Lu Yu Tasted the Yangtze Water

The Tea Saint Lu Yu was famous for his book "the Classic of the Tea". He was not only knowledgable in tea and tea equipment, but also in the water used for the tea.

Here is a story recorded by Zhang Youxin in the Tang Dynasty (618-907):

In the Tang Dynasty the governor Li Jiqing of Huzhou City visited Yangzhou and met Lu Yu. Li Jiqing admired Lu Yu very much. He told Lu Yu: "You are the great scholar of tea, I also heard that the Nanling water of the Yangzi River is the best water for the tea. Now let get some of the Nanling water and enjoy the tea together." The Li Jiqing sent one of his soldiers to get the Nanling water for them.

The Nanling water was an underwater spring located at the bottom in the middle of the Yangzi River. In order to get the water people had to put bottles into the bottom of the riverbed at a specific time everyday. When the soldier got the water he sent it to Li Jiqing and Lu Yu. Lu Yu looked at the water and said: "This is not the Nanling water, it looks like the Yangzi River water." The soldier said: "I got the water from the center of the Yangzi River and I have hundreds of witnesses." Lu Yu just spilled some water out of the bottle and looked at the left over inside the bottle and said: "Now this is the real Nanling water. The surface is only the water from the river."

The soldier was so astonished, he kneeled down and said: "I did get a bottle of water from the Nanling Spring. But the boat waved when I came back and I spilled some water out. Therefore I got some water from the river instead." Li Jiqing was so amazed by Lu Yu's knowledge and he asked Lu Yu for the skills of tea and recorded them down.