“Round not round. Crescent not crescent. a mystical moon-rabbit resides at the center…”
A riddle? No, they are the opening lines of a Chinese poem by Su Shi (Song Dynasty). He was talking about the Moon-Rabbit tea, which were pressed into round tea-bricks and wrapped with the most delectable ribbons.
Have never heard of this Moon-Rabbit tea, which was grown in the Sichuan province. It probably doesn’t exist anymore. And tea poems! After drinking poets took tea to cure the hangover. They talked about fetching fresh water from a lake or a well, using wood that didn’t have oil or sap for a clean fire, the elegance of the tea wares, and wellness that affected the body. Calm after madness. I imagine a tender rabbit light on its feet.
