Why is a Puerh tea cake weigh 357 grams?

By Emma Chang | 28 September 2018 | 0 Comments
There are many shapes of Pu'er tea, cake-shaped, tuo-shaped, pumpkin-shaped, brick-shaped, etc., but the most common and classic is still tea cake, the default weight is 357g. Why is the Pu'er tea cake 357 grams?
 
1 Easy to measure and manage
 
Pu'er tea flourished in the ancients two thousand years ago and flourished in the royal family of the Qing Dynasty. In 1729 (Yongzheng seven years), the Qing government officially established Pu'er Prefecture, and set up a tribute tea factory in Pu'er County. Pu'er tea was officially listed in the "Tribute for emperor" in 1732, and it has been famous since then.
 
In the ancient border trade, in order to reduce disputes in weights and measures, and facilitate statistics, taxation and trading, the government has established a mandatory standardization measure for Pu'er tea cakes, weighing 2.5 kg of 7 tea cakes in 1 tong(cylinder).
 



After the end of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, Pu'er round tea was sold overseas with overseas Chinese. The history of overseas tea sales began. The weight measurement method of tea cakes also deviated from the traditional Chinese "liang (a unit of weight, 1 liang = 50 grams)" and changed to the international common "gram".
 
At that time, China Tea (China Native Produce and Animal Products Import and Export Corporation) had the right to export tea in China. In order to cooperate with the export, China Tea Company required the subordinate tea factory to produce 30kg of Pu'er tea per package.
 



According to the international unit of measurement, one is a dozen, that is, 12 cylinders. The habit of each cylinder according to the Qing Dynasty is 7 cakes, so the weight of each cake is 30kg÷12 cylinders÷7 cakes  357g. This is the derivation of 357g per cake of Pu'er tea.
 
2 Interpretation from the perspective of “I Ching
 

 
First of all, 3, 5, 7 is a yang number (the number of yang numbers is 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9), and the yang is the Sun and Fire. The sum of the yang numbers is 25(1+3+5+7+9=25), which is the law of of the operating law of the sun.
 
The yin is the Moon (the number is 2, 4, 6, 8, 10), which is water and condensate. The sum of the yin numbers is 30, which is also the mystery of 30 days per month.
Take 3, 5, and 7 for Mid-Yang, which is a lucky number.
 
3 Interpretation from Chinese Traditional Culture
 

 
Some people have interpreted 357 from the cultural traditions of China. The implication is that 3+5+7 is equal to Fifteen. Fifteen is the day of the full moon in the Lunar Calender, which is a gathering day, symbolizing reunion.
 
Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published.Required fields are marked. *
Name *
Email *
Content
Verification code