"When it first boils, with fish-eye bubbles and a faint sound, that is the first boil; when the rim seethes like linked pearls, the second; when it surges like waves, the third. Be
"Tea takes a thousand forms. To speak roughly: some are like barbarian boots, puckered and shriveled; some like the chest of a wild ox, ribbed and draped; some like clouds rising f
"The cheng base, also called tai or zhen, is made of stone; otherwise of locust or mulberry wood, half-buried in the ground so that it will not rock."
"The use of tea: its nature is extremely cold, and as a beverage it is most suited to men of disciplined conduct and frugal virtue."
"In Lingnan, teas of Fuzhou, Jianzhou, Shaozhou, and Xiangzhou are occasionally obtained, and their flavor is excellent."
"Zuo Si's poem The Doting Daughters reads: 'Their hearts race for the tea, they puff and blow upon the tripod.'"
"Those who cultivate tea may grow several hundred clumps; the tree like gualu, leaves like gardenia, flowers like white rose, fruit like palm."
"When the water first boils — with bubbles like fish eyes and a faint sound — that is the first boil. When bubbles rise along the rim like a linked string of spring pearls, that is
"The wind stove is cast of copper or iron, shaped like an ancient tripod."
"The chuan string is made in Jiangdong and Huainan from split bamboo, and in Bashan and the gorges from twisted mulberry-bark. In Jiangdong one jin is a large string, half a jin a