China is an ancient civilization in the world, and the hometown of liquor. During its over 5000-year history, liquor and liquor culture always have played significant roles. Liquor, as a special food, belongs to substance, but has already integrates itself into the people's spiritual life. As a special culture form, liquor culture has its unique status in the traditional Chinese culture, almost penetrating into every fields of social life in the culture history for thousands of years.
        Firstly, China is a country based on agriculture. All the political and economic activities should take the development of agriculture as the foothold. Being brewed with grains and closely attached to agriculture, Most Chinese liquors has become part of agricultural economy. The output of grains reflects the rise and decline of liquor industry. Each dynasty adjusted the liquor production by liquor ban or ban rescission according to the output of grains, to ensure people's foodstuff. In some regions, the prosperity of liquor plays an active role in improving social life. Liquor has close relationship with social and economic activities. Since the national exclusive agency policy on liquor has been initiated during Emperor Wudi Period of the Han Dynasty, the charge for liquor exclusive agency and taxes levied on liquor brewing industry has become the main source of national fiscal revenue. In the history, the revenue from liquor tax was related with military spending and war, even directly with the survival and downfall of a country. During some dynasties, liquor tax (or charge for liquor exclusive agency) was also related to conscript labor or other forms of tax. The great profits of liquor always become the object scrambled by nations, merchants, plutocrats and masses. The alteration of different liquor policies reflects the change of powers among different social levels. As a kind of particular goods, liquor enriches people's life. The ancient Chinese summarized the functions of liquor as the following three: liquor for ill treatment, for longevity, for etiquette. During several thousand years, except the above three, liquor has more functions, namely, liquor for bringing happiness, for forgetting anxiety, for boosting one's courage, at least.
        During the long history of human beings' culture, liquor is not only an objective substance, but also a cultural symbol, representing the liquor spirit.
        In China, liquor spirit is sourced from the Taoist philosophy. Zhuang Zhou, a famous Taoist in ancient China, stood for unity between human beings and substance, unity between human beings and the nature, life same as death. He highly advocated the absolute freedom, and spark plugged  " wander with substance" ,  " wander outside the four seas"  and  " hometown of nothing" . Zhuang Zi, also named Zhuang Zhou, preferred to be a free and vigorous tortoise in muddy pit, rather than a striding steed but tied up by human beings. The soul of Chinese liquor spirit exists in the pursuit of the absolute freedom, in the lethe of life and death, benefits and salary, and honor and disgrace.
        Acquiring a free state in artistic creation due to ebriety is a key way for artists in ancient China to relieve the bindings and to obtain the artistic creativity. A big name in the Wei-jin Dynasty and No.1  " drunkard"  Liu Ling, who was described to have huge ambition, and thought the universe was narrow, said in the Ode of Drinking Manner,  " There is a milord, taking the heaven and earth as the royal court, 10 thousand years as a moment. The Sun and Moon shut the door and window, and the extremely remote areas beyond China have the way out."   " Take the sky as the curtain and earth as the mat, being unscrupulous about that."   " Be drunk suddenly and awake sometimes. Turn a deaf ear to the thunderbolt, turn a blind eye to Mount Tai, without the feeling of coldness and heat, nor the emotion for benefits and desire, considering everything on the earth as the common duckweed carried by rivers."  Such stature of  " being man"  embodies the Chinese liquor spirit.
         " Li Bai composed hundreds of poems after drinking liquor. He slept in the restaurants in Chang'an City when the restaurants were closed, and did not aboard a boat even under the emperor's requirement. It is Li Bai who called himself the immortal of liquor" . (Eight Immortals Drinking, by Du Fu)  " All around drunken like visitors, a stroke of versification inspiration befalls me" . (Poem Composition When Drinking Alone, by Du Fu)  " Drink in various gestures, poem comes into being spontaneously after drinking " . (Drinking with Tao Yuanming, by Su Shi)  " Finish a poet within the time of drinking a cup of liquor; recite it toward the sky to surprise the immortals there"  (Travel Wanhuachuan Valley in February after the Double Ninth Festival; Pass the drinking vessels in the moon light, by Yang Wanli). Zhang Yuan, a political poet during the Southern Song Dynasty period, said,  " Get to the truth through the flying water after rain, and win the freedom in the drunkenness" . Such examples of poems creations after drinking liquor and handed down from generation to generation can be found easily during the Chinese poem history.
        The soul of liquor spirit is more active in painting and the peculiar Chinese artistic calligraphy. Among painters, it was more difficult to get the works created by Zheng Banqiao(a very famous Chinese handwriting and painting master ). Therefore anyone who wanted it should treat him with dog meat and good liquor. Zheng Banqiao also knew their tricks, but he could not refuse the lure, and derided himself by a poem  " Enjoying the moon can put up with loneliness but without liquor; laugh at the others with thin silk longing for a painting, who would like me to be in drunken again."  The master of painting, Wu Daozi, who was commended as the one with  " ribbon floating realistically" , always drank to be drunk before painting. Among the  " four masters in the Yuan Dynasty" , Huang Gongwang was also  " never paint without drinking" . Wang Xizhi, called the  " master of handwriting" , wrote Lan Ting Xu in the state of inebriation, which is characterized by  " vigorous, enchanting, and best in the world" . But after going to consciousness, he  " could no long handwrite after changing more than 10 books" . Li Bai described the drunken monk, Huai Su,  " the master leans against the bed made of walnut, and finishes thousands of works within a moment. Torrent of rain pours with wind rustling, falling flowers and flying snow whiten here and there."  Huai Su splashed ink after being drunk, and left the marvelous works Zi Xu Tie. The master of cursive, Zhang Xu, who  " wrote a handwriting once intoxicated"  and created the works Si Tie for Ancient Styled Poetry,  " driving brush to left cloud and mist on the paper" .
        Liquor is a kind of liquor that has been passed down through generations in China. With follow-up research and summary, the traditional processing techniques have been renovated, from workshop processing to industrialized manufacture, from manual operation to semi-mechanized processing, from oral instruction to teaching by written materials. These updates have continuously promoted the development and innovation of liquor industry, and improved manufacturing techniques and product quality. A batch of manufacturers has become the backbone of the brewing industry in China, and has made significant contributions to the State. We should inherit and develop this precious native specialty, carry forward the excellent liquor culture of Chinese Nation, and further develop and promote the liquor industry.