Lu Yu Prepares Tea， a Yuan Dynasty（1279.1368）hand scroll by Zhao Yuan， ink on paper， 27cm×78cm， in the collection of the Palace Museum， Taipei.
Zhao Yuan was a painter in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. He was recruited to Ming court in the early Ming Dynasty， but was killed later because his painting didn’t accord with emperor’s order. He liked to draw landscape with fine brushworks and in thick ink. Lu Yu， a literati in the Tang Dynasty， was the author of The Classics of Tea. This painting depicts the scene that Lu Yu boils tea. At the waterside are several thatched cottages. Lu Yu lies on bed and a boy is boilling tea on the stove. Outside of the thatched cottages is far-flung lake water， rolling hills in the distance. The leisure atmosphere is exactly the ideal of literati.
