Every Poem in Joy of Life's Drunken Banquet Scene, Explained (Season 1 Episode 27)
2026-04-24
Joy of Life (庆余年)'s most-watched single scene is a four-minute sequence in Season 1, Episode 27: Fan Xian (Zhang Ruoyun), accused of plagiarism at an imperial banquet, picks up a wine jug, drinks heavily, and proceeds to recite lines from over two dozen classical Chinese poems — spanning the Han Dynasty through the Song Dynasty — in rapid succession. The performance destroys his accuser, earns the Emperor's respect, and cements Fan Xian's reputation as a literary giant.
It also became, for overseas viewers watching on Disney+, one of the most confusing scenes in the entire franchise. A lot of Chinese happens very fast, and the subtitle box can't keep up with the depth of the references. This is a guide to what he's actually reciting, who wrote each poem, and why specific choices carry political and emotional weight.
The Setup
The scene occurs at a banquet hosted by the Qing Emperor for diplomats from Northern Qi and Dong Yi City. Fan Xian has by this point earned a reputation as a poetic prodigy — a dangerous reputation in a system where literary identity is political capital. Zhuang Mohan (庄墨韩), an aging literary grandmaster from Northern Qi, publicly accuses Fan Xian of plagiarizing a poem from Zhuang's deceased teacher.
The accusation is, in the book's framing, ironic. Fan Xian's mother Ye Qingmei is implied to have carried the memory of classical Chinese literature from another world — and Fan Xian inherited that memory. What Zhuang calls plagiarism is, within the novel's metaphysics, a transfer across universes. But Fan Xian cannot explain that. Instead, he responds by demonstrating that he knows the entire tradition.
Actor Zhang Ruoyun reportedly drank real wine for the scene and had memorized over 100 poems; the final take uses between 24 and 38 distinct works depending on how you count partial lines. Here are the most important ones.
1. 《将进酒》 — Li Bai (Tang Dynasty)
"Bring In the Wine" (Jiāng Jìn Jiǔ)
天生我材必有用，千金散尽还复来。 Tiān shēng wǒ cái bì yǒu yòng, qiān jīn sàn jìn hái fù lái. "Heaven created me with a purpose. A thousand pieces of gold, scattered, will return again."
Li Bai (李白, 701–762) is arguably the most famous Chinese poet in history — the canonical wild, heaven-gifted, drinking poet of the Tang. Jiāng Jìn Jiǔ is his most-quoted work, and its opening lines are familiar to every Chinese student. Fan Xian begins here deliberately. If you're going to recite classical poetry drunk, you open with the poem literally about drinking.
The choice establishes Fan Xian's poetic identity before he's said anything else: Li Bai-style — wild, confident, transcendent.
2. 《水调歌头·明月几时有》 — Su Shi (Song Dynasty)
"Water Tune: When Did the Bright Moon First Appear?" (Shuǐ Diào Gē Tóu)
明月几时有？把酒问青天。 Míng yuè jǐ shí yǒu? Bǎ jiǔ wèn qīng tiān. "When did the bright moon first appear? With wine in hand, I ask the blue heavens."
Su Shi (苏轼, 1037–1101) is the other pillar of Chinese poetic canon alongside Li Bai. This specific poem is the Mid-Autumn Festival poem — recited every autumn at family dinners across the Chinese-speaking world. Quoting it at a banquet signals to every Chinese person in the room: I know the most beloved poem in the language.
Fan Xian's choice of this line also echoes his own act. Su Shi holds wine and asks the heavens. Fan Xian is, at that moment, holding wine and asking the room.
3. 《虞美人·春花秋月何时了》 — Li Yu (Southern Tang)
"Beautiful Lady Yu" (Yú Měi Rén)
春花秋月何时了，往事知多少。 Chūn huā qiū yuè hé shí liǎo, wǎng shì zhī duō shǎo. "Spring flowers and autumn moons — when will they end? How much of the past do I know?"
