Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0
.jpg){kind=link}
Thesis
The key words in “其字或从草或从木或草木并” are not ornament. They mark where Tang tea names, vessels and provenance meet.
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 annotation matters less as philology than as a distinction between name and thing. 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。 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 I · The Origin, section 2; the original is in the public domain.
Ask what period this person lived in.