The era in which Lu Yu lived was before and after the "Anshi Rebellion", when Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism were parallel in the history of Chinese culture, and Confucianism and Zen converged in the south.

When Lu Yu first arrived in Jiangnan, he got acquainted with Huang Fu Ran, who was the lieutenant of Wuxi County at the time, Huang Fu Ran was born as a champion and was a famous person in the world, and provided a lot of help for Lu Yu's tea activities. But the one who helped Lu Yu's tea event the most and had the deepest friendship was the poet and monk Jiaoran.

Jiaoran's common surname is Xie, and he is the tenth grandson of Xie Lingyun in the Southern Dynasty. After the acquaintance of Kyauklu, he was able to become a friend of the year, and he had been friends for more than 40 years, until he died one after another. Jiaoran lived in seclusion in Miaoxi Temple in Zhushan in Huzhou for many years, but "hidden heart is not hidden", and had extensive contacts with famous monks and dignitaries at that time, which naturally expanded Lu Yu's range of friends and vision.

Lu Yu lived in Miaoxi Temple for many years, collected and sorted out tea materials, and then with the help of Jiaoran, "knotted the shore of Tiaoxi, closed the door to the book", and began to write the "Book of Tea".

Chen Shidao wrote in the "Preface to the Book of Tea": "The book of Fu Tea begins with Yu; It has been used in the world since the beginning of the feather. Yu Cheng has a credit to the tea person. From the palace province, under the Yili, outside and Rong Yi Barbarian, the guest worship Yan Xiang, pre-Chen in front. The mountains become a city, and the businessmen start with a businessman, and they also contribute to others. In other words, Lu Yu was the first person in the world to write a book on tea, and he made great contributions to tea affairs.

Since coming down from Huomen Mountain, Lu Yu has no distractions, all the way to investigate the tea affairs, and came to Huzhou in the south of the Yangtze River, when he was only twenty-four years old, and has since settled here.

In the Book of Tea, Lu Yu designed a total of twenty-four kinds of tea utensils. In the fourth chapter, he deals specifically with tea utensils, such as bowls, stoves, and fire tongs. Lu Yu thinks that the bowl is used as a tea utensil, and the bowls produced in Yuezhou are the best, and the bowls in Dingzhou and Wuzhou are worse. Tea drinking utensils are of great significance to professional tea drinkers.

The taste of tea brewed by different tea sets will be different, and sometimes high-quality tea sets may not necessarily brew tea with pleasant aroma. It means that tea and tea are closely related, and the objects complement each other and complement each other.

Lu Yu believes that tea utensils are nothing more than 24 kinds of stoves, tea kettles, paper bags, wooden mills, and tea bowls, which are all common tea cooking utensils in daily life. Why do some people have good tea, but they can't make delicious and attractive tea? One of the reasons for this is the improper use of tea sets. At the same time, he also introduced the use of these utensils in tea cooking. Thus creating a precedent for tea art and tea ceremony.

I have to mention "Lu Yu Cooking Tea", which is the work of the Yuan Dynasty painter Zhao Yuan. The historical records of Zhao Yuan are unknown, only that Zhao Yuan served as a Zhongshu Ling during the Ming Taizu period, was good at landscape painting, and had high attainments in painting bamboo and stone, and was quite famous in the Pingjiang area at that time.

"Lu Yu Cooking Tea" is now in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The painting is seventy-eight centimeters long and twenty-seven centimeters high. The painting depicts many mountain peaks, with mountains stacked on top of each other, undulating, giving people a long-term and expansive artistic conception. In the painting, I saw a vast and clear water surface spread out, and a pavilion was erected next to the stream, built for thatch, and the trees depended on it. Lu Yu was in the grass pavilion, and there was a tea boy beside him who was cooking tea for him.

Through this painting, it can be understood that Lu Yu is painting behind closed doors, and he does not want to live a disturbing life. Therefore, Lu Yu likes to travel around all his life, and is not bound by fame and fortune. This picture is a true portrayal of his later life.

After Lu Yu wrote "The Book of Tea", he became famous. People who came to discuss tea ceremony culture with Lu Yu flocked to him, and Lu Yu was determined to live a secluded life, write about tea books, and occasionally talk about culture with friends, so that his life was leisurely and fulfilling.

Lu Yu lived in Jiangsu and Zhejiang in his later years, and he was homesick and wrote a poem:

"I don't envy the golden jade, I don't envy the white jade cup.

