The close connection between wine and poetry constitutes a leitmotif that runs parallel in both Greco-Roman and classical Chinese literary traditions, where it is characterized not only by its frequency but also by the continuity of the themes associated with it. Starting from this observation—one that appears to have been perceived also by the earliest Western translators of Chinese poetry, who, likely due to an implicit reference to Greco-Roman literature, chose to render the Chinese term jiu as “wine”—this article examines the theme separately within the Greco-Roman and the Chinese literary spheres, highlighting, through a comparative analysis, both similarities and differences in their respective developments.
By framing the poetic texts within the oscillation between programmatic appeals to restraint and moderation in relation to wine and the voluntary pursuit of altered states through intoxication, the study first traces the origins of the theme in its foundational contexts and then explores its transformation within new sociocultural paradigms. Regarding the Western tradition, after a brief overview of the first occurrences of the theme in Homeric poems, the article investigates its affirmation in Greek monodic lyric from the 7th century BCE onward, followed by its later revival in the Augustan age through the works of the Roman poet Horace. As for the Chinese tradition, after examining the earliest attestations of the theme in the Classic of Poetry, the analysis follows its redefinition, which, initiated in the period following the fall of the Han dynasty, culminates in the poetry of Tao Yuanming and finds renewed expression in the Tang period with Li Bai.
What emerges is a direct influence of wine on the assertion of poetic individuality. In both cultural areas, in fact, also (or above all) thanks to the aid of wine, the poet is shaped as a unique and unrepeatable individual, becoming, with his experiences, life choices, desires and regrets, the sole protagonist of his own poems.
