Chayue 茶約

Chayue 茶約 "A concise book on tea" is a book on tea written by the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) scholar He Binran 何彬然, courtesy name He Wenchang 何文長 or He Ningye 何寧野. He came from Qizhou 蘄州 (modern Qichun 蘄春, Hubei), but not much is known about hif life. His book Chayue was finished in 1619 and explains methods of cultivating tea plants, the time of harvesting, methods to pluck leaves and to process them, the selection of water and how to boil it, various tools for the preparation of tea, and methods of consumption. An appendix explains problems in the production of tea. In the general compilation the Chaye imitates the structure of Lu Yu's 陸羽 famous classic Chajing 茶經 from the Tang period 唐 (618-907). It was presented to the compilers of the imperial reprint series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 by the salt administration commissioner of Liang-Huai 兩淮, but was not included in this collection and is rarely to find elsewhere.