Tea culture prospered in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in China and produced two outstanding figures: Lu Yu wrote “Book of Tea” and Lu Tong discussed his ideas on tea in a thank-you poem.

Lu Tong one day received three tea cakes from a friend who was far away. The tea cakes were made of choice tea leaves and were as fine as royal tributes.Lu Tong tasted the new tea and wrote a long poem. The poem describes what bowls of tea (this reveals the Tang people used bowls to drink tea) did to him: the first bowl quenches thirst， the second removes loneliness， the third inspires him to see his own literary talent and knowledge， the fourth makes him forget anger and wrongs accumulated over years， the fifth purifies his body and mind and the sixth offers a glimpse into the immortal world， and the seventh gives him wings to fly.

The last part of the poem is about the hard life of tea farmers.The poet asks his friend， an official who was in charge of making remedies to right wrongs， if he could do something to relieve the tea farmers of their sufferings.

The poem was an instant sensation. People couldn’t stop singing it. Poets in subsequent dynasties echoed Lu Tong’s reflections and impressions and frequently referred to the seven bowls and their magic effects.

From the Song Dynasty (960-1279) on， artists created paintings on Lu Tong and the legend of seven bowls of tea. The earliest existing painting on this subject is by Liu Songnian， a leading artist of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). The artwork depicts a landscape of age-old pines and pagoda trees and bamboo groves， a hut under the shade of these trees beside a rockery; inside the hut is Lu Tong， sitting and reading a book while a bare-foot servant prepares tea on a stove and an old man is on his way to fetch water from a nearby stream. The painting describes Lu Tong’s simple lifestyle and radiates a charm.

A Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) scholar wrote a brief biography of Lu Tong， describing him as a reclusive and scholar. The poet’s only fortune was his books and he lived on rice donated by Buddhist monks and neighbors. In his lifetime， the talented scholar turned down two appointments to court positions and lived as a reclusive first in a mountain and later in a city.

Here is a painting about Lu Tong by Jin Nong， one of the eight eccentric painters of Yangzhou during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).#8194;□