Lù Yǔ 陸羽
Mid-Tang scholar-recluse and cháshèng 茶聖 (Sage of Tea), the foundational figure of Chinese tea-culture as a literati pursuit. Zì Hóngjiàn 鴻漸 (or alternately Jìcī 季疵), hào Sāngzhù wēng 桑苧翁 (“Old Man of Mulberry-and-Linen”) and Jìnglíng zǐ 竟陵子. Native of Jìnglíng 竟陵 in Fùzhōu 復州 (modern Tiānmén 天門, Húběi); died at Tiàoxī 苕溪 in Húzhōu (modern Wúxīng).
A foundling raised in Buddhist temples — the Jìnglíng Lónggàisì 龍蓋寺 abbot Zhìjī 智積 took him in. He fled the monastic life to pursue Confucian-literary studies, became friend of the famous mid-Tang poet-monk Jiǎorán 皎然 (his lifelong tea-companion), and during the An Lushan rebellion (755+) retreated southward to Jiāngnán. He settled at Tiàoxī in Húzhōu, where in the 760s he composed the Chájīng 茶經 (KR3i0019) — the foundational classic of Chinese tea-culture, which transformed tea-drinking from a regional beverage habit into a literati art.
Lù Yǔ refused multiple imperial summons (Sùzōng, Dàizōng) to office, choosing to remain a private scholar. His Chájīng was completed in initial form c. 760 and revised at intervals; the work codified the techniques of tea-cultivation, processing, brewing, and drinking, and gave tea-culture a quasi-canonical (jīng) status. He died c. 804 / 805 (the Tang-shū gives 804; CBDB places it 805); buried at Tiàoxī, where SòngYuánMíngQīng tea-pilgrims paid homage.
His secondary works — the Jūnchén qì lù 君臣契錄, the Sìbēi shǐ 四悲詩, the Lǔ Guō shī shī 魯郭十詩 — are lost. The Chájīng alone survives but suffices to establish him as one of the principal cultural figures of mid-Tang China.