In the history of tea industry in China and the world, there is an outstanding great man who always radiates brilliance, that is, Lu Yu, the author of the world's first tea book "Tea Classic" who is honored as "Cha Sheng" and "Tea God" by later generations.

Lu Yu is the founder of tea science. However, he is not only a tea expert, but also has his works and biographies in many cultural classics, such as Complete Tang Poems, Complete Tang Poems, Talented Persons in the Tang Dynasty and so on. Therefore, he is also a scholar, historian and geographer. However, his works and achievements in poetry, history and geography, as some ancient people said, "His books were not handed down, but were covered by tea classics", were almost drowned by his outstanding contributions to tea science and tea industry. Perhaps because of this, in some literary works of China after the Tang Dynasty, although Lu Yu has always been listed as a poet or writer, most of them are "nominal" and pass by. This is reflected in Lu Yu's research, which focuses on tea science and its contribution to tea industry. Undoubtedly, Lu Yu's contribution to tea science and tea industry is mainly and needs to be studied, but it cannot be limited and stayed in this respect. In order to promote the in-depth and development of Lu Yu's studies in China, this paper briefly analyzes several aspects of Lu Yu's tea studies in the past, focusing on Lu Yu's time environment, ideology and social status, as well as some achievements other than tea studies.

The time environment in which Lu Yu lived.

Lu Yu's living environment mainly refers to the social environment in his youth, which has a great influence on his later ideological development. The situation is basically as described in the Book of the New Tang Dynasty and his autobiography: he was an abandoned baby, adopted by monks in Jingling (now Tianmen, Hubei), and fled the temple when he failed to learn Buddhism. First he hid in the troupe to learn drama, and once he performed with some actors in the state government. His talent was discovered by Ritchie, the satrap, and he was helped to abandon his son to study. From then on, I embarked on the road of literati. This has been introduced in many works and articles in the past, and there is no objection. In other words, the social life of Lu Yu's early parasitic temples and wandering singers is clear, so I won't discuss it in detail here. The era in which Lu Yu lived is an issue that has not been discussed in the past. To deal with this problem, we have to start with the birth and death of Lu Yu. About the birth and death of Lu Yu, the historical records are not very clear, only about "I don't know where I was born" and "I died at the end of Zhenyuan". Therefore, 1000 years ago, our ancestors seemed to know nothing about Lu Yu's date of birth and death. Until 1958, Wan Cai, a famous agricultural historian in China, put forward his views on the birth and death of Lu Yu for the first time in an article. According to Wan's research, he believed that Lu Yu "was about the same year as Du Fu" (born in the first year of his life, 7 12) and died "in 804 or earlier". After the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, with the development of national scientific research, there was an upsurge in discussing the birth and death of Lu Yu in China tea industry. For example, as far as I can see, there are different versions of Lu Yu's birth year, such as thirteen years (725), fourteen years, fifteen years, sixteen years, twenty-one years and twenty-two years. Although the above statements are written in a certain way, there are different opinions and few evidences listed, so there is no conclusion yet. According to the above textual research on the date of birth of Lu Yu, it is not difficult to see that most opinions in China academic circles tend to think that Lu Yu was born in the year of Kaiyuan, although the presumed year is different. Kaiyuan is a title for Li Longji in Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, which means that Lu Yu was born in Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty. There is a time difference of more than 20 years between Wan's "innate" theory and "Kaiyuan" theory, but what he actually said was that Lu Yu was born in the Xuanzong period of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, although we have many different opinions on the textual research of Lu Yu's birth year in the past, we have achieved something. At least unanimously affirmed the fact that Lu Yu was born in the Xuanzong period of the Tang Dynasty. According to the year of Lu Yu's death recorded in Historical Records, now we can clearly point out that Lu Yu grew up in the four dynasties of Xuan, Su, Dai and De in the middle of Tang Dynasty. Xuanzong was the longest-serving emperor in the Tang Dynasty (7 13-755). Lu Yu's adolescence and youth, which had a decisive influence on Lu Yu's thought and later development, were mainly put forward during the period of Li Longji. Therefore, to study and understand the objective influence of historical environment on Lu Yu, we must first focus on the social situation of Xuanzong in Tang Dynasty.

When Li Longji is mentioned, people often associate it with Yang Yuhuan and get the image of a bad king. In fact, at the beginning of his succession, Li Longji had political ambitions. Li Longji's nickname is Shun. Before he ascended the throne, he compared himself with Cao Cao. Therefore, during his first reign as emperor, he reused Yao Chong, Song Jing and other famous ministers, and actively carried out some reforms, which not only maintained the prosperity of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, but also continued to develop the economy and culture of the Tang Dynasty. This is also the so-called "rule of Kaiyuan" that the old history often said. Shen Jiji, a Tang Dynasty man, once described the grand occasion of this period as "the family gives enough to the family and the people have no hardship."

Easy to the same, domestic feast "(1). This is of course a compliment. If there was any "household as home" at that time, it could only be every household of landlords and rich people. But judging from the tax revenue at that time, the national treasury may indeed be solid. According to "New Tang Book", it was "the world's revenue at that time, with land rent of more than 2 million tons, millet of 90.8 million tons, silk of 7.4 million tons, cotton of more than 1.8 million tons (62 tons is one ton) and cloth of 1.35 million tons. "(2) Under the historical conditions at that time, the country was not rich with so many taxes every year.

