Chapter I · The Origin: Misreadings — Those planted without firm rooting rarely flourish. The method is…

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The passage

“Those planted without firm rooting rarely flourish. The method is like growing melons: after three years the leaves may be gathered.”

Misreadings

The most common misreading of “Those planted without firm rooting rarely flourish. The method is…” 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.