Li Yu (李煜, 937–978) was the last ruler of Southern Tang, deposed and imprisoned by the Song conquest. He wrote Yú Měi Rén under house arrest. The Song founding emperor allegedly had him executed shortly after reading it, interpreting its melancholy as seditious.
Quoting Li Yu at a Northern Qi diplomatic banquet is subtle insubordination. Li Yu was a deposed ruler from a fallen state writing about loss. Fan Xian is, obliquely, reminding the Northern Qi delegation that empires fall — and that the poetry written by the defeated sometimes outlasts the poetry written by the victors.
4. 《春望》 — Du Fu (Tang Dynasty)
"Spring View" (Chūn Wàng)
国破山河在，城春草木深。 Guó pò shān hé zài, chéng chūn cǎo mù shēn. "The state is broken, but mountains and rivers remain. In the spring of the fallen city, grasses and trees grow deep."
Du Fu (杜甫, 712–770) is the Tang's great political poet — the counterpart to Li Bai's transcendence, focused instead on the suffering of ordinary people during the An Lushan Rebellion. Chūn Wàng was written during that rebellion, when Du Fu was trapped in the fallen capital of Chang'an.
Fan Xian's use of this line deepens the political register. "The state is broken" is a sentence that carries significant weight when spoken in front of representatives of a rival state. It is the classical Chinese phrase for civilizational trauma.
5. 《长恨歌》 — Bai Juyi (Tang Dynasty)
"Song of Everlasting Regret" (Cháng Hèn Gē)
Bai Juyi (白居易, 772–846) wrote this 120-line narrative poem about the Tang Emperor Xuanzong's love for Yang Guifei, her death during the An Lushan Rebellion, and his lifelong mourning. The poem's length and emotional scope give Fan Xian several quotable lines to pull from. Which lines he chooses depends on the cut — different segments appear in different edits of the scene.
Cháng Hèn Gē is taught to every Chinese middle-school student. Quoting it establishes that Fan Xian knows the full narrative poetic tradition, not just short lyric verses.
6. 《过零丁洋》 — Wen Tianxiang (Late Song)
"Crossing Lingding Strait" (Guò Língdīng Yáng)
人生自古谁无死，留取丹心照汗青。 Rén shēng zì gǔ shuí wú sǐ, liú qǔ dān xīn zhào hàn qīng. "Since ancient times, who among the living has not died? Let a red heart shine upon history."
Wen Tianxiang (文天祥, 1236–1283) was a late Song statesman who refused to surrender to the Yuan (Mongol) conquest and was eventually executed. He wrote this poem while imprisoned. Its closing couplet is among the most-quoted lines in Chinese history — a statement of moral absolute in the face of certain death.
This is a very pointed choice for Fan Xian. Wen Tianxiang is the patron saint of Chinese patriots who refuse to capitulate. Quoting him at a diplomatic banquet tells the Northern Qi delegation that Fan Xian is not going to bend.
7. 《登幽州台歌》 — Chen Ziang (Tang Dynasty)
"Climbing Youzhou Tower" (Dēng Yōuzhōu Tái Gē)
前不见古人，后不见来者。 念天地之悠悠，独怆然而涕下。 Qián bù jiàn gǔ rén, hòu bù jiàn lái zhě. Niàn tiān dì zhī yōu yōu, dú chuàng rán ér tì xià. "Before me, I do not see the ancients. Behind me, I do not see those yet to come. Contemplating heaven and earth's vastness, alone I weep."
Chen Ziang (陈子昂, 661–702) was an early-Tang poet whose short four-line existentialist poem is one of the most moving in the language. It stages a single man on a tower, alone with the scale of time.
Fan Xian quoting this mid-banquet suggests a specific emotional register — the individual against the vastness of history. It fits his character: a man who carries memories from somewhere else, surrounded by people who don't know what he knows.
8. 《破阵子·醉里挑灯看剑》 — Xin Qiji (Southern Song)
"Battle Array" (Pò Zhèn Zǐ)
醉里挑灯看剑，梦回吹角连营。 Zuì lǐ tiǎo dēng kàn jiàn, mèng huí chuī jiǎo lián yíng. "Drunk, I raise the lamp to examine my sword. In dreams I return to the horn-calls of connected camps."
