What does a sieve that sifts a bowl of wine mean?

Sifting wine in the water margin is pouring wine. This is a dialect and an image expression. So why is pouring wine called sifting wine? In fact, friends who have seen fermented wine should understand this problem.

The brewing technology in Song Dynasty was mainly fermentation. Taking yellow rice wine as an example, the method of brewing yellow rice wine is to cook rice first, then add koji after cooling, and then seal it. In a few days, the wine can be produced. The rice wine, wine and rice grains thus brewed are mixed together.

In order to separate drinks from rice grains, people usually dig a hole in the rice grains, and then put a bamboo screen with a small gap in the hole. After a period of time, the wine will penetrate into the bamboo screen, while the rice grains will be kept out of the screen. In this way, the separation of wine and rice grains is realized, and the wine can be directly beaten from the bamboo dice when taking the wine. This step of separating wine from rice grains is also vividly called wine screening.

In some local dialects in northern China, the word "sifting wine" also means hot wine. However, according to the content of Water Margin, it was not a cold winter when Song Wu killed tigers in Jingyanggang, so he didn't need to be heated for drinking. Therefore, the screening of wine in the scene of Jingyang Gang killing the tiger refers to pouring wine instead of hot wine.

Some people also questioned that the wine that Song Wu drank at that time might be distilled wine rather than fermented wine, so there was no step of screening wine. In fact, this problem can be judged from the banner slogan of the hotel where Song Wu drinks. At that time, there was a flag at the entrance of this hotel, which read "Three bowls are not on duty".

This sentence "three bowls can't pass the post" is very telling. Fermented wine is generally low in alcohol content because it has not been distilled and purified. Distilled liquor, on the other hand, can reach high alcohol content. Relevant research found that there was distillation brewing technology in Song Dynasty. Even though the distillation brewing technology in Song Dynasty was not as good as it is now, it should not be difficult to brew wine with higher alcohol content than fermented wine.

If the hotel was selling distilled liquor at that time, the slogan on the flag at the entrance of the hotel could not be "three bowls are not on duty" Because distilled liquor can easily make people drunk, not to mention three bowls, even one bowl will make many people drunk. The situation of low-alcohol fermented wine is different. Ordinary people really don't necessarily get drunk after drinking three bowls. In costume dramas, there are often scenes of drinking in a big bowl, and you should drink this low-alcohol wine.

In addition, judging from the fact that Song Wu was not drunk after drinking 18 bowls of wine, it can basically be concluded that Song Wu drank fermented low-alcohol wine. In addition, the bartender said a word to Song Wu at that time. He said that the wine in their house was mellow and delicious when it was first imported, and it was poured when it was less. What bartenders mean is that they don't feel anything when they drink their wine, but they have enough stamina, which is more in line with the situation of low-alcohol wine. If it is highly distilled liquor, you will feel great when drinking it, instead of getting drunk after waiting.