Wu Lun Biography

2. Wu Lun, Yangxian Tea and Literati Tea Connoisseurs

Respected by Gu Yuanqing as a master of tea, Wu Xinyuan alias Wu Lun (zi Daben), was a member of the Wu family in Yixing. The Wu family originated during late Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), when Wu Lun’s great grandfather, Wu Deming (zi Chongliang), who had a military background, decided to settle down in Yixing. Wu Yizhong (zi Zhengfu), Wu Lun’s grandfather, was a commoner, but he was educated and started a career of teaching. Not until the generation of Wu Lun’s father, had this family become a scholar-official family. Wu Yu (zi Shangpu), Wu Lun’s father, was selected to study in the National Academy through the annual recommendation, and was later assigned a position in the Ministry of
However, we know that he died in the first year of Jiajing’s reign (1522-1566), at the age of eighty-three. His birth year was probably 1440, the fifth year of Zhengtong’s reign (1436-1449). According to the local gazetteer and epitaph, Wu Lun was an undisguised and energetic person with moral integrity. He was a recluse (Yiren) with elegant taste, and he enjoyed tea drinking and practiced calligraphy in two villas which were built outside of the Yixing County. However, his role of being a recluse did not made him unknown, but was still a celebrity in the county. People in town could recognize him even though he would not come to town except having emergency, because he usually had two pets with him, one deer and one white
Different from Wang Ao, who achieved Jinshi degree and served prominent position in central government, Shen Zhou did not have any degrees all his life. However, his family was prestigious and wealthy enough to support his pursuit of cultural talent. As the same as Wu Lun’s epitaph, Shen’s epitaph was also composed by Wang Ao, and Wang described Shen as not only a respected painter and a connoisseur, but also as knowledgeable about every possible subject, including Confucian classics, geography, medicine, fortune telling, legends, Buddhism and Daoism. Furthermore, according to Wu Zhihe, a tea scholar from Taiwan, Shen was one of the most important figures among the mid-Ming tea connoisseurs. Shen and his family were the creator of a popular elegant life style among social elites, which includes reading books, tea tasting, painting connoisseurship and playing music. Even though Shen spent most of his life in Suzhou, he travelled several times to Yixing for drinking tea and painting with Wu Lun, as well as his brother Wu Jing. Therefore, Shen often incorporated tea-related themes in to his paitings and poetries.
Wen Zhengming (1470-1559), as both Wang Ao and Shen Zhou’s student, at the same time one of the most achieved artists, also developed a friendship with Wu Lun, even though Wen was thirty years younger. Among Wen’s