China's wine culture is also broad and profound, especially in the north of China, in the land of Qilu, where wine culture prevails. Making friends, talking about things, and talking about business are almost always carried out at the wine table. Chinese history is 5,000 years old, and China's wine culture has a history of more than 3,000 years.
Wine-making, drinking, the Chinese are especially particular. As we all know, the word "Cheers" has not been handed down from ancient times, and in ancient film and television works, or in literary works, they have never used the word "Cheers" when clinking glasses. The word "Cheers" became popular after the 18th century, and it was the Irish who first used the word and gave it meaning.
But in ancient China, people did not know that beyond the Central Plains, there was a group of Irish living in a distant place. Did the ancients drink dry when they drank? Obviously not, so what did they say when they called each other to drink it all?
In a word, I think it's unscientific. After all, 5,000 years of history don't allow us to do that. In the Song Dynasty, the record in the "Shilin Guangji" is quite interesting, and it also allows us to find the clues of the wine culture of the ancients, including such a record:
The host drinks as much as he can, presents the cup and then pours it full to persuade the guests, and the guests receive the drinks, if the guests do not drink enough, the host will tilt the clouds: "Chitose Chitose!" Or the guest borrows the lamp to persuade him and does it as before, or he does not reply to persuade him at will, or he puts or changes the lamp again and does it at will. - "The Legend of the Forest: Leveling Handles"
From the records, we can conclude the following points: (1) After the host has drunk the wine in the cup, he shows the bottom of the cup to the guests, and we will also have this action now, after drinking, he shows the bottom of the cup to the other party, indicating that he is not "raising goldfish". (2) The host will fill the guest with a glass of wine, and if the guest cannot finish it, the host will tilt the plate so that the guest will not be allowed to put the glass back, and say, "Chitose, Chitose". (3) After the guest has finished drinking, he can put the cup back, and if the guest takes the opportunity to fill the wine, the host should also drink the wine in the cup according to the previous etiquette. (4) If the guest finishes drinking, puts the cup back, and no longer persuades the host, then everyone can drink at will;
In the Song Dynasty, it was more interesting to drink, the host would use a plate with a wine glass to toast one by one, and if the guest could not finish drinking, the host would use "Chitose Chitose" to urge, and the guest would not be allowed to put the cup back.
Through this etiquette, we can see that in order to show his hospitality, the host basically needs to toast the guests one by one with a glass of wine. And the guest can finish the drink, or you can return the salute to deepen the relationship. Nowadays, on the dinner table in Shandong, Hebei and other places, there is still the phenomenon of the host toasting the guests one by one with a glass of wine, commonly known as "playing in circles". This is just omitting the tray, and even if there is no tray, the guest should drink the first glass of wine the host toasts as a sign of respect. After that, you come and go, and you have fun before you stop.
In the Song Dynasty, "Chitose" became synonymous with "Cheers" at the wine table. When the Yuan Dynasty overthrew the Song Dynasty and established the Meng Yuan, there were no major changes in terms of drinking. The term "Chitose" has also been used.
"I am ten thousand years old, and he just swallowed three and a half mouthfuls", in which "Yang" is also a kind of ancient wine culture. "Ao" means to drink, and "ten Chitose" refers to drinking ten cups. In the banquet, there will also be a saying that "the young is a thousand years old".
In addition to the two mentioned above, there is a more elegant way to drink alcohol - "lifting white". In the Book of Han:
The Great General (Wang Feng) Xue Hou...... and Zhao (Feiyan) and Li Ping, all of whom are full of white.
In the Han Dynasty, it was another way of saying that it was poured full of wine and drunk in one go. Bai is synonymous with liquor, and when the banquet is in full swing, the host straightens up, toasts to the rank of the banquet, and shouts "lead to full lifting white". But they don't clink their glasses, they just raise their glasses. The reason for this is also very simple, at that time, people still practiced a separate meal system, and each person had a small table, so they could only show each other.
How did clinking glasses of drinking evolve? This must have happened slowly after the end of the split meal system. Due to the Tang and Song dynasties, food and cooking have been greatly developed, and the feudal dynasty reached its peak in this period, and the rich and delicious dishes are not suitable for continuing to eat separately.
The closer the people are, the more intense the atmosphere gets when they drink. There is no clear record of when the clinking of glasses began, some people say that this rule comes from the ancient Greeks, who liked to wrestle, and generally drank each other before the duel, one is to encourage each other, and the other is to strengthen the courage of both sides, so that the whole person is excited, so that in the gladiatorial fight, there is a better performance.
Because the wine is prepared in advance, in order to prevent people with ulterior motives from poisoning the wine and affecting the performance of both parties, both parties will have a clinking action before drinking, and the drinks will splash into each other's wine glasses to ensure fairness. Actually, I don't think it's that complicated, the ancients had a habit of toasting each other, and when they implemented the meal sharing system, they sat closer to each other and interacted with each other more easily.
When you are drinking, the phenomenon of wine glasses involuntarily colliding together will naturally occur. This will undoubtedly make the drinking atmosphere even stronger. When reading Shi Nai'an's "Water Margin", you can see that when the heroes of Liangshan drink wine and eat meat in a big bowl, one of the inevitable behaviors is to hit the cup, which shows that after the transformation into a dinner system in the late Tang and Song dynasties, the cup clinking also naturally appeared.
As for the word toast, it was developed from "toast", which is just another way of saying "drink this cup together", and it has developed to this day. Over time, this is not static, and eventually another word will emerge to replace it.
But no matter how you change the style, the effect is the same, which is to add atmosphere to the drink so that everyone in the table can enjoy it.