Tanyang Gongfu Part 1: History
Introduction
Throughout its history, Tanyang Gongfu 坦洋工夫(AKA Panyong Congou) has gone through peaks, declines, and revivals. Tanyang Gongfu is the first modern ‘gongfu’ black tea, originating in 1851, after tea farmers in Tanyang Village learnt and adjusted the processing of Zhengshan Xiaozhong. Neighboring Zhenghe and Fuding followed suit, giving rise to Zhenghe Gongfu and Bailin Gongfu. In 1876, Fujian Gongfu black tea processing techniques were introduced to Qimen county in Anhui, resulting in Qimen Gongfu. Now gongfu red teas are found all over China, in Hubei, Jiangxi, Hunan, Zhejiang, Yunnan and elsewhere. It all started in Tanyang Village.
1. Origins (1851)
Tanyang Gongfu originates from Tanyang Village in the Fu’an region of Fujian Province. The history of tea cultivation in Fu’an can be traced back to the Tang dynasty. By the Song Dynasty, the “tea competition” (dou cha) custom was already established, and by the Ming Dynasty, large-scale cultivation had begun. The local heirloom varietal on Baiyun and Guixiang mountains near Tanyang Village is ‘Tanyang Cai Cha’, which eventually became the raw material for red tea production.
Figure 1: a very old Tanyang Cai Cha specimen on Guixiang Mountain, Tanyang. Courtesy of Zheng Zuhui.
There are two origin stories for red tea making in Tanyang Village. One is that a local named Hu Fusi of the Hu Clan travelled to Guangdong and brought back red tea processing knowledge after witnessing Guangdong red tea cure someone of an ailment. The other, more likely story is that red tea techniques were introduced by Hu Fusi from the Tongmu area in Wuyi where the first ever red tea, Zhengshan Xiaozhong, originated. To this day the Hu Clan still live in Tanyang village, and up to 17 historical tea factories can be traced back to them.
Local makers in Tanyang quickly mastered the techniques of red tea production. Tanyang Gongfu undergoes Primary and Refined Processing. Primary Processing involves the steps of picking, withering, rolling, oxidation, and drying. After Primary Processing, the tea is called hongmaocha or 'red raw tea.' Most household producers can do Primary Processing. It is only after the skilful Refined Processing that Tanyang Gongfu is fully made into a high quality black tea.
Refined Processing involves roasting, screening, re-roasting, and blending. The screening step alone is very time-consuming, involving various hand techniques and pieces of equipment to sift the leaves into different grades, weights, and sizes. It is from this long and complicated processing that Tanyang Gongfu gets its name: gongfu: 'with skill and effort.' Tanyang Village producers made their own adjustments to Zhengshan Xiaozhong techniques, such as using charcoal for drying instead of the smoky pinewood used in Tongmu. In 1851, the tea was named ‘Tanyang Gongfu’ tea, both to distinguish its origin from Zhengshan Xiaozhong, and to reflect its complex processing. A later blog post will go into more detail about the processing of Tanyang Gongfu.
Figure 2: dry leaves of a relatively high grade Traditional Tanyang Gongfu. Photo by the author.
This 1851 naming date makes Tanyang Gongfu the first of the ‘Min Hong Gongfu’ (Fujian Red Gongfu) red teas, the others being Zhenghe Gongfu and Bailin Gongfu. There is also a story that Tanyang Gongfu was the inspiration behind the creation of Qimen red tea in 1876. According to Qimen county records, Yu Ganchen, an official from Yixian, Anhui, was seconded to Fujian. There he encountered gongfu red tea production. After he resigned from his post and returned to his hometown in Anhui, it is said that he applied these Minhong gongfu red tea techniques to the local Qimen varietal, introducing Qimen gongfu in 1876. Both Tanyang and Zhenghe locals have claimed that their teas were the ones that inspired Yu Qianchen, however this might simply be a marketing story to associate their teas with the more famous Qimen.
