Bit by Bit - Chapter 19, Part 5

Trey Smith

"When a drunken man falls from a carriage, though the carriage may be going very fast, he won't be killed. He has bones and joints the same as other men, and yet he is not injured as they would be, because his spirit is whole. He didn't know he was riding, and he doesn't know he has fallen out. Life and death, alarm and terror do not enter his breast, and so he can bang against things without fear of injury. If he can keep himself whole like this by means of wine, how much more can he keep himself whole by means of Heaven! The sage hides himself in Heaven - hence there is nothing that can do him harm.
~ Burton Watson translation ~

While drunks do die from incidents that claim the rest of us, there are many recorded examples of a dunk individual who walks away from some horrific situation virtually unscathed. It turns out they they were too inebriated to realize the danger and so, while a sober individual may brace themselves for impact and die because they held their body too rigidly, the drunk escapes because he/she remained loose and fluid.

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