Chapter IV · The Vessels: Plain reading — For one sheng of boiling water, use one fangcun-spoon of…
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
The passage
“For one sheng of boiling water, use one fangcun-spoon of tea powder. If you like it thin, reduce it; if you crave strength, increase it.”
Plain reading
In plain English: “For one sheng of boiling water, use one fangcun-spoon of tea powder. If you like it thin, reduce it; if you crave strength, increase it.”
The point is not to turn the passage into a modern slogan. It is to recover the judgment behind it: what counts as good tea, and why.
For a modern reader, the most useful move is to turn the passage into a short checklist for buying, making, or tasting tea.
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.