Chapter 186 "Tea Saint" and "The Classic of Tea"

During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, Master Zhiji, the abbot of Longgai Temple in Jingling, Fuzhou, took in a three-year-old orphan.The orphan grew up and became a little monk as a matter of course.The monk Zhiji used the "Book of Changes" to divination for him. The hexagram is: "Hongjian is on the land, and its feathers can be used as a ritual." It means that the swan goose gradually lands on the land, and its feathers can be woven into props for Wenwu.The little monk took Lu as his surname, Yu as his first name, and Hongjian as his character.This orphan who didn't even know his last name was Lu Yu, the later patriarch of the tea industry.

Lu Yu, born in Tianmen, Hubei (AD 733-804), a disease, styled Jizhen, nicknamed Jinglingzi, Sangganweng, Donggangzi, was an outstanding scholar in the Tang Dynasty of my country.He loved tea all his life and was proficient in the tea ceremony. His book "The Classic of Tea" is the herald of the tea ceremony in my country and even in the world. Admired by later generations, he was honored as "the saint of tea" and even enshrined as "tea fairy" and "tea god". Lu Yu entrusted himself to a Buddhist temple, tea and Buddhism have an inextricable relationship, and Master Zhiji is a monk who likes tea and is good at tea tasting.According to legend, Zhiji likes to drink tea, and Lu Yu is good at making tea. Zhiji does not drink tea that is not made by Lu Yu.Later, when Lu Yu traveled abroad, Zhiji stopped tea.Emperor Daizong of the Tang Dynasty found out about this, and thought it was a deliberate mystery, so he called Zhiji into the palace and asked the famous tea maker in the palace to offer the famous tea. Zhiji only tasted it, then put it down and sighed Said: "I really want to drink the tea made by my apprentice Lu Yu!"

In fact, Tang Dynasty Emperor had already ordered Lu Yu to enter the palace secretly. Upon hearing this, he ordered someone to serve Lu Yu's tea.Who knew that the old monk Zhiji drank three bowls in a row, and praised him repeatedly: "Well, it really looks like the tea made by my apprentice Lu Yu!" Of course, this is just a legend and may not be credible, but the contribution of Lu Yu and "The Classic of Tea" to Chinese tea culture is indeed huge. The Book of Tea, written in 780 AD, is the earliest tea book in the world.Although it is only about 7000 words, its content is extensive, involving all aspects of tea, and it can be called an encyclopedia of tea ceremony.

Lu Yu died of illness in Tianzhu Mountain, Huzhou when he was seventy-two years old.Before his death, he had a song "Six Envy Songs", which fully demonstrated that his character was as pure as tea leaves.