Chapter VI · The Drinking · Section 1: At a contemporary tea table — reading “翼而飞毛而走呿而言——此三者俱生于天地间饮啄”

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

Thesis

“翼而飞毛而走呿而言——此三者俱生于天地间饮啄” still has operational value at a contemporary tea table, provided Tang conditions are not silently universalised.

Text

“Winged creatures fly, furred creatures run, and those with mouths speak — all three dwell between heaven and earth and live by drinking and eating. How far-reaching is the meaning of drinking!”

Context

呿（qū）：张口。鸟要飞、兽要跑、人要说话，都靠吃喝活着，可见"饮"的意义深远。

Evidence

• Collation: “呿而言"之"呿”，各本作"呿"（张口貌），有校本作"趋"或"跄"，属形近之误的校勘议题，今从通行本。
• Existing readings: 吴觉农指出：此句以"鸟飞兽走人言"起兴，将"饮"提到"生之大义"的高度，是为茶立论的宏大开场——饮不只是解渴，而是生命延续的根本。

Analysis

To repeat this section today is not to copy a Tang utensil list. It is to keep its order of judgment: leaf first, then water and fire, then the table.

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 VI · The Drinking, section 1; the original is in the public domain.

Water and fire magnify the difference. The same leaf at a higher temperature or a longer steep changes the sweet-bitter balance; the text only becomes operational at the brewing stage.

In Tang context, 吴觉农指出：此句以"鸟飞兽走人言"起兴，将"饮"提到"生之大义"的高度，是为茶立论的宏大开场——饮不只是解渴，而是生命延续的根本。. Tea was tribute, medicine and monastery drink at once, not a standalone commodity; the conclusion cannot be transferred without that context.

Modern tea science would split the sentence into cultivar, soil, light and plucking variables. 吴觉农指出：此句以"鸟飞兽走人言"起兴，将"饮"提到"生之大义"的高度，是为茶立论的宏大开场——饮不只是解渴，而是生命延续的根本。 The variables remain useful, but none of them alone explains the cup.