Tea Classics

Implements · 2025-08-16 · Community rules

Chapter II · The Implements · Section 8: Words and things — reading “焙凿地深二尺阔二尺五寸长一丈上作短墙高二尺泥”

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#1S
Song Archive · 2025-08-16 08:02

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

Thesis

The key words in “焙凿地深二尺阔二尺五寸长一丈上作短墙高二尺泥” are not ornament. They mark where Tang tea names, vessels and provenance meet.

Text

“The bei drying-pit is dug two feet deep, two and a half feet wide, and one zhang long. Above it a low wall two feet high is built and plastered with clay.”

Context

焙:焙茶的地炉。挖地深二尺、宽二尺五寸、长一丈,上砌二尺高的矮墙,用泥抹平。

Evidence

  • Collation: 各本一致。吴觉农注:焙为地炉式烘干设施,与今云南烤茶、武夷炭焙异曲同工。
  • Existing readings: 吴觉农指出唐代"焙"是炭火地炉,用于初焙茶饼;"凿地深二尺"保温聚热,是古代"焙茶房"的雏形,后世烘青、焙火皆源于此。

Analysis

The annotation matters less as philology than as a distinction between name and thing. 各本一致。吴觉农注:焙为地炉式烘干设施,与今云南烤茶、武夷炭焙异曲同工。 Once names settle, picking, grading and trade can share a language.

Conclusion

The section does not give a universal rule. It demonstrates a method: read the text, the annotation and the Tang context together before making a modern claim.


Source: The Classic of Tea, Chapter II · The Implements, section 8; the original is in the public domain.

Ask what period this person lived in.

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#2M
Marginalia · 2025-08-16 08:49

As a new reader, I first took “焙凿地深二尺阔二尺五寸长一丈上作短墙高二尺泥” as a conclusion. Reading the annotation to section 8 again, it is clearly a judgment with conditions attached.

Get the character right before the taste.

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#3A
A-Qing · 2025-08-16 09:36

Textually, 各本一致。吴觉农注:焙为地炉式烘干设施,与今云南烤茶、武夷炭焙异曲同工。. The point is that “the original” is not a single stable text; name the edition before making a strong claim.

Tea is grown and made, not just discussed.

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#4V
Vessel Zhou · 2025-08-16 10:23

A maker reads “焙凿地深二尺阔二尺五寸长一丈上作短墙高二尺泥” through weather and soil first. 焙:焙茶的地炉。挖地深二尺、宽二尺五寸、长一丈,上砌二尺高的矮墙,用泥抹平。 That is not far from how we judge a mountain and a picking window today.

A vessel carries tea and its period.

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