Lu Tong's Seven Bowls of Tea, traditional Chinese characters

Lu Tong (pinyin: Lú Tóng; Wade–Giles: Lu T'ung; simplified Chinese: 卢仝; traditional Chinese: 盧仝; 790–835), pseudonym YuChuanZi (Chinese: 玉川子), was a Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty, known for his lifelong study of Chinese tea culture. He never became an official, and is better known for his love of tea than his poetry.

Biography

Lu Tong, also called by his self-ascribed art name YuChuanZi, was from the city of Jiyuan in the Chinese province of Henan.

Poetry

Lu Tong's Seven Bowls of Tea 七碗诗 卢仝 (唐. 790~835)

The first bowl moistens my lips and throat 一碗喉吻潤The second bowl breaks my loneliness 二碗破孤悶The third bowl searches my barren entrails but to find 三碗搜枯腸therein some five thousand scrolls 惟有文字五千卷The fourth bowl raises a slight perspiration 四碗發輕汗and all life's inequities pass out through my pores 平生不平事盡向毛孔散The fifth bowl purifies my flesh and bones 五碗肌骨清The sixth bowl calls me to the immortals 六碗通仙靈The seventh bowl could not be drunk 七碗吃不得也only the breath of the cool wind raises in my sleeves 唯覺兩腋習習清風生 Where is Penglai Island, Yuchuanzi (Lu Tong's self-ascribed pseudonym) wishes to ride on this sweet breeze and go back 蓬萊山﹐在何處，玉川子乘此清風欲歸去

(Steven R. Jones 2008)

Penglai Island, or Mount Penglai, is a mythologic island / mountain at the eastern end of Bohai Sea just east of Beijing, where the immortals live.

See also

Works cited

  • “Chinese-English Tea Studies Terminology”, (2010), Lu-Yu Tea Culture Institute, Co., Ltd, ISBN 978-957-9690-06-5
  • Ueki, Hisayuki; Uno, Naoto; Matsubara, Akira (1999). "Shijin to Shi no Shōgai (Ro Dō)". In Matsuura, Tomohisa (ed.). Kanshi no Jiten 漢詩の事典 (in Japanese). Tokyo: Taishūkan Shoten. p. 120. OCLC .

External links