A Place for Tea
Hulu jushi fanyi
Li Rihua of the Ming dynasty
A Place for Tea
A clean room – with just a broad couch, a ready table, burning incense, a cup of tea – empty of unnecessary things. While sitting in meditation, a pure ethereal force gathers naturally within me. As this chaste and numinous power grows, the foul and turbid effluvium of the world also shifts within and is steadily purged.
明 李日華
潔一室橫榻陳几其中爐香茗甌蕭然不雜他物但獨坐凝想自然有清靈之氣來集我身清靈之氣集則世界惡濁之氣亦徙此中漸漸消去
Source
Li Rihua 李日華 (1565-1635), Liuyan zhai sanbi 六研齋三筆 (Copious Notes from the Studio of Six Pursuits), juan 4, pp. 5b-6a, especially 6a in “Zajia lei 雜家類 (Miscellaneous Treatises),” “Zibu 子部 (Masters and Philosophers),” Qinding Siku quanshu 欽定四庫全書 (Complete Collection of the Four Libraries by Imperial Commission), compiled by Ji Yun 紀昀 (1724–1805) et al. (Beijing: Forbidden City, 1798).