‘Gongfu’ (工夫) was often mistransliterated as ‘congou’ by European traders, and came to signify a grade of tea in itself. Why it was called 'congou' is likely due to the Amoy dialect spoken in and around Xiamen at the time. 'Congou' came to be the term used in English trade records. Many different red teas were lumped under the ‘congou’ category, including Qimen, Zhenghe, and Bailin red teas, making it sometimes difficult to discern which exact teas are being referred to in historical records. Luckily, in consular trade reports there are still some specific references to Tanyang and other names like ‘Panyang’ and ‘Panyong.’ In the below instance, the writer names the tea as a Panyong Congou and states the origin as Tanyang Village.
Figure 3: Diplomatic and consular reports: annual series: reports relating to China, 1892-1895, public domain.
Sometimes the terms ‘Panyang’ and ‘Panyong’ are simply mistransliterations of ‘Tanyang.’ Some Tanyang locals remember Panyang as an old name for Tanyang, spoken in dialect. A recent change to the Guobiao (Chinese national standards) for Tanyang Gongfu in March 2026 used the name ‘Panyong Congou’, in an attempt to reclaim the name from its historical context.
2. Peak (1851–1936)
From its origin in 1851 to 1881, 36 tea shops operated in Tanyang Village, employing over 3,000 workers. Exports grew quickly, and so did production. Annual production averagely exceeded 20,000 dan, which is 1000 metric tons in today’s measurements. A 1875 British trade report from the customs house in Fuzhou describes one merchant who eagerly purchased fresh harvests of Tanyang Gongfu for export to Russia:
Figure 4: Diplomatic and consular reports: annual series, reports relating to China, 1875-1879, public domain.
Exports of Tanyang Gongfu grew so rapidly that by 1866, only 15 years after the tea’s origin, the Qing government installed a tax bureau in the village. In 1881, Tanyang produced 50,000 chests of tea. Each chest weighed 72 jin, totalling 1800 tons, with an estimated value of 1 million silver dollars in the contemporary trade currency.
Figure 5: A 1935 silver ticket issued by Tongtai Chun Tea House in Tanyang. Courtesy of Li Li.
During the Qing and ROC eras, silver tickets like this one above were used as a means of exchange in Tanyang and Fu'an, due to limited supply of actual silver coins. The silver ticket could not only be used to purchase tea leaves, but also in the local market to purchase other goods. Only tea merchants of a certain wealth and credibility could issue these tickets, a testament to how successful Tanyang was in the tea industry at that time. On the left is an icon of a European building. English language information about the tea shop was printed on the back (not pictured). These tickets are now hard to find, kept as collectibles or in museums.
In Tanyang today, many Qing buildings still stand, including a cannon tower for defence against bandits, a reminder of the silver that once poured into this small village. In the Qing era, Tanyang was sometimes called ‘Little Fuzhou’ because it had all the amenities of a city despite its size.
Figure 6: a ledger from 1871, documenting tea merchants purchasing tea in Tanyang. Courtesy of Li Li.
From the 1870s to 1880s there are numerous references to Tanyang Gongfu in British trade reports from the ports of Canton (Guangzhou), Hankow (Wuhan) and Foochow (Fuzhou). In these reports there are references to Tanyang Gongfu’s high quality, but also references to competition with the burgeoning Indian tea industry. A trade report from 1886 describes the situation at the time:
Figure 7: Diplomatic and consular reports: annual series, reports relating to China, 1885-1889, public domain.
By 1888, Indian teas were surpassing Chinese teas in exports to Britain. Despite this competition, Tanyang Gongfu was continuing to be exported, and would find favour in Russia and Southeast Asia. From 1881-1936, annual exports were still exceeding 500 tons.
In 1915, Tanyang Gongfu won the Gold Medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, alongside Moutai wine. The medal is still proudly displayed in Tanyang Village. Up to recently, it was believed that China did not participate in world expos until 1915. More recent research from the Shanghai Library has discovered documents describing Chinese products in earlier expos, even from the original 1851 World Expo held in London. Whether Tanyang Gongfu was one of the products showcased at these earlier expos is unclear, given the frequent lack of origin indications on Chinese teas at that time. What is known is Tanyang Gongfu’s 1915 Panama Gold Medal, which brought it international fame, at least until exports slowed during the wars of the mid 20th century.
