When we taste baijiu today, we often rely on a modern lexicon, using terms like "strong aroma," "caramel notes" or a "nutty finish." But long before these specific descriptors became the standard, the ancient Chinese possessed their own elegant vocabulary for evaluating a good spirit. In classical poetry and historical texts, they did not analyze chemical esters or alcohols; instead, they used evocative, single-character words like chun, lie and fang to capture the soul of a brew. These ancient words remain the gold standard for traditional Chinese spirits today.
Chun and Lie: The Texture of Time and the Clarity of Springs
In classical Chinese texts, chun (醇) originally referred to a pure, unmixed wine. The Han dynasty dictionary Shuowen Jiezi defines it simply as "wine without added water." Over the centuries, chun evolved into the ultimate praise for a spirit's texture, describing a liquid that is rich, mellow and full-bodied. It represents the warmth and depth that grains acquire after careful fermentation and aging—the physical thickness of time in a cup.
Lie (冽), on the other hand, describes a crisp, cool clarity. The ancients firmly believed that "water is the blood of wine," and that a renowned spirit required a pristine water source. The Northern Song scholar Ouyang Xiu famously wrote of this relationship:
Drawing water from the brewing spring, the spring is fragrant and the wine is crisp.
— Record of the Pavilion of the Drunken Old Man
In Sichuan's Mianzhu region, glacier-fed springs descending from the Longmen Mountains and abundant rainfall (over 1,200 mm annually) have long provided this crisp, clear foundation for local distilleries, giving the spirit a pure, clean structure beneath its complex flavours.
Fang and You: The Unfolding of Aroma
When describing scent, ancient scholars favoured words like fang (芳) and you (幽). Fang originally referred to the fragrance of spring herbs and flowers. Applied to baijiu, it captures the vibrant, welcoming burst of aroma that rises the moment a clay jar is unsealed or the red-grain cap is lifted from a fermentation pit. The famous Tang dynasty spirit "Jiannan Shaochun"—the historical pride of the Mianzhu region—contained the word "chun" (spring) in its name, implying exactly this vibrant, blooming vitality.
You, meaning hidden or profound, describes a deeper evolution of aroma. It is a fragrance that is never aggressive but lingers elegantly, akin to the "aged aroma" or "empty-cup aroma" prized in modern tastings. This profound, lasting scent is the natural gift of slightly acidic yellow-mud pits, where over a thousand species of microbes work in harmony to build deep aromatic layers.
Ancient Words in a Modern Cup
Today, even with a scientific framework for tasting, these classical words perfectly describe the essence of traditional solid-state fermentation. The Qifu family distillery, which has been making spirits in Mianzhu since 1978, still follows the ancient rhythms of the craft.
Take, for example, Bainian Qifu · 8, the distillery's flagship strong-aroma spirit. Brewed from a careful blend of sorghum, wheat, rice, glutinous rice and corn, and fermented for about two months in old yellow-mud pits, it brings those ancient aesthetics to life. Poured from its red porcelain bottle, the 52% vol spirit offers a smooth, crisp entry (lie), a full and vibrant pit aroma (fang), and a lingering sweetness with a nutty, caramel-like finish that is profoundly rich (chun).
Tasting notes may have expanded over the centuries, but the simple joy of pouring a well-crafted spirit and sipping it in moderation remains exactly as the ancients left it.
