Victor's Pursuit of Serenity Chapter 31

The "Xiangma Jing" lifts a small corner of the curtain, letting us know that our ancestors once studied things so seriously to gain knowledge. Looking through the literary records of each generation, we will know that books that record actual knowledge are the easiest to lose, while those that deceive the world with empty words are passed down from generation to generation. Adrian Lu once said angrily: "I don't know who wrote the "Nei Jing". He did look at human muscles, but it seems that he just peeled the skin and took a quick look without careful examination, so it was a mess, saying that all muscles originate from fingers and toes. The "Xiangyuan Lu" in the Song Dynasty talked about human bones, and even said that the number of bones in men and women is different." In fact, in the era of the "Nei Jing", people still sought knowledge, but the later generations were lazy and unwilling to accumulate knowledge. In this way, it is better for an "Xiangma Jing" to be buried underground forever, and there is no way to dig it out, which makes us ashamed.

Do not read the commandments for drinking

One of the strangest customs in our country is that we regard drunkenness as a virtue and being drunk as boring. Baudelaire's saying "drunk is the only way out" was originally shocking, but it has become a common opinion here. People are not ashamed of being drunk, but are proud of it and talk about it for years, thinking it is their heroic deeds; it is fine if they drink themselves, but they also persuade others to drink, and they are not happy when others refuse this unreasonable and rude request. The most unreasonable thing is to boast about the amount of alcohol, as if drinking more alcohol before fainting is a blessing to mankind.

Anything that goes against common sense and has become popular must be traced back to its source. The drinking habit was first started by the literati of the Jin Dynasty, and was further developed by the Tang Dynasty poets, making it a social custom. Ancient literati boasted about their drinking, just like they boasted about their talent. If they couldn't drink at all, others would suspect that they were boring. Su Shi, who wrote "Ode to the Wonderful Principles of Turbid Wine", was born unable to drink. He felt that this was a lack of elegance, so he made up for his shortcomings with hard work. He practiced drinking every day, working harder than writing lyrics and practicing calligraphy. As expected, God rewards hard work. When he was sixty years old, he could drink five cups of wine. Of course, not in one meal, but accumulated in one day.

There are also those who oppose drinking. Starting from the "Jiu Gao" in the "Book of Documents", there have been upright gentlemen who felt sad when seeing these drunkards lying all over the place, and wrote various admonitions. But in later times, the power of the two sides was disproportionate. Those who advocated moderation were all wooden-headed people like Ge Hong and Yu Chan, who talked about some great principles (they forgot that it was precisely because they were tired of listening to great principles that people went to drink), while on the other side, from Victor onwards, from Kong Rong in the Han Dynasty to Wang Ji in the Tang Dynasty, from Li Bai to Pi Lu, they were all talented people. On one side, they relied on their talents and were willful, while on the other side, they respected learning and valued morality. On one side, there were Ji Kang, Ji Shao, Li Bai, and Han Yu. On the one hand, they thought about morality thoroughly and finally wrote an "Jiu Jie", and on the other hand, they just waved it away, and more than ten wine poems and drunken poems came out. There is no need to fight to know who will win or lose in this fight.