Gold drinking set in the Palace Museum collection. It is acknowledged that over thousands of years of history, and especially during feudal times, drinking was a main social activity, and therefore had impact on the contemporary politics, economy, culture and art. Yet it is unfair to attribute the dark ages of any country to over indulgence in alcohol.

The Tang Dynasty was a golden age in Chinese history, but then, too, there existed a thoroughgoing passion for the drink. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, known as Li Shimin, never regarded liquor as a scourge. He realized that a country's foundations are reliant on enlightened politics, a flourishing economy, and the support of the people, and he never prohibited drinking. On the contrary, he gave excellent wine to the Shaolin Temple monks who had saved his life as reward, and gave them permission to drink, despite the drinking of alcohol by Buddhist monks being taboo. To the people of Tang, the thought of life without poetry and wine was too dull to bear. Li Bai, Du Fu and Bai Juyi, the most famous Tang Dynasty poets, were all known to have been hearty drinkers.

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