I often see some "Dionysus" who can drink on the short video platform, and their "alcohol" is simply bottomless. Some people pick up a bottle of liquor and smother it, and one "Dionysus" even pours 10 bottles of liquor into the basin of water and drinks it. For these online "Dionysus", most people just look at it as entertainment and laugh it off, can they really drink so much liquor? In fact, most people are fake in order to attract people's attention, anyway, the audience is not in front of them, what exactly is in the bottle and who knows?
If you ask: Who are the celebrities in history who can drink? Many people may have the name "Wu Song" in their minds, after all, the story of "Wu Song Fighting The Tiger" is too deeply rooted in people's hearts. In the "Wusong Fighting Tiger" section, WuSong ignored the persuasion of Xiao Er of the shop, drank 18 bowls of wine in a row, and then went up the mountain to kill the tiger. Most readers will think that The amount of alcohol in Wu Song is simply too amazing, ordinary people drink three bowls is not enough, Wu Song actually drank 18 bowls, and also killed the tiger. So, is Wu Song a "Dionysus" in the end? How big is his alcohol consumption?
Jingyang Gang fights tigers
"Wusong Fighting Tiger" is one of the most wonderful chapters in "Water Margin", this section is from the twenty-third "Henghai County Chai Jin Liu Bin Jingyang Gang Wusong Fighting Tiger". On this day, Wu Song wanted to go home to see his brother Wu Dalang and sister-in-law Pan Jinlian. When he walked to the bottom of Jingyang Gangshan, he first found a tavern to fill his belly, he ate and drank, and when he finished drinking the third bowl, the shopkeeper advised him not to drink, because there are often tigers on Jingyang Gang, and there is a local rule of "three bowls but no gang". Wu Song thought that the amount of alcohol was good, and he couldn't listen to the persuasion of Xiao Er who entered the store, drank a total of 18 bowls of wine, and then staggered to Jingyang Gang.
When Wu Song walked to a broken temple on Jingyang Gang, his drinking power flared up and he felt a little trance, so he found a large bluestone and wanted to lie on it and rest for a while. At this time, a large white-fronted tiger with hanging eyes suddenly appeared in front of him and pounced on him with a roar. Wu Song jumped up, raised the whistle stick and smashed it into the tiger's head, who knew that the whistle stick was raised too high, smashed on the branch, and the whistle stick broke into two pieces. The tiger did not pounce on Wu Song at once, a little anxious, so it swept towards Wu Song with its tail, and Wu Song jumped up and rode on the back of the tiger. Grabbing the tiger's scalp with his hands, smashing the tiger's head with his fists, and finally beating the tiger to the point where he had a bleeding mouth and nose, lying on the ground unable to move. Fearing that the tiger was not dead, Wu Song picked up the half-cut whistle stick and beat the tiger indiscriminately, eventually killing the tiger. Since then, the "hero of fighting tigers" Wu Songwei has been famous.
The amount of alcohol in Wusong
The story of Wu Song fighting a tiger is widely circulated, and in this story, the most interesting thing is that Wu Song drank 18 bowls and could even go up the mountain to fight the tiger. So, how much alcohol does Wu Song have? What kind of wine did he drink? If you change to modern baijiu, how much can Wu Song drink?
Shandong people have a bold personality, and in most parts of Shandong, the custom of eating meat and drinking wine in large bowls is still retained. Generally, Shandong people eat and drink "two large bowls", which can hold at least half a kilogram if they are filled with water and wine. According to this amount, Wu Song even drank 18 bowls of wine, that is, drank 9 pounds of wine.
So the question arises again, what kind of wine was Wu Song drinking at that time?
I have many friends around me who can drink, especially beer. Sit down on the hour with a barbecue and a beer at your leisure, and there is no problem with drinking ten bottles of eight bottles (500ml each) beer by yourself. Will Wu Song drink beer?
First of all, the speculation that Wu Song drank beer can be completely ruled out. Because beer was invented by the Sumerians more than 6,000 years ago, it was only in the 4th century AD that beer became popular in Europe. At the end of the 19th century, beer was imported to the mainland, but because the taste of beer at that time was not accepted by the majority of Chinese people, the distribution of beer in the mainland was not widespread, and the output was not large. In summary, during the Song Dynasty, beer had not yet spread to the mainland, and Wu Song could not have drunk beer.
So, will Wu Song drink baijiu? The history of brewing liquor in the mainland can be traced back to the Xia Dynasty, when it was first discovered that after the fermentation of grain, a fragrant liquid was formed, which was liquor. However, due to the backwardness of the ancient productive forces, grain was a very scarce living material, so ordinary people could not afford to drink liquor.
In the Song Dynasty, the country was strong, people had enough food and clothing, and liquor was no longer a luxury exclusive to the nobility. Due to the increase in demand, the refining technology of liquor has also made great progress, and people have mastered the use of grain to make shochu. "Shochu" is easier to produce than "sake", and since "shochu" is purified by distillation, the concentration of alcohol can be increased to more than 70 degrees. However, more than 70 degrees of wine is generally not "enjoyed" by people, and people will reduce the alcohol content to 40 or 50 degrees by mixing water.
Wu Song drank 18 bowls of wine, if it is liquor, it is equivalent to 9 pounds of liquor. This is obviously not in line with the natural law, after the human kidneys and nerves absorb excess alcohol, it will paralyze the nerves of the body, ordinary people drinking 2-3 two liquor will feel dizzy, even if people who can drink more than 1 kilogram of liquor will be top-heavy. Therefore, Wu Song drank 18 bowls (9 pounds) over the gang, and definitely did not drink liquor.
Since Wu Song was not drinking beer or liquor, what kind of wine was he drinking?
The only possibility is rice wine. There are many restaurants in the Song Dynasty's "Qingming On the River", indicating that the Song Dynasty people liked to drink, and the wine they drank was rice wine. The greatest contribution of the Song Dynasty to China's liquor industry was to turn turbid liquor into sake, which is the collective name for turbid liquor and sake. In a metropolis like Beijing, most people drink sake, and in a desolate countryside like Jingyanggang, the shops may sell their own turbid liquor. The alcohol content of this turbid wine is generally about 10 degrees, and some are even lower, which is equivalent to today's beer. It is reasonable to analyze it in this way, and the 18 bowls of wine that Wu Song drank were the most popular rice wines in the Song Dynasty.
So, let's convert it again: the alcohol content of a pound of 52-degree liquor is about 250 ml, while the alcohol content of rice wine of the same quality is about 22 ml. That is to say, if Wu Song drank 9 kilograms (18 bowls) of rice wine, its alcohol content was about 200 ml, which was equivalent to the amount of a bottle of liquor.
epilogue
Therefore, although Wu Song drank 18 bowls of wine, his alcohol consumption was not as high as everyone thought, and he was equivalent to drinking a pound of liquor before going to Jingyang Gang. Of course, if the average person drinks a pound of liquor, he must be top-heavy and his legs and feet are weak. And Wu Song can still go up the mountain to fight tigers after drinking a pound of liquor, indicating that Wu Song's alcohol is still very good, at least there is still a little surplus. Even today, Wu Song's alcohol consumption is quite powerful.