{"id":1188,"date":"2009-03-19T00:01:28","date_gmt":"2009-03-19T00:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.com\/?p=1188"},"modified":"2009-03-19T00:01:28","modified_gmt":"2009-03-19T00:01:28","slug":"substituting_tea_for_wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/?p=1188","title":{"rendered":"Substituting Wine with Tea \u4ee5\u8336\u4ee3\u9152\uff0c\u4e0d\u6210\u656c\u610f"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s another one of my attempts at translating Chinese articles. This one’s about the phrase \u4ee5\u8336\u4ee3\u9152\uff0c\u4e0d\u6210\u656c\u610f which means something like my respect and sincerity towards you is no less even though I’m substituting tea for wine in my offering of a toast.
\nThis phrase is often used by people who don’t drink wine and want to toast their guest with a cup of tea instead. The phrase allows them to remain polite towards their guests and not show any sign of disrespect. However, many people are probably unaware that the phrase was coined by the fourth and final emperor, Sun Hao (\u5b59\u7693 242 – 284) of the state of Eastern Wu (\u4e1c\u5434) during the Three Kingdoms period.
\nIn the year 252, Sun Hao’s grandfather, Sun Quan (\u5b59\u6743) died of an illness, and passed on the throne to his son Sun Liang (\u5b59\u4eae). After some political disputes, Sun Liang’s brother Sun Xiu (\u5b59\u4f11) took over as emperor. Before his death, Sun Xiu had designated that his son take over as emperor and appointed his right-hand man Pu Yangxing (\u6fee\u9633\u5174) and General Zhang Bu to assist his son. However, Sun Xiu’s body was barely cold in the ground when both Pu Yangxing and Zhang Bu commented that the appointed crown prince was too young for the throne and instead helped the 23-year-old Sun Hao to become emperor.
\nWhen Sun Hao first came into power, he was a benevolent ruler who helped the weak and donated generously to ease poverty amongst the lower rungs of society. However, this was short-lived as he soon became a cruel and draconian ruler who indulged in alcohol and women. As Sun Hao loved to drink, he frequently held banquets that saw him in the company with all the statesmen and courtiers. His banquets had a rule – every person had to drink at least seven sheng<\/i> (\u5347) of wine (a \u5347 is a type of container meant for wine). Whether or not one could drink, one would have to imbibe every drop of wine in the seven sheng<\/i>.
\nAmongst his courtiers was a person named Wei Yao (\u97e6\u66dc) who could drink only up to two sheng<\/i>. Wei Yao was the teacher of Sun Hao’s father, Sun He (\u5b59\u548c) and his position was akin to a prime minister. Sun Hao especially looked out for Wei Yao, and knowing that he could not stomach any more wine, he secretly had Wei Yao’s wine switched to tea and so that he wouldn’t be embarrassed and put in a spot because of his inability to drink.
\nWei Yao was an official who was morally upright and just, and he was often critical of Sun Hao, saying that he ridiculed his officials for his own fun and leisure. Over time, this would hurt and destroy the people who worked for him. In time to come, Wei Yao was thrown into prison and executed.
\nIn the year 280, the state of Wu was invaded and destroyed by the state of Western Jin. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that it was Sun Hao’s drinking that caused the downfall of his empire.
\nGo here<\/a> for the Chinese text.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s another one of my attempts at translating Chinese articles. This one’s about the phrase \u4ee5\u8336\u4ee3\u9152\uff0c\u4e0d\u6210\u656c\u610f which means something like my respect and sincerity towards you is no less even though I’m substituting tea for wine in my offering of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}