The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano

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.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [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.)