Tea Sage Lu Yu

Lu Yu, also known as Hongjian, also known as Jizhi. He called himself Sangweng and Jinglingzi. Born in the Kaiyuan period of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, he was a native of Jingling County, Fuzhou (now Tianmen County, Hubei Province). Lu Yu was an abandoned child who had no parents to raise him since he was a child. He was adopted by Master Ji Gong, a monk in Langgai Temple. Ji Gong was a famous monk in the Tang Dynasty. According to "Ji Yi Lu", during the reign of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Ji Gong was summoned to the palace and given special courtesy, which shows that he was also a learned man. Lu Yu received his teachings from a young age and must have a deep understanding of Buddhism. Ji Gong was fond of tea, so Lu Yu learned the art of making tea at a very early age. However, the morning bells and evening drums were too boring for a child. Moreover, Lu Yu had not been interested in Buddhism since he was a child, but was interested in studying Confucianism, so he finally escaped from the temple when he was eleven or twelve years old. After that, he studied opera in an opera troupe. Lu Yu stuttered, but was very talented in acting. He often acted as a clown in plays, which just covered up his physical defects. Lu Yu can also write scripts and has "written thousands of witty words".

In the fifth year of Tianbao (746 years), Li Qiwu went to Jingling as the prefect, which became an important turning point in Lu Yu's life. During a party, Lu Yu acted with the actors, and Li Qiwu appreciated him, so he helped him leave the theater troupe and went to Huomen Mountain outside Jingling City to study with Master Zou and study Confucianism. Cui Guofu, a foreign minister in the Ministry of Rites, cherished talents as much as Li Qiwu. He became a close friend of Lu Yu and presented him with "Bai De Wu" (that is, a bull with white head and black body) and "Wen Huai Letter". Cui Guofu was good at five-character poems and had a good relationship with Du Fu. Lu Yu received the guidance of this celebrity, and his knowledge greatly increased.

In 775 AD (the fourteenth year of Tianbao), Lu Yu, who was twenty-four or five years old, left his hometown with the refugees and lived in Huzhou (today's Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province). Huzhou is relatively peaceful compared to the north. Lu Yu followed Master Jigong to pick and cook tea in the temple since he was a child, and he developed a strong interest in tea science at an early age. Huzhou is also a famous tea producing area, and Lu Yu collected a lot of materials about tea production and production in this area. During this period, he met the famous poet monk Jiaoran. Jiaoran is both a poet monk and a tea monk, and has a strong interest in tea. Lu Yu also had a close relationship with the poet Huangfu Ran and Huangfu Zeng brothers. The Huangfu brothers also had a special hobby for tea. Lu Yu lived in the tea country and met many poets. The influence of art and the beautiful mountains and rivers in the south of the Yangtze River made Lu Yu naturally integrate tea and art, which formed the deep and elegant thoughts and style in his later "Tea Classic".

Since the early Tang Dynasty, tea drinking has become increasingly popular in various places. But not all tea drinkers can appreciate the essence and fun of drinking tea. Therefore, Lu Yu decided to summarize his half-life tea drinking practice and tea science knowledge and write a monograph on tea science. In order to devote himself to research and writing, Lu Yu finally ended his many years of wandering and settled in Tiaoxi, Huzhou in the early Yuan Dynasty. After more than a year of hard work, he finally wrote the first draft of my country's first monograph on tea science and China's first monograph on tea culture - "The Classic of Tea". Lu Yu was 28 years old at the time. In 763 AD, the Anshi Rebellion that lasted for eight years was finally put down, and Lu Yu made another revision to the "Tea Classic". He also personally designed the wind stove for making tea, cast the story of pacifying the Anshi Rebellion on the tripod, and marked it as "Made in the next year of the Holy Tang Dynasty" to show the broad mind of the tea maker who takes pleasure in the happiness of the world. In the ninth year of the Dali calendar (774), Yan Zhenqing, the governor of Huzhou, compiled "Yunhai Jingyuan". Lu Yu participated in this work and took the opportunity to collect tea affairs from past dynasties and supplemented "Seven Things", thus completing the entire task of writing the "Tea Classic". It lasted more than ten years.

The publication of the "Tea Classic" not only made "the world more aware of tea", but also spread Lu Yu's name. This became known to the imperial court, and he was called to serve as "Prince Literary Affairs" and "move to Taichang Temple as Taizhu." However, Lu Yu had no intention of pursuing an official career and did not take up the post. In his later years, Lu Yu moved from Zhejiang to Shangrao, Jiangxi via Hunan. To this day, there is "Lu Yu's Well" in Shangrao, which is known as the site of Lu Yu's former residence.

Around 758 AD, the world’s earliest monograph on tea—The Classic of Tea—was produced. As mentioned earlier, the publication of the "Tea Book" was an important symbol of the development of Chinese tea culture to a certain stage. It was the need and product of the development of the tea industry in the Tang Dynasty, and it was a summary of the Chinese people's experience with tea at that time. The author collects historical tea materials from past dynasties in detail, records personal investigation and practical experience, and elaborates on the history, origin, efficacy, cultivation, harvesting, decoction and drinking of tea in the Tang Dynasty and before the Tang Dynasty. The most complete tea book in ancient times gave tea production a relatively complete scientific basis and played a positive role in promoting the development of tea production.

There is something in the tea made by Jay Chou’s song Grandpa