The Seven Bowls of Tea

Lu Tong (795 AD) was a great tea scholar during the Tang Dynasty. He preferred a quiet life in the mountains of Hunan Province drinking tea and writing poems under the name “Master Jade Spring”. He had a great understanding of tea and the essence that it brought to ones soul. His most famous poem was “The Seven Bowls of Tea” which expresses the spiritual essence of tea.

The first cup caresses my dry lips and throat.

The second shatters the walls of my lonely sadness.

The third searches the dry rivulets of my soul to find the series of five thousand scrolls.

With the fourth the pain of past injustice vanishes through my pores.

The fifth purifies my flesh and bone.

With the sixth I am in touch with the immortals.

The seventh gives such pleasure I can hardly bear.

The fresh wind blows through my wings,

As I make my way to Penglai the mountain of the immortals.

-Lu Tong

by Chandler McAnally