Chapter I · The Origin · Section 2: In Tang context — reading “其字或从草或从木或草木并”

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0

Thesis

“其字或从草或从木或草木并” only becomes legible inside Tang tribute tea, monastery tea and literati life.

Text

“As for the character, it is sometimes written with the grass radical, sometimes with the tree radical, and sometimes with both.”

Context

指"茶"字的三种写法：从草（茶）、从木（荼·读tú 亦或"楛"）、或草木两部并用（"茶"的异体）。

Evidence

• Collation: 本句版本差异集中于"草木并"三字：百川学海本作"或草木并"，四库本同，各本无大出入。
• Existing readings: 吴觉农指出：唐宋以前"茶"多写作"荼"，从草从木并行，反映了茶由野生草木到人工栽培的过渡；陆羽定"茶"为正字，对后世文字统一影响深远。

Analysis

The largest gap between Tang and now is that tea was simultaneously medicine, tribute and everyday practice. 吴觉农指出：唐宋以前"茶"多写作"荼"，从草从木并行，反映了茶由野生草木到人工栽培的过渡；陆羽定"茶"为正字，对后世文字统一影响深远。 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 I · The Origin, section 2; the original is in the public domain.

The vessel is not background. 指"茶"字的三种写法：从草（茶）、从木（荼·读tú 亦或"楛"）、或草木两部并用（"茶"的异体）。 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.

Modern tea science would split the sentence into cultivar, soil, light and plucking variables. 吴觉农指出：唐宋以前"茶"多写作"荼"，从草从木并行，反映了茶由野生草木到人工栽培的过渡；陆羽定"茶"为正字，对后世文字统一影响深远。 The variables remain useful, but none of them alone explains the cup.