Lu Yu was orphaned as a child when he was three and raised by scholarly Buddhist monks in one of China's finest monasteries. However, as a young man, he rebelled against the discipline of priestly training which had made him a skilled observer.
Escaped from the monastery at the age of twelve, he became a stage performer which at that time was at the low end of the social class. His fame as a performer increased with each year, but he felt his life lacked meaning. Finally, in mid-life, he retired for five years into seclusion.
Drawing from his vast memory of observed events and places, he codified the various methods of tea cultivation and preparation in ancient China. The vast definitive nature of his work, projected him into near sainthood within his own lifetime.
Patronized by the Emperor himself, his work clearly showed the Zen Buddhist philosophy to which he was exposed as a child. It was this form of tea service that Zen Buddhist missionaries would later introduce to imperial Japan and became a religion of tea - Cha Dao. However, Lu Yu's personal character and experience, as well as his historical status in the tea culture has decided that tea could never be a religion in China.