Like all cultures on earth, the refined Chinese culture sought the means to ensure that the mind could free itself from the rigidity of conventions, rational logic and the narrowness of the everyday to wander through the world of the imaginary. The means to achieve this was wine. In this documented and thought-provoking book, Jacques Pimpaneau interweaves reflections, stories, anecdotes, legends and poems to show us the virtues of wine and the art of living practiced in China for centuries by the greatest poets, painters and calligraphers.

The desire for the spirit to be able to wander, access another place, free itself from the yoke of rational logic and everyday concerns and penetrate the imaginary is present in all civilizations. The Chinese, with their refined culture, investigated the possibilities of different drugs and various ecstatic techniques, but wine is what remained as the best liberator to lead the mind into the realm of the imaginary. Jacques Pimpaneau describes in this book this curious facet of Chinese culture and shows us how scholars, poets and painters made extensive use of wine to free themselves from rigid social rules and find the inspiration that produced so many wonderful works of art and poetry.