On the one hand, poets are artists, art requires inspiration, and wine is a drink that can excite the central nervous system, so it is favored.
On the other hand, there was inequality between the rich and the poor in ancient society. As poets, many of them were from the moral class who were concerned about the country and the people, so they could use wine to relieve their sorrows.
In the vast history and culture of China, literature and art, as a kind of spiritual food in various eras, have gone through a long process of evolution from their emergence, development, and prosperity.
In its evolution and development, poetry, as a wonderful flower of art, occupies an important position that cannot be ignored in the history of literary development.
As early as the beginning of human beings, in the process of language formation, poetry began to gradually transform from a simple and powerful rhythm produced in labor into a lyrical and expressive literary style, such as "Le Ze" in "The Book of Songs" Sing and dance.
"Rhythm and original lyrics are the prototype of poetry, and this literary style is truly processed and compiled into a book. I have to recommend the Book of Songs first.
It collected more than 300 poems from folk and aristocratic classes, creating the source of poetry, and poetry as a literary style truly emerged.
From the birth of poetry to the development, change and prosperity of poetry in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many poets have formed an indissoluble bond with wine.
The development of wine and poetry, the relationship between wine and poets, and a series of issues about "wine and poets" are worth discussing.
Wine is the poet’s alternative true love. What kind of relationship will there be between them? Here is a brief explanation of these related issues:
1. Poets and wine The indissoluble bond
Since the legendary brewing of Dukang and Yidi, wine as a daily drink has entered the stage of Chinese history.
At first, due to backward productivity, people's living standards were very low, and the amount of wine produced was very limited.
Until the first stage of class society and the middle and late stages of slave society, the extensive use of wine was limited to banquets and sacrifices among nobles.
However, it was also during this period that toasts gradually emerged at banquets, and some of them became a source of poetry creation. Later, Li Bai's "Jinjinjiu" can be said to be a typical poem. toast.
Starting from "The Book of Songs", the literature about wine includes "Book of Zhou·Jiu Gao", and even the difficult-to-understand "Book of Changes·Yao Ci" also has "The crane is in the shade, and its son is in the sky." "I have a good prince, and I will drink it with you." The last two sentences mean "I have a good wine, and we will get drunk together."
The "Book of Songs", the source of poetry, is full of the taste of wine: "Bin Feng·July" "Peel dates in August and harvest rice in October. This is the spring wine to promote longevity"; "Xiaoya·Luming" "I have a purpose to drink wine, with the heart of Yan Yue as a guest"; the most famous one is undoubtedly "Xiaoya·Bin's First Feast", which is probably the earliest work that details the banquet drinking, singing and dancing scenes.
Can we say that without wine, there would be no ancient Chinese poetry and poets? Perhaps the five thousand years of culture would be much inferior.
How could Tao Yuanming, a drunkard, write twenty of his "Drinking" poems without alcohol? I really don’t know how much wine he drinks with his “short brown knot” and “empty basket”, plus raising five unsatisfactory sons. Maybe the “wine” in the poem “Drinking” can only be mixed with water. of wine.
Lao Du probably had a good drinking capacity. His friend Wei Ba came to visit and braved the night rain to cut spring leeks, served fragrant yellow rice, and drank as much as he wanted. Even if you drink wine, you will not get drunk."
When there is no money, "the bottle and wine shop is poor and only old fermented grains".
If there was no wine, Liu Sanbian, who "bought flowers and carried wine", might not have been able to write "Where will I wake up tonight? Willow bank, dawn wind and waning moon", nor could he have written "I want to be so crazy" Tu Yizui sighed.
"Who says women are inferior to men?" Li Qingzhao's drinking capacity is naturally not as good as men's. "Don't use the remaining wine", she can only use wine to relieve her sorrow and make her sorrow worse! Among the poets, Li Bai is undoubtedly the most famous for drinking, and he best embodies the spirit of Dionysus.
"The emperor couldn't get on the boat, and claimed that he was a wine fairy." It was so chic and elegant that even the supreme royal power had to stand aside for the sake of wine.