3. Decline (1937-2000)
By 1937, maritime trade disruptions due to the China-Japan war were causing a sharp decline in Tanyang Gongfu exports. The bulk of the remaining exports were diverted to Guangzhou and Hong Kong. 1939 records show 51,000 boxes of Tanyang Gongfu were sold in Hong Kong, where it was advertised as a tea suitable for black tea blends. Exports did recover after the war, thanks to the best efforts of the new state run Fu’an tea factory. In 1960, a record 50,000 tons was exported.
Figure 8: ROC-era packaging of a 250g box of Tanyang Gongfu for export. Notable is the presence of both Chinese and English on the package. Courtesy of Zheng Zuhui.
Figure 9: Fu’an Tea Factory operations in Tanyang Village, early PRC period, courtesy of Fu’an City Archives.
In the latter half of the 20th century however, policy changes lead to red tea being replaced with green tea production. While some red tea was still made, the overall cultivar composition in Tanyang shifted somewhat to green tea cultivars. This was the first time since its origin that Tanyang experienced a large-scale cultivar replanting, though it would not be the last. In the early 2000s, Tanyang producers would again plant a lot of cultivars, changing from green tea cultivars to aromatic oolong varieties. The reason for this will be explained in a later blog.
Despite this decline in exports during the late 20th century, Tanyang became the host to the first modern tea research institute in the 1950s. Headed by Zhang Tianfu, the ‘Father of Chinese Tea Science’, Fu’an was chosen as the location of the institute because of the scale of Tanyang Gongfu’s production and the suitable environment. Though the institute would later have to relocate to Wuyishan, their work on cultivars laid the foundation for the new red teas made from oolong varieties such as New Technique Tanyang Gongfu.
Throughout the late 20th century, Tanyang Gongfu red tea was in danger of being forgotten entirely. In 1988, Fu’an tea enterprises reformed, establishing the “Fu’an Tanyang Gongfu Tea Company,” as an attempt to revive red tea branding.
4. Revival (2001–Present)
Tanyang Gongfu’s recent revival period is characterised by new teas developed from oolong varieties, the so-called ‘New Technique Tanyang Gongfu’, and industry-wide reforms. I will go into detail about New Technique Tanyang Gongfu in the next blog post. Here I will briefly explain some important developments since 2001.
A major event in 2006 was “Tanyang Gongfu” obtaining geographical indication protection within Mainland China. A geographical label is now included on packaging for this tea inside Mainland China, helping to bring more brand and origin awareness. Only red maocha from this geographical area can be called Tanyang Gongfu.
In 2011, the production techniques for Tanyang Gongfu were listed in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage catalog. In 2022, these techniques were included in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Mr Lin Hong was appointed the national-level inheritor of Tanyang Gongfu’s intangible cultural heritage. He remains in this role as of 2026.
Lin Hong assisted in the development of New Technique Tanyang Gongfu, which uses oolong cultivars and adds a shaking step (yaoqing) to the processing workflow. These New Technique Tanyang Gongfu teas now co-exist in the market alongside Traditional Tanyang Gongfu teas, and have helped Tanyang teas grow again in popularity. In 2018 a GB standard was issued for these New Technique Tanyang Gongfu teas. This type of processing has also been used in Tongmu and other red tea production areas, resulting in new highly aromatic teas based on oolong cultivars.
Figure 10: A New Technique Tanyang Gongfu made from the Jin Mu Dan cultivar. Note the mature leaves compared to the finer pickings of Traditional Tanyang Gongfu. Photo by the author.
As of 2020, over 400,000 people are involved in Fu’an’s tea industry. In this current revival period, Tanyang Village is placing great emphasis on organic farming. A lot of Tanyang teas have received Chinese organic certification, and in some cases, certification from European authorities.
Conclusion
It’s hard to say where Tanyang Gongfu will go from here. It will probably never achieve the popularity of other red teas like Zhengshan Xiaozhong, nor will exports ever again reach Qing Dynasty levels. Nevertheless, it is heartening to see a village that has not abandoned red tea, despite many occasions where it easily could have, such as in the 1950s. A lot of historically red tea areas in Fujian have mainly switched to white tea, including Zhenghe. Yet Tanyang Gongfu red tea persists. Blending tradition with the innovative New Technique processing, Tanyang Gongfu is again giving life to a village that has witnessed the tumult of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The author would like to thank Chen Xiao for invaluable contributions to this article. The author would also like to thank Zheng Zuhui and Li Li for their photos.