Chapter VII · The History: Misreadings — Among the Three Sovereigns, Shennong the Fiery Emperor; of the…
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The passage
“Among the Three Sovereigns, Shennong the Fiery Emperor; of the Zhou, the Duke of Zhou Dan of Lu; Yan Ying, prime minister of Qi; and of the Han, the immortals Dan Qiu-zi and Huangshan Jun.”
Misreadings
The most common misreading of “Among the Three Sovereigns, Shennong the Fiery Emperor; of the…” 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.