Chapter III · The Making · Section 1: At a contemporary tea table — reading “凡采茶在二月三月四月之间”

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0

Thesis

“凡采茶在二月三月四月之间” still has operational value at a contemporary tea table, provided Tang conditions are not silently universalised.

Text

“Tea is gathered in the second, third, and fourth months.”

Context

指农历二至四月，即春茶季。古人认为春茶质最优。

Evidence

• Collation: 各本一致。有学者指出"二月、三月、四月"为农历，对应今公历三月中至五月中，正值各茶区春茶季。
• Existing readings: 吴觉农考证：唐代茶区气候偏暖，农历二三月采茶与今"明前""雨前"观念呼应——陆羽认为春茶质最优，此论开后世"春茶贵"之先河。

Analysis

To repeat this section today is not to copy a Tang utensil list. It is to keep its order of judgment: leaf first, then water and fire, then the table.

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 III · The Making, section 1; the original is in the public domain.

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.

In Tang context, 吴觉农考证：唐代茶区气候偏暖，农历二三月采茶与今"明前""雨前"观念呼应——陆羽认为春茶质最优，此论开后世"春茶贵"之先河。. Tea was tribute, medicine and monastery drink at once, not a standalone commodity; the conclusion cannot be transferred without that context.

Modern tea science would split the sentence into cultivar, soil, light and plucking variables. 吴觉农考证：唐代茶区气候偏暖，农历二三月采茶与今"明前""雨前"观念呼应——陆羽认为春茶质最优，此论开后世"春茶贵"之先河。 The variables remain useful, but none of them alone explains the cup.