Kitabı oku: «The Art of Drinking», sayfa 5

And thus the Governments of China succeeded in establishing, even in very early times, a condition of submissive decency everywhere. They confined wine to festive occasions, and we learn from the “Shi-King” that to the guest was granted the honor of the cup; even to him, however, in but the spare measure that chimes with the sordid miserliness of the Chinaman, who could never have understood the art of drinking, if for no other reason than because he has nothing of the liberality which the Orient calls the “flowing hand.” They say in a guest-song: —

 
“A noble guest has come beneath our roof;
For him melodious tunes were played,
So long as thus it pleased our guest,
And with the cup I sought to cheer him.
 
 
“The sound of music rang incessantly,
And ever was the cup kept full;
And in our honor did he empty it;
The wine was light and pure, and harmed him not.”
 

And in another place: —

 
“A hare is roasting on the spit;
A pumpkin leaf we go to pick;
A banquet we prepare our guest,
And fill his cup with wine the best.”
 

We have seen from other authorities that wine was chiefly reserved to old age, and here it is confirmed: —

 
“Serve round the circle the wine-cup, ye bearers;
With the spiced wine the aged refresh them;
In it their youth and their vigor reviving,
But your own youth surely needs no concoction.”
 

Even at the feasts where wine was permitted, its use was limited by cautious restrictions. All meals and banquets were subjected to rules of etiquette almost as rigorous as those which the Court is accustomed to give its ambassadors. The careful law is extended to the very preparation and serving of the viands, and everywhere clips the wings of the art of cooking and of drinking. If the Emperor U-tse gave his warriors a banquet to gain their favor, he still preserved the most rigid order of rank in the seating, and the food and the drink; and the Emperor Tsi-she-hoang is praised for restoring the old invitations and banquets, where every single ceremony took its due course in beginning and end, so that a modest and decent joy beamed in all eyes. To give a model for domestic feasts, they order public ceremonies in all the cities; Mandarins preside at them; the law invites scholars and distinguished citizens to them; and here, too, the rites are prescribed down to the minutest detail. The chief object of these feasts is to signalize merit, to preserve morality, and the friendly as well as conventional proprieties. The President reads aloud for that purpose, in the name of the Emperor, certain paragraphs of the law, the introduction to which specially calls to mind that the gathering is not really made for the sake of the enjoyment of meat and drink, but to revive loyalty to the Prince, and more to the same effect; and all their songs and pieces of music have reference to that. A single drinking-song, of somewhat more liberal spirit, I found in the “Shi-King,” but in that the translator may possibly have had a large share, especially in regard to the form. The contents are very characteristic of Chinese poetry in general, whose bare realism offers a remarkable contrast to that of the Orientals: —

 
“Water, the fresh,
Is drunk by the fish —
The carps and the pikes;
And each noble knight
At the board
Drinks water pure and bright.
 
 
“Water, the fresh,
Is drunk by the fish —
The eels and the salmon;
You sad fellows all
At the board,
Drink, till for more ye shall call.
 
 
“Water, the fresh,
Is drunk by the fish —
The perch and the barbel;
Ye good chums of mine
At the board,
Now drain ye the pearl of the wine.
 
 
“Water, the fresh,
Is drunk by the fish —
The trout and the merlin;
But we boys gay and bold
At the board
Drain waves of the wine untold.”
 

But, even in their highest ecstasy, the brave drinkers still preserve a sort of calmness; and if there is anything that can be called a sober intoxication, this seems to be excellently expressed in the following very characteristic song: —

 
“Now our guests are growing tipsy;
Decency is at an end;
Sparks from out their eyes are darting,
And the babbling tongues unbend.
 
 
“Crooked caps shake back and forward,
Hung but by a single hair;
Stiff old legs the dance are trying,
Hoarse old voices sing out fair.
 
 
“At the first cup which thou drainest,
Didst thou seem transformed to me;
If another now thou’dst empty,
Wholly tipsy wouldst thou be.
 
 
“Truly thou dost shame me sorely;
Sober quite you see I stay;
But if thou wilt take me homeward,
Lead me gently on the way.
 
 
“True, thou lead’st me into ditches,
But my own head reels at last;
Hold me by thy arm supported,
By thy pig-tail hanging fast.”
 

With this extreme point of drinking I will close. This dull intoxication is about what a warm grain-wine would produce, and fits the disagreeable character of the Chinese as well as the anecdote occurring in another song, where one whose invited guests do not appear at the right time, is actually rejoiced to think he may now drink up his wine alone. The value of wine for social enjoyment can scarcely be known there, where conventionality ties the tongues, where there is a tribunal of ceremonies, and where the tea-kettle is forever on the fire, which among us, too, fosters only embroidery, gossip and nervous debility. And then the greedy desire for physical enjoyment is the one thing which makes the Chinaman love his wine and his spicy concoctions, and which in this point has ever driven him into a never-before-heard-of opposition against his Government. How dreadful it is, however, to see these crude and childish remnants of antiquated customs most closely knit now with the most refined and elaborate tastes, wants and habits thus in vogue among the people, together with secret and most pernicious vices, and yet to find that not a single voice can be raised against it, because, with the most subtle cunning, down to the very limits of physical needs, every expression of indignation or of joy has been forbidden by law!