Chapter IV · The Vessels · Section 7: Words and things — reading “其沸如鱼目微有声为一沸缘边如涌泉连珠为二沸腾”

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Thesis

The key words in “其沸如鱼目微有声为一沸缘边如涌泉连珠为二沸腾” are not ornament. They mark where Tang tea names, vessels and provenance meet.

Text

“When it first boils, with fish-eye bubbles and a faint sound, that is the first boil; when the rim seethes like linked pearls, the second; when it surges like waves, the third. Beyond this the water is old and undrinkable.”

Context

（此句与前文三沸同义，此为五之煮中的完整表述）一沸如鱼目、二沸如连珠、三沸如鼓浪，过三沸水老不可饮。

Evidence

• Collation: 此段与五之煮核心内容呼应，为《茶经》火候名论，各本一致。
• Existing readings: 吴觉农指出三沸之说被后世茶人奉为圭臬：一沸至二沸之间（约 85-90℃）是冲泡最佳时机，三沸则水老——今人"蟹眼过后鱼眼生"的辨水歌谣皆源于此。

Analysis

The annotation matters less as philology than as a distinction between name and thing. 此段与五之煮核心内容呼应，为《茶经》火候名论，各本一致。 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 IV · The Vessels, section 7; the original is in the public domain.

Storage adds another variable: moisture and temperature. 此段与五之煮核心内容呼应，为《茶经》火候名论，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 “其沸如鱼目微有声为一沸缘边如涌泉连珠为二沸腾” as a conclusion. Reading the annotation to section 7 again, it is clearly a judgment with conditions attached.

Textually, 此段与五之煮核心内容呼应，为《茶经》火候名论，各本一致。. The point is that “the original” is not a single stable text; name the edition before making a strong claim.