In June of the fifteenth year of Tianbao (756), An Lushan's rebels broke through Tongguan and endangered Chang'an, and Tang Xuanzong fled to Shu with his family and his dependents. When the fleeing party entered the valley leading to Chengdu, Zhidun, who was in charge of the food, asked Wei Kui to get a pot of cooked wine from the farmer's house for the master, and knelt in front of the horse's head four times, but Xuanzong never answered, and said to him, I have quit drinking for forty years, I don't believe you ask Gao Lishi.

Li Deyu, a famous minister of the late Tang Dynasty, wrote "Old News of the Ciliu Family", which was the earliest record of Tang Xuanzong's abstinence from drinking. According to records, Wei Kui was very scared at the time, thinking that the master mistakenly thought that the wine was poisonous and did not dare to drink, so he changed a container, but Tang Xuanzong still did not accept the wine, saying that when he first became the emperor, "tasted and drunk, and was drunk and damaged one person, I mourned it, because I thought it was a warning". That is to say, he once hurt people by drinking at a wine banquet, and he has not drunk since then. Wang Yan's "Tang Yulin" in the Song Dynasty added oil and vinegar to Wei Wei's "self-introduction", that is, after drinking a large glass first, he still did not offer the wine, in order to show Xuanzong's resolute attitude of quitting alcohol.

How much alcohol did Tang Xuanzong drink? "Tang Yulin" recorded a drinking incident when he was driving in Luzhou, which corroborated Xuanzong's alcohol consumption. In the late spring of one year, several disciples of the Hao family visited Kunming Pool. When he was drinking, Tang Xuanzong subdued his arm eagle and drove forward, and several people were very unhappy. Suddenly, a young man sang with a wine boat: Today it is appropriate to talk about the official character of the clan. When the wine reached Xuanzong, he said loudly: Great-grandfather Tianzi, ancestor Tianzi, father Xiangwang, Linzi Wang Li. Several children of the wealthy family were shocked at that time, Tang Xuanzong drank three silver boats in a row, filled a huge stuffing, and rode away. The silver boat here is not a ferryman's boat, but a silver boat-shaped wine vessel used in the Tang Dynasty when drinking. Looking at the chic scene of Xuanzong's drinking at that time, such a wine vessel should not be smaller than the current goblet capacity.

This story also shows that when Tang Xuanzong was not the emperor, he not only drank alcohol, but also drank less than ordinary people. So, after he became the emperor, did he really hang the cup as he said? "Zizhi Tongjian" said when telling about the friendly relationship between Xuanzong and the brothers: In the second year of Kaiyuan (714 AD), "the kings are at the side gate every day, and they retreat from each other to feast and drink", "set up five hooves in the palace, and the kings are in it." Or talk about poetry, occasionally drinking, gambling, and hunting. In the eighth year of Kaiyuan (720), Xuanzong forbade the kings to associate with the ministers, and the brother-in-law of Li Ye, the king of Xue, violated discipline, and Li Ye and his concubines were terrified. At this time, Xuanzong at least drank a lot of wine with his brothers, saying that he had quit drinking just after taking power, and no one seemed to believe it.

Tang Xuanzong's drinking hurt people may be a drinking accident that occurred during the period. In the years that followed, when he fled to Chengdu, did he really not drink at all? At that time, the people were rich and the country was strong, and the finances were rich, and once there was a festival or a happy event, Xuanzong would hold a banquet, summon bureaucrats from all over the world, and rest when he was drunk. In April of the twentieth year of Kaiyuan (732 AD), he had a banquet for hundreds of officials in Shangyang Dongzhou, drank a group of people to the ground, and gave a mattress to the drunken ministers. Such a grand banquet, everyone is so happy, he doesn't drink, just let others drink, it doesn't seem to be Xuanzong's character.

From the poems of Li Bai, Du Fu and others, we know that people who like to drink two cups like to show off twice when writing poems, and Tang Xuanzong is no exception. "All Tang Poems" also recorded several wine poems of Tang Xuanzong, but due to the average level, very few of them were widely circulated. For example, in the seventeenth year of Kaiyuan (729), Song Jing, Zhang Shuo, and Yuwen Rongrong were promoted to the throne and took office on the same day. Tang Xuanzong issued an edict to set up a meal, and hundreds of officials were in the East Hall of Shangshu Province, and he gave the poem "Le Ju Mian Gong Yan, Lian Beidou Alcohol", Zhang Shuo and the poem "Chrysanthemum blows the wine, and the orchid leaves hold the heavenly words", and Yu Wenrong's "Feiwen Yao descends, and gives wine to the jade cup", all of which are depicted drinking scenes. This at least shows that Tang Xuanzong's daily life is closely related to wine.

