Curious Tales of Wine Through the Ages and Across the World

Drink, listen to stories, and savor life!

Open this book and you’ll discover that wine has never been just something in a cup.

Take Liu Ling, the famous Wei-Jin scholar. After getting drunk, he lounged naked in his room. When a friend challenged him, he laughed and said, “I take heaven and earth for my roof and walls, and my room for my trousers.” What unrestrained audacity lay behind his drunken antics! Then there was Shi Manqing of the Northern Song, who, seeking an unusual drinking experience, carved a wine jar from ice and boiled wine with snow, drinking to his heart’s content in the bitter cold. Who wouldn’t marvel at such elegance? And then there was Li Bai, the Tang dynasty’s “Immortal of Wine,” who dared to make Gao Lishi remove his boots when he was drunk. His bold declaration, “I must drink three hundred cups at a sitting,” still echoes through the fragrance of wine.

These stories tell of power struggles at court entwined with wine, chivalry expressed over drinks in the martial world, and the warmth of everyday life rising with the steam of wine. Wine is the pretext, bringing to life the temperament, wisdom, and integrity of the ancients.

When you open these pages, it will be like pushing open the carved wooden door of a tavern. You’ll hear the crisp clink of cups and see the ancients revealing their true selves in drunkenness. May these wine-soaked tales let you spend a quiet moment sharing a drink across time with those who drank centuries ago, and savor the delightful feeling that, in drunkenness, the world is vast.