Chapter I · The Origin: Text and editions — Tea is a fine and noble tree of the South…

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The passage

“Tea is a fine and noble tree of the South. It may stand one or two feet tall, or reach many dozens of feet. In the mountain gorges of Bashan, there are trees so thick that two men can barely encircle them; one must cut the boughs and pick the leaves from below.”

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.