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Jiugai 酒概

Jun 20, 2013 © Ulrich Theobald

Jiugai 酒概 "Essentials about wine" is abook on alcoholic beverages written during the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by an author who called himself Shen Shen 沈沈 or Zhendan Mimin Yuanyuan Fu 震旦醚民囦囦父. It is impossible to identify this person.

On the first page of each of the four juan, the name of the publisher is rendered as Hai Ling 海陵. The book is systematically divided in chapters that explain the types, names, vessels, production, place of origin and measures of alcoholic beverages, and also narrate stories around wine and its cultural meaning and effects. The content to a certain degree imitates Lu Yu's 陸羽 (733-804) classic on tea, Chajing 茶經. All passages are quoted from ancient books. As a kind of joke, Confucius is termed the "saint of wine" (jiusheng 酒聖), and the scholars Ruan Ji 阮籍 (210-263), Tao Qian 陶潛 (Tao Yuanming 陶淵明, 365-427), Wang Ji 王績 (585-644) and Shao Yong 邵雍 (1011-1077) his assistants.

The Jiugai was presented to the compilers of the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 by the governor of Zhejiang, but was not included in this collection.

Source:
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文郁, eds. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 2, 1864.
蜀漢 (221-263)