Illustration of the tea-drinking process using Tang Dynasty-style tea utensils and the Tang Dynasty tea-brewing method at Famen Temple.

"The Classic of Tea" is China's—and indeed the world's—first specialized work on the science and technology of tea. It is an important document in the history of global tea production, making a significant contribution to the development of China's tea industry and exerting a profound influence on the global tea industry as well.

More than three thousand years ago, during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the working people of China had already discovered and begun to utilize tea. Over the long course of history, tea production continued to develop and gradually became commercialized. Meanwhile, people’s understanding and research of tea deepened steadily, and tea is described and recorded in various poems, essays, and biographies.

By the Tang Dynasty, thanks to the adoption of relatively enlightened measures, feudal society experienced unprecedented prosperity, and agricultural production saw significant development. Tea cultivation became even more widespread, tea-processing had evolved into specialized workshops, tea utensils had become exceedingly refined, and tea drinking had become thoroughly popular—providing an abundant wealth of material for the writing of tea-related books. Between 760 and 780 AD, Lu Yu carefully summarized and meticulously studied the tea-production experiences of his predecessors as well as those of his own time, and thus composed "The Classic of Tea."

The publication of "The Classic of Tea" marked the beginning of a new era in the development of China's tea industry. The widespread circulation of "The Classic of Tea" made tea known throughout the land and played a significant role in promoting the broad dissemination of tea knowledge and the advancement of tea production.

Lu Yu’s “The Classic of Tea,” Volume 5, “Brewing,” records the original text for Tang Dynasty tea brewing.

The above source is Wu Juenong’s “A Commentary on the Classic of Tea.”

Lu Yu invented the Twenty-Four Tea Utensils, and the recent discovery of the Dijing Series tea sets provides physical evidence supporting this claim. The wind furnace, fire tongs, paper pouch, mill, sieve and strainer, measuring scoop, lid, bowl, and other utensils mentioned in "The Classic of Tea" have all been found intact in the Dijing Series tea sets, clearly demonstrating the authentic existence of Lu Yu’s tea utensils. Although several Tang Dynasty tea sets had been unearthed previously, their numbers were limited and their variety was sparse, making it impossible to gain a comprehensive understanding of "Lu Yu’s tea utensils" from just a few fragments. The discovery of the Dijing Series tea sets will usher in a breakthrough in the study of ancient Chinese tea utensils.