Review of The Tea Classic (Second Edition)

Author: Wu Jue'nan, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-07-01
Features: This book began to be written in 1979. Due to some twists and turns, it took more time than initially anticipated. At first, because the original text of The Classic of Tea was quite archaic, a significant amount of time was spent comparing its various versions and studying its wording. As a result, the initial content was more focused on annotations of The Classic of Tea. Later, new commentaries were gradually added, resulting in a preliminary draft. However, some parts of this draft went beyond the scope of commentary, so it was further refined to highlight the descriptive and critical aspects, resulting in the second draft. Subsequently, it was revised and supplemented again, which is the third draft currently published. During the revision process of the third draft, new issues were occasionally discovered that needed to be addressed. The writing process of this book can be broadly divided into three stages, with each stage primarily involving the author presenting personal opinions and entrusting a few close friends to draft the content.
In the first stage, the drafter was Comrade Zhang Tangheng, who completed a concise translation and annotation of The Classic of Tea. Additionally, Comrade Deng Naipeng also provided many valuable suggestions regarding the translation and annotation of The Classic of Tea. In the second stage, Comrades Qian Liang and Chen Junpeng were initially tasked with drafting, completing a more comprehensive preliminary draft. Later, Comrade Chen Shunian took over, focusing on simplifying and refining the content to produce the second draft. In the third stage, which was also the final drafting stage of the third draft, the drafter was Comrades Feng Jinwei and Yun Xiabiao. Especially, Comrade Feng Jinwei contributed significantly to the final drafting and supplementation work.