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[1] “For water: mountain spring is best, river water next, and well water lowest.”
[2] “When the water first boils — with bubbles like fish eyes and a faint sound — that is the first boil. When bubbles rise along the rim like a linked string of spring pearls, that is the second boil. When it surges and rolls like waves, that is the third boil.”
[3] “Beyond this, the water is old and cannot be drunk.”
[4] “Ladle it with a gourd dipper into the bowls. The finest essence — from one sheng of boiling water, it is divided among five bowls.”
[5] “When roasting the tea, beware of roasting over a windy ash-fire, where leaping flames make the heat uneven. Hold it near the fire and turn it again and again, until bumps rise like toad-backs, then move it five inches from the fire.”
[6] “The finest powder is fine as rice-grains; the inferior is coarse as water-chestnuts.”
[7] “For each sheng of water, divide it into five bowls and drink while hot, in succession. The heavy and muddy settles below; the essence and fineness floats above.”
[8] “Tea is frugal by nature; it should not be used too lavishly, for overuse dims its flavor.”
Note
This chapter has 8 sections. The English text above is a working translation for discussion; the Chinese original is in the public domain. Name the edition when quoting, since Chapter One and several other chapters contain variants.
Source: Wikisource