Chapter II · The Implements · Section 4: In Tang context — reading “杵臼一曰碓惟恒用者佳”

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Thesis

“杵臼一曰碓惟恒用者佳” only becomes legible inside Tang tribute tea, monastery tea and literati life.

Text

“The pestle and mortar, also called dui, are best when they have long been in constant use.”

Context

杵臼（chǔ jiù）：捣茶用的杵和臼。碓（duì）：春米用的工具。恒用者：经常使用的。

Evidence

• Collation: "惟恒用者佳"各本一致。吴觉农注：常用的杵臼表面磨光、不伤茶膏，新者糙涩——古人对工具的"养"深有心得。
• Existing readings: 吴觉农指出：唐代饼茶需将蒸青叶捣烂成膏，杵臼即为此而设；"恒用者佳"说明器物经年使用后表面光滑顺手，暗合今日茶人"养器"之说。

Analysis

The largest gap between Tang and now is that tea was simultaneously medicine, tribute and everyday practice. 吴觉农指出：唐代饼茶需将蒸青叶捣烂成膏，杵臼即为此而设；"恒用者佳"说明器物经年使用后表面光滑顺手，暗合今日茶人"养器"之说。 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 II · The Implements, section 4; the original is in the public domain.

Modern tea science would split the sentence into cultivar, soil, light and plucking variables. 吴觉农指出：唐代饼茶需将蒸青叶捣烂成膏，杵臼即为此而设；"恒用者佳"说明器物经年使用后表面光滑顺手，暗合今日茶人"养器"之说。 The variables remain useful, but none of them alone explains the cup.

Storage adds another variable: moisture and temperature. "惟恒用者佳"各本一致。吴觉农注：常用的杵臼表面磨光、不伤茶膏，新者糙涩——古人对工具的"养"深有心得。 Old and young tea do not share one shelf life, so “the older the better” is not a rule.

As a new reader, I first took “杵臼一曰碓惟恒用者佳” as a conclusion. Reading the annotation to section 4 again, it is clearly a judgment with conditions attached.