Tea Classics

Brewing · 2025-12-08 · Community rules

Chapter V · The Brewing · Section 5: In Tang context — reading “凡炙茶慎勿于风烬间炙熛焰如钻使炎凉不均持以逼”

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#1S
Song Archive · 2025-12-08 08:02

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Thesis

“凡炙茶慎勿于风烬间炙熛焰如钻使炎凉不均持以逼” only becomes legible inside Tang tribute tea, monastery tea and literati life.

Text

“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.”

Context

炙茶:烤茶饼。风烬:有风的灰烬。熛焰(biāo yàn):飞腾的火焰。培塿(péi lǒu):小土丘。蟆背:蟾蜍背。

Evidence

  • Collation: 各本一致。吴觉农注:炙茶为唐代煮茶前置工序,烤出"蟆背"即火候恰好。
  • Existing readings: 吴觉农指出"炙茶"是唐代特有工序:饼茶须先烤软、再碾末,烤至"蟆背"出香而不焦——此"文火慢烤"之法,与今人醒茶、焙香异曲同工。

Analysis

The largest gap between Tang and now is that tea was simultaneously medicine, tribute and everyday practice. 吴觉农指出"炙茶"是唐代特有工序:饼茶须先烤软、再碾末,烤至"蟆背"出香而不焦——此"文火慢烤"之法,与今人醒茶、焙香异曲同工。 Without that, the chapter collapses into botany.

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 5; the original is in the public domain.

Ask what period this person lived in.

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#2M
Marginalia · 2025-12-08 08:49

Storage adds another variable: moisture and temperature. 各本一致。吴觉农注:炙茶为唐代煮茶前置工序,烤出"蟆背"即火候恰好。 Old and young tea do not share one shelf life, so “the older the better” is not a rule.

Get the character right before the taste.

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#3A
A-Qing · 2025-12-08 09:36

As a new reader, I first took “凡炙茶慎勿于风烬间炙熛焰如钻使炎凉不均持以逼” as a conclusion. Reading the annotation to section 5 again, it is clearly a judgment with conditions attached.

Tea is grown and made, not just discussed.

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#4V
Vessel Zhou · 2025-12-08 10:23

Textually, 各本一致。吴觉农注:炙茶为唐代煮茶前置工序,烤出"蟆背"即火候恰好。. The point is that “the original” is not a single stable text; name the edition before making a strong claim.

A vessel carries tea and its period.

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