By the end of 8th century, tea was only a popular drink in China to China’s elites.A handful of tea merchants at that time had a vision for the tea industry. But in order to introduce this wonderful drink to all of the people, they needed a tea book that would make tea drinking into an art.

Photo courtesy of DavidReid

The first tea book was introduced in 800 A.D. The book was called Cha’Ching – means “The book of Tea’’, written by a scholar name Lu Yu.

“The book of tea” contains countless information on brewing, growing, and enjoying tea. This book was viewed as the most complete book on tea at that time in China. Yu earned a high status in China’s society due to his expertise on tea.

What do you know about the life of this author?

Lu was born in 733 A.D. When Yu was still a bay, he was abandoned. A Buddhist monk found Lu Yu and adopted him as his son. The monk gave him the name Lu Yu. It means the “feather on the ground”. Although growing up in the Buddhist way, Yu never wanted to become a monk.

Yu was an active young boy. His early interest was in poetry and tea makings. Knowing that Yu had no intention to follow the Buddhist way, his adopted father tried everything to change his son’s mind. Can’t bear the pressure, Lu Yu ran away at the age of 12.

He THEN joined the circus and worked as a clown for a short time. During one of his performances, Lu had a chance to meet a wealthy businessman. This man lent Yu many books from his library.
During this time, Yu started to write the tea book Cha’Ching. He was only 21. He wrote the book based on his own observations and experiences.

It took Yu about 20 years to finish the tea book. The book immediately became a success. Tea became widespread in China. The tea industry was extremely profitable. Yu was well known all over China. He became a frequent visitor to the palace and many other high-ranking officials’ households.

Later in his life, this tea expert retreated into a long meditation in a mountain. No one ever saw him again. Legends say that Lu Yu dies in 804 A.D.

The Passion for tea

On his path for knowledge, Yu found his passion for tea. He perfected the brewing method to make his tea the best tea in China.

Yu was so skilled in tea tasting. He was able to judge the quality of the water in the tea. . Tea with higher quality was taxed more. All the tea in the country had to be measured to Yu’s tea standard.
His tea book “Ch’a Ching” helped to transform tea drinking into in12th.

The Mongolians disrupted Chinese’s way of tea in 13th century. After a hundred years, the art of tea finally revived.

What’s special about the first tea book?

The Cha’Ching or The book of Tea has 3 volumes that include ten parts. Everything about tea at that time was included in this book such as the origin of tea plant, how to prepare tea, the benefits of tea, and description of different types of tea…

Over the years, Lu Yu had developed an interest in poetry. Thus, it’s reasonable that his book was written in a poetic way.

Yu compared tea to other common objects to make it easy to understand.
The book gradually gained popularity in the outside world SINCE a Muslim businessman came to China looking for “The book of Tea”.

From then on, this first complete tea book was translated to many languages. It became well known to the people outside of China.