Chapter I · The Origin: Misreadings — As for the character, it is sometimes written with the…

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The passage

“As for the character, it is sometimes written with the grass radical, sometimes with the tree radical, and sometimes with both.”

Misreadings

The most common misreading of “As for the character, it is sometimes written with 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.