"The bei drying-pit is dug two feet deep, two and a half feet wide, and one zhang long. Above it a low wall two feet high is built and plastered with clay."
"But in towns and noble households, if one of the twenty-four vessels is missing, the tea ceremony is spoiled."
"The fu cauldron is made of raw iron. Its inner mold is clay, so the inside is smooth and easy to scour; its outer mold is sand, so the outside is rough and endures the flame."
"Tea is gathered in the second, third, and fourth months."
"The ying — also called lan, long, or ju — is woven of bamboo. It holds five sheng, or one, two, three dou; the tea picker carries it on the back when gathering leaves."
"For water, mountain spring is best, river next, well lowest. Of mountain springs, choose the milky fountains that seep from rocky pools; avoid rushing, churning torrents."
"The buds that sprout from dense thickets, with three, four, or five shoots, are picked by selecting those that rise most boldly."
"The cheng base, also called tai or zhen, is made of stone; otherwise of locust or mulberry wood, half-buried in the ground so that it will not rock."
"The good and ill of tea rest in the transmitted oral formula."
"The chuan string is made in Jiangdong and Huainan from split bamboo, and in Bashan and the gorges from twisted mulberry-bark. In Jiangdong one jin is a large string, half a jin a