PLANTS MENTIONED IN CLASSICAL WORKS. 155 
- the product of distillation and has been incorrectly translated 
by wine. #{ U is the product in its earlier stage, before the 
process of distillation is commenced, after the mashing and 
fermentation, as the Chinese commentator explains :—when 
the juice and the refuse are mixed together, it is called 
fH iH or sweet spirits. [Leuan’s Shu king, 260, 399, Shi 
king, Proleg., 158.) The character JR cheng [to steam, 
W.D., 74] occurring in the Classics in connection with the 
fabrication of spirits, is translated “to distil” by LEGGE 
[Shi king, 471], and ¥® sa and WE lv are rendered by 
“to strain off spirit.” For straining, the ancient Chinese 
used the 5 mao grass [v. infra, 459]. 
_ Dr. Epxrys has, it seems to me, convincingly refuted 
Dr. Leaer’s opinion that the ¢s‘w of the ancient Chinese was 
the product of distillation, for in his papers on the subject 
[China Review, Vi, 211; XV, 309] he gives reasonable 
certainty that distillation was entirely unknown in Chinese 
antiquity. Epkrxs proposes to translate 7 ts/w by “ wine.” 
The tsi used in sacrifices, ete. was simply produced 
by fermenting grain without distilling the liquor. According 
to P.. XXYV, 41, distillation was introduced into “China 
during the Mongol dynasty. Li S#t-cnen therefore dis- 
tingnishes between ]j§ ¢siu (wine) and the #8 18 shao tsiu (or 
fired [distilled] wine), for which he gives the foreign 
equivalent pif a) FF a-la-ki, Evidently avak, the Persian 
fame for brandy, is meant. . 
- Nowadays the stron: distilled spirit, made in the north of 
China from the grains of sorghum, is called san shao (thrice 
fired) which is pronounced sam shu in the south. ‘ 
Quotations from the Classics regarding wine :—-— 
Liki, I, 181,135. 1, 117 :—According to the rules for the 
Sacrifices in the ancestral temple, spirits (78) are called jf Hj 
the clear cup). I, 460 [“ Diet of the Ancient Chinese” ] :— 
Of drinks there was must (fi Ji) in two vessels, one strained, 
