Dragons without wine: the mythopoetics of Chinese jiu-dao

Abstract

This article is devoted to a systemic myopoetic analysis of the phenomenon of wine in the Chinese mentality. The study uses a large body of Russian-language literature, focusing on the specific perception of wine in Chinese semiotics, mythology, and literature. The author concludes that there is currently very little material for a comprehensive mythopoetic analysis of this problem, and that what exists suffers from serious aberrations related to the difficulties of translating Chinese cultural standards into Russian. The key problem lies in the insensitivity of Chinese authors to the subtle differences between moonshine, vodka, and fruit liqueurs, as opposed to grape wine proper. Although technically, the Chinese language has maintained a clear distinction between them for over two thousand years, this aspect is neglected by poets, writers, philosophers, and art historians, who prefer to use the term "jiu" in their works. Directly translated, this means "alcohol," but according to established tradition, and indeed Chinese authors insist, it should be translated as "wine." Although in Russian, the use of terms like "bread wine" in reference to vodka has long since ceased. The author of this article, using indirect evidence (specifically, the nature of intoxication, as well as the traditions of poets of certain eras, etc.), was able to identify a number of Chinese cultural texts that, with some probability, refer to grape wine. It is on this basis that an attempt was made to reconstruct the mythopoetics of Chinese grape wine. Chinese mythopoetics ignores the taste and aroma of wine, focusing primarily on color. Myths of the lunar cycle, with which Chinese wine is directly connected, play a significant role in this. This leads the researcher directly to the mythopoetics of immortality, time cycles, and the search for the fine line between life and death.