We have just released this year’s Danhu Old Bush Song Cultivar.
Zhao Ji, aka the Hui Zhong Emperor of Song Dynasty in China, who is known to most for his uniquely beautiful calligraphy, once wrote in the last line of his famous Lush Bouquet Poem Script, “Lost in the fragrance along the path, the dancing butterfly flips to the rhythm of the night breeze.”
趙吉（宋徽宗）穠芳詩帖尾句：
舞蝶迷香徑 翩翩逐晚風
Although the artistic emperor was expressing his appreciation of the wonder of Nature in his secluded imperial garden, that line sparkled when we first tasted the year’s harvest of our Danhu Old Bush Song Cultivar in Spring; it sang with an orchestra when we tasted it again for readiness to release earlier this week.
It is the most beautiful batch Fenghuang Dancong we have ever got hold of. Enjoy.
For those who need a little reminder of what Song Cultivar means: the term refers to the oldest producing tea bush in Wudong in the Fenghuang region. It has been carbon dated back to the Song Dynasty. Quite a number of other producing bushes have been grown from the cuttings of this bush. That is why they are called Song Cultivar.
Zhaoji was a prolific painter and calligrapher who had created a distinctive and personal style for both of the visual arts. The original copy of this Lush Bouquet Poem Script (some translate it vulgarly as Poem on Luxurious Fragrance) is in the collection of National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan. In case you are interested in how the quoted line would sound in Chinese, here are two versions of phonetic transcription: in Cantonese: mo deep mai heung kìng, pin pin zhuk maan fung in Mandarin: wu dié mi xiang jing, pian pian zhu wan feng.
Close up of the section in Zhao Ji’s manuscript of the ending line of his poem
More reading about Danhu Old Bush and Song Dynasty and this emperor Zhao Ji
Wolf hair brush on fine silk scroll
Han Xi Zai’s Evening Banquet, Detail
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