The Great Spirit of Drinking

By Han Guangyue

There is always a funny show to watch at the end of each drinking party—the drunkards may be crying and screaming, or perhaps tumbling and vomiting their innards out.When they sober up and are asked about the taste of their drink of choice, they would probably tell you how bad it was. “The beer tastes like horse urine”; “red wine tastes like vinegar”; “western liquors all have a disgusting smell of herbal medicine” are perhaps some reports one would hear.Is baijiu (Chinese white ricebased spirits) any better? Nah,the burning throat is typically all I can remember—I feel bad about my stomach overstuffed with beer or red wine. The western liquors choke me, but baijiu is just too hot. They say those high-end Western spirits are good—Remy Martin, Chateau Lafite, Maota—but drinking them brings me little joy.

So, if you happen to witness this regretful way of drinking, you may say that Chinese people don’t know how to drink gracefully as westerners do, or that there is no such thing as “wine culture” in China. However, some essence of wine drinking does exist in the long history of the Chinese

每每酒局散場后，哭娘叫爹的、吐酒吐血的、摔跤撞車的，人生百態、悲喜滑稽盡情上演。待到過后問起他酒的滋味，多半回答啤酒像馬尿，紅酒像酒糟，洋酒像藿香正氣水，白酒也就一個辣！再問喝酒的感覺，往往會說難受死了，啤酒撐得慌、紅酒脹得慌、洋酒噎得慌、白酒辣得慌。人頭馬、XO、拉菲、百威、茅臺，再好的酒也沒喝出個滋味來，這種喝法真是既糟蹋了人又糟蹋了酒。因此，不少人說，中國人哪會喝酒啊？你看人家西方人，啤酒要冰，威士忌要加冰，喝紅酒都要醒一醒，中國人就是牛飲，根本沒有什么酒文化。

中國幾千年的文明，怎么會沒有文化呢？

無論是閱讀古籍、參觀博物館，還是觀賞古裝戲劇電影，印象中除了梁山好漢之類的大塊吃肉、大碗喝酒，好像古人飲酒大都文質彬彬，典型的如京劇里的人物，一手執爵，一手舉袖，掩面而飲。酒器既美，酒禮亦繁，文化味十足。

酒器有大道。我們常說尊敬的某某，可知“尊敬的”是什么意思？尊，本是一種盛酒器，字里有個“酉”字，“酉”是酒的本字。尊的形制常常是圓或方足、圓或方腹，長頸敞口。在所有盛酒器里，尊屬大中型，把尊盛得滿滿的給您喝，這就是用“尊”敬您。用“尊”敬你，你就是用尊敬的人，你就是尊敬的。再說那個“爵”，爵既是貴族階層使用的酒具，又是封建貴族的封號，所以有詞曰“加官晉爵”，用爵給你敬酒，就是對你加官晉爵的美好祝福。

但是，你可要注意了，當真有人用尊敬您的時候或者給您進爵的時候，您可不要一口氣豪放地把那滿尊滿爵酒一飲而盡，那樣不僅失禮，還很難看、很狼狽。你看那寬口大尊，滿滿的酒，掌握不好角度和力度，酒就不是飲到嘴里，而是會灑你滿臉滿身。你看那有著兩個闕柱的爵，滿滿的酒，雖然沒有尊大，沒有尊盛的酒多，但如果你用力過猛，動作過大，闕柱就會傷到你的眉眼，所以那兩個闕柱又叫拄眉。

圣人先賢制物作器，是非常講究性用之理的，如此制尊作爵，用心也深。平寬大口、闕柱拄眉，就是為了讓你飲酒時不疾不徐，讓你不能過量，適可而止，這樣飲起酒來才會恭敬如儀、溫文爾雅。古人以器演道，不是虛言。如此飲酒，何止是一種文化，簡直是一種文明.civilization.

When you read the Chinese ancient books, visit a museum,or watch a historical movie, you can see that most ancient Chinesefigures (except the outlaws) drink gracefully. For instance, a typical character in Beijing Opera would hold jue (an ancient wine vessel)in one of his hands to drink from it, and meanwhile raise another hand to hide his face with a long sleeve. Both the complicated etiquette and the beautiful wine vessel are parts of China’s unique drinking culture.

