The ancient Chinese seem to have had a number of names for the alcohols they produced. The Oracle Bone script (甲骨文; China’s earliest systematic writing) of the late 2nd millennium BC and inscriptions on bronze vessels of the early 1st millennium BC mention (with modern pronunciation but original meaning):
• 酒 (jiu, today's sake or “strong beer”),
• 醨 (li, thin alcoholic beverage),
• 醴 (li, “made-overnight alcoholic beverage”), and
• 酪 (lao; fermented milk).
Other related characters from that period include:
• 酉 (you; wine vessel),
• 酋 (qiu; master brewer),
• 酗 (xu; to get angry when drunk),
• 醜 (chou; to be embarrassed [presumably through drink]),
• 酸 (suan; acid), what brewers are left with if the fermentation process is not stopped after alcohol is produced,
• 醯 (xi; vinegar used for pickling),
• 醫 (yi; potion/physician),
• and the interesting case of 配 (pei; to match).
This last word was long interpreted as a contraction of 酒色 (jiu-se, literally “wine color”), indicating the flush on the face caused by wine. But earlier forms of the character discovered on Oracle Bones show a person kneeling next to a wine vessel, interpreted as depicting a marriage ceremony anointed by wine and thus taking on the meaning “to mate.”
Friday 24 February 2012
Spittal, Aborigines, sulphur mining and more ...
The practice of making short-fermentation, crude, sweet, weak-strength alcoholic beverages for weddings and other festivities is well documented in Chinese historical texts, and is still undertaken by Taiwan’s Aborigines.
Although today’s Aborigines use the same qu as their Han Chinese neighbors, their ancestors made alcohol by chewing cooked grain and spitting it out, allowing the amylase enzymes in their saliva to start the fermentation process. This primitive brewing method was discovered by peoples the world over, but has been almost totally replaced by the more effective, higher strength alcohol methods introduced from outside.
At the beginning of the 17th century, about 2% of Taiwan’s population was non-Aboriginal (mostly Chinese fishermen and perhaps a few Japanese traders), but there was no systematic immigration. By a hundred years later, not only had Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese had varying success at establishing colonies, but they left a number of written documents that shed light on indigenous life then and perhaps as it had been earlier.
Chinese sulfur miner Yu Yong-he (陏永河), who visited Taiwan in 1696, and Dutch missionary Candidius in the 1620s both record the chewing and spitting of rice to make alcohol. Other Chinese and Western sources also claim that the bulk of Aboriginal rice and sugar crops were used for the production of alcohol. If true, it perhaps supports archaeologist Wu Qi-chang’s agriculture-for-alcohol theory (see xx).
Today’s Aborigines merely smile when asked about saliva-started alcohol, saying that was a practice of long ago. Indeed, in theory at least, Aborigines – like all Taiwanese – have had to relearn the home manufacture of alcohol, as it was banned by the Japanese colonial authorities following their establishment of a monopoly bureau (though it wasn’t enforced in some indigenous areas until as late as 1936). In practice, of course, illegal production merely moved higher into the hills and deeper into the forests.
Although today’s Aborigines use the same qu as their Han Chinese neighbors, their ancestors made alcohol by chewing cooked grain and spitting it out, allowing the amylase enzymes in their saliva to start the fermentation process. This primitive brewing method was discovered by peoples the world over, but has been almost totally replaced by the more effective, higher strength alcohol methods introduced from outside.
At the beginning of the 17th century, about 2% of Taiwan’s population was non-Aboriginal (mostly Chinese fishermen and perhaps a few Japanese traders), but there was no systematic immigration. By a hundred years later, not only had Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese had varying success at establishing colonies, but they left a number of written documents that shed light on indigenous life then and perhaps as it had been earlier.
Chinese sulfur miner Yu Yong-he (陏永河), who visited Taiwan in 1696, and Dutch missionary Candidius in the 1620s both record the chewing and spitting of rice to make alcohol. Other Chinese and Western sources also claim that the bulk of Aboriginal rice and sugar crops were used for the production of alcohol. If true, it perhaps supports archaeologist Wu Qi-chang’s agriculture-for-alcohol theory (see xx).