In particular, every word in his "Bringing in the Wine" contains the aroma of wine.
If all his poems about wine were pressed, maybe half a pot of sorghum wine could be squeezed out.
Why wine has such a great fate for every individual poet? Because poets have been around for thousands of years, we don’t know specifically. We can only infer one or two things based on common sense.
2. Wine ferments the poet’s thoughts and inspires the poet.
Why do poets like wine? Is it because rice wine has a mellow flavor, sweetness and aroma, while white wine has a rich aroma, softness and sweetness, and a long aftertaste? I don't see it quite like that.
There is always something unique inside and outside of wine.
The aroma of wine is rising. Is it the disappearance of form or the sublimation of rhyme?
For poetry, wine can stimulate the nerves and bring the poet into a state of ecstasy where he can get rid of worldly troubles and utilitarian troubles and gain spiritual freedom.
This is the opportunity for inspiration to burst out. As the saying goes, "The joy you get when you are drunk is better than when you are not drunk.
Every movement is a dance, and every word is a poem."
I'm afraid this is one of the reasons why the poet likes to drink.
When Wang Bo wrote the "Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng", he first polished several liters of ink, then drank deeply, then pulled up the quilt and covered his head and went to sleep. When he woke up, he started from Yu Xin's "Falling Flowers and Zhi Gai Flying Together, Willows*" I borrowed the inspiration from "The Spring Flag Is One Color" and wrote a famous line through the ages - the falling clouds and solitary swans fly together, the autumn water and the long sky are one color.
Start writing in one stroke and finish without changing a word.
When Li Bai wrote Qingping Diao for Xuanzong according to the imperial edict, he also wrote it after being drunk and splashing water on it.
Liu Xie of the Southern Dynasties agreed with Sima Qian’s view of “setting one’s passion into poetry” and put forward a clever metaphor, calling articles written by people with unfortunate backgrounds “beads from clam disease”.
"Disease" generally refers to mental and physical discomfort.
Wine can transfer the poet's "resentment and anger". Wine can wander with things and linger with the heart.
"All the sages in ancient times were lonely, only the drinkers left their names.
"Life is like a dream, a bottle returns the moonlight over the river.
"Sorrowful heart There is no reason to get drunk, and before the wine arrives, tears will form first" (Fan Zhongyan's "Royal Street Journey")... Du Fu's "Drunk Song" contains the word "drunk" throughout, which refers to drunkenness, drunken words, drunken state, and drunken poetry.
But it is like being drunk when you wake up, and being drunk makes you wake up, so it makes people feel miserable when they hear it.
Although the book was presented to Zheng Qian, the poet's tears and blood are permeated between the lines.
The expression is swaying, and reading it makes people feel painful and sad. A bitter smell of wine hits the nostrils, as if seeing Zimei, who seems to be awake and drunk, and the sorrow and anger are transferred to the wine.
In fact, how painful it is when you are not awake, how you feel when you are drunk; how can you write down all your injustices when you are not drunk?
Du's poem "Songs of the Eight Immortals in Drinking" says: "Li Bai wrote hundreds of poems about drinking wine", which fully describes the miraculous power of wine in stimulating Li Bai's poetry and talent.
Many poets, writers, painters, and calligraphers in ancient and modern times have become associated with wine. Because of wine, they became very interested, their talents and thoughts surged, they wrote with spirit, and their ink flowed freely after drinking. Not only Li Bai was like this.
The wonderful effect of wine on literature and art is unanimously recognized by both parties involved and bystanders.
Some Western aestheticians, such as Nietzsche, also mentioned the "Dionysian character"; Western, Indian, Persian, and Japanese writers also often sang about wine and wrote stories related to wine, but never In terms of quantity or quality, it is far less extensive, deep and close than the relationship between Chinese literati and wine.
The history of Chinese literature and art is inseparable from the history of Chinese wine culture. Literature and art are full of alcohol.
Wine and Poetry
The relationship between the song and the song is also encrypted because wine is a common item for people’s daily entertainment.
