Chapter IV · The Vessels · Section 6: Textual layers — reading “其水用山水上江水中井水下其山水拣乳泉石池漫流”

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC0

Thesis

Section 6 is not really about “其水用山水上江水中井水下其山水拣乳泉石池漫流”; it is about how Lu Yu turns tea from a local product into an object of argument.

Text

“For water, mountain spring is best, river next, well lowest. Of mountain springs, choose the milky fountains that seep from rocky pools; avoid rushing, churning torrents.”

Context

乳泉：石乳般的泉水。石池漫流：从石池缓缓流出的水。瀑涌湍漱：奔涌湍急的水。

Evidence

• Collation: 此句为五之煮名句，各本一致。吴觉农注："乳泉石池漫流"指流速和缓、杂质沉淀后的活水。
• Existing readings: 吴觉农指出"瀑涌湍漱勿食"极有科学眼光：急流之水挟带泥沙与气泡，杂质多、口感糙；缓流石池水经砂石过滤更清冽——"静水流深"正合好水标准。

Analysis

Formally, the section gives a judgment, adds material detail, then returns to human practice. 乳泉：石乳般的泉水。石池漫流：从石池缓缓流出的水。瀑涌湍漱：奔涌湍急的水。 That is why the Classic of Tea reads as an argued book rather than a miscellany.

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 IV · The Vessels, section 6; 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"瀑涌湍漱勿食"极有科学眼光：急流之水挟带泥沙与气泡，杂质多、口感糙；缓流石池水经砂石过滤更清冽——"静水流深"正合好水标准。 The variables remain useful, but none of them alone explains the cup.

Storage adds another variable: moisture and temperature. 此句为五之煮名句，各本一致。吴觉农注："乳泉石池漫流"指流速和缓、杂质沉淀后的活水。 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 “其水用山水上江水中井水下其山水拣乳泉石池漫流” as a conclusion. Reading the annotation to section 6 again, it is clearly a judgment with conditions attached.