Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, a set of relatively standardized drinking etiquette has been established, which has become one of the important etiquette in that ritual society.
Formal banquets, especially royal banquets, should have wine officials to supervise the drinking ceremony, named wine supervisor, wine collector, wine order and Ming government. Their duty is generally to check the order of the banquet and drive out those who violate etiquette. However, sometimes their duties are not like this. They often persuade people to drink, but instead play tricks on people who drink but are not drunk or don't drink because of drunkenness, and even cause death. For example, as the saying goes, during the Warring States period, Wei Wenhou drank with the doctor, ordered the public to be a "drinker's officer" and took advantage of unkindness, that is, a drinker's officer. The public is very serious about unkind things, and meets with the monarch and the minister: "Those who don't drink are floating in white." In other words, whoever doesn't finish his glass will be fined another big one. Unexpectedly, Wei Wenhou was the first to violate this regulation. He kept drinking, so he took a large glass and wanted to punish his monarch. Wei Wenhou looked at the glass of wine and ignored it. The waiter said aside, "Don't be unreasonable, please step down quickly. Your majesty is drunk. " Not only can the official ride back, but it is also quoted as saying that it is not easy to be a minister and a gentleman. He said categorically: "Today, your Majesty agreed to establish such a wine order, but it is impossible. Can this be done? " Hearing this, Wei Wenhou said "OK", picked up the teacup and gulped it down. After drinking, he said, "Take the bus as the guest" and praised him.
According to Han Shu's Biography, Liu Zhang, the second son of Qi Mourning, is also a strong-willed man, who is serious and decisive in his work. Once, when he was serving at a banquet, Lv Hou asked him to be a wine collector. He said to Lv Hou, "After I close the door, please allow me to drink by military means." Lv Hou agreed without thinking. The so-called military liquor law is to be strict and uncompromising. When the wine was almost finished, Liu Zhang asked people to sing and dance to entertain him. At this time, a member of the Lv Hou family sneaked out of the banquet hall because he was drunk. When Liu Zhang knew this, he chased him out and drew his long sword to kill the man. He came back and reported to Lv Hou that someone had escaped after drinking. I acted according to the military law and cut off his head. Lv Hou and the left and right listened, frightened to disgrace. However, since Liu Zhang was allowed to drink alcohol according to the military law, it was not to blame for a moment, and a grand banquet broke up in discord. Liu Zhang's move, of course, has the background of imperial infighting, but the importance of the duties of the wine collectors at the wine feast is indeed reflected here.
Liu Zhang, a wine collector who is not soft on intoxicating people, is not the only one in history. The story of "The Reflection of the Three Kingdoms, Wu Shu and Sun Hao" says: Every time Sun Hao feasts with his ministers, "everything is salty and makes Shen Zui", everyone will get drunk, which is rare. In order to achieve this goal, ten Huang Menlang, who are in charge of supervision, were specially appointed at the banquet, called "General Company Officers", that is, wine officers. These ten people can't drink, so they should keep a clear head, stand all day and carefully observe the words and deeds of the ministers at the banquet. After the banquet, ten people reported what they had seen to Sun Hao. "Each play each fault, looking at strange, false words, failed to lift. The big one is punishment and the small one is sin. " I'm going to make you drunk again. It's ridiculous not to talk nonsense when you're drunk. Sun Quan had a similar absurd behavior in his early years. The reflection Wu Shu Zhang said that Sun Quan was drunk at the Diaoyutai in Wuchang, and ordered the imperial secretary to fill the lake with ministers, and told them to get drunk until they put down their glasses. I'm afraid we have to set up more wine supervisors to play this trick.
Everything has duality and can evolve in the opposite direction. The dual nature of the duties of wine officials illustrates this point very strongly. However, there are not many banquets that explicitly require drunkenness in history. It should be said that most of them are polite. The ancients advocated "Kewen" when drinking, that is to say, although drinking a lot, you should be able to control yourself and ensure that you don't lose your words. "The Book of Songs Xiaoya Little Bowl" says: "Everyone is a saint and drinks." There are poems in The Book of Songs that criticize drinking without manners. For example, the banquet at the beginning of the guests severely criticized those who did not obey the etiquette. When they are drunk, their appearance is messy. They keep sitting up, dancing, talking nonsense, shouting and dressing askew. It also advocates the use of wine supervisors and wine collectors to maintain order, ensure that drinking is polite and polite, and teach people not to be "ignorant" and binge drinking.
