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0058 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 58 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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232   SING-IRANICA

they do not know it, accordingly, and make no use of it."' This doubtless was correct for southern China, where the information of the Arabic navigators was gathered. The grape, however, is chiefly to be found in northern China,2 and at the time of Soleiman the manufacture of grape-wine was known in the north. The principal document bearing on this subject is extant in the history of the Tang dynasty.

In A.D. 647 a peculiar variety of grapes, styled ma u p`u t`ao

,J

("mare-nipple grapes") were sent to the Emperor T'ai Tsuji

~C by the (Turkish) country of the Yabgu A. It was a bunch of grapes two feet long, of purple color.3 On the same occasion it is stated, "Wine is used in the Western Countries, and under the former dynasties it was sometimes sent as tribute, but only after

the destruction of Kao-6`an i   (Turfan), when `mare-nipple grapes'
cultivated in orchards were received, also the method of making wine was simultaneously introduced into China (A.D. 64o). T`ai Tsuji experienced both its injurious and beneficial effects. Grape-wine, when ready, shines in all colors, is fragrant, very fiery, and tastes like the finest oil. The Emperor bestowed it on his officials, and then for the first time they had a taste of it in the capital."4

These former tributes of wine are alluded to in a verse of the poet Li Po of the eighth century, "The Hu people annually offered grape-wine."' Si Wan Mu, according to the Han Wu ti nei &wan of the third century or later, is said to have presented grape-wine to the Han Emperor Wu, which certainly is an unhistorical and retrospective tradition.

A certain Can Hun-mao Ot X, a native of Tun-hwan in Kan-su, is said to have devoted to grape-wine a poem of distinct quality.' The locality Tun-hwan is of significance, for it was situated on the

1 M. REINAUD, Relation des voyages faits par les Arabes et les Persans dans l'Inde et à la Chine, Vol. I, p. 23.

2 In the south, I am under the impression it is rather isolated. It occurs, for

instance, in Sari-se hou   , ,f( in the prefecture of T'ai-p`iti, Kwarn-si Province,
in three varieties,—green, purple, and crystal,—together with an uneatable wild grape (3`an se cou ci, Ch. 14, p. 8, ed. published in 1835). "Grapes in the neighborhood of Canton are often unsuccessful, the alternations of dry heat and rain being too much in excess, while occasional typhoons tear the vines to pieces" (J. F. DAVIS, China, Vol. II, p. 305). They occur in places of Fu-kien and in the Chusan Archipelago (cf. T'u Su tsi c`en, VI, Ch. 1041).

3 T'ait hui yao, Ch. 200, p. 14; also Fun Si wen kien ki 1   pz, Ch. 7,

p. 1 b (ed. of Ki fu ts'un su), by Fun Yen kj. rA of the Tang.

4 Ibid., p. 15.

b Pen ts`ao yen i, Ch. 18, p. I.

6 This is quoted from the Ts'ien Tian lu fgij a, F, a work of the Tsin dynasty, in the gi leu kwo c`un ts`iu (T'ai p'in yü lan, Ch. 972, p. 1 b).