After Emperor Xuanzong ascended the throne, on the one hand, he pushed the prosperous Tang Dynasty to a more prosperous situation through the "rule of Kaiyuan"; On the other hand, class contradictions and social contradictions in the Tang Dynasty have reached irreconcilable levels. The root or focus of class and social contradictions in the Tang Dynasty was the annexation of land by bureaucrats and the rich. In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, in order to restore and develop social production, the land equalization system was adopted and widely implemented. Although land annexation appeared shortly after the implementation of the equal land system in the early Tang Dynasty, it became more and more serious, and its disadvantages exceeded the sorrow of the Han Dynasty, which was still in the middle and late Tang Xuanzong. For example, according to records, in order to ease the social contradictions at that time, Li Longji has repeatedly issued imperial edicts prohibiting the sale of land. But as a result, your life has no influence. In fact, it failed to break the unemployment of the poor and the merger of the rich and the rich. The land equalization system was the basis of many political, economic and military legal systems in the Tang Dynasty, such as household registration and related taxes, labor and military service, which were initially fixed and maintained through the land equalization system. Li Longji failed to control more and more land annexation, and a large number of unemployed farmers either fled for survival or became servants and customers of landlords' estates. In this way, in the past, the number of registered permanent residence held by the government became less and less, the number of soldiers dropped sharply, farmers' taxes became heavier and heavier, and class and social contradictions became more acute and complicated. Take military service as an example. In the Tang dynasty, it turned out to be a system of officers and men. As a landlord's manor, the land equalization system was destroyed after its rapid development, so it had to be changed to the conscription system. Mercenaries were under the jurisdiction of a general for a long time, which led to the later Fang Zhen regime. In this regard, it was repeatedly mentioned in Li Longji's imperial edict: "The cunning officials invaded the fishing, and the power and luxury were seized, so they were poor and fled for many years." (1) Du Fu's famous sentence "The wine and meat in Zhumen stink, and the bones freeze to death on the road" is a vivid portrayal of this social reality at this time. As mentioned earlier, if Li Longji wanted to do something in his early years, in his efforts, when he saw more and more that he could no longer control these contradictions, his confidence disappeared and he became passive. So, later, Li Longji advocated bureaucracy, and soon turned to beg in Confucianism and Taoism. In the 26th year of Kaiyuan (738), Li Longji's imperial edict "Learning Confucianism, luring disciples" (2) stipulated that rural schools should be set up in rural areas, and vigorously advocated learning Confucianism. At the same time, he also strongly praised Taoism, personally annotated the Tao Te Ching for people to learn, and ordered Taoist priests and female champions to commit crimes. "All state and county officials are not allowed to be punished arbitrarily". Li Longji imagined that with the help of Confucian scholars and Taoist priests, society could settle down quickly. Under the guidance of this foolish thought, he naturally didn't need a good minister, and gave the power of Li and Yang, the consort of the imperial palace, to eunuch Gao Lishi. As far as Li Longji himself is concerned, he didn't want to see the deteriorating social situation, and he lived a decadent and dissolute life of "spring night was short, the sun rose too early, and the emperor never went to the early dynasty", which made the emperor flourish in the Tang Dynasty and his hands, from prosperity to decline.

The age when Lu Yu knew the world and determined the road of life was a great turning point for such a country from prosperity to decline. Therefore, Lu Yu's later life, development, thoughts and personality are all marked by this era.

For example, Lu Yu's "Essays from the Temple" clearly shows the influence of this era. As we all know, Lu Yu was an abandoned baby and was adopted and raised by a monk. He lived in the middle of a temple since he was a child, where Muyu heard voices and meditated all night. In principle, he has been in contact with Buddhist scriptures for many years and grew up to become a monk. This is an inevitable development. However, because Li Longji respected Confucianism and Taoism at that time, Buddhism was in decline, which may be the main reason why Lu Yu refused to follow Buddhism. Lu Yu doesn't want to learn Buddhism, so why not learn something else and specialize in The Text of Confucius? As mentioned earlier, in the early Tang Xuanzong period, especially through the establishment of township schools, culture has been greatly developed. Therefore, some people call this the "golden age" or "heyday" of Tang literature, especially poetry. During the years of Kaiyuan and Tianbao, famous poets appeared in China, such as Gao Shi, Cen Can, Wang Zhihuan, Wang Changling, Li Bai and Du Fu. Let literature become the most charming rainbow in the prosperous Tang Dynasty in Li Longji. Lu Yu was smart and eager to learn since he was a child, and his interest was extraordinary. At that time, everything was at stake and Shang Rong was in full bloom. Of course, he would only pursue prosperity, avoid decline, seek the pleasure of life and pursue the achievements he wanted through the road of literature.

The above is just an example of the influence of times and environment on Lu Yu. In fact, Lu Yu's thoughts and activities all his life are related to his growing age and environment.

Therefore, if we want to have a deeper study and understanding of Lu Yu, we must also make some concrete analysis of his social economy, politics, ideology and culture at that time. Because if the study of Lu Yu is an isolated study regardless of the historical environment, it is impossible to use historical materialism, and it is difficult to make a correct decision without seeing the constraints of historical conditions.

Evaluation. Therefore, the background of these times mentioned by the author above is not a discussion, but an aspect that is often ignored by everyone in the previous study of Lu Yu.