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Show FOUGHT THE FLOWING BOWL Eastern Monarchs and Religious Leaders Lead-ers Long Ago Lifted Their Voices Against Drunkenness. Temperance movements and prohlbl- tlon crusades date back at least 3,000 years. It was China that first tried , to be bone-dry. Early reforms along-temperance along-temperance lines are attributed to the priests of India and Persia. But the Chinese claim that In the, eleventh century cen-tury before Christ their emperor, so disgusted over the prevalence of drunkenness, drunk-enness, ordered all the grapevines in the kingdom uprooted. A hundred years before this bone--, dry effort, in the twelfth century before be-fore Christ, King Wen tried partial reform re-form In China. Wen, founder of the Chou dynasty, promulgated an "Announcement "An-nouncement Against Drunkenness," according ac-cording to ancient Chinese documents handed down by Confucius. King Wen declared "drinking has long been a national vice." He ordered or-dered that wine be used only in connection con-nection with sacrifices and even then drunkenness was not to be tolerated. The temperance reforms also existed ex-isted In Egypt centuries before Christ. Here's what a teacher said to a youth who had been looking upon the flowing bowl too freely : "Prink not beer to excess. The words that come out of thy mouth thou canst not recall. Thou' dost fall and break thy limbs and no one reaches out a hand to thee. Thy comrades go on drinking; they stand up and say: 'Away with this fellow who Is drunk.' If- anyone should then seek thee to ask counsel of thee, thou wouldst be found lying in the dust like a little child." |