Wine culture is also an important part of food culture. As a veteran food connoisseur, Yuan often claims not to drink alcohol. In fact, rather than saying that Yuan Ming does not drink, it is better to say that he is moderate to drinking and is not addicted. Yuan Ming wrote in the "Suiyuan Poetry Tea wine list": "The residual nature is not close to wine, so the law of wine is too strict, and the transfer can know the taste of wine well." Yuan Ming believes that the reason why he can taste the delicious taste of wine is because he has control over wine.
A total of 17 kinds of local wines were mentioned in the "Suiyuan Food List", and Yuan Ming had tasted most of them, and wrote down his views on the wine tasting. For example, Yuan Ming believes that Shaoxing wine is "like a clean official and honest official, not mixed with a single false"; Jinhua wine has "the sweetness of privet, without its customs"; and the golden altar is "clear to the bone, and the color is like a pine flower". In short, Yuan Ming's view of drinking is unique, reflecting a unique wine culture.
After the Wei and Jin dynasties, drunkenness became a social trend, and literati rioters took pleasure in drinking. Yuan Ming is an iconic figure who is not good at drinking, and even preaches that he does not drink alcohol. He once laughed at himself in "The Song of Wine Friends": "Mr. Suiyuan has a bad mouth, and he can eat and speak but not to drink." Occasionally, under the persuasion of friends, he had to drink alcohol, and Yuan Mei only drank half of it, and then he was dizzy and unconscious.
Yuan Ming also described the painful state after drunkenness in his poem of not drinking: "Occasionally ask Qijin, hot body headache ear." "The reason why Yuan Mei advocates not drinking alcohol stems from the transmutation of traditional drinking customs. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucius believed that "only wine is immeasurable, not chaotic", that is, the amount of alcohol drunk is not limited, as long as it is guaranteed not to be drunk.
During the Western Han Dynasty, "the common people thought it was happy, and the gentlemen thought it was a courtesy." Both gentlemen and ordinary people strongly advocate drinking. During the Wei and Jin dynasties, social unrest was unstable, and literati and scholars escaped suffering by drinking alcohol while pursuing individual liberation. In the Tang Dynasty, wine was praised again and again by Li Bai, Bai Juyi and other wine-loving literati, so that later generations who became poets had to follow suit, and they all thought that they could get drunk.
Even Young girls such as Li Qingzhao had to recite poems such as "Heavy sleep does not consume residual wine" to show the amount of alcohol they drank. It can be seen that the reason why Yuan Mei vigorously promoted the style of not drinking was mainly to oppose the phenomenon of drinking as the style of famous people. However, for drinking, Yuan Ming is contradictory. Although he said that he did not drink, he could not do without wine. Yuan Ming once said frankly: "I don't drink wine when I have wine, and I don't like it without wine."
Yuan Ming is optimistic and free-spirited, loves to be lively, and occasionally sets up a banquet to support the pomp and circumstance. For example, domestic servants are like children, and they are pouring wine syrup... After the lake in July and August, carrying drinks in the center. "It shows the liveliness of the banquet and the joy and harmony between family and friends.
Although Yuan Ming is not good at drinking, he has a lot of experience in drinking. He believes that after drinking alcohol, "the traces of wine are like rain and wind", and all pain, trouble and joy will be fleeting and leave no trace. Yuan Ming's amount of wine is not large, a little drink will cause headaches and brain fever, and even recite a lot of "poems of not drinking", but the fundamental reason why he can never do without wine is "to meet friends with wine". Surrounded by people who love wine, if you don't drink alcohol, you will look out of place. In order to make friends with the able, Yuan Mei had to drink alcohol. In addition, Yuan Ming drank alcohol for the sake of poetry and wine associations. Since the Qing Dynasty banned the political nature of poetry and wine associations, Yuan Ming only used the scenery and drinking as a reason to attract guests.
However, the literati have always been poetry and wine are not separated from the family, and they will also do some word games or write poems while drinking. In addition, wine can also stimulate people to spit out the truth after drinking, which is the best catalyst for the literati. Therefore, although the literati and scholars do not drink or are not good at drinking, they are also inseparable from wine, which is also the main reason why Yuan Ming cannot do without wine.