A live-streamed Chinese language lesson under the sky—the ancients were taken aback.

On the sky, the poem "Bring in the Wine" gradually appeared.

Don’t you see, the water of the Yellow River comes from the sky and rushes to the sea without returning.

Have you not seen the sorrow reflected in the bright mirror of the high hall, where white hair, once black as silk in the morning, has turned to snow by evening?

Life is full of joy, so that the gold is empty for the moon.

I am born to be useful, and come back when my wealth is gone.

Cooking sheep and slaughtering cows is fun, and you will have to drink three hundred cups.

Master Cen, Dan Qiusheng, will be drinking, not stop drinking.

A song with Junge, please listen to me.

Bells, drums, and jade are not expensive, but I hope I won’t wake up after being drunk.

In ancient times, the saints and sages were lonely, and only the drinkers kept their names.

In the old days, Wang Chen feasted and fought for peace and joy.

What is the master's word for less money, you have to sell to the king.

Five-flowered horse, golden fur,

Call the boy to bring out some fine wine, so we can drink away our eternal sorrows together.

"All the unbridled spirit and confidence in the poem 'Bring in the Wine' are rooted in the prosperous economic soil of the Tang Dynasty, and also bear the mark of Li Bai's unique genius."

What defines the Tang Dynasty's golden age? What makes a poet like Li Bai? You can find the answers here.

Zhi Wubu smiled slightly, "Now let's go back to the Tang Dynasty and push open a door—the wooden door of a restaurant in Luoyang."

The scene depicts a wine flag fluttering in the wind outside a restaurant, with Li Bai, who was "granted gold and released" from Chang'an, sitting inside. Famous wine is warming on the table, and his two close friends, Cen Xun and Yuan Danqiu, are beside him.

Outside the window, the city is ablaze with the afterglow of the prosperous Kaiyuan era.

Caravans of merchants passed through the streets, Orchid women sold wine, the city was prosperous, and people were at ease.

[This street scene! A Tang Dynasty version of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival"!]

Luoyang was the eastern capital during the Tang Dynasty, and together with Chang'an, they were known as the two capitals, with a population exceeding one million.

[Han Chinese women wearing Hu-style clothing with turned-down collars; Hu-style clothing was popular during the Tang Dynasty and was a fashion trend]

Camel caravans traveled along the Silk Road, from Luoyang to Chang'an, then to the Hexi Corridor, all the way to Persia.

……

"During the Kaiyuan era, the grain harvest was bountiful year after year, and the official and private brewing industries flourished like never before. From the palace to the common people, drinking became a national trend."

The poem says, "A jug of wine costs ten thousand coins, and one can revel in unrestrained joy." This is not Li Bai boasting. The value of famous wines in the Tang Dynasty was indeed considerable. A jug of fine wine was worth ten thousand coins, which was the real market price.

Ordinary people could still enjoy drinking and merrymaking, and the literati class had even more material resources to transform banquets from a necessity for survival into a spiritual ritual.

The scene shifts to a winery.

Steam rose from the stills, and the workers were carrying the newly brewed wine, jar by jar, into the cellar.

The wine cellar was filled with hundreds of wine jars, each sealed with a tape.

"And there's food too. 'Cooking lamb and slaughtering cattle for pleasure'—this phrase encapsulates the fusion of Han and non-Han culinary traditions."

The meat-eating customs of nomadic peoples spread to the Central Plains, and aristocratic literati banquets were never stingy; large platters of beef and mutton, and jars of fine wine, were the standard for grand banquets during the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

In the Tang Dynasty, drinking alcohol was allowed freely. Could other dynasties have done the same?

[Did other dynasties in the Tang Dynasty use golden goblets to drink wine?]

Animal husbandry was highly developed in the Tang Dynasty, with official ranches raising hundreds of thousands of horses, cattle, and sheep, so eating meat was not a luxury.

[Did other dynasties allow the consumption of beef during the Tang Dynasty?]

……

Upon hearing this, Ying Zheng paused slightly in his writing.

A jug of wine costs ten thousand coins.

He silently calculated the prices of goods in the Qin Dynasty and found that the number was ridiculously high.

In the Qin Dynasty, wine was rationed; brewing wine required grain, and the grain was used to feed the army.

The Qin Dynasty did not allow private individuals to brew large quantities of alcohol; wasting grain was a crime.

But Tianmu said that during the prosperous Tang Dynasty, there was so much grain that it could be used to brew private wine, and so much that the whole nation could drink and make merry.

This isn't just rich, it's incredibly rich.

Ying Zheng sighed softly, feeling a sense of defeat for the first time.

