In history, the Confucian doctrine is regarded as the orthodox view of the Country, the drinking manner is also affected by the liquor culture of Confucian. The Confucian pays attention to drinking manner.

The drinking manner first appeared in the two ancient famous works, Shang Shu and the Book of Songs. It means that the drinkers must have morality in drinking. Don’t like the King of Xia dynasty Zhou, who indulged in liquor. Shang Shu-Jiu Gao embodies the drinking manner of the Confucian, and is as follows, you only can drink during the memorial ceremony for sacrifice, you don’t often drink liquor and drink less liquor to save food. Only in the sick, you can drink liquor. It is forbidden that people drink liquor together and drink excessively. The Confucian is not opposed to drinking. It is all drinking manners to drink liquor during the memorial ceremony for sacrifice and treat customers.

As one of eating culture, drinking liquor has formed a manner in the ancient time. Sometimes, it is very complicated. But if you don’t obey to it in some important occasions, you will be suspected of defying your superiors and starting a rebellion. Or drinking liquor excessively, you don’t control yourself and will start a rebellion. So the drinking manner is very important. In Ming dynasty, Mr. Yuan Hongdao saw that the people don’t comply with the drinking manner when they are drinking liquor, and thought that the elder has responsibility. so he collected a lot of data from the ancient books and wrote a book of Shang Zheng. Even though this book is written for the people who play drinker's wager game when they drink, it also has certain significance for general drinkers. In ancient time, the Chinese drinking manners are as follows,

When drinking together, the master and guests knelt mutually. It is called paternity drinking that the younger people drink in front of the elder. Usually, the younger people first knelt and seat in the second. The elder ask the younger to drink, then the younger can drink. The elder don’t drink off, the younger also can’t drink off.

In ancient time, the drinking manner has four steps, knelt, memorial ceremony, tasting and drinking off. Firstly, the drinker make the action of knelt to express respect. Second, the drinker pours a little liquor on the ground to thank the earth give birth to us. Third, the drinker tastes the liquor and praises it to make the master happy. Fourth, the drinker drinks off the liquor.

At the banquet, the master toast to the the guest, and the guests need to retaliate the master. The people need to say some words when they toast to others. The guests also can toast to each other. Sometimes, they need to toast by the order of seat. When toasting, they must stand up. Three cups of liquor is best.

The 56 nationalities of China all drink liquor, except Muslim who embraces Islam. The drinking manner of every nationality is different, and has theirs special characteristics. (Auditor: Wang Xiaoming)