Poets and wine often have a close connection. Li Bai is famous for his love of alcohol and self proclaimed “Immortal in Wine”; But Du Fu’s love for alcohol is no less than Li Bai’s. I once made a preliminary statistics on Du Fu’s existing poems and writings of over 1400, and there were a total of 300 poems and writings that mentioned drinking alcohol, accounting for over 21%. As a comparison, I also made a preliminary count of Li Bai’s existing 150 poems and writings, and when it comes to drinking, there are 170 poems, which is over 16%. Of course, it cannot be concluded solely based on such statistics that Du Fu’s love for alcohol is even greater than Li Bai’s. Li Bai’s poetry and prose have been lost more than Du Fu’s. Li Yangbing’s “Preface to the Caotang Collection” states that during the eight years since the An Lushan Rebellion, Li Bai “lost nine out of ten of his writings”. Although he has been repeatedly edited, there are still many scattered and lost works.
Therefore, to affirm that Du Fu’s love for alcohol is no less than Li Bai’s, further evidence should be sought from Du Fu’s poetry.
In the past 14th Five Year Plan, I traveled to Hanmo Field. ……
Sex tycoons are addicted to alcohol and have a strong sense of jealousy towards evil. ……
Drinking heavily and looking at the eight extremes, there are many mundane things.
——The Grand Tour
Please see, this is Du Fu’s confession. At the age of fourteen or fifteen, he was already a wine tycoon! Therefore, in his prime, he met Li Bai and Gao Shi, traveled together in the Liang, Song, and Qi regions, drank and wrote poetry, hunted and visited ancient times, and their scents were very similar. After the death of Gao Li, Du Fu wrote two poems, “Journey to the Past” and “Farewell to My Concubine,” which he repeatedly reminisced about. His emotions were deeply sorrowful, and it made people even more eager to see the heroic spirit of his wandering years.
Li Bai and Du Fu were particularly compatible at that time. They were drunk and intoxicated together, shared by others, held hands together, and climbed mountains together, seemingly more intimate than ordinary brothers.
Yu Yidong was a guest, showing mercy to the ruler like brothers. Drunken and sleeping together in autumn, walking hand in hand with the sun.
These are a few lines from Du Fu’s poem “Seeking Ten Hideaways with Li Shibai”. It was during their wanderings in Shandong that they were so intimate!
Du Fu wrote one of the Seven Masterpieces of “To Li Bai”, which was probably done at the same time as the one “In Search of Fan and Retreat Together”. But this poem has always been greatly misunderstood by people.
Looking back at Shang Piaopiang in autumn, I feel ashamed of Ge Hong for the cinnabar sand.
Drinking heavily and singing wildly to live in emptiness, who is arrogant and domineering for?
Most researchers believe that Du Fu was admonishing Li Bai. Everyone knows that Li Bai is a fairy, so the phrase ‘Dan Sha Ge Hong’ refers to Li Bai; Li Bai is fond of drinking, so the phrase ‘drinking heavily and singing wildly’ refers to Li Bai; Li Bai is fond of chivalry, so the phrase ‘arrogant and domineering’ also refers to Li Bai. Therefore, not long ago, some people were saying that this poem is a “little portrait of Li Bai’s life”. This is truly a one-sided view. People not only missed the word ‘xiang’ in the first sentence, but also had no clear understanding of the truth about Du Fu. In fact, Du Fu was equally immortal, equally fond of wine, equally “drinking wild songs”, and equally “arrogant”.
To say that Du Fu was also arrogant and domineering, perhaps some people would strongly oppose it. But please take a realistic look at the problem. Du Fu claimed to have drunk heavily and looked at the Eight Extremes, with a vast array of mundane things; Excuse me, is this’ arrogant and domineering ‘? Du Fu has a poem called ‘Traveling Tonight’, which describes how he had nothing to do at the Xianyang Guest House. He opened his clothes and gambled with the guests, shouting loudly at the Five Whites by the Mausoleum, calling himself a ‘hero’ and wanting to ‘lose a million without stones’ like Liu Yi in the Southern Dynasty; Excuse me, is this’ arrogant and domineering ‘? Du Fu himself acknowledged it, calling himself a “madman”, and even as he grew older, he continued to say, “Laughing at a madman makes him even crazier” (from “The Madman”), indicating that Du Fu did not consider himself a cultured and refined sage or gentleman. Therefore, the Seven Wonders of “To Li Bai” is not a “life portrait of Li Bai”, but a duet of Li Bai and Du Fu.
Secondly, Dr. Zheng Qian from Guangwen Museum is another drinking friend of Du Fu – no, not a friend, but a “teacher”. Please read the impassioned poem ‘Drunken Song’, with the original caption ‘To Dr. Zheng Qian from Guangwen Academy’.
Zhugong Gonggong ascended to the provincial stage, while Mr. Guangwen held a cold official position.
