把酒话桑麻

把酒話桑麻

bǎ jiǔ huà sāng má

quotation

Meanings

1 raising a cup and chatting about mulberry and hemp
2 drinking wine and making small talk about farming
3 rustic pastoral camaraderie with old friends

Characters

to hold / raise (a cup)

Examples

HSK 7-9

回到老家和朋友把酒话桑麻，感觉格外放松。

Huídào lǎojiā hé péngyǒu bǎ jiǔ huà sāngmá, gǎnjué géwài fàngsōng.

Back home, drinking with friends and talking about crops, I felt especially at ease.

HSK 7-9

开轩面场圃，把酒话桑麻，那才是田园生活。

Kāi xuān miàn chǎngpǔ, bǎ jiǔ huà sāngmá, nà cái shì tiányuán shēnghuó.

'Open the window facing the garden, lift a cup and chat of mulberry and hemp' - that's real country life.

Tips

history

From Meng Haoran's (孟浩然, Tang dynasty) 《过故人庄》, the most famous rustic-visit poem in Tang verse. An old friend sets out chicken and millet, opens the window to the garden, and they drink and talk about the harvest.

usage

桑麻 literally 'mulberry and hemp' is a classical metonym for farming in general (mulberry leaves feed silkworms, hemp provides fiber). The phrase is now used for any down-to-earth chat between old friends over drinks.

Stroke Order

把 bǎ

酒 jiǔ

话 huà

桑 sāng

麻 má