The True Scripture of Drinking

The True Scripture of Drinking is a widely circulated online manuscript of banquet tactics and practical drinking advice; an early version was titled The Secret Manual for Winning Everywhere at the Drinking Table, and around 2012 it was repeatedly reposted as illustrated PDFs on document-sharing sites, forums, and WeChat public accounts. The whole text consists of more than twenty short pieces, each a "secret manual" of its own: the opening piece, The Secret Manual for Winning Everywhere, sets out the basic principles of a banquet—share the joy with all, never whisper to one person, identify host and guest, keep the big picture in view, speak appropriately, urge drinks in moderation, propose toasts in order, and read faces; the pieces that follow cover the great art of drinking, secret recipes for urging drinks and the offensive and defensive techniques of pressing them on others, ways to decline a drink and to decline while driving, ten symptoms of drunkenness and self-diagnosis, the various behaviors at a drinking party that disgust people, points to note when seated with superiors, tactics for toasting at a wedding banquet, several pieces on post-drinking behavior by personality and by sex, and some jocular sketch-like entries. The writing is plain and direct, heavy on checklist-style items and mnemonic summaries, illustrated with cartoons, and stresses the social perspective that "one banquet can change a whole life." Note that this is not a properly published book: there is no verifiable publisher, ISBN, or copyright page, and the content rests on folk experience and street-corner talk. Some of its techniques for pressing and plying drinks conflict with today's health advice and calls for civilized dining, so readers should take it as social observation and a cultural phenomenon, adopting what is useful in communication and etiquette and rejecting the elements of forced and competitive drinking.