Chapter VI · The Drinking · Section 4: At a contemporary tea table — reading “呜呼天育万物皆有至妙人之所工但猎浅易所庇者屋”

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Thesis

“呜呼天育万物皆有至妙人之所工但猎浅易所庇者屋” still has operational value at a contemporary tea table, provided Tang conditions are not silently universalised.

Text

“Alas! Heaven nurtures all things, and each has its utmost subtlety. Yet what men labor at is only the shallow and easy. They dwell in houses, and houses are refined to the utmost; they wear garments, and garments are refined to the utmost; they eat and drink, and food and wine are refined to the utmost.”

Context

呜呼：感叹。至妙：极致的精妙。猎浅易：只求浅薄容易的。庇：遮蔽、居住。著：穿着。

Evidence

• Collation: 此句为六之饮的感叹之辞，各本一致，为《茶经》著名的"精行俭德"序曲。
• Existing readings: 吴觉农评此句为陆羽的"文化宣言"：屋、衣、食、酒皆穷极精妙，唯有饮茶之道粗疏——陆羽由此引出茶道同样值得精研，为全书立下"茶亦当精"的宏愿。

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 4; the original is in the public domain.

Storage adds another variable: moisture and temperature. 此句为六之饮的感叹之辞，各本一致，为《茶经》著名的"精行俭德"序曲。 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 “呜呼天育万物皆有至妙人之所工但猎浅易所庇者屋” as a conclusion. Reading the annotation to section 4 again, it is clearly a judgment with conditions attached.

Textually, 此句为六之饮的感叹之辞，各本一致，为《茶经》著名的"精行俭德"序曲。. The point is that “the original” is not a single stable text; name the edition before making a strong claim.