The end of Anglo-Saxon pride ?
Did the Chinese invent the brandy and the whiskey? That is the affirmation, in any case, of the great English historian Joseph Needham, the author of the monumental encyclopedia « Science and Civilisation in China ». You will be doubly surprised to learn that the Chinese invented brandy, because though the fact in itself is impressive enough, it is not widely realized that the Chinese drank wine made from grapes at all, much less distilled it into brandy. Grape wine was being drunk by the second century BC at the latest in China, since we begin to have textual evidence of it by then.
The envoy and traveler Zhang Qian brought good wine grapes (Vitis vinifera) back with him from Bactria ( part of central Asia invaded by Greeks and Romans) about 126 BC.
Before the importation of those grapes, however, there were wild vine species, or mountain grapes’, which were already being used for wine, namely Vitis thunbergii and Vitis filifolia. Wine made from them is mentioned before Zhag Qian in the book called « Classical Pharmacopoeia of the Heavenly Husbandman”.
The fact that an even stronger drink could be obtained from wine first came to attention through the production of ‘frozen-out wine’ among the Central Asian tribes, No doubt because of the extremely cold conditions in which these people lived, it was often noticed that wine and other fermented beverages (such as fermented mare’s milk) when frozen would have small amounts of unfrozen liquid in the middle. This was the alcohol, which had remained liquid while the water in the drink had frozen. It was presumably this to which Chang Hua was referring in 290 AD in his book « Records of the Investigation of Things », when he said: « The Western regions have a wine made from grapes which will keep good for years, as much as ten years, it is commonly said; if one drinks of it, one will not get over one’s drunkenness for days ».
The tribal peoples of Kao-Ch’ang (Turfan) presented ‘frozen-out wine’ as tribute to Chinese emperors more than once, commencing in 520 AD . The Freezing-out technique for obtaining spirits eventually became a test applied to distilled spirits.
In the book of 1378, entitled « The Book of the Fading-like-Grass Master », it is written people would test their spirits by leaving them outside in the winter to freeze. If they did not freeze, they knew the distilled spirits were pure and unadulterated, but if they partly froze, they knew they were watered-down or otherwise impure.
« Frozen-out wine » is not mentioned in Europe until Paracelsus, in the Archidoxis, written in 1527 but not published until 1570. Paracelsus’s remarks caused something of a sensation among Europeans. So unfamiliar was the phenomenon he described that Francis Bacon in 1620 wrote, half-incredulous: « Paracelsus reported, that if a glass of wine be set upon a terrace in bitter frost, it will leave some liquor unfrozen in the center of the glass, which is excellent spiritus vini drawn by fire ».
For by then, distillation of alcohol was known, distilled wine, or brandy, was known in China as ‘burnt wine’.
The English word ‘brandy’ itself comes from the Dutch brandewijn (‘burnt wine’). And the German word for brandy or spirits is Branntwein (‘burnt wine’), while a distiller is a Branntweinbrenner (‘burnt wine burner’).
It is possible that all of these words result from a direct translation of the Chinese « shao jiu » (‘burnt wine “) by Dutch sailors. If not, they are a curious coincidence indeed. We have a description of the making of” burnt-wine ‘brandy by the author Li Shi Chen, in his book « The Great Pharmacopoeia »: Strong wine is mixed with the fermentation residues and put inside a still. On heating, the vapor is made to rise, and a vessel is used to collect the condensing drops. All sorts of wine that have turned sour can be used for distilling.
Nowadays in general glutinous rice or ordinary rice or glutinous millet or the other variety of glutinous millet or barley are first cooked by steaming, then mixed with ferment and allowed to brew in vats for seven davs before being distilled. The product is as clear as water and its taste is extremely strong. This is distilled spirits (jiu lu).
Here we have a description not only of brandy, but of various kinds of whiskey. It was published in 1596, but is merely one of the clearest passages describing distilled spirits which had been made in China from the seventh century AD. Many passages are rather obscure and coy because of the problems of duty on spirits which was levied by the government.
The Chinese were the world’s first large-scale bootleggers since the Emperor Wang Mang (who reigned 9-23 AD) nationalized the fermentation and brewing industries. So strict were the taxes and the prohibitions against private manufacture of wine or spirits during the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-535 AD) that the penalty for private brewing was death…
People had to evolve a series of « nicknames » for brandy and whiskey just as in modern times the terms « white lightning », and « moonshine » have developed. One type of drink was called the « Sage », another was called the « Worthy ». And in the eleventh century, if you wanted to offer your guests a drink of your own moonshine, you would say, Have a drop of “wisdom soup ».
The distillation of alcohol in the West was discovered in Italy in the twelfth century. Spirits came to be known as ‘aqua ardens’ (‘the water that burns’) or aqua vitae (the water of life’).
By the thirteenth century, several writers mention it, and talk about brandy ten times distilled, until it reached what must have been about 90 per cent alcohol. The word ‘alcohol’ (which derives from Arabic) was introduced by Paracelsus in the sixteenth century. By 1559, aqua vitae was being praised by Conrad Gesner in terms which we can all find familiar: “Yea, it changes the affections of the mind, it taketh away sadness and pensiveness, it makes men witty and increases audacity.. »
And in this « increased audacity, wit and merriness, the Chinese were in advance of Europeans by about 500 years. …
