The Classic of Tea Author:Yu Lu, Lu Yu Written more than one thousand years ago, Lu Yu's CH'A CHING -- THE CLASSIC OF TEA -- has done more than any other text to elevate tea and tea drinking to its unique place of veneration in Chinese society. — Lu Yu identified tea as a beverage integral to the Chinese spirit and the act of its drinking as a celebration of life. Through the proper r... more »itual of preparation, the choice of ingredients, environment, and equipment, he showed how a simple beauty can be realized, and inner harmony expressed, in an outward form and order. Every tea hour becomes a masterpiece, to serve as a distillation of all tea hours.
This edition by Francis Ross Carpenter is the first complete translation of THE CLASSIC OF TEA to ever appear in the West. In addition to the complete text of CH'A CHING, it includes an introduction to Lu Yu's life and times and to the history and significance of tea in eastern and western cultures. Demi Hitz's pen and ink sketches along with reproductions of early Chinese paintings of tea culture and manufacture complete the volume.« less