Chapter VI · The Drinking: Modern tea science — Winged creatures fly, furred creatures run, and those with mouths…
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
The passage
“Winged creatures fly, furred creatures run, and those with mouths speak — all three dwell between heaven and earth and live by drinking and eating. How far-reaching is the meaning of drinking!”
Modern tea science
A modern tea-science reading of “Winged creatures fly, furred creatures run, and those with mouths…” separates four layers: ecology, cultivar, processing, and brewing.
Soil drainage, light, temperature, and cultivar shape the amino acids, catechins, and aromatics in the leaf. Those compounds then meet water, heat, and time.
Science can explain why an old observation often works, but it does not make the observation universal. Context still matters.
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.