The scene of a drinking order recorded in "Tang Yulin" shows that Tang Xuanzong really touched wine: during the Kaiyuan period, Xuanzong had a banquet with his ministers to make a calendar order. At the order of the Supreme Lishi, he picked up a large piece of meat, stuffed it into the mouth of Huang Wan Xuan, and said, "Saiji Cave", and Huang Wan took the Kimporo in front of Xuanzong's banquet and put it into his boots, saying: "Nei Cai Ji". Kimporo is a thing, Li Bai has a sentence in "Wine to Wine", "Pu grape wine, Kimporo, Wu Ji fifteen fine horses", it is a gold large-mouthed flat wine cup used by the Tang people when drinking. If Xuanzong didn't drink, why did he put this thing in front of him? This story shows that Tang Xuanzong not only drank alcohol, but also drank with Gao Lishi and other close ministers in the palace from time to time, and Gao Lishi and others knew that Xuanzong was addicted to alcohol.

The "Relics of Kaiyuan Tianbao" written by Wang Renyu of the fifth dynasty also recorded a lot of new things about Xuanzong's drinking. Among them, "Sobering Flowers" said, "Emperor Ming and the noble concubine Xinghua Qingguan, because of the hangover for the first time, with the concubine's shoulder, look at the wood peony together." "Merry Array" said, "Emperor Ming and the concubines, every time they are drunk, the concubines and concubines are more than 100 prostitutes, and more than 100 imperial courtiers are lined up in two formations in the court, which is called the Merry Array", in addition, in the inner palace of Tang Xuanzong, there is also a favorite collection of his - self-warming cup, which is a wine utensil used to cook wine. Although "The Relics of Kaiyuan Tianbao" is a historical material in the style of notes, with a strong story, it has a causal relationship with the drinking of Xuanzong mentioned in "Tang Yulin".

Bai Juyi also gave a negative answer to Tang Xuanzong's drunkenness, and he had two verses describing Xuanzong's drunkenness in "Song of Long Hatred": "The golden house pretends to be a delicate night, and the jade building banquet is drunk and spring." It means that (Yang Guifei) is dressed up in the deep palace, and she goes to serve the king charmingly. After the banquet in the jade building, the emperor took the drunk to bed. If Tang Xuanzong really quit drinking, Bai Juyi still writes like this, it is indeed a big failure, as Bai Juyi, who has lived in officialdom for a long time, how can he make others laugh and be generous? Many historical materials show that after Tang Xuanzong became emperor, regardless of whether he drank to death or not, drinking was a common thing, and the saying of quitting alcohol was a true lie.

So, why did Tang Xuanzong pretend to quit drinking? First, it is not the right time for Wei Kui to offer wine. Wei Wei, as a cadre in charge of food in the inner palace, must have known that the master was drinking, but this time he patted the wrong place, at this time, Xuanzong was desperately fleeing with his tail between his legs, and the Jiangshan Society was in danger, and the lives of the concubines and grandchildren were difficult to protect. When the fleeing party arrived at the Xianyang Jixian Palace, if it weren't for Yang Guozhong hurriedly buying a Hu cake from the market and offering it to Xuanzong, maybe he would still be hungry. Under the crisis of the country's ruin and family ruin, Tang Xuanzong, who was used to living a good life, didn't even have a snack to eat, and he was really in no mood to swallow this wine.

The second is that Yang Guifei has just been hanged. Tang Xuanzong's escape team first crossed Ma Weipo, and then entered the valley, when Wei Wei offered wine, the scene of Ma Weipo hanging Yang Guifei to death still flashed in Xuanzong's mind from time to time, this woman was his spiritual sustenance and heart and liver treasure in his later years, in Huaqing Palace, it was this woman who drank with him; In the Agarwood Pavilion, it was also this woman who was drunk and frolicking with him. In front of Yang Guifei, he is a dignified emperor, and seems to have been reduced to a "three-accompaniment" man who eats, plays, and drinks together, and now, this woman has been killed, Xuanzong's heart is really like a knife and an axe, if you pick up the wine glass again at this time, how can you not think of the past when you drank in pairs, isn't it salt on the scar and a knife in the heart and liver? I can't drink this wine.

At that time, Tang Xuanzong made up this lie, and he didn't forget to play a little trick, and he seemed very confident. According to the record of "Old News of the Ciliu Family", when Xuanzong explained the reason for refusing to drink to Wei Wei, he pointed to Gao Lishi and the attendants and said confidently: "This is all known. "In front of Xuanzong, Gao Lishi and his ilk are just a group of obedient pugs, and when the master says that he has quit drinking, they must have said that he does not drink and has already hung up his glass; The master said that it has been forty years, and they will definitely pinch their fingers and pretend to nod frequently. With such a low-level lie, Li Deyu actually sang: The same is true of the precepts. Rich in the world, only 50 years, isn't it a Taoist?

A lie about quitting drinking, how many unspeakable secrets are hidden, and how many revelations are left behind by a moving story. If Tang Xuanzong went to Huaqingyuan a few times, drank two drinks with the concubine less the night before, and opened the door to work on time the next morning, and used the later hollowing out to make up lies?