Lu Yu (733 . 804) is respected as the Sage of Tea for his contribution to Chinese tea culture. He is best known for his monumental book the Classic of Tea (Cha Jing), the first definitive work on rearing, making and drinking tea.

Lu Yu was an abandoned child in a time of war, adopted at three by the abbot of the Dragon Cloud Buddhist monastery and had obtained the name Lu Yu (taken from I Ching). Unwilling to become a monk, he escaped the temple at the age of thirteen and spent years as a clown and a play writer for a group of traveling artistes troupe before settling down in 760 in the mountainous regions in the present day Zhejiang Province to investigate tea process and tea history. Twenty years of his research resulted in the book published in 780. Later he wrote another book on twenty sources for fine water. Lu Yu later became known as the Sage of Tea.