During the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of the Tang Dynasty, there was a renowned physician named Meng Fu who specialized in treating venomous sores. His fame spread across the nation because his methods were unique—he used secret folk remedies that differed entirely from other doctors, and his cure rate was one hundred percent. Whenever someone in the imperial palace developed such a sore, the emperor would summon Meng Fu to treat them.
A few years later, war erupted in the Central Plains, so Meng Fu moved his entire family to Sichuan. Having frequently visited the palace while in Chang'an, he was intimately familiar with its décor—and being quite wealthy, he decorated one small room in his new home exactly like the imperial chambers.
The room was exquisitely compact, with bright windows, and every piece of furniture—cabinets, tables, chairs, and tea tables—was entirely covered in a thin layer of gold leaf. As sunlight streamed through the window, it struck these gold-wrapped furnishings, filling the room with dazzling, shimmering light that was almost blinding.
Whenever relatives or friends visited, Meng Fu would proudly invite them to tour this room, leaving them wide-eyed and full of admiration.
After leaving Meng Fu's house, these relatives and friends would tell others, "Staying just a moment in that gold-foil room of Meng Fu's is enough to make one 'drunken with paper and bewitched by gold'!" The original meaning of the idiom "drunken with paper and bewitched by gold" refers to being captivated by dazzling golden paper. Later, it came to describe a life of luxury, extravagance, and decadent pleasure.
Source: Tao Gu (Song Dynasty), *Qing Yi Lu*
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "纸醉金迷" came to describe a life of luxury, extravagance, and decadent pleasure.