In the Qin Dynasty, there was a lane in Guanzhong.

Several old Qin people were squatting by the wall eating their breakfast: a bowl of thin millet porridge and a dish of pickled wild vegetables.

Since Tianmu said that His Majesty wanted to reduce taxes and corvée labor, the porridge this year is a little thicker than last year, but that's all.

They saw the wooden door in the sky open, and a Hu woman selling wine. The table was full of beef and mutton, and three wine bowls clinked together.

An old Qin man put down his bowl, looked at the thin millet porridge in it, and muttered, "What are they drinking? Wine? Made from grain?"

A younger man next to him said, "Father, that's the Tang Dynasty. They say they have so much grain they can brew their own wine."

The old Qin man was silent for a while, then lowered his head and took a sip of porridge, saying, "Brewing illicit liquor... In our Great Qin, brewing illicit liquor requires tattooing the face."

He paused, then added, "But their Luoyang city is really big, bigger than Xianyang, right?"

No one answered him.

The old Qin people remained silent, each shoveling porridge into their bowls.

In Weiyang Palace, Liu Che watched as the wooden door on the screen was pushed open, and the laughter of the guests filled the room.

After he ascended the throne, he renamed Luoyang as the Eastern Capital and expanded it once, but the Luoyang he saw was many times more prosperous than his original Luoyang.

Liu Che was suddenly discouraged, but he quickly regained his fighting spirit.

He is still young and has opportunities; he will surely make the Han Dynasty stronger and more prosperous under his rule.

A field ridge in Henan Commandery during the Han Dynasty.

Several elderly farmers had just finished harvesting wheat and were sitting at the edge of the field taking a break.

As dawn broke, they looked up.

When they saw the wooden door open, the Hu woman selling wine, and the table full of cattle and sheep, they remained relatively calm.

They had heard of Luoyang, the eastern capital of the Han Dynasty, though they had never seen it.

When the scene cut to the distillery where hundreds of wine jars were neatly stacked, an old farmer couldn't help but exclaim, "This is all the wine this one distillery stores?"

Another person said, "Sky Curtain said they have so much grain they can brew their own liquor at will."

The third old farmer thought for a moment and said, "In our area, wine brewed by the government is only allowed to be drunk during sacrifices and official banquets; private brewing will result in a fine."

The first old farmer shook his head: "It's not about the fine. After paying the rent, the grain we harvest in a year is just enough to last until next year. Where would we get any surplus to brew wine?" The others fell silent.

A teahouse in Lin'an Prefecture during the Song Dynasty.

Several scholars were drinking tea, and several plates of snacks were laid out on the table.

A young scholar remarked, "The Tang people are truly unrestrained; they drink like this in broad daylight."

An older man standing nearby said, "That was the Tang Dynasty at its peak. Our Song Dynasty... sigh, after the Jingkang Incident, we lost half of our country. How could we have such a mindset?"

Everyone fell silent.

Outside the window is West Lake, where boats crisscross the water and the faint sounds of traditional Chinese string and wind instruments can be heard.

Lin'an is very prosperous, but there is always an indescribable sense of oppression.

The young scholar, watching Li Bai's posture of dipping his brush in wine and writing poetry on the sky, murmured, "'Heaven has endowed me with talents that must be put to use'—did all the people of the Tang Dynasty have this kind of confidence?"

The older scholar picked up his teacup, but didn't drink it. He just looked at the tea foam in the cup and said, "We also have our own way of living. Whether it's tea or wine, as long as it brings us peace of mind, that's enough."

A street in Yingtian Prefecture during the Ming Dynasty.

Several ordinary people were squatting by the roadside eating noodles. As dawn broke, they looked up at the sky with their bowls in their hands.

Seeing the Hu women tending the counter and camel caravans crossing the street, one person remarked, "Luoyang is even more bustling than our Yingtian."

"People in the Tang Dynasty were free to travel around, but we can't."

Seeing the hundreds of wine jars in the distillery, another person said, "A dou (a unit of volume) of wine costs ten thousand coins. Who can afford that?"

The third one, who was more knowledgeable, said, "They had the prosperous Tang Dynasty, which was very wealthy. Our Ming Dynasty, under the rule of Emperor Hongwu, no longer had to be oppressed by the Mongols, and it's not bad now either."

Even so, the group's gaze lingered for a while on the table laden with beef and mutton and the jars of fine wine.

The first person to speak put down his bowl of noodles, wiped his mouth, and said, "The noodles are pretty good, better than their wine."

No one refuted him, but no one agreed with him either.