Chapter VII · The History: Misreadings — 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.”
Misreadings
The most common misreading of “In the Search for the Supernatural: Xia Houkai died of…” 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.