Lu Yu was born in 733 in…

780 CE

Lu Yu was born in 733 in Tianmen, Hubei.

According to Tea Lore, Lu Yu was an orphan of Jinling county (now Tianmen county in Hubei province) who was adopted by a Buddhist monk of the Dragon Cloud Monastery.

He refused to take up the monastic robes and was assigned menial jobs by his stepfather.

Lu Yu ran away and joined the circus as a clown.

At age fourteen, Lu Yu was discovered by the local governor Li Qiwu who offered Lu Yu the use of his library and the opportunity to study with a teacher.

For six years, Lu Yu stayed in Houmen mountain studying under the guidance of master Zou Fuzi.

During this period Lu Yu often brewed tea for his teacher.

He also took care of fellow students' health with his remarkable knowledge in tea and herbs that he learned while at the Longgai Monastery.

Whenever time permitted between his studies Lu Yu often went to the countryside to gather tea leaves and herbs.

In one of those trips Lu Yu stumbled upon a spring underneath a six-foot round rock and the water from the spring was extremely clear and clean.

When Lu Yu brewed tea with this spring water he found the tea tasted unexpectedly better than usual: Lu Yu now realized the importance of quality water in brewing tea.

Zou Fuzi, moved by Lu Yu's obsession with tea and his skill in brewing good tea, cleared the rock together with some of his students and dug a well around the fountainhead of that spring.

(In 1768, just over a thousand years later during the Qing Dynasty (1616–1911), Jingling was hit by drought and the whole city was badly in need of water.

City folks found water still flowing from this well uncovered by Lu Yu and dug by Zou Fuzi.

A Qing official ordered three wells to be dug around the spring, and a structure constructed near the wells named "Lu Yu Hut" and the "Literary Spring".)

Concluding his studies in 752, Lu Yu bade farewell to his guru Zou Fuzi and returned to Jingling to meet his benefactor Li Qiwu.

However, Li Qiwu had been reinstated the previous year and had returned to the Tang capital Chang'an; the new Chief Official of Jingling now was Cui Goufu.

Cui, a senior official who had held a position approximating an Education Minister, had been demoted and transferred to Jingling as a Chief Official for offending a member of the royalty.

Cui Goufu is a scholar and poet well known for his magnificent five-characters-per-verse short poems.

After his demotion to Jingling, Cui Goufu took life at his leisure.

Even though Cui was many years older than Lu Yu, both men share the same interest in tea, literature and poetry.

As such, they had become good friends soon after they met.

During this period, Lu Yu had stayed with Cui Goufu and assisted him in his administrative tasks.

The pair had spent much time traveling, drinking tea and writing poems, co-authoring several books on poetry.

This period with Cui Goufu had been the growing phase for Lu Yu as a man of letters; an incubation period for him to practice and sharpen what he had learned from Zou Fuzi.

Cui Goufu, with his vast experience and skill in literary work, became a coach who provided the necessary guidance to enhance and mature Lu Yu's writing and literary skills.

During this time he writes Cha Jing (The Classic of Tea), publishing it between 760 and 780 as three books covering ten chapters.

According to Cha Jing, tea drinking is widespread.

The book describes how tea plants are grown, the leaves processed, and tea prepared as a beverage.

It also describes how tea is evaluated, and discusses where the best tea leaves are produced.