Chapter II · The Implements: Misreadings — The cheng base, also called tai or zhen, is made…

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The passage

“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.”

Misreadings

The most common misreading of “The cheng base, also called tai or zhen, is made…” is to treat a Tang observation as a universal rule.

“Wild is better than garden” made sense in a particular landscape and market. It is not a law that every modern tea garden is inferior.

Ask instead: what was the observation responding to, and what part of it still holds?

Reading note

Read the passage once for the image, once for the judgment, and once for the practice it implies.

Practice

• Name one thing the passage asks you to notice.
• Compare it with a tea you know.
• Keep the question open.