A Treatise on Tea

许次纾Jul 2024

4.3

Word count: 5.5K words
Chapters: 37

Summary

Traditional Chinese thought has a long history and is highly original, inventive and literary. Its early forms are distinctive: religious theology, classical Chinese medical texts, ancient military strategy, Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist and other schools of thought, feng shui and metaphysics, the Twenty-Four Histories, and local customs and geography—all are profound and wide-ranging. This series, "Essentials of Classical Chinese Culture: Original Texts," preserves the appearance of the original books and focuses on preserving and transmitting traditional Chinese thought and culture. By reading the literary essence left by ancient sages, readers cultivate their character and quietly absorb the classics.

Editor's review

Cha Shu (Notes on Tea) is the Ming writer Xu Cishu's representative writing on tea. Though brief, it explains picking, processing, storing, brewing and tasting in concrete and orderly fashion, and also touches on the utensils, water and occasions of tea, making it first-hand material for understanding Ming literati tea life. Its value lies in not discoursing emptily on mystical tea doctrine but proceeding mostly from practical operations and daily experience, in clean and simple prose with a distinct literati-notebook character. Part of the "Essentials of Classical Chinese Culture: Original Texts" series, it preserves the original appearance of the text and is suitable as a base text for studying tea culture. Reading it, one sees the ancients' attention to heat, water quality and implements, and feels the close tie between tea and the scholar's study life. For tea enthusiasts it has more historical depth than modern tea manuals; ordinary readers need a little patience to enter the classical language before they can appreciate its fine-grained pleasures of daily life.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Tea culture enthusiasts who want to understand Ming literati tea practices in their original form
Tea practitioners—tea arts, teaware or tea-space work—needing historical reference
Readers who enjoy Ming and Qing notebooks and essays and can read simple classical Chinese
Teachers and students needing primary tea texts for traditional culture courses

Not a good fit for

Tea beginners expecting modern vernacular translation and step-by-step illustrations
Readers who want only quick brewing techniques and do not wish to read the original
Readers impatient with classical expression who prefer light reading

Reading tips

Read through once without straining for full understanding, then read closely by topic: picking and processing, storage, brewing and tasting.
Compare with modern tea procedures as you read, note differences between past and present, and keep your own notes.
Read alongside Ming tea books or a general history of tea to help understand terminology and period background.
Where specific implements and water are discussed, try verifying the points against your own daily tea practice.

版权信息
产茶
今古制法
采摘
炒茶
岕中制法
收藏
置顿
取用
包裹
日用顿置
择水
贮水
舀水
煮水器
火候
烹点
秤量
汤候
瓯注
荡涤
饮啜
论客
茶所
洗茶
童子
饮时
宜辍
不宜用
不宜近
良友
出游
权宜
虎林水
宜节
辨化
考本

FAQ

How does Cha Shu differ from modern tea books?

Cha Shu is a Ming literatus's primary text on tea, focused on recording experience in picking, processing, storing, brewing and tasting, with notebook-style personal observation; it is not a step-by-step teaching manual. Modern tea books are mostly practical introductions, while Cha Shu is better used to understand the ancients' conception of tea and its living context.

Can I read this book without any background in tea studies?

Yes, but it takes some patience. Many terms and implement names in the book are no longer common today; keep reference works at hand, skip what you don't understand at first, and grasp the overall process and the literati attitude. An overview of tea history or an annotated edition will make it much smoother.

The book is short—how can I read it for greater benefit?

Though short, it is information-dense. Read by theme, organizing picking, processing, storage, water, implements and occasions separately, then compare with your own daily tea experience. Rereading after finishing often reveals details and refinements missed on first reading.

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About the author

许次纾 Author

Xu Cishu is an author who left important writings in the history of Chinese tea culture. Public information about his life is limited: his birth and death years, native place and official career are not clearly recorded, and later readers can only glimpse the man through his surviving works. Two of his works are included in our catalog, the representative one being Cha Shu (Tea Commentary), along with Cha zhi Sanwei (The Three Flavors of Tea, 4 volumes). Cha Shu proceeds layer by layer through picking, processing, storing, brewing and tasting tea. Its prose is concise and well ordered, valuing practical experience while also attending to the setting and mood of tea drinking; it is a representative Ming-dynasty tea book. His writing combines technical record with literary appreciation, and is often classified under literary appreciation and culture, offering readers a view of how earlier generations drank tea and what they found beautiful in it.