CONCERNING THE RICE-WINE DRUNK BY THE PEOPLE OF CATHAY.
Most of the people of Cathay drink wine of the kind that I shall now
describe. It is a liquor which they brew of rice with a quantity of
excellent spice, in such fashion that it makes better drink than any
other kind of wine; it is not only good, but clear and pleasing to the
eye.{1} And being very hot stuff, it makes one drunk sooner than any
other wine.
NOTE 1.—The mode of making Chinese rice-wine is described in
Amyot’s _Mémoires_, V. 468 _seqq._ A kind of yeast is employed,
with which is often mixed a flour prepared from fragrant herbs,
almonds, pine-seeds, dried fruits, etc. Rubruquis says this liquor
was not distinguishable, except by smell, from the best wine of
Auxerre; a wine so famous in the Middle Ages, that the Historian
Friar, Salimbene, went from Lyons to Auxerre on purpose to drink
it.[1] Ysbrandt Ides compares the rice-wine to Rhenish; John Bell
to Canary; a modern traveller quoted by Davis, “in colour, and
a little in taste, to Madeira.” [Friar Odoric (_Cathay_, i. p.
117) calls this wine _bigni_; Dr. Schlegel (_T’oung Pao_, ii. p.
264) says Odoric’s wine was probably made with the date _Mi-yin_,
pronounced _Bi-im_ in old days. But Marco’s wine is made of rice,
and is called _shao hsing chiu_. Mr. Rockhill (_Rubruck_, p. 166,
note) writes: “There is another stronger liquor distilled from
millet, and called _shao chiu_: in Anglo-Chinese, _samshu_; Mongols
call it _araka_, _arrak_, and _arreki_. Ma Twan-lin (Bk. 327) says
that the Moho (the early Nu-chên Tartars) drank rice wine (_mi
chiu_), but I fancy that they, like the Mongols, got it from the
Chinese.”
Dr. Emil Bretschneider (_Botanicon Sinicum_, ii. pp. 154–158)
gives a most interesting account of the use and fabrication of
intoxicating beverages by the Chinese. “The invention of wine or
spirits in China,” he says, “is generally ascribed to a certain I
TI, who lived in the time of the Emperor Yü. According to others,
the inventor of wine was TU K’ANG.” One may refer also to Dr.
Macgowan’s paper _On the “Mutton Wine” of the Mongols and Analogous
Preparations of the Chinese_. (_Jour. N. China Br. R. As. Soc._,
1871–1872, pp. 237–240.)—H. C.]
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[1] _Kington’s Fred. II._ II. 457. So, in a French play of the 13th
century, a publican in his _patois_ invites custom, with hot bread,
hot herrings, and wine of Auxerre in plenty:—
“Chaiens, fait bon disner chaiens;
Chi a caut pain et caus herens,
_Et vin d’Aucheurre_ à plain tonnel.”—
(_Théat. Franç. au Moyen Age_, 168.)