Lu Yu

Lu Yu, styled Hongjian, was a native of Jingling in Fuzhou during the Tang dynasty. Orphaned in infancy, he was raised and trained in tea studies at Longgai Temple. Later, he traveled extensively across the Jiangnan region, investigating tea-growing mountains and meticulously studying methods of cultivation, harvesting, and brewing—culminating after decades of research in the three-volume *Classic of Tea* (*Chajing*). This seminal work—the world’s earliest comprehensive treatise on tea—systematically expounds the origins of tea, its tools and utensils, harvesting and processing techniques, preparation methods, and principles of appreciation. It elevated tea drinking from a mere act of quenching thirst to a refined aesthetic practice, thereby popularizing the concept of the 'Way of Tea' (*chadao*). Subsequent generations of tea farmers and merchants venerated Lu Yu as the Tea Deity; his ceramic effigies were enshrined in teashops and worshipped with the same reverence accorded to the God of Wealth. Through a life marked by scholarly detachment and meticulous inquiry, Lu Yu laid the enduring foundation for over a millennium of Chinese tea culture.