Profound meanings lie in the ancient wine vessels. The Chinese character for “respectable” or“distinguished” is “尊 (zūn),”which was originally a kind of wine vessel. (You can find in“ 尊 (zūn)” a “酉 (yǒu),” which originally means wine.) The vessel can be round or square,can have cylindrical or cuboidal legs, and can have a long or a wide bottleneck. No matter what its shape, a zun is generally big enough to contain a lot. To give somebody so much wine in such a big vessel is a symbol of respect.There is also another kind of wine vessel, the 爵 (jué), which is mentioned above. This vessel is smaller than zun, having three legs and two vertical sticks on its rim. The character 爵 (jué) has two meanings, the wine vessel used by the aristocratic stratum,and the rank of nobility. Therefore if somebody presents you a jue of wine, he means to wish you a promotion to a higher rank.

As a part of the drinking etiquette, the person who is given a zun or a jue full of wine should not ignore the wine in it. Failure to calculate the intersection angle between the diversely shaped zun and your mouth, especially with a wrong prediction of the vessel’s movement velocity would result in an embarrassing mess. As for jue, you need to be very careful to drink from it, otherwise the two sticks on the vessel’s rim could hurt your eyes. The pair of sticks are also called 拄 眉 (zhǔ méi),literally “eyebrow crutches,”which serves to keep a distance between the vessel and your eyebrows.

The ancient sages of China invented the wine vessels of such strange shapes with a purpose.You cannot drink from these vessels too quickly, so you will learn moderation. From the complicated etiquette you will learn to be gentle and patient. It is true that the simple ancient tools can show you the Way of things.This ancient way of drinking is not just a part of a culture. It reflects a philosophy of a great civilization.

Westerners often add ice to their alcohol, while many Chinese people like to heat traditional booze before drinking.Westerners think iced drinks have a better flavor, but Chinese people heat the wine for different reasons. Heating the wine can activate its healthful constituents,and the warm wine in your system can promote blood circulation in a better way. In the classic novel, The Story of the Stone,Xue Baochai told Jia Baoyu a similar theory. “Wine has an exceptionally fiery nature, and therefore must be drunk warm in order to be quickly digested. If it is drunk cold, it congeals inside the body.”

Zhang Zhan, a scholar who lived in 4th century, wrote in one of his works that, “Wine can be both beneficial and harmful… so moderate drinking is recommended.” In any case,moderation should be a key concern. Many Chinese agree that drinking 100 milliliters of baijiu daily is a standard of moderate drinking, but considering the individual differences, each person should adjust the standard according to their physical conditions.

Knowing the recommended methods and limits of drinking is only the basic level of Chinese wine culture. Not until you can think about life like Cao Cao (155–220,warlord and the penultimate Chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty) did as he “drinks and sings,” or feel Du Fu(712–770,Tang poet)’s joy as he “companies the wine and sings in the sun”—not until you can understand Su Shi(1037–1101, Song poet)’s nostalgia as he “asks the heaven about the moon, holding the wine cup,” or Li Bai(701–762,Tang poet)’s loneliness as he “invites the moon along with his own shadow to drink,” can you truly understand the great spirit of the culture. (Translation: Wang Xiaoke)

西方人慣飲冰酒，而我們溫酒燙酒，一是為了更好地激活其中的有效成分，二是為了飲用者的身體健康。酒性溫辛，冷酒傷人肝。而熱酒入喉，可以更好地發揮其辛散之性，快速地輸布于人體全身，以收通利經絡、舒筋活血之效，此乃順酒之性而行保健養生之道也。《紅樓夢》里，寶釵勸寶玉吃熱酒，亦是如此，“酒性最熱。若熱吃下去，發散的就快；若冷吃下去，便凝結在內，以五臟去暖他，豈不受害”。

東晉學者張湛在《養生要集》中說，“酒者，能益人，亦能損人”“宜慎，無失節度”。

僅僅懂得飲酒之法還不夠，這只是術數層面的東西，什么時候我們能飲出曹操的對酒當歌、杜甫的白日放歌、蘇軾的把酒問青天、李白的舉杯邀明月，我們或許才可以說，看見中國酒文化的大道了。