Discovering Tea

Lu Yu is a Chinese author of the Tang Dynasty. He is best known for his book The Tea Classic published in 780.

Lu Yu was born in 733 in Jingling (now Tianmen) near Fuzhou during the reign of Emperor Tang Xuanzong. His parents are not known, he became an orphan in his early childhood and was taken in by a Buddhist monastery. He learns to read and write. A rebel, Lu Yu is often punished, beaten and assigned to low-grade chores (herding buffalo, cleaning latrines), he ends up running away at the age of twelve.

Having joined a theater troupe, he became an actor before being quickly noticed by the governor of Fuzhou. The governor entrusted him to a master with whom he continued his studies until the age of 20. He develops a passion for tea and 753, he travels to various regions to study the tea plant. In 755, the An Lushan Rebellion broke out and Lu Yu had to flee several times from the threats of war.

He withdrew to the mountains around Huzhou in 760 and began writing his manuscript on tea. He starts writing his manuscript on tea.

Governor Yan Zhenqing, also a poet and calligrapher, integrated him into a team of scholars responsible for writing and editing books. On this occasion, Lu Yu collects anecdotes about tea and adds them to his manuscript. The Tea Classic was published in 780.

As his fame spread, Emperor Tang Dezong wanted to give him a position at court but he refused. He died in 804.