People in the Tang Dynasty seldom drank in moderation. Probably since the Song Dynasty, people's drinking norms and rituals have been relatively strong. By the time of the Qing Dynasty, the literati wrote books, stated the rules of ritual drinking one by one, restrained themselves and advised the world. These works are called wine suggestions, wine policy, wine policy, wine review and so on. Zhang Jintao, a poet in A Qing, wrote some sentences, such as "See the big picture from a small point of view", "Let every guest enjoy himself", "Combine leniency with severity", "Do what you can" and "Don't impose difficulties". We can see the specific contents of the etiquette and drinking norms generally pursued in the Qing Dynasty.
We know that people in the Tang Dynasty loved wine, especially literati. In fact, the Han dynasty was not like this, nor was it inferior to the Tang dynasty. People in the Han Dynasty were generally addicted to alcohol, so there was a great demand for alcohol. No matter the royal family, dignitaries and wealthy businessmen, they all have their own workshops to make koji and make wine, and there are also many small manual workshops that make wine and sell it themselves. The scale of some workshops has developed rapidly, so many workshop owners have become extremely rich, and some even become "rich families", which is a fact recorded by Sima Qian in Historical Records.
The alcohol content of wine in Han dynasty is low, which is not easy to be stored for a long time, and it will be rancid for a long time. Because of the high water content in the wine, the wine is not strong, and the Persian gold-plated silver pot can make people drink all the stones without getting drunk. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, slightly higher alcohol content was produced, and the number of drinkers gradually decreased. In the Western Han Dynasty, a cup of rice produced more than three cups of wine; By the Eastern Han Dynasty, the quality of liquor had been greatly improved. Most wines in the Han Dynasty were named after raw materials, such as yellow rice wine, millet wine, glutinous rice wine, rice wine, wine, sugarcane wine and so on. There are also some wines with added ingredients, such as pepper wine, cypress wine, osmanthus wine, orchid wine and chrysanthemum wine. High-quality wines are often named after the brewing season and the color and taste of the wine, such as spring wine, spring wine, winter sour wine, autumn wine, yellow wine, white wine, golden pulp mash, sweet wine and fragrant wine. Famous wines in the Han Dynasty were also named after their places of origin, such as Yicheng Lao, Cangwuqing, Zhongshan Dongniang, Manglu, Mangbai and Bobo. These wine names can be found not only in the descriptions of ancient books, but also on unearthed bamboo slips and wine vessels.
Hanshu Shihuozhi talks about the importance of drinking in the Han Dynasty, saying that there is no wine at the ceremony, no wine, no guests and no banquet. With a lot of good wine and many opportunities to drink, many people unconsciously joined the ranks of drinking and became alcoholics. Interestingly, people in the Han Dynasty were not ashamed of being alcoholics, and many people called themselves alcoholics. If there is a Li Si captain who calls himself an alcoholic, Gai Kuanrao (Biography of Gai Kuanrao in Hanshu); There is also a self-proclaimed "wine drinker" ("Han Shu Shi Liqi Biography"); Liu Bang, the founding emperor, used to be a prodigal son who often passed out in hotels (Historical Records); Cai Yong, a famous writer in the Eastern Han Dynasty, was once called "Drunken Dragon" (Dragon City Story) because he was drunk on the way. Liu Xuan, the emperor who ascended the throne of the son of heaven after Wang Mang, "drinking with women in the backyard day and night, the ministers can't talk about things, but they can't see when they are drunk." When necessary, they will find an attendant to sit in the curtain and meet the minister for him. The first emperor, Mrs. Han, was even more addicted to alcohol. Whenever the couple drink a glass of wine, she flies into a rage and thinks it ruins her beauty. Once, she broke the book case with a slap. Speaking of it, there are not many female drinkers in historical records, and Mrs. Han should be one of the few. (Biography of Liu Xuanchuan in the Later Han Dynasty)
And Kong Rong, the grandson of the 20th Confucius who was killed by Cao Cao. He also loves wine very much, and often sighs that "the guests are always full, and the wine in the bottle is not empty, so I have no worries!" Another example is Jingzhou secretariat Liu Biao. In order to fully enjoy this glass of wine, he specially made three hosts, the first named Boya, the second named Zhongya and the second named Ji Ya. 7 liters, 6 liters and 5 liters of wine respectively. All the guests should be drunk when giving a banquet. A big iron needle was also prepared at the banquet. If anyone is found drunk, stab him with this iron needle to test whether he is really drunk or pretending to be drunk (Shi Dian Lun). The archaeological excavation of the tomb of the Sun Yat-sen couple found more than 30 large pottery wine jars with a height of 70 cm. The red books on the outside of the vat are "fifteen stones for drinking millet", "fifteen stones for dry fishing", "eleven stones for millet wine" and "eleven stones for rice wine". It is estimated that these vats contained more than 5000 kilograms of wine at that time, not including the wine in other copper cans. Biography of Five Historians says that Liu Sheng "eats good wine and good meat for others", which should be said to be a realistic evaluation.