Later, during the Qin and Han dynasties, glass vessels and whelk vessels appeared, and gold and silver cups adorned the banquets of the despots. Till the Northern and Southern dynasties, drinking vessels became more delicate and tasteful since intellectuals liked drinking that time. During the Sui dynasty and the Tang dynasty, porcelain pots and cups were common. Then after the Song dynasty, drinking vessels had a big family, consisting of porcelain vessel, bronze vessel, tin vessel, gold vessel, silver vessel, cloisonne vessel and rhinoceros horn vessel.
Chinese drinking vessels have won a lot of praise. Great poets like Li Bai, Wang Changling and Wang Han all wrote poems about liquor of taste and vessel of finesse.
Alcohol and the arts
Alcohol had a greater impact on Chinese artists than any other social group, since many of them produced their peak-of-perfection masterpieces right after drinking. Being drunk and into the state of free production was and is an important tip Chinese artists resort to to free their artistic creativity. Many famous poets, such as Li Bai and Du Fu, had excellent performance and left us surprisingly marvelous poems after drinking the mysterious liquid. Not only poems but also paintings and calligraphy were raised to a higher level by the aid of alcohol. Wang Xizhi, Chinese famous calligrapher respectfully called the Calligraphy Saint, retried dozens of times to outdo his most outstanding work, Lantingxu (Orchid Pavilion Prologue) which he finished when he was drunk, and he failed. The original one was the best.
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