evidence chain for Sichuan as the cradle of world tea.
Beyond tea, today's Pengshan runs on luwei: Gongyi Guoshi Luwei (188 Guanbao Road, Gongyi Town), a 20-year shop, braises Sweet-Skin Duck and Liangban Pork the same morning.
More guides: Jiangkou cliff tombs: the Han carved into rock · Pengshan history in one page · Three Kingdoms trail · Liangban pork, Sichuan's cold classic