Jia Di is tired of pork belly, and Mr. Guangwen is short of food.
Sir, you have the wisdom to speak of Emperor Xi, and Sir, you have the talent to pass through the Song Dynasty.
De Zun, a generation of Chang Kanke, has a name that will last forever and knows its usefulness!
The guests in Dulingye sneered even more, their brown short and narrow sideburns like silk.
Buy five liters of rice from Taicang on a daily basis and go to Zhenglao Tongjin.
When you get money, you will search for it, and when you buy wine, you will no longer doubt it.
Forget yourself and drink your true teacher!
The clear night is filled with spring drinks, and the light rain falls on the eaves and flowers fall in front of the lamp.
But if you think Gaoge has ghosts and gods, how would you know that starving fills the ravine!
Like Yicai personally washing utensils, Ziyun learned to read and eventually threw himself into the pavilion.
Sir, please compose the poem ‘Returning Home’ early! The thatched cottage in Shitian is overgrown with moss!
What is Confucianism to me? Kong Qiu’s stolen feet are covered in dust!
There is no need to be saddened by this, as we met before our death and held a cup.
This was done in Chang’an in the twelfth year of the Tianbao era (753), at the age of forty-two. Painful and exhilarating, as if reading Li Bai’s works. Please see how he admires Zheng Qian and how he falls in love with ‘drinking excessively’!
This Zheng Qian is truly a versatile old ‘doctor’. He is capable of poetry, painting, writing, playing the piano, and is also an astrologer, pharmacologist, and strategist. His most interesting thing is that he has a preference for drinking when he can’t eat enough, and when he doesn’t have money, he asks his friends for money to drink. His good friend Su Yuanming was the object of his begging for money. “Thanks to Su Siye, he always begged (gave) money for wine.” (“A play sketch by Zheng Guangwen Qian, also presented to Su Siye Yuanming”) After drinking, he loved to play the piano to the sky (“Being fond of alcohol helps to relax, playing the piano looks at the sky and earth”, as seen in the seventh part of the “Eight Lamentations Poem”), and often called himself an “old painter” (“Often called an old painter after drinking”, as seen in the poem “Sending Zheng Shibaqian to be demoted to the magistrate of Taizhou, injuring him and causing him to fall into the trap of thieves in his old age”).
This gentleman was captured in Luoyang during the rebellion of An Lushan in the 14th year of Tianbao. Later, he escaped back to Chang’an, but was still exiled and demoted to join the army as the magistrate of Taizhou. He passed away in Taizhou (Linhai County, Zhejiang Province) in the second year of Guangde (764). Du Fu both respected and sympathized with him. After death, there is a poem mourning, believing that there will be no more articles in the world from then on. The article was swept away without a trace “, as seen in” Crying at Zheng Sihu and Su Shaojian in Taizhou “. Su Shaojian, also known as Su Yuanming, passed away in the same year as Zheng Qian. Du Fu also mourned in his long poem” Eight Lamentations “, and Zheng and Su were treated equally with Li Guangbi, Zhang Jiuling, and others.
In the first year of the Qianyuan reign of Emperor Suzong (758), he served as the Left Attendant in Chang’an, and Du Fu did not stop drinking due to his official position as a censor. The second of the two poems of Qujiang is the most authentic record. Poetry is a set of seven laws, and only the first four sentences are taken as follows:
Returning to the morning, reciting spring clothes every day, and returning drunk from the river every day.
Alcohol debts are common in many places, but they have been rare in life for seventy years.
What is the difference between this and Li Bai’s “36000 days in a hundred years, 300 cups a day” (Xiangyang Song)? The only difference is the emphasis on romance and realism. Drink alcohol every day as if it were clothing, and drink until you are completely drunk. At that time, without clothes, there were debts on credit, and there were “wine debts” everywhere. Isn’t drinking too much alcohol harmful to the body? I can’t care about that much, anyway, it’s rare for people to live to the age of seventy. Du Chenzhen was drinking desperately – to say he was’ desperately ‘is not an exaggeration, it is his own statement. There is also a song called ‘Qu Jiang Dui Jiu’ that was written at the same time, which contains two sentences:
Drinking excessively for a long time, fighting and abandoning together, laziness is contrary to the world.
In order to indulge in drinking, he is willing to put aside his position – ‘lazy morning’. What’s the use of a fictional story like ‘Shangchao Yingmao’? Others look down upon it, that’s the only thing. It is absolutely true that one cannot get along with the world.
Two more examples can be cited of the poems written during his tenure as Left Assistant in Chang’an.
Street alcohol prices are often bitter and expensive, and out of town drinkers rarely get drunk and sleep.
Jingxu Xiang drank a dou, which was exactly three hundred bronze coins.
——Kan Qiao School presents Bi Yao as a gift
This is the metaphorical expression of the phrase ‘When you get money, you’ll search for each other; when you’re drunk, you won’t doubt’ from ‘Drunken Song’.
