What we commonly understand by wine is never intended by Kiû in the Chinese classics, and therefore I cannot use that term. After searching as extensively as I could do in this country, since I received Dr. Edkins' letter, I have found nothing to make me think that the Chinese term is not properly translated by 'spirits.'
Dr. Williams, in his Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language (Shanghai, 1874), gives this account of Kiû:—'Liquor; it includes spirits, wine, beer, and other drinks. The Chinese make no wine, and chiefly distil their liquors, and say that Tû Khang, a woman of the Tî tribes, first made it.' This account is to a considerable extent correct. The Chinese distil their liquors. I never saw beer or porter of native production among them, though according to Dr. Edkins they had been brewing 'or nearly so' for more than 3000 years. Among his examples of the use of Kiû, Williams gives the combinations of 'red Kiû' for claret, 'white Kiû' for sherry, and 'pî (simply phonetical) Kiû' for beer, adding that they 'are all terms of foreign origin.' What he says about the traditional account of the first maker of Kiû is not correct. It is said certainly that this was Tû Khang, but who he was, or when he lived, I have never been able to discover. Some identify him with Î-tî, said by Williams to have been 'a woman of the Tî tribes.' The attributing of the invention to Î-tî is probably an independent tradition. We find it in the 'Plans of the Warring States' (ch. xiv, art. 10), a work covering about four centuries from the death of Confucius:—'Anciently, the daughter of the Tî ordered Î-tî to make Kiû. She admired it, and presented some to Yü, who drank it, and found it pleasant. He then discarded Î-tî, and denounced the use of such generous Kiû, saying, "In future ages there are sure to be those who by Kiû will lose their states."' According to this tradition intoxicating Kiû was known in the time of Yü—in the twenty-third century B.C. The daughter of the Tî would be Yü's wife, and Î-tî would probably be their cook. It does not appear as the name of a woman, or one from the wild Tî tribes.
With regard to the phrase Shao Kiû, said to be the proper term for ardent spirits, and unknown in China till the Yüan dynasty, a reference to the Khang-hsî Tonic Thesaurus of the language will show instances of its use as early at least as the Thang dynasty (A.D. 618–906).]
1. The king speaks to the following effect:—'Do