Today’s Aborigines merely smile when asked about saliva-started alcohol, saying that was a practice of long ago. Indeed, in theory at least, Aborigines – like all Taiwanese – have had to relearn the home manufacture of alcohol, as it was banned by the Japanese colonial authorities following their establishment of a monopoly bureau (though it wasn’t enforced in some indigenous areas until as late as 1936). In practice, of course, illegal production merely moved higher into the hills and deeper into the forests.
Thursday 23 February 2012
... what is "jiu" cont.
The development of bai-jiu (白酒; distilled liquor)--mentioned in the previous post--was possible because Chinese alchemists’ failed attempts to discover an elixir of immortality did lead to a number of important discoveries, including gunpowder and distillation. By at least the Northern Song dynasty (960~1127), Chinese were distilling alcohol to greater concentrations (toxicity) than brewing allowed. It is generally thought that distillation spread from there, through Central Asia and the Middle East to Europe.
In Taiwan, the most common example of distilled alcohol is kaoliang jiu (高粱酒; “sorghum wine”). More famous internationally perhaps is the maotai jiu (茅台酒, named for the town of Maotai in Guizhou Province), which came to international attention during U.S. President Nixon’s breakthrough visit to Beijing in 1972.
References in Dream of the Red Chamber to shao jiu (燒酒; “burnt wine”) are assumed to refer to distilled liquor. These allusions are much fewer than those to “yellow wine” and other forms of sake, however. (“Brandy,” incidentally, derives from the Dutch brandewijn, literally “burnt wine”). One mention of grape wine also occurs in the novel, but that is about an imported wine owned by the Jia family but not actually drunk in the course of the plot.
text and photos copyright Jiyue Publications
In Taiwan, the most common example of distilled alcohol is kaoliang jiu (高粱酒; “sorghum wine”). More famous internationally perhaps is the maotai jiu (茅台酒, named for the town of Maotai in Guizhou Province), which came to international attention during U.S. President Nixon’s breakthrough visit to Beijing in 1972.
References in Dream of the Red Chamber to shao jiu (燒酒; “burnt wine”) are assumed to refer to distilled liquor. These allusions are much fewer than those to “yellow wine” and other forms of sake, however. (“Brandy,” incidentally, derives from the Dutch brandewijn, literally “burnt wine”). One mention of grape wine also occurs in the novel, but that is about an imported wine owned by the Jia family but not actually drunk in the course of the plot.
text and photos copyright Jiyue Publications
But just what is "jiu" (酒)?
In Drinking Alone under the Moon (月下獨酌), one of the most famous poems in the Chinese language, Li Bai (李白; 701-762) begins “Among the flowers with a jar of wine, I drink alone, companionless” (花間一壺酒，獨酌無相親).
Li – because it is safe to assume this poem is autobiographical – then goes on to invite the moon and his own shadow to get drunk with him, though of course only he succeeds.
But what was this “wine” he was drinking? And was this the same as the wine drunk by Confucius (孔夫子; circa 551-479 BC) a millennium earlier, who added this when defining acceptable rules for food: “Only wine may be unlimited, but do not become confused [by it]” (唯酒無量，不及亂。)?
And what was consumed a millennium later by Jia Bao-yu (賈寶玉) in the Qing-dynasty novel Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢), when in one of a great many drinking passages, Daiyu (黛玉) has Xiangyun (湘雲) say to him: “It is very cold outside, you should drink a cup of warm wine and then go,” (外頭冷得很，你且吃杯熱酒再去). Indeed, what was the beverage of choice of the novel’s author, Cao Xue-qin (曹雪芹, 1719-64), himself a notorious tippler?
In short, what drink or drinks did the ubiquitous character 酒 (jiu), so often translated simply as “wine,” really refer to? And are there any products available in Taiwan today that are similar to those consumed by Confucius, Li, and Cao?
[This was the question I asked in an article in this month's Taiwan Business Topics magazine published by the American Chamber of Commerce, Taipei; see here or buy the magazine.]
[... and the conclusions I came to? read on ...]
For most tourists, a trip to the mountains is not complete without buying a bottle or two of Aboriginal millet wine (小米酒; xiaomijiu).
