EL ARTE DE LA EBRIEDAD

For the Chinese poets of yesteryear, wine was as important as ink or brushes. The intoxication it provides allows one to tune in to the natural course of things, to commune with circumstances, to be in phase with the flow of the eternally present moment. Wine introduces man to a wisdom beyond all morality: it allows him to forget the past and despise the future in order to devote himself completely to the present, in a wonderful contemplation of the world. Following in the footsteps of The Art of Living According to the Tao and The Art of the Siesta, Hervé Collet and Cheng Wing Fun have compiled here the most intoxicating texts of this tradition, from Tao Yuan-ming, the great poet and philosopher who loved wine, to Lu Yu (1125-1210), “the old man who only does what he pleases,” and Li Po, "drinking alone under the moon."