Literati drinking alone can certainly promote poetry and stimulate poetic sentiment, but gathering for banquets and drinks can especially stimulate mutual poetry and poetic communication.
As a result, poets of all ages have produced a large number of impromptu works, and poets' drinking parties often naturally turned into poetry gatherings.
These literati poetry and wine gatherings are often good stories in the history of literature. As early as the Western Han Dynasty, King Xiao of Liang Dynasty and Liu Wu gathered scribes in the Rabbit Garden for a banquet. When it comes to wine, Gongsun rides on the moon and the sheep wins on the screen. Among them, Han An almost failed to complete the state poems and was fined with wine. This was probably the beginning of the literati poetry and drinking party.
In the third year of Yuanfeng Period, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty held a banquet with his ministers at Bailiang Terrace. The monarch and his ministers composed poems in couplets, each with one sentence and each sentence in rhyme. This is known as "Bailiang style" in the world.
Not only did it create a poetry style, it was also the earliest record of subsequent couplet poetry.
In addition, from the perspective of the relationship between wine and poetry, wine itself is the object of a large number of poems.
The earliest collection of poems, "The Book of Songs", has thirty chapters, or one-tenth of them, mentioning wine.
A large number of poems about wine are in "Ya" and "Ya", especially "Xiaoya".
This is because most of the "Wind" poems are folk songs, while the "Ya" poems are poems by the middle and upper classes of scholar-bureaucrats.
At that time, wine was still a luxury product and was rarely available to common people. Naturally, it could not be described in folk songs.
There are 111 poems in the "Ya" and "Ya", among which the poems about wine are the most frequent. If calculated according to this calculation, the proportion of poems in which wine appears is very considerable.
Wine also appears in several places in "Chu Ci", such as "Nine Songs", "Drinking osmanthus wine and drinking pepper pulp" ("Taiyi of the Eastern Emperor"), "In aid of the Beidou, drinking cinnamon pulp" , ("Dongjun"), but the poet did not describe himself drinking. In the chapter "The Fisherman", he also said, "Everyone is drunk, but I am sober alone." Although it is a metaphor, it may be understood that Qu Yuan is not a drinker, but it is true that Qu Yuan is not a drinker. Because even non-drinkers cannot help but sing about wine, which makes it even more obvious how inseparable literature is from wine.
Following "Poetry" and "Sao", there are only very rare exceptions in Chinese literary works that do not involve wine; among the famous drinkers in Chinese history, poets also account for a large proportion.
After a quick count, the three Cao Cao all had poems about wine. Cao Zhi was still an addict who drank too much and got into trouble; Kong Rong’s greatest wish was to “always have a full house of guests, and the wine will never be empty”; after the Southern and Northern Dynasties, For example, Tao Xie, Bao Geng, Li Du, Han Liu, Liu Bai, Ou Su, and Lu Xin all drank, sang about wine, and wrote about wine, and most of them were heavy drinkers with extraordinary drinking capacity.
The above-mentioned are only some of the first-class writers in history. If we wanted to list them one by one, we would be able to compile numerous documents just by mentioning their names.
Faced with such a history of the marriage of wine and poetry, I dare say that no one can collect all the anecdotes and stories about poets and wine in their lifetime.
Therefore, there are so many poems about wine in Chinese literature that it is extremely difficult to count them completely without omitting them.
