Tea affairs in Tang Dynasty

The cake tea processing method was the major tea manufacturing method in the Tang Dynasty. The tea soup cooking with dressings was changed into pure tea brewing because of Lu Yu's advocacy after the middle Tang. The plucked tea leaves were steamed in a steamer, ground in a mortar, compressed into cake, dried and strung with rind of reed or bamboo. The cake tea was ground into powder, shifted and cooked in a caldron before drinking.

Painting of Lanting Picture Obtained by Xiao Yi drawn by Yan Liben was a precious reference about tea cooking by people of the Tang Dynasty, were a typical scene of tea cooking by people of the Tang Dynasty is shown.

 A series of tea sets used by the imperial family were unearthed in the underground palace of Famen Temple pagoda in Fufeng of Shaanxi in May 1985. It confirmed the existence of Lu Yu's tea ceremony.

 "30% for thirst quenching and 70% for tasting". The greater contribution of Tang's tea men whom Lu Yu represented was that they advocated technical skills of tea tasting and accomplished the transformation from the rough thirst-quenching drinking to artistic, fine tasting so that tea tasting became a sophisticated and cultural activity.
   
In his Tea Classic, Lu Yu advocated a tea theory, from emphasis on cooking to emphasis on tasting, including the utensils and the complete procedure he wanted a tea drinker to have a realm of calm, to concentrate attention on the tea, to make the tea tasting activity become a medium of cultivating one's behavior and moral character as well as molding one's temperament. It created a precedent for Chinese tea ceremony and set a model for the development of tea culture in later ages.