“This is about as close as Taiwanese can get to drinking what Confucius drank,” says Pan Chieh-chang, assistant manager at the state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp. who has researched the history of alcoholic drinks. “Either that or macgeolli, if they vacation in Korea. These are both examples of roughly filtered, low-strength sake, which produces a milk-like suspension of particles.”
Li Bai probably also drank something very similar, even though grapes had been introduced from Central Asia. But what about Jia Bao-yu and his creator Cao Xue-qin? “Ah!” says Pan. “They would have had more choice. It could well have been a better-filtered sake, but perhaps also a distilled baijiu (白酒; “white alcohol”) with significantly more bang.”
So Jia and Cao probably drank mostly rice sake, some distilled rice- or sorghum-based liquor, and perhaps the occasional bottle of grape wine.
Confucius drank thick, raw sake
... and Li Bai’s opening couplet might be more accurately (but less poetically) translated as:
“Among the flowers with a jar of low-strength, poorly-filtered, milky-colored, naturally fermented, millet beer, I drink alone, companionless.”
text and photos copyright Jiyue Publications
Li – because it is safe to assume this poem is autobiographical – then goes on to invite the moon and his own shadow to get drunk with him, though of course only he succeeds.
But what was this “wine” he was drinking? And was this the same as the wine drunk by Confucius (孔夫子; circa 551-479 BC) a millennium earlier, who added this when defining acceptable rules for food: “Only wine may be unlimited, but do not become confused [by it]” (唯酒無量，不及亂。)?
And what was consumed a millennium later by Jia Bao-yu (賈寶玉) in the Qing-dynasty novel Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢), when in one of a great many drinking passages, Daiyu (黛玉) has Xiangyun (湘雲) say to him: “It is very cold outside, you should drink a cup of warm wine and then go,” (外頭冷得很，你且吃杯熱酒再去). Indeed, what was the beverage of choice of the novel’s author, Cao Xue-qin (曹雪芹, 1719-64), himself a notorious tippler?
In short, what drink or drinks did the ubiquitous character 酒 (jiu), so often translated simply as “wine,” really refer to? And are there any products available in Taiwan today that are similar to those consumed by Confucius, Li, and Cao?
[This was the question I asked in an article in this month's Taiwan Business Topics magazine published by the American Chamber of Commerce, Taipei; see here or buy the magazine.]
[... and the conclusions I came to? read on ...]
For most tourists, a trip to the mountains is not complete without buying a bottle or two of Aboriginal millet wine (小米酒; xiaomijiu).
“This is about as close as Taiwanese can get to drinking what Confucius drank,” says Pan Chieh-chang, assistant manager at the state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp. who has researched the history of alcoholic drinks. “Either that or macgeolli, if they vacation in Korea. These are both examples of roughly filtered, low-strength sake, which produces a milk-like suspension of particles.”
Li Bai probably also drank something very similar, even though grapes had been introduced from Central Asia. But what about Jia Bao-yu and his creator Cao Xue-qin? “Ah!” says Pan. “They would have had more choice. It could well have been a better-filtered sake, but perhaps also a distilled baijiu (白酒; “white alcohol”) with significantly more bang.”
So Jia and Cao probably drank mostly rice sake, some distilled rice- or sorghum-based liquor, and perhaps the occasional bottle of grape wine.
Confucius drank thick, raw sake
... and Li Bai’s opening couplet might be more accurately (but less poetically) translated as:
“Among the flowers with a jar of low-strength, poorly-filtered, milky-colored, naturally fermented, millet beer, I drink alone, companionless.”
text and photos copyright Jiyue Publications
Li Bai (李白) poem: "Drinking Alone by Moonlight" (月下獨酌)
Li Bai's poem "Drinking Alone by Moonlight" (月下獨酌), translated by Arthur Waley,
花間一壺酒。 A pot of wine, under the flowering trees;
獨酌無相親。 I drink alone, for no friend is near.
舉杯邀明月。 Raising my cup I beckon the bright moon,
對影成三人。 For her, with my shadow, will make three people.
月既不解飲。 The moon, alas, is no drinker of wine;
影徒隨我身。 Listless, my shadow creeps about at my side.
暫伴月將影。 Yet with the moon as friend and the shadow as slave
行樂須及春。 I must make merry before the Spring is spent.
