1915年中国人带着茅台酒、泸州老窖酒、绍兴黄酒去巴拿马参加万国博览会，一举获得4块金牌。中国酒的主流是粮食酒，作为一种物质文化，它显示出中国酒文化的独特性。本篇介绍的是中国酒的传说、历史、基本特点、各种名酒以及饮酒的习俗。
1.汉字“酒”在英文中的含义是什么？
What is the meaning of Chinese character jiu in English?
Wine or liquor has been intimately intertwined with almost every aspect of Chinese culture since earliest times. The Chinese word jiu in Chinese is commonly loosely translated as“wine,”but the word actually can refer to any type of alcoholic beverage, from beer pijiu (啤酒) to liquor of any kind including grape wine. Many Chinese“wines”are in fact liquors or spirits, and Tibetans have a brew called qingkejiu (青稞酒), made from barley.
Notes：1）liquor酒；2）intimately熟悉地；3）intertwine编结； 4）beverage饮料；5）barley大麦
2.中国古代酿酒的由来有哪些传说？
What are the legends about the origin of alcoholic brewing in ancient China?
China is one of the countries with the longest history of the production of alcoholic beverages. One legend says that at the early stage of the Xia Dynasty, a woman named Yi Di (仪狄) presented to Yu (禹) with a tasty wine that she made by fermenting rice wrapped in mulberry leaves.
Another legend says that people started brewing alcoholic drinks during the era of Huang Di (黄帝). An ancient book entitled The Yellow Emperor’s Cannon of Internal Medicine (《黄帝内经》) records a conversation between Huang Di and Qi Bo (岐伯). Huang Di said,“Please tell me how to make a sweet alcoholic drink from rice?”Qi Bo replied,“Rice of fine-quality is required, and rice straw can be used to warm it.”
The most popular legend concerns Du Kang (杜康), who is said to have been a shepherd in the Zhou Dynasty. One day when he was herding sheep, he mindlessly dropped a bamboo tube in the pasture. He soon forgot about his loss, and the tube was full of millet. 14 days later when he found the tube, the millet had turned into fragrant wine. This new discovery made him happy. Since then, he never shepherded sheep on the grassland. Instead he brewed the wine. Today his name is still associated with alcohol.
Notes：1）alcoholic含酒精的；2）brewage酿制饮料；3）mulberry桑科植物的；4）shepherd羊倌；5）mindlessly不小心的；6）millet小米
3.汉代传说中的故事和“汉砖”讲了关于饮酒酿酒的一些什么事情？
What is known about the drinking and brewing of alcohols from legendary stories of the Han Dynasty and the Han Bricks?
In the late 1970s, a large amount of ancient bricks and stones dating from the Eastern Han Dynasty were unearthed in the suburbs of Chengdu. On the surface of each stone or brick are figures, animals or houses from ancient local people’s daily life, and some patterns in relief display how people brewed or drank wine and managed public wine houses.
A love story between Sima Xiangru (司马相如) and Zhuo Wenjun (卓文君) that occurred in a small town near Chengdu in the Han Dynasty. One day, a well-learned scholar named Sima Xiangru fell in love with Zhuo Wenjun. However, Zhuo’s parents did not approve, so the two secretly ran away. They arrived at the western suburbs of Chengdu, where they managed a public wine house as means of livelihood. Sima Xiangru sold wine, while Zhuo Wenjun cleaned utensils and cups. Before long, Sima Xiangru went to Chang’an, the capital of the Han Empire for an imperial examination. Finally Sima Xiangru returned and picked up Zhuo Wenjun. They two went to the capital because Sima Xiangru had a position in the court government there.
The Han Bricks and the story imply the winemaking industry was well developed in the Han Dynasty.
Notes：secretly秘密地
4.果酒和乳酒是古代中国第一代饮料酒吗？
Was the fruit wine and milk wine the first generation
of alcoholic drinks?
During the Old Stone Age Period, wild fruits were a staple food. These contain much natural sugar, and under the action of microorganisms, the sugar easily turns into alcohol when fermented. Animals’ milk contains protein and milk sugar that likewise easily turns to alcohol. At the same time, ancient hunters might have chance to get animal milk. The alcoholic drink called lilao (醴酪) recorded in The Yellow Emperor’s Cannon of Internal Medicine is a kind of sweet milk and might be the earliest milk wine.
Some ancient Chinese books have recorded matters relating to fruit wine production through the natural fermentation of fruit. Gui Xin Za Zhi (《癸辛杂识》) by Zhou Mi (周密) of the Song Dynasty says that mountain pears stored by local people in urns turned to alcohol. The preface to Pu Tao Jiu Fu (《蒲桃酒赋》) by Yuan Haowen (元好问) of the Yuan Dynasty says that a certain person who lived near a mountain ran away from the ravages of war and sought safety in the mountains. In his house was a pile of grapes stored in an urn. When fermented, the grape juice turned to alcohol under the action of the natural sugar of the grapes.
Notes：microorganism微生物
5.中国最古老的谷物酒叫什么名字？
What is the name of the oldest grain wine in China?
In ancient China, there was a kind of alcoholic beverage called li (醴) that was made from malted cereals. Some scholars think that li wine was similar to beer because of its low alcoholic content. Inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells preserve the records of li wine. In the Zhou Dynasty, alcoholic beverages were classified into two types: rice wine and li wine. One chapter in The Classic of History (《书经》) says,“If you want to brew rice wine, use qu (曲); if you want to brew the li wine, use malt (若作酒醴，尔惟曲蘖).”It seems that there were two different technical processes in use for the production of the two types of wine during the Zhou Dynasty. After the Han Dynasty, li wine came to be neglected by rice wine made by qu, a kind of distilled yeast.
Notes：1）malt麦芽；2）cereal谷类植物
6.在中国历史上谁最早提出禁酒？
Who first raised a prohibition against alcoholic drinks?