ulgarity of the
ordinary methods of tea-drinking, a historical summary of illustrious
tea-drinkers, the famous tea plantations of China, the possible
variations of the tea-service and illustrations of the tea-utensils. The
last is unfortunately lost.

The appearance of the "Chaking" must have created considerable sensation
at the time. Luwuh was befriended by the Emperor Taisung (763-779), and
his fame attracted many followers. Some exquisites were said to have
been able to detect the tea made by Luwuh from that of his disciples.
One mandarin has his name immortalised by his failure to appreciate the
tea of this great master.

In the Sung dynasty the whipped tea came into fashion and created the
second school of Tea. The leaves were ground to fine powder in a small
stone mill, and the preparation was whipped in hot water by a delicate
whisk made of split bamboo. The new process led to some change in the
tea-equipage of Luwuh, as well as in the choice of leaves. Salt was
discarded forever. The enthusiasm of the Sung people for tea knew no
bounds. Epicures vied with each other in discovering new varieties, and
regular tournaments were held to decide their superiority. The Emperor
Kiasung (1101-1124), who was too great an artist to be a well-behaved
monarch, lavished his treasures on the attainment of rare species. He
himself wrote a dissertation on the twenty kinds of tea, among which he
prizes the "white tea" as of the rarest and finest quality.

The tea-ideal of the Sungs differed from the Tangs even as their notion
of life differed. They sought to actualize what their predecessors tried
to symbolise. To the Neo-Confucian mind the cosmic law was not reflected
in the phenomenal world, but the phenomenal world was the cosmic law
itself. Aeons were but moments--Nirvana always within grasp. The Taoist
conception that immortality lay in the eternal change permeated all
their modes of thought. It was the process, not the deed, which was
interesting. It was the completing, not the completion, which was really
vital. Man came thus at once face to face with nature. A new meaning
grew into the art of life. The tea began to be not a poetical pastime,
but one of the methods of self-realisation. Wangyucheng eulogised tea
as "flooding his soul like a direct appeal, that its delicate bitterness
reminded him of the aftertaste of a good counsel." Sotumpa wrote of the
strength of the immaculate purity in tea which defied corruption as