Let’s take a brief look at the works dedicated to the theme of wine in the millennium from the first century to the eleventh century AD. It is limited to famous works. If we add a few records, it will be a vast sight: Poetry: Han Dynasty Yuefu uses wine The titles (those that do not take wine as the title, even those that sing about wine in the whole article) include "Advocating Songs and Songs: About to Enter the Wine", "Four Chamber Music Songs. Shangshou Drinking Songs", "Hengchui Songs and Songs of Gaoyang Wine" "Personal Songs", "Miscellaneous Songs and Songs·Drinking Band", "Miscellaneous Songs and Songs·There is a Drinking Shop in Front", "Qing Shang Songs and Banquets"; in the Wei Dynasty, Cao Zhi, Wang Chai and Liu Zhen each wrote "Public Banquet" "Poems" by Jikang, Chapter 7 of "Poems on Reception" by Jikang Jin Lu Ji has "Poems on Banquets at Xuanpu", Lu Yun has "Poems on Banquets", Tao Yuanming has "Twenty Poems on Drinking", "Drinking on a Rainy Night", "Zhi" "Wine" and "Shu Jiu"; Fan Yun of Liang Dynasty has "Dang Dui Jiu" and "Dui Jiu", and Geng Xin has fourteen titles including "Song of Dui Jiu". There are many Tang poems that have been handed down to this day, and wine poems cannot be counted. There are more or less famous poets whose works about wine have the word "wine" in the title, including Wang Ji, Li Lin, Chu Guangxin, Gao Shi, Wei Yingwu, Du Fu, Jia Dao, Dai Shulun, Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, Meng Jiao, Yuan Qi, Bai Juyi, Li He, Lu Guimeng, Pi Rixiu and more than 20 people.
Taking Li Bai as the poet and wine master alone, in addition to more than 60 poems outside the collection, there are more than 850 reliable poems in various styles. According to the Ming Dynasty poet Zhou Lvjing compiled The "Qinglianjin Ode" contains a total of seventy-five five-seven-character poems in various styles about wine. In fact, this number is far from complete. Zhou used "wine", "feast" and "drinking" in the title. ", "Zui" and other words are counted. The number of poems that involve wine or even sing about wine throughout the poem should be nearly 200.
In the Northern Song Dynasty (before the 11th century), there were no fewer poets and works with the theme of wine than those in the Tang Dynasty who had the word "wine" in their titles.
In terms of lyrics and prefaces, those who sing about wine include Ouyang Xiu's "Picking Mulberries" (Painting a Boat Carrying Wine on the West Lake), eight of the thirteen poems, and "Ding Fengbo" (Prying Questions Before the Hops) He), "Huanxi Sha" (Ten Years of Reunion and Drinking) and more than ten poems; Su Shi's "Die Lian Hua" (Farewell to Wine and Encourage You to Get Drunk) and more than ten poems, Huang Tingjian's "Xijiang Moon", "Drunk and Down" and so on. 》 and four other songs.
Just the selected works of these famous artists, with a little interpretation, are enough materials to write a history of wine poetry.
3. Wine is a tool for poets to express their feelings
For poets, wine can vent their emotions, pour away the blockages in their hearts, and play a role in "empathy" Effect; wine becomes masculine, making people intoxicated and transcendent.
A country man who drinks too much can take it out on his wife and children, but what about a poet? When poets are awake, it is often difficult to get rid of the worldly gains and losses, so their creativity must be restrained and suppressed.
When the wine is intoxicating and the ears are warm, it is easy to achieve spiritual liberation and spiritual transcendence.
He dared to speak, dare to write, dare to cry, dare to laugh, and indulged his feelings without any scruples, thus liberating his creativity.
From "resigning to fate" to "metaphysical comfort", the nature of the will to life as the ontology has changed, from the negative force of blind struggle to the endless creative force.
If there had been no wine, Qu Yuan would not have said: "Everyone is drunk and I am sober."
From a relative perspective, this can also be said to be "I am drunk when everyone is awake", otherwise he would not be "drunk" for the country with his haggard appearance and haggard description! Li Bai said, "Cut the knife to cut off the water, and the water will flow again, and raise a glass to relieve the sorrow, and the sorrow will become even more sorrowful."
The relationship between wine and the poet's emotional expression and emotional release can be seen as extraordinary.
In class society, especially in the long feudal society, the entanglement between power and interests often leads to the distortion of human nature and psychological imperfection of those in power. The poet's straightforward and straightforward personality often makes political ambitions. Unable to perform, and even worse, living in poverty. In such a situation, the poet was extremely exhausted physically and mentally, and he either put his feelings in the mountains and rivers, or in wine.
If there is no wine, how can the poet recover physically and mentally.
Of course, the relationship between poets and wine is not that simple, but it is not an exaggeration to regard wine as an alternative true love of poets.