Cha Jing, written by Lu Yu of Tang Dynasty, was the world first book systematically coded tea. It has ten sections: origin, equipment, picking & processing, teaware, brewing, drinking, legend, tea product, simplification, and displaying. www.apotoftea.com
The World First Tea Book: CHA JING
Cha Jing, written by Lu Yu of Tang Dynasty, was the world first book systematically coded tea. It has ten sections: origin, equipment, picking & processing, teaware, brewing, drinking, legend, tea product, simplification, and displaying.
In its section of Origin, Lu Yu wrote "Tea Plants are Excellent Woods in the South ( China ); Equipment section detailed the tools to process tea leaves; Picking & Processing codified the ways people lived in Tang Dynasty produced tea products; Teaware section was the first time systematically summarized tea ware materials, types, styles, utilities & etc; Brewing section provided a detailed map for tea preparation; Drinking section specified customs people drinking tea; Legend section recorded many Chinese ancient legends, and historical events related to tea; Tea Product section not only categorized different tea products from each area but also provided comments for its taste, shape, color, flavor, smell & etc; Simplification section was a unique section which provided the author's insights to simplify unnecessary procedures in produce tea products. It also reflected Lu Yu's philosophy of "refinement for behavior and fruguality for morality"; and in his book's last section, Displaying, Lu Yu suggested people to write his Cha Jing onto silky paper and display them on the wall so that they can read and use it.
In his work, Cha Jing, Lu Yu combined the Daoism, Confucianism, and Chinese Buddism into the characteristics of Tea, and concluded his own Philosophy of Tea: "Refinement for Behavior and Frugality for Morality".
Lu Yu asserted Tea was the representation of human spirits. Refinement for Behavior meant tea products, tea ware, tea preparation & etc all need to reach the level of excellence. So were tea drinkers' and/or tea lovers' behavior; Frugality was one of the five principles of Confucianism morality. It meant to keep the most simplified but effective way. In Tang Dynasty, gold, silver, and jade tea ware were very popular in royal families. However, in Cha Jing, Lu Yu strongly recommended clay tea ware. Thrifty and effectiveness were always in his mind.
It took Lu Yu twenty years to finish Cha Jing in 780 A.D. from its first version in 758 A.D. Cha Jing researched and summarized the knowledge about tea obtained by human beings up to that time, and directed Lu Yu's followers of tea's future.