Do not envy the province of the DPRK, and do not envy the twilight of Taiwan.

Thousands of envy of the West River, once to Jingling City. ”

Jingling, which means "Lingzhijing", the mountain is finished.

In his early years, Lu Yu lived on the edge of the Xijiang River in Jingling. There are many old traces of Lu Yu in Tianmen, Hubei, such as the Ancient Wild Goose Bridge, the Literary Spring, and the West Pagoda Temple...... In addition, there are also traces of Lu Yu's study in the Buddha Mountain in the north of the city, and after traveling to the Xiajiang River to investigate tea, Lu Yu once again returned to Jingling Donggang to settle down. After the Anshi Rebellion, he "cried and wept", reluctantly left, fled the chaos in the south, and never returned to his hometown where he was born and raised.

Joseph Needham, an expert in the history of science and technology in the world, proposed that tea is the fifth greatest invention in China after the four major inventions.

British scholar Alan Macfarlane proposed in his monograph "Green Gold: The Empire of Tea" that the Industrial Revolution first appeared in Britain and was related to tea. Because of tea, even the dreary, toiling, and hardship of the British workers became something to bear.

In a cup of tea, there is leisure and elegance, economic reform, and the confrontation and detachment of hard-working people from the difficult life, regardless of China and foreign countries.

In Lu Yu's era, it was important to make tea. After that, the method of ordering tea and brewing tea appeared. Now the brewed tea is gradually declining. However, taking a sip of Tianmen green tea brewed in Xijiang water has a light taste, but it is also timeless. This is also the best nostalgia for the tea saint Lu Yu.

Later generations put Lu Yu's "Sencha in front of the Emperor" on the stage in the form of opera literature and art, and its scene is to reproduce the scene of the tea saint Lu Yu personally sencha for the emperor in the palace, showing the whole process of "preparing utensils, selecting water, making fire, waiting for soup, boiling tea, grinding tea, Luo tea, sencha, and drinking tea" and "the Son of Heaven tastes tea, and the dragon's heart is happy".

Tea is born from "rites", and the process of making tea is elevated to "rites", reflecting the connotation and essence of tea. The tea ceremony is a part of Confucian culture, broad and profound, and the Chinese tea art contains the spirit of "tea ceremony", how can it be abandoned?

Lu Yu, a generation of tea saints, traveled to Xiajiang to investigate tea affairs and came to the depths of Jingshan, and he was impressed by the strange peaks and valleys and stacked grass here.

He wrote in the "Book of Tea": Shannan (1): On Xiazhou, (original note: Xiazhou Shengyuan'an, Yidu, Yiling three county valleys (3). Xiangzhou, Jingzhou, Hengzhou, Jinzhou, Liangzhou.

Tianlu Temple is located in the territory of Xiazhou, its geographical location is unique, occupying two treasures, namely the Buddhist holy land and the production of superb yellow tea. The mountain is named after the deer, the tea is passed on with the temple, the famous mountain and the famous temple are the famous tea, and the heaven and earth are made, and they are inherited in one line.

The origin of the planting of Zen tea in the temple, according to legend, at the beginning of the construction of the temple, there was a monk who found a tea tree by the temple, tasted after harvesting, the fragrance was rich, the aftertaste was endless, and he exclaimed God tea! Suddenly, the monastery spread, the monks planted one after another, and the local people also competed to introduce the seeds. Later, three rare white tea trees were found on the rock slope behind the temple, the color is white and the buds are strong, and the quality is outstanding, so it has the reputation of "white tea Zen flavor".

Someone asked about Cha Ai, and the monk said: The natives are logged, and there are few survivors.

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Zen tea was selected as a "tribute", after the Qianlong Emperor drank, he suddenly felt a full of fragrance, the spirit doubled, he couldn't sleep at night, the dragon face was happy, and the imperial name Zen tea was "good lewd tea".

Therefore, Lu Yu has a historical record of tea production in Jingshan as early as in the "Book of Tea". In the ninth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, the 45th monk Jin Tian of Linji Zhengzong traveled to this temple to preach, drink Zen tea, and give poems:

The mountain essence stone liquid is outstanding, and a fragrant fragrance is full of smoke.

Not only is the heart clear and the eyes are good, but Zen can ambush the Sanddemon Army.