Chapter VI · The Drinking: Vessels and fire — Those who cultivate tea may grow several hundred clumps; the…
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
The passage
“Those who cultivate tea may grow several hundred clumps; the tree like gualu, leaves like gardenia, flowers like white rose, fruit like palm.”
Vessels and fire
The passage points toward vessels and fire: “Those who cultivate tea may grow several hundred clumps; the…” is also a question of what the tea is made in.
Material, thickness, shape, and heat change the water and the extraction. A vessel is a tool for controlling time.
Old implements are not automatically better. Understanding them helps us see what a modern gaiwan or teapot is actually doing.
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.