TÁO Qián 陶潜 (= TÁO Yuānmíng 陶渊明) = a great poet
Páng Tōngzhī 庞通之 = a friend
WÁNG Hóng 王弘 = an admirer and also a magistrate
TÁO Qián 陶潜, also known as TÁO Yuānmíng 陶渊明, was one of the greatest poets of the Jìn 晋 dynasty (period 08, 200s to 400s AD). Like other highly educated people, he served for a time as a local magistrate, posted to Péngzé county 彭泽县 in Jiāngxī 江西 province, but found the work boring and unsuitable for his temperament, so he retired after thirteen years and devoted himself to spoiling his good-for-nothing sons, grumbling at everyone he met, and becoming one of China’s most famous poets, most famous drunkards, and most annoying neighbors.
The local magistrate, WÁNG Hóng 王弘, was an admirer of Táo’s verse, but sought in vain an audience with him, for Táo was determined to have nothing more to do with the stodgy Confucian state. Even the intervention of Táo’s friend Páng Tōngzhī 庞通之 was unable to persuade him.
It was the Double Nine Festival once again, and Táo wanted nothing more than to go out to the garden to enjoy chrysanthemums, strum a zither, and drink. How could one celebrate Double Nine (jiǔ 九) without wine (jiǔ 酒) when the two words even rhyme?! (Indeed, “wine” and “nine” rhyme even in English.)
Unfortunately, the household had no more liquor, for Táo had long since drunk it all up.
He was in despair when a mysterious figure wearing white clothing suddenly appeared and provided a bottle of chrysanthemum wine. Táo was delighted, and his faith was renewed in the cosmic rightness of desiring wine for Double Nine.
After he had been drinking for a while and was feeling rather mellow, he was joined by Magistrate Wáng Hóng, who appeared from nowhere and joined him in his revelry. Táo was tipsy enough that he didn’t mind a bit, and the two men drank on into the night, enjoying the moon and speaking of many things.
The mysterious figure in white had been none other than Táo’s friend Páng, who had been induced by Magistrate Wáng to present the wine in hope of lowering Táo’s resistance to an interview with a bureaucrat.
Ever since then, the expression “presenting wine in white clothes” (báiyī sòng jiǔ 白衣送酒) has been used in China to refer to crafty mediation.