A Corpus—based Study on the Wine Culture in Outlaws of the Marsh

【Abstract】：. Outlaws of the Marsh is a great novel filled with the description of wine， offering rich materials to the investigation of Chinese wine culture. This paper adopts the corpus approach to study the wine culture in the novel by analyzing data extracted from 120 chapters. Hopefully， it offers useful references for catching a glimpse of people’s life and the wine culture in the Northern Song Dynasty.

【Key words】： Outlaws of the Marsh； wine； corpus approach

1. Introduction

China has a long history of making and drinking wine. Wine has an enormous effect on literary and artistic creation. It is also described in literary masterpieces including Outlaws of the Marsh， demonstrating the folk custom and society at that time， of which wine culture is an important aspect.

2. Corpus approach and text analysis

A corpus is a collection of pieces of language text in electronic form， selected according to external criteria to represent， as far as possible， a language or language variety as a source of data for linguistic research.（John Sinclair， 2005） This paper uses Outlaws of the Marsh corpus containing 120 chapters with a total of 928.163 thousand words （including punctuations）. Word frequency and Concordance lines are obtained from the corpus for statistical text analysis. Firstly， this paper identifies the search word “酒”. Secondly concordance lines with the search word are extracted and sorted based on the words that come before and after the node to the left and right. Then the concordance lines are statistically analyzed， frequencies of the search word and phrases related to wine are calculated， the numbers of times “酒” are mentioned in the corpus are worked out， and the surrounding words， phrases and collocates of the node are analyzed to interpret the wine culture in this novel. Finally， conclusions are drawn from the statistical data and interpretations.

3. The wine culture in Outlaws of the Marsh

According to the statistics， the Chinese character “酒” is mentioned 2030 times and “醉” ， the state after having a lot of drinks， is mentioned 184 times in this novel.

3.1 The verb collocates of wine

When talking about drinking wine， the author employs “吃”（eat） instead of “喝”（drink）. The number of times the phrase “吃酒” is mentioned in the novel amounts to 142， ranking No.1 among all the verb collocates investigated. In ancient times， wine was made from millet， sorghum， corn and sweet potato by the means of distilling， and distillers' grains often remained as a result of incomplete filtration and other deficient brewing technique. Therefore， sometimes it was necessary for drinkers to “eat”. Moreover， the phrase“吃酒”is prevalent in dialects in the southern areas， and Shanghai dialect is a case in point. Speakers of Shanghai dialect always “eat” these liquid including water， tea， juice， soup， porridge， etc.

3.2 The varieties of wine

Descriptions of the varieties of wine are extremely rich in Outlaws of the Marsh.

“Springtime in Jade Bottles” （玉壺春酒）—a famous Jiangzhou liquor， “Moonlight Breeze on Lovers' Bridge” （藍橋風月美酒）—a fine liquor， “Seeps Through the Bottle Fragrance” also called “Collapse Outside the Door”（透瓶香/“出門倒”） —as fragrant as the old brews， yellow?sealed imperial wine（黃封御酒） granted by the emperor， whose names are literary and attractive， are wine with crystal color， strong fragrance and better quality. They are stronger than local home-brewed wine（社酒）， yellow rice or millet wine（黃酒）， simple home brew（茅柴白酒）， and rustic liquor（村醪水白酒）. Among them， “Seeps Through the Bottle Fragrance” has a famous slogan on a pennant reading： Three bowls and you can't cross the ridge， and it is related to a well-known story about Wu Song killing a tiger on Jingyang Ridge after he drank eighteen bowls of the wine.

3.3 Dishes to go with wine

“按酒” is the phrase mentioned for the greatest number of times—16 times in this novel if it is regarded as a kind of wine. But what exactly does it refer to？ Interpreted as dishes to go with wine， the collocates of “按酒” are fruits， vegetables， and seafood delicacies， in other words， they are the main dishes to go with wine.

Apart from fruits， vegetables， and seafood， people accompany wine with some meat predominantly when having drinks. The phrase “酒肉” is mentioned 73 times in the novel. Other phrases such as “吃酒吃肉”， “買酒買肉”， “好酒好肉”， “肉山酒海” prove that wine is closely related to meat， and the kinds of meat to go with wine are very rich including beef， pork， chicken， duck， goose， fish， mutton and venison. Beef is mentioned 32 times as the most popular food to go with wine.

3.4 Soup to sober drunkards

If one drinks a lot and intends to relieve the discomfort， he may need a bowl of soup to sober him up from drunkenness. Spicy fish soup， vinegar-pepper soup， Erchen decoction（醒酒二陳湯， a prescription containing aged tuber of pinellia and dried tangerine peel in traditional Chinese medicine） are made by food and herbs. Besides， there is another unique and horrific kind of soup made by human’s heart and liver. In Chapter 41， Likui kills Huang Wenbing， who framed Songjiang before and takes his heart and liver out to cook.

4. Conclusion

Wine plays an indispensable role in Chinese culture and it makes Chinese people's life more colorful whether in ancient or modern times. Outlaws of the Marsh is filled with the descriptions of wine， demonstrating people’s life style， the society and the flourish and growing wine industry in the Song Dynasty. Wine helps to depict various characters with different temperament and witnesses the rise and fall of their fate.

References

[1] Luo Guanzhong， Shi Nai’an. Outlaws of the Marsh [M]. Beijing： Foreign Language Press， 2003.

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[3]呂祥華.《水滸傳》中酒文化考論[J].蘇州大學學報，2010（5）：131-134.

[4]殷顯谷.醉里乾坤大，壺中日月長——談《水滸傳》中的酒[J].湖北師范學院學報，2006（2）： 33-35.