"Flowing-Cup Pavilion"

This is a pavilion which used to serve as a place of recreation for men of letters. In the stone floor is cut a winding ditch to which water from a spring is channelled. Participants to the "flowing-cup" game would in turn fill a cup with liquor and set it "sailing" down the mini-canal. The man whose cup reached the end of the ditch without spilling would be a winner. On the other hand, a loser would be made to drink or compose a poem as a forfeit.

Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799), it is said, was a great enthusiast for this game. The "flowing-cup pavilion" built for the emperor still stands today in the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City.

Another famous "flowing-cup pavilion" is Lanting (Orchid Pavilion) in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, which was a favourite resort of the great 4th-century calligrapher Wang Xizhi (321-379) and his friends, who used to gather there for the game and poem recitals. The little stream which carried the sailing cup is still there to greet modern admirers.