How many white hairs did you throw? Even with a hundred penalties, I won’t give up the deep cup! ……
After drinking, there is no place to return, and I sing poetry independently and in the vastness.
——The song ‘Le You Yuan Ge’ has a few white hairs, where can I throw away the wine? Just punish me with a hundred cups of the ocean cup, and I won’t refuse! Others ignore me, I only recite my own poetry. There seems to be no difference between Du Fu, who did not wear court clothes and court crowns, Li Bai, who wrote a hundred poems about drinking, and Li Bai, who was willing to go bankrupt to indulge in drinking.
Du Fu’s attitude of desperately drinking remained unchanged from his youth to old age, and even until his death.
A shallow sip of wine, a deep gift for this life.
——Two Poems on the Rise of the Water Barrier, Part 2
There are endless things outside of Mo Si’s body, and he only has a limited cup before his death.
——The Fourth of “Nine Poems on the Rise of Quatrains”
The above is a poem written in Chengdu.
Outside of the bandits’ wild songs, they drank in pain. ……
I am awake and drunk again, and I do not intend to cry until the end of the road.
——Accompanying Zhang to stay behind and serve the imperial (Yi) banquet at the South Tower
The above is a poem from my time in Zizhou.
At an early age, I had a passionate blind date with Su Zheng. The two publics are reduced to earth, and their love for alcohol remains true.
——Sending Xue Sanlang’s Memorial
The above is a poem written during the time in Kuizhou. Su is Su Yuanming, Zheng is Zheng Qian, and Du Fu said that even after their deaths, he continued to drink seriously.
Especially in Kuizhou, there is a poem that vividly depicts Du Fu’s fondness for wine and also portrays a true Du Fu. The title of the poem is “Drunken as a horse falls, the nobles look at each other with wine”, consisting of seven words and fourteen rhymes. At that time, Du Fu was already fifty-six years old. This old poet was originally a skilled horseman. He also likes horses, and poems praising horses or pitying old horses are frequently seen in his poetry collections. One day, the governor of Kuizhou, Bai Maolin, held a banquet and returned drunk on horseback. Running down Qu Tang from Baidi City, he lowered himself and went straight down eight thousand feet, causing the chalk walls along the road to turn rapidly like lightning. He didn’t care because he had the ability. He hung the whip in his hand, didn’t lift the reins, and let the horse run away. The horse ran with sweat all over its body, and it was fierce and difficult to control. The poet himself was very proud: “I have always amazed thousands of people with my white hair, and I rely on my red face to ride and shoot.” (“As an old man with white hair, I have always amazed thousands of people. I have the ability to ride a horse and shoot arrows when I was young.” – This is not an exaggeration. He once rode a horse to hunt with Li Bai and Gao Shi, and there is a poem about it.) But unexpectedly, the horse slipped and fell off the saddle, injuring himself. He slept on the bed in his apartment to recover from his injuries. At this moment, his friends came to comfort him. The poet leaned on a cane and was supported by a child servant to socialize. The consoler came with wine and meat, so both the guest and the host burst into laughter, supported each other, and sat on the ground by a flowing stream, drinking heartily.
The wine and meat are like mountains, and for a moment, the first feast is filled with mourning and the bamboo is full of luxury.
The West and the Sun do not lend each other, shouting loudly and covering the cup.
What a pleasure! There is wine and meat, wine jars and jars, meat plates and skewers piled up like mountains. There is also the ensemble of pipa and qiang flute, shouting loudly, cheers, cheers! The sun is setting in the west, why bother with it! The poet completely forgot that he had been hurt, and even thought that caring for others was a trivial matter.
Why bother asking in Malaysia!
Have you not seen Ji Kang’s health preservation being slaughtered?
These are the last two lines of the poem, which are the poet’s “shout” in “shout”. ——Don’t worry about me! What’s the big deal with falling off a horse and getting injured? Don’t talk about it! Ji Kang once wrote an article called “On Health Preservation” and would pay attention to hygiene, but he killed his head! Don’t you know? “This can really be said to be drinking to death. The word ‘running horse’ should refer to the incident of oneself ‘getting drunk and falling off the horse’, not blaming the guest for coming on horseback
In the spring of the third year of Dali, after the ship was released from Baidi City and left the gorge, people were drinking along the way. Especially in Jiangling, I met the Shangshu Li Zhifang and the Secretary Supervisor Zheng Shen. They gathered together and wrote a poem titled ‘Banquet at the Hu Shi Yushu Hall’ while drinking. The Five Rhythms poem written by Du Fu contains the phrase ‘My friend is drunk and cannot return’. But after the banquet was over, he and Li Zhifang exchanged drinks under the moon and wrote a poem titled ‘After drinking in the library, invite Li Shangshu to dismount at night and write a quatrain under the moon’. Although there is no mention of drinking alcohol in the title, the poem clearly states that one drank all night long.