我歌月徘徊。 To the songs I sing the moon flickers her beams;
我舞影零亂。 In the dance I weave my shadow tangles and breaks.
醒時同交歡。 While we were sober, three shared the fun;
醉後各分散。 Now we are drunk, each goes their way.
永結無情遊。 May we long share our eternal friendship,
相期邈雲漢。 And meet at last on the paradise.
花間一壺酒。 A pot of wine, under the flowering trees;
獨酌無相親。 I drink alone, for no friend is near.
舉杯邀明月。 Raising my cup I beckon the bright moon,
對影成三人。 For her, with my shadow, will make three people.
月既不解飲。 The moon, alas, is no drinker of wine;
影徒隨我身。 Listless, my shadow creeps about at my side.
暫伴月將影。 Yet with the moon as friend and the shadow as slave
行樂須及春。 I must make merry before the Spring is spent.
我歌月徘徊。 To the songs I sing the moon flickers her beams;
我舞影零亂。 In the dance I weave my shadow tangles and breaks.
醒時同交歡。 While we were sober, three shared the fun;
醉後各分散。 Now we are drunk, each goes their way.
永結無情遊。 May we long share our eternal friendship,
相期邈雲漢。 And meet at last on the paradise.
Make your own millet/rice wine
Continuing from yesterday's Aboriginal millet distillation post ...
today's photo is homemade rice wine
easily made:
Brew it Yourself
Ingredients:
600g sticky rice
1 pellet qu (麴, cost about NT$20 from grain stores)
3 litres water
Method:
Boil the water, allow to cool.
Steam the rice, allow to cool.
Place rice in bottom of glass jar (about 5 litres).
Crumble the qu, sprinkle on surface of rice.
Cover with muslin cloth, leave overnight, then add the water, do not stir.
Leave for one to two weeks, tasting occasionally. Add sugar if higher alcohol level is desired.
Strain, then heat to 70-75℃ to inhibit enzyme action but not boil the alcohol.
Bottle and refrigerate.
Tips:
Carefully wash and sterilise the container (any trace of oil is particularly damaging to alcohol production).
Stopping enzyme action at appropriate time is crucial to get a pleasant balance between sugar, alcohol, and acid tastes.
Text and photos copyright Jiyue Publications
Aboriginal "millet" wine mostly fake -- TV claims
Ninety percent of millet wine is “fake”, an FTV report claimed last year (see Chinese-language article here), in that it is not pure millet fermentation. Mostly it is made using sticky rice (糯米; nuo-mi) rather than millet (小米, xiao-mi; “small rice”).
Apparently labeling rice wine as millet wine does not contravene regulations, so long the ingredients (成份) are listed correctly. These tend to be in a much smaller print, of course.
The television programme said that to differentiate between alcohols made by fermenting millet and sticky rice, hold them up in the rays of the sun and look carefully, millet-made alcohol is more yellow, while that of sticky rice is whiter. Millet wine also tends to have sediment settling more clearly. The price might also be a clue, since a catty (斤; jin; 600g) of millet around is NT$15 (US$0.50) more expensive than sticky rice, making a bottle of millet alcohol about NT$50 (US$1.60) more expensive.
Both of these are purely fermented brews. More worrying are manufacturers who make a processed alcohol using water, sugar, starch, emulsifier, flavouring and ethyl alcohol, the programme claimed.
Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2012
Apparently labeling rice wine as millet wine does not contravene regulations, so long the ingredients (成份) are listed correctly. These tend to be in a much smaller print, of course.
The television programme said that to differentiate between alcohols made by fermenting millet and sticky rice, hold them up in the rays of the sun and look carefully, millet-made alcohol is more yellow, while that of sticky rice is whiter. Millet wine also tends to have sediment settling more clearly. The price might also be a clue, since a catty (斤; jin; 600g) of millet around is NT$15 (US$0.50) more expensive than sticky rice, making a bottle of millet alcohol about NT$50 (US$1.60) more expensive.
Both of these are purely fermented brews. More worrying are manufacturers who make a processed alcohol using water, sugar, starch, emulsifier, flavouring and ethyl alcohol, the programme claimed.
Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2012
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