Xin Qiji (辛弃疾, 1140–1207) was a Southern Song general and poet whose work is charged with the frustration of military men unable to reclaim northern China from the Jurchen Jin. Pò Zhèn Zǐ is the defining expression of that frustration — a drunken veteran staring at a sword he cannot use.
Quoting Xin Qiji while drunk at a banquet is almost meta — Fan Xian is doing, in the moment, what Xin Qiji's subject does in the poem. The recursion is deliberate.
9. 《梅花》 — Wang Anshi (Song Dynasty)
"Plum Blossoms" (Méi Huā)
墙角数枝梅，凌寒独自开。 Qiáng jiǎo shù zhī méi, líng hán dú zì kāi. "Several branches of plum at the wall's corner — they bloom alone, defying the cold."
Wang Anshi (王安石, 1021–1086) was a Song statesman-poet who led major governmental reforms. Méi Huā is a short, widely memorized poem about plum blossoms — a Chinese symbol of resilience against hardship.
10. 《别董大》 — Gao Shi (Tang Dynasty)
"Farewell to Dong Da" (Bié Dǒng Dà)
莫愁前路无知己，天下谁人不识君。 Mò chóu qián lù wú zhī jǐ, tiān xià shuí rén bù shí jūn. "Don't worry that the road ahead has no kindred spirit. Under heaven, who does not know you?"
Gao Shi (高适, 704–765) wrote this farewell poem to fellow poet Dong Ting. Its final couplet — reassurance that a great person will always find welcome — is among the most-quoted lines in friendship poetry.
Other Works Referenced
The scene also includes lines from:
- 《无题》 "Untitled" — Li Shangyin (李商隐, Tang) — the master of classical love-poetry ambiguity
- 《上邪》 — anonymous Han Dynasty yuefu folk poem, famous for its all-consuming love declaration
- 《山中与幽人对酌》 — Li Bai again, "Drinking Alone with a Recluse in the Mountains"
- 《石灰吟》 — Yu Qian (Ming), about calcination as metaphor for moral purification
Depending on the specific cut and the subtitle edit, other poems surface and submerge. A full count in the Chinese broadcast version reaches 30+ distinct works; the Disney+ international edit preserves roughly the same number.
Why the Scene Matters
In cultural terms, the scene functions as a Chinese civilizational flex. Fan Xian performs the Chinese poetic canon as a single continuous inheritance — Han folk song to Song lyric — in a context where Northern Qi has just accused him of plagiarism. His response is essentially: I didn't steal one poem; I know all of them. The implication is that he stands inside the tradition so deeply that ownership claims are absurd.
For diaspora Chinese viewers, the scene hit as an emotional tribute to the classical canon. Every line references a poem memorized in middle school. The recursion of recognition — "oh that's Du Fu, oh that's Su Shi, oh that's Wen Tianxiang" — produces a specific kind of cultural pleasure that is hard to translate.
For international viewers watching on Disney+, the scene went viral as "the drunk poetry guy." That reading isn't wrong — the performance is genuinely spectacular as pure TV — but it misses the layered political and emotional work happening beneath.
Season 2's opening chapters repeatedly reference Fan Xian's post-banquet reputation. He is "诗仙 reborn" — Li Bai returned. This is no longer just poetic identity. It's political currency. The banquet scene converted literary performance into hard power, and Season 2 is partly about how far that power can be stretched before the Censorate forces him to spend it.
If you're rewatching Joy of Life before Season 3, this scene is worth revisiting with the annotations above in hand. What looks, on first viewing, like a spectacle becomes, on second viewing, the dense cultural document it actually is.
Joy of Life is streaming on Disney+ and Amazon Prime. Based on Mao Ni's novel, directed by Sun Hao, starring Zhang Ruoyun. Season 3 confirmed for 2026.
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