Almost a millennium before the perfection of chado (the Way of Tea) by Sen Rikyu (1522-1591), the Chinese scholar-official Lu Yu (d. 785) wrote exhaustively about tea and its virtues. Grand Tea Master Sen Soshitsu begins his examination of tea's origins and development from the eighth century through the Heian and medieval eras. This volume illustrates that modes of thinking and practices now associated with the Japanese Way of Tea can be traced to China--where from the classical period tea was imbued with a spiritual quality. Fills a major gap in the study of tea in English. No other book-length study exists on the origins and development of tea drinking in China and Japan.... [T]he book offers occasional insights into the practice of tea that are true gems, obvious products of a tea master and scholar. ― Monumenta Nipponica Convey[s] eloquently a well-researched history of the tradition, and model[s] the praxis of the tradition in its contemporary form. ― Pacific Affairs