Chapter VII · The History: Text and editions — In the Search for the Supernatural: Xia Houkai died of…

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The passage

“In the Search for the Supernatural: Xia Houkai died of illness; his kinsman Gou Nu, who could see spirits, watched him come to fetch his horse and afflict his wife. Wearing a flat kerchief and single robe, he entered and sat on the great bed by the west wall where he had sat in life, and asked people for tea.”

Text and editions

The textual history of the Classic of Tea matters because small variants can change how we picture a tool, a process, or a region.

A collation note is not a footnote for specialists alone. It tells us which parts of the text were stable and which were reshaped by later editors.

Read variants with a simple test: does the difference change the practice, or only the wording? Focus on the first.

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.