The Book of Tea | Page 5

caravansaries, points to the survival of the
ancient method.
It needed the genius of the Tang dynasty to emancipate Tea from its
crude state and lead to its final idealization. With Luwuh in the middle
of the eighth century we have our first apostle of tea. He was born in an
age when Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism were seeking mutual
synthesis. The pantheistic symbolism of the time was urging one to
mirror the Universal in the Particular. Luwuh, a poet, saw in the
Tea-service the same harmony and order which reigned through all
things. In his celebrated work, the "Chaking" (The Holy Scripture of
Tea) he formulated the Code of Tea. He has since been worshipped as
the tutelary god of the Chinese tea merchants.
The "Chaking" consists of three volumes and ten chapters. In the first
chapter Luwuh treats of the nature of the tea-plant, in the second of the
implements for gathering the leaves, in the third of the selection of the
leaves. According to him the best quality of the leaves must have
"creases like the leathern boot of Tartar horsemen, curl like the dewlap
of a mighty bullock, unfold like a mist rising out of a ravine, gleam like
a lake touched by a zephyr, and be wet and soft like fine earth newly
swept by rain."
The fourth chapter is devoted to the enumeration and description of the
twenty-four members of the tea-equipage, beginning with the tripod
brazier and ending with the bamboo cabinet for containing all these
utensils. Here we notice Luwuh's predilection for Taoist symbolism.
Also it is interesting to observe in this connection the influence of tea
on Chinese ceramics. The Celestial porcelain, as is well known, had its
origin in an attempt to reproduce the exquisite shade of jade, resulting,

in the Tang dynasty, in the blue glaze of the south, and the white glaze
of the north. Luwuh considered the blue as the ideal colour for the
tea-cup, as it lent additional greenness to the beverage, whereas the
white made it look pinkish and distasteful. It was because he used
cake-tea. Later on, when the tea masters of Sung took to the powdered
tea, they preferred heavy bowls of blue-black and dark brown. The
Mings, with their steeped tea, rejoiced in light ware of white porcelain.
In the fifth chapter Luwuh describes the method of making tea. He
eliminates all ingredients except salt. He dwells also on the
much-discussed question of the choice of water and the degree of
boiling it. According to him, the mountain spring is the best, the river
water and the spring water come next in the order of excellence. There
are three stages of boiling: the first boil is when the little bubbles like
the eye of fishes swim on the surface; the second boil is when the
bubbles are like crystal beads rolling in a fountain; the third boil is
when the billows surge wildly in the kettle. The Cake-tea is roasted
before the fire until it becomes soft like a baby's arm and is shredded
into powder between pieces of fine paper. Salt is put in the first boil,
the tea in the second. At the third boil, a dipperful of cold water is
poured into the kettle to settle the tea and revive the "youth of the
water." Then the beverage was poured into cups and drunk. O nectar!
The filmy leaflet hung like scaly clouds in a serene sky or floated like
waterlilies on emerald streams. It was of such a beverage that Lotung, a
Tang poet, wrote: "The first cup moistens my lips and throat, the
second cup breaks my loneliness, the third cup searches my barren
entrail but to find therein some five thousand volumes of odd
ideographs. The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration,--all the wrong
of life passes away through my pores. At the fifth cup I am purified; the
sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals. The seventh cup--ah,
but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of cool wind that rises
in my sleeves. Where is Horaisan? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and
waft away thither."
The remaining chapters of the "Chaking" treat of the vulgarity of the
ordinary methods of tea-drinking, a historical summary of illustrious
tea-drinkers, the famous tea plantations of China, the possible

variations of the tea-service and illustrations of the tea-utensils. The
last is unfortunately lost.
The appearance of the "Chaking" must have created considerable
sensation at the time. Luwuh was befriended by the Emperor Taisung
(763-779), and his fame attracted many followers. Some exquisites
were said to have been able to detect the tea made by Luwuh from that
of his disciples. One mandarin has his name immortalised by his failure
to appreciate the