Chapter V · The Brewing · Section 3: A common misreading — reading “已上水老不可食也”

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Thesis

The common mistake is to lift “已上水老不可食也” out of its sentence and turn it into an absolute rule.

Text

“Beyond this, the water is old and cannot be drunk.”

Context

超过三沸水就"老"了，不宜饮用——这是古人对火候的精准把握。

Evidence

• Collation: 本句紧承三沸，各本一致，无版本差异。
• Existing readings: 吴觉农指出"水老"即水中溶氧散尽、钙镁离子浓缩，茶味发涩——现代科学印证了陆羽"水老不可食"的判断。

Analysis

The usual misreading extracts “已上水老不可食也” as a slogan. 本句紧承三沸，各本一致，无版本差异。 In fact every judgment in the chapter carries a limit of place, season and use.

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 V · The Brewing, section 3; 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"水老"即水中溶氧散尽、钙镁离子浓缩，茶味发涩——现代科学印证了陆羽"水老不可食"的判断。. 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"水老"即水中溶氧散尽、钙镁离子浓缩，茶味发涩——现代科学印证了陆羽"水老不可食"的判断。 The variables remain useful, but none of them alone explains the cup.