Chapter II · The Implements: Making — The chan cloth, also called yi, is made of oiled…

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The passage

“The chan cloth, also called yi, is made of oiled silk or worn rainwear. It is laid on the cheng base, and the gui mold set upon it to form the tea; when a cake is done, it is lifted and replaced.”

Making

Tea is made, not merely picked. The timing of the harvest and the precision of each step decide how much of the mountain survives in the cup.

Fixation, rolling, oxidation, and drying all push the leaf in different directions. A fine raw material can be lost by a careless hand.

Read the old processing sequence as a chain of decisions, not a list of museum objects.

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.