Chapter VI · The Drinking · Section 3: At a contemporary tea table — reading “或用葱姜枣橘皮茱萸薄荷之等煮之百沸或扬令滑或”

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Thesis

“或用葱姜枣橘皮茱萸薄荷之等煮之百沸或扬令滑或” still has operational value at a contemporary tea table, provided Tang conditions are not silently universalised.

Text

“Some add scallion, ginger, jujube, tangerine peel, cornel, and mint, boiling it a hundred times, or stirring it slippery, or skimming off the froth. This is nothing but ditchwater — yet the custom persists.”

Context

唐代流行往茶里加葱姜枣等煮饮，陆羽对此很不以为然，说那简直是沟渠里的弃水。

Evidence

• Collation: “茱萸"或作"茱萸子”，各本有详略之异；“煮之百沸"四库本作"煮之百沸”，为夸张修辞，各本一致。
• Existing readings: 吴觉农评此句为陆羽最尖锐的批评：唐代"痷茶"（加料煮饮）是主流，陆羽力主清饮，其"沟渠弃水"之讥实为茶道清流派的宣言——今日纯茶清饮正由此开。

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 3; the original is in the public domain.

Modern tea science would split the sentence into cultivar, soil, light and plucking variables. 吴觉农评此句为陆羽最尖锐的批评：唐代"痷茶"（加料煮饮）是主流，陆羽力主清饮，其"沟渠弃水"之讥实为茶道清流派的宣言——今日纯茶清饮正由此开。 The variables remain useful, but none of them alone explains the cup.

Storage adds another variable: moisture and temperature. “茱萸"或作"茱萸子”，各本有详略之异；“煮之百沸"四库本作"煮之百沸”，为夸张修辞，各本一致。 Old and young tea do not share one shelf life, so “the older the better” is not a rule.

As a new reader, I first took “或用葱姜枣橘皮茱萸薄荷之等煮之百沸或扬令滑或” as a conclusion. Reading the annotation to section 3 again, it is clearly a judgment with conditions attached.