CHAPTER XXIX.

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.)