IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sino-Iranica : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
236 SING-IRANICA
distilled from the other. This process, of course, is purely fantastic, and described as a magical feat; there is no reality underlying it.
The word boradsa, in my opinion, is derived from the Turkish word bor discussed by Pelliot; there is no Mongol word from which it could be explained. In this connection, the early Chinese account given above of foreign grape-wine among the Mongols gains a renewed significance. Naturally it was a rare article in Mongolia, and for this reason we hear but little about it. Likewise in Tibet grape-wine is scarcely used, being restricted to religious offerings in the temples.'
The text of the Geser Romance referred to is also important from another point of view. It contains the loan-word ariki, from Arabic 'araq, which appears in eastern Asia as late as the Mongol epoch (below, p. 237). Consequently our work has experienced the influence of this period, which is visible also in other instances.' The foundation of the present recension, first printed at Peking in 1716, is indeed traceable to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; many legends and motives, of course, are of a much older date.
MARCO POLO relates in regard to T`ai-yüan fu, called by him Taianfu, the capital of San-si Province, "There grow here many excellent vines, supplying a great plenty of wine; and in all Cathay this is the only place where wine is produced. It is carried hence all over the country.i3 Marco Polo is upheld by contemporary Chinese writers. Grape-wine is mentioned in the Statutes of the Yüan Dynasty.' The Yin . an &en
yao IL l , written in 1331 (in 3 chapters) by Ho Se-hwi
contains this account :b "There are numerous brands of wine: that coming from Qarâ-Khoja (Ha-la-hwo U J g )6 is very strong, that coming from Tibet ranks next. Also the wines from P`in-yan and T`ai-
' Cf . T'oung Pao, 1914, p. 412.
2 Cf. ibid., 1908, P. 436.
3 YULE and CORDIER, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, Vol. II, p. 13. KLAPROTH (cf. Yule's notes, ibid., p. 16) was quite right in saying that the wine of that locality was celebrated in the days of the Tang dynasty, and used to be sent in tribute to the emperors. Under the Mongols the use of this wine spread greatly. The founder of the Ming accepted the offering of wine from T'ai-yuan in 1373, but prohibited its being presented again. This fact is contained in the Ming Annals (cf. L. WIEGER, Textes historiques, p. 2011) .
4 Yüan tien can IX, Ch. 22, p. 65 (ed. 1908).
5 Pen ts'ao kan mu, Ch. 25,p. 14 b. Regarding that work, cf. the Imperial Catalogue, Ch. 116, p. 27 b.
6 Regarding this name and its history see PELLIOT, Journal asiatique, 1912, I, p. 582. Qara-Khoja was celebrated for its abundance of grapes (BRETSCHNEIDER, Mediœval Researches, Vol. I, p. 65). J. DUDGEON (The Beverages of the Chinese, p. 27), misreading the name Ha-so-hwo, took it for the designation of a sort of wine. Stuart (Chinese Materia Medica, p. 459) mistakes it for a transliteration of "hol-
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