Chapter V · The Brewing · Section 3: Words and things — reading “已上水老不可食也”

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Thesis

The key words in “已上水老不可食也” are not ornament. They mark where Tang tea names, vessels and provenance meet.

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 annotation matters less as philology than as a distinction between name and thing. 本句紧承三沸，各本一致，无版本差异。 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 V · The Brewing, section 3; the original is in the public domain.

A maker reads “已上水老不可食也” through weather and soil first. 超过三沸水就"老"了，不宜饮用——这是古人对火候的精准把握。 That is not far from how we judge a mountain and a picking window today.

The vessel is not background. 超过三沸水就"老"了，不宜饮用——这是古人对火候的精准把握。 The same leaf in a different bowl, grinder or sieve changes aroma and texture; vessel and tea are defined together.

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.