King Wei of Qi was lost in wine and women, his courtiers and concubines mingling freely, urging each other to drink from dusk till dawn—by the time he held court in the morning, he could barely keep his eyes open. Treacherous ministers seized the chance to grab power, while neighboring states repeatedly invaded, carving away chunks of his territory. Many wise officials tried to remonstrate, but bitter words are hard to swallow, and the king refused to listen to a single one.
When the King of Chu mobilized 300,000 troops and over 2,000 chariots, crossing the Si River to invade Qi, King Wei of Qi sent his envoy Chunyu Kun to Zhao to request reinforcements. Chunyu Kun explained to the King of Zhao the benefits of aiding Qi against Chu, and the Zhao king agreed to supply 100,000 elite soldiers and a thousand chariots. Faced with the combined forces of Qi and Zhao, the King of Chu grew fearful and immediately withdrew his army.
After Qi was saved from crisis, King Wei of Qi was overjoyed and held a grand banquet in the rear palace, seating Chunyu Kun in the seat of honor and ordering his most beautiful concubines to toast him; Chunyu Kun raised his cup and drank it all in one gulp.
King Wei of Qi remarked, "You have quite a capacity for wine. How much do you usually drink before getting drunk?" Chunyu Kun glanced at the ministers below and the palace maids beside him, then replied casually, "Your servant gets drunk on one dou of wine, but also gets drunk on one shi of wine." The king frowned, "If one dou makes you drunk, how could you possibly drink a shi? Even with your silver tongue, you can't talk your way out of this one..." Chunyu Kun answered, "I dare not deceive Your Majesty. Truly, I get drunk on one dou, on two dou, on five or six dou, on eight dou, and on one shi." The king pressed, "Nonsense! Explain yourself before me and all these people—how one dou and one shi both leave you drunk, and make no mistake!"
When the king granted me wine, a law officer stood beside me and an accuser behind me, trembling with fear and utmost caution, I could drink at most one dou. But if my parents invited honored guests, I dressed properly, toasted them, and bowed respectfully as my elders happily offered me wine, I could manage two dou. If old friends met unexpectedly after years apart, raising cups to reminisce and share life stories, I could drink five or six dou. When colleagues gathered for a feast, men and women mingled, playing drinking games and betting on prizes, with beauties before and behind me free to admire without offense, in that atmosphere I could drink eight dou, getting drunk only two or three times out of ten. Yet what truly unleashed me was when the sun set, the moon rose above the treetops, hosts and guests left their seats, crowding together shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee, toes touching, cups and plates scattered in disarray, candles burned out in the hall, the host saw off other guests leaving only me behind, in the darkness, the fragrance of perfume and warmth of skin enveloping me—at that moment, I could drink a whole shi.
As King Wei of Qi was still pondering the meaning of these words, Chunyu Kun added, "Excessive drinking leads to chaos, and extreme joy brings sorrow—this is true of all things, and one must be cautious." The king, struck with understanding, replied, "You are right. From now on, I will never again indulge in all-night drinking." Later generations used the phrase "cups and dishes in disarray" to describe the messy scene after a hearty feast.
Source: *Records of the Grand Historian*, "Biography of the Humorists"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "杯盘狼藉" came to describe cups and dishes in disarray to describe the messy scene after a hearty feast.