Chapter X · The Illustration · Section 1: At a contemporary tea table — reading “以绢素或四幅或六幅分布写之陈诸座隅则茶之源之”

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC0

Thesis

“以绢素或四幅或六幅分布写之陈诸座隅则茶之源之” still has operational value at a contemporary tea table, provided Tang conditions are not silently universalised.

Text

“Write it out on silk, in four or six panels, and place them by your seat — then the Origin, the Implements, the Making, the Vessels, the Brewing, the Drinking, the History, the Producing Regions, and the Omissions are all kept before your eyes.”

Context

绢素：丝绢。把全书内容分四幅或六幅书写陈设，随时看见，随时牢记。

Evidence

• Collation: "四幅或六幅"各本一致；十篇之中"之图"本为读法而非内容，历代学者认为此章是陆羽提示的"学习法"而非独立茶事。
• Existing readings: 吴觉农指出"十之图"实为全书总结：陆羽建议把九篇内容画成图表悬于座隅，以便"目击而存"——这既是最早的茶学挂图，也暗示《茶经》成书之用心：不只著书，更欲传习。

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 X · The Illustration, 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, 吴觉农指出"十之图"实为全书总结：陆羽建议把九篇内容画成图表悬于座隅，以便"目击而存"——这既是最早的茶学挂图，也暗示《茶经》成书之用心：不只著书，更欲传习。. 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. 吴觉农指出"十之图"实为全书总结：陆羽建议把九篇内容画成图表悬于座隅，以便"目击而存"——这既是最早的茶学挂图，也暗示《茶经》成书之用心：不只著书，更欲传习。 The variables remain useful, but none of them alone explains the cup.