The Year of the Dragon has arrived, and many people, after their annual performance reviews, are now faced with the reality of renewing their job responsibility statements. In fact, job responsibility statements are not a modern invention; they date back to the Western Han Dynasty.
In the Western Han period, Wang Bao, a native of Zizhong (present-day Ziyang), Sichuan, lived in Chengdu at the home of Yang Hui, a widow. He engaged in a battle of wits with a bearded slave named Bian Liao, writing a document called “Tongyue” for him, initially just to play a prank on the slave who lacked self-awareness. Unintentionally, this act provided the Tea world with its first proof that tea was a commodity. This dual achievement was likely unexpected even by Wang Bao himself.
Bian Liao demanded that his new master, Wang Bao, clearly specify his duties: “Since it has come to this, you should write down all the tasks I'm expected to do in the contract, just like when Master Yang bought me. Otherwise, I won't do them!”
It seems that Bian Liao, perhaps because he couldn't read or knew very little, intended to make things difficult for his new master, whom he had some grievances against. However, Wang Bao was skilled in rhetoric and well-versed in the six arts, so writing an article was easy for him. To teach Bian Liao a lesson and to ensure his obedience, he penned a 600-character contract – “Tongyue,” which is essentially a job responsibility statement today – detailing the labor tasks and timeframes for Bian Liao.
After a few days, the complex tasks listed in the contract proved too much for Bian Liao, and he conceded to Wang Bao: “If I have to work like this, I'll probably die soon. If I had known, I would rather buy wine for you every day.”
From the teasing and humorous sentences in Wang Bao's “Tongyue,” later generations can see that this was merely a casual piece written in a fit of inspiration. Unexpectedly, in his playful banter with his servant, Wang Bao left behind a crucial document for Chinese tea history. The text mentions tea in two places: “preparing tea and utensils” and “buying tea in Wuyang.” “Preparing tea and utensils” refers to brewing tea and providing clean tea utensils, while “buying tea in Wuyang” means purchasing tea in Wuyang (now Shuangjiang Town, Pengshan District, south of Chengdu).
From this, we can see that tea had become an essential part of Wang Bao's daily life. Wuyang was known for producing famous teas (as recorded in “The Records of Huayang Kingdom: The History of Shu”). Therefore, buying tea in Wuyang became one of Bian Liao's tasks. More interestingly, when tea historians read “Tongyue,” they learned that tea was already being sold as a commodity during Wang Bao's time. This suggests that Drinking Tea had become a popular beverage among the upper classes, indicating the prevalence of tea consumption in the Western Han Dynasty.
The date mentioned in “Tongyue” for “buying tea in Wuyang” is the 15th day of the first lunar month in 59 BCE. If William Ukers, the American authority on tea, had seen Wang Bao's “Tongyue” and understood the historical significance of “buying tea in Wuyang” when he wrote “All About Tea,” he might not have made the hasty claim that “tea gradually became a commodity in the fifth century” and “by the end of the sixth century, tea had transitioned from medicinal use to a beverage.” After all, “buying tea in Wuyang” predates their “fifth century” by five centuries.
(The author is an associate editor at China Agricultural University Press and a member of the Committee on Agricultural Science Popularization of the Chinese Association of Science Writers.)
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