Friday, February 08, 2008
Posted by Miss Neddy at 11:15 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Related

The Book of Tea (Lu Yü‘s 茶经 Cha Jing, or literally Tea Sutra, not Kakuzo Okakura’s excellent book of the same name) begins “茶者， 南方之嘉木也， 一尺， 二尺， 乃至数十尺。” Roughly translated it means “Tea is from the south, of Jia Mu area. It can grow to 1 foot, 2 feet, or even to tens of feet high.” A modest beginning to a definitive text on Chinese tea, as the Book of Tea goes on to detail the origins, processing, history, and ways of steeping, brewing, or cooking it, and also tea equipment and how to drink tea. Much of it are lists, such as the best sources of water for various kinds of tea; different places where tea is grown, and the grades of tea leaves according to the size and age of the leaf.

Lu Yü (陆羽), the author of the Book of Tea, is considered today as the Sage or Saint of Tea. You may occasionally see in teahouses, perhaps in an unobtrusive corner, a small statue of a serene looking man, dressed like a scholar, a cup of tea in his hand. His life was quite exceptional: Brought up by monks, he ran away to be a performer and penned some comedies which were quite well-received, and as a performer, he was considered eloquent and witty; later, with the help of a governor, Lu Yü was sponsored to study under the learned Zou Fuzi (邹夫子), who noticed his pupil’s love for tea, and even helped him clear a spring Lu Yü had discovered during his frequent wandering in his free time. Interestingly, the place where Lu Yü studied was named Huo Men Shan (火门山) or literally the Fire-Gate Mountain - a very similar name to a very famous location in Greece, Thermopylae.

With these two benefactors, Lu Yü could fulfil his love of knowledge, which his foster parent, the monk Zhi Ji (智积) discouraged, as the latter was adamant that Lu Yü learn only the Buddhist scriptures with the aim of eventually becoming a monk. (Some sources claim that Lu Yü‘s foster parent was named Jigong, which might be a confusion with the mythical monk Jigong 济公, who was supposed to have been the reincarnation of an Arhat born during the Song Dynasty. He ate meat and drank wine, and was credited with many miraculous feats; he is commonly held as an example of a Buddhist who follows the spirit of Buddhist teachings, not just the form)

His next benefactor and good friend was the former Education Minister, but had been demoted to a governor for having offended a member of the Imperial family. The two men were more than forty years apart in age, but their friendship was close and compatible on many levels. They shared interest in the literary arts and in tea culture, never running out of things to say to each other. Lu Yü eventually wearied of the idle life, and wished to set on a journey to record and catalogue the many aspects of tea. Reluctant though he was to part with his friend, Cui Guofu furnished Lu Yü with all manner of goods and resources to set him on his way, and on the day of parting, Cui Guofu gave to Lu Yü a final gift of a rare animal, a black buffalo that had a white face. In many depictions of Lu Yü, he is riding on, or resting against this buffalo.

And so Lu Yü set off, well-equipped but alone, wandering the countryside on a buffalo. He had been only 12 when he ran away from the monastery, 13 when he became a pupil of Zou Fuzi, and only 21 years of age when he set off on his quest to discover all there was to know about tea. However, his life, especially the major changes in his life, was only beginning.

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