The Joy of Drinking Wine
17 min readChinese people during the Han Dynasty called wine a “good reward from heaven”and said that it was a wonderful gift that nature had given to man. Wine is enjoyed by many nations around the world and, while Europe is the home of grape wine, China is the home of yellow wine.
Archeologists have proved that in the mid-Neolithic Age, more than 6,000 years ago, special earthen drinking vessels were used in China. Ancient Chinese books also contain many different stories about the origins of wine. These include the legends that wine was made by apes and monkeys, by the Emperor Yao, by Yi Di or by Du Kang.
Wine making and wine drinking were in vogue during the Shang Dynasty. This is shown by many bone inscriptions from the time that record wine being offered as a sacrifice to ancestors.
The book Historical Records, which was written in the Han Dynasty, also contains a record about King Zhou of Shang who “drank all night… among lakes of wine and forests of meat.”In addition, archaeologists have found many bronze drinking vessels in the tombs of Shang Dynasty nobles.
These include bronze wine holders, goblets, and wine vessels. Indeed,a sealed bronze drinking vessel unearthed in 1980 from a tomb dating from the late Shang Dynasty contained fragrant wine.
This is the most ancient wine ever found in China. It is now preserved at the Palace Museum in Beijing.
Chinese wine is made by brewing cereals with distiller’s yeast(distiller’s yeast yeast is made from moldy or germinant wheat, rice or another cereal). Distiller’s yeast contains filamentousbacteria(mold) that converts starch into sugar. It also contains yeast that turns sugar into alcohol.
People in the different regions of China use different cereals as the basis of their distiller’s yeast, so there are different types of wine. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589), the technique of making distiller’s yeast had reached a very sophisticated level.
Arts for the People’s Welfare, an important work written in that period, records 12 methods of making distiller’s yeast.
Brewing with distiller’s yeast uses a natural fermentation process. Most Chinese wine production is carried out on a small or medium scale, and there are no strict scientific quality testing standards for the wine itself. However, the process is based on thousands of years of experience and its basic principles and methods are used by people across China, with many families and regions having a long tradition of brewing wine. Indeed, some wine drinkers think that the best Chinese wine is produced by individuals rather than wineries.
To make wine, brewers first add the”big starter”(yeast) into a pot containing polished This bronze drinking vessel from the Western Zhou long-grained non-glutinous rice. They then seal Dynasty is decorated with phoenix paerns. It is on the pot and leave it for a lile over a month.
Such handled vessels This stage of the process produces white alcohol were popular in the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties when they were used to hold wine. Most of (which has an alcohol content of between 40 these vessels were round or oval and had feet at the and 50 percent). In the next stage of the process, bottom.
A small boat carrying yellow wine in Zhouzhuang，Suzhou.
This results in the production of fermented glutinous wine（which has a 10 percent alcohol content）after a few days and the production of sweet glutinous rice wine after a month or so.The custom of drinking fermented glutinous wine is quite common in China’s southern provinces.White alcohol and sweet wine both become mellower the longer they are stored.
China is a vast country that is rich in natural resources.This means that there are many regional differences in terms of climate，agriculture，water quality and wine brewing techniques.This，in turn，means that there are many different Chinese wines that have strong regional characteristics.
Yellow wine is also called“rice wine”.It is one of the oldest wines in the world.The raw materials for yellow wine are sorghum，millet and yellow rice（in the south of China glutinous rice is also commonly used）.The alcohol content of yellow wine is usually about 15 percent.The longer the brewing period is，the mellower and sweeter its taste.
The Chishui River in Gulin, Luzhou, Sichuan is An old Guizhou Moutai wine cellar.
When wine filtering techniques were not well developed, yellow wine was turbid, so ancient people called it”turbid wine.”After the Song Dynasty, China’s economic and cultural center moved to the south, and yellow wine production became more prevalent in this part of the country than it had been before. In the Yuan Dynasty, arrack began to be popular in the north, and less yellow wine was drunk; arrack did not spread as widely in the south of the country, so yellow wine production continued in that region.
In the Qing Dynasty, yellow wine from Shaoxing, Zhejiang became the best wine in the world.
Now the”yellow wine of Shaoxing”is still the favorite of many people who like drinking yellow wine. High-grade Shaoxing wines include the daughter red wine, the number one scholar red wine and the flowery carving wine. These aged glutinous rice wines all taste sweet and are all rare tonics.
Shaoxing wines are typical yellow wines and have a medium alcohol content. They are not like burnt alcohol that makes people pass out after they have only drunk a few cups, or beer that makes people feel elated after they have drunk several bottles. Instead, mild yellow wine makes people a little drunk. In this state, people are very active, emotionally excited and quick-minded, they canalso become highly imaginative and creatively impulsive. Perhaps this is one reason why a lot of talented scholars emerged in Shaoxing.
China’s traditional white alcohol(arrack) is the country’s most typical distilled liquor. Distilled liquor appeared in China at some point between the 6h and 8h centuries. The invention of a simple liquor distillation process was another contribution the ancient Chinese made to brewing. In the late 19h century and the early 20h century, after the introduction of microbiology, biochemistry and engineering techniques from the West, China’s traditional brewing industry changed greatly. Its level of mechanization improved significantly and its scale of production expanded accordingly. At the same time, white alcohol gradually became the main type of wine drunk by Chinese people in their everyday life. Due to the different raw materials used for brewing in different Chinese regions, many different kinds of white alcohol were produced. These differed from each other in terms of their fragrances, which included the sauce fragrance, the thick fragrance, the faint fragrance, the rice fragrance, the fermented soy bean fragrance, the sesame fragrance and the mixed fragrance.
Guizhou and Sichuan in the southwest of China are generally recognized as the provinces that produce the highest quality white alcohol.
There are at least 40 to 50 good wines produced around China. Guizhou’s Moutai, Sichuan’s Luzhou Laojiao and Wuliangye, Shanxi’s Fenjiu and Zhuyeqing and Shaanxi’s Xifeng wine are all world-famous.
Westerners often drink different wines on different occasions, but in contrast Chinese people generally select white alcohol according to the wine fragrances and tastes they like.
The Guizhou Moutai wine is a type of white alcohol that has the sauce fragrance. It is known as China’s”national wine.”Along with Scotch whisky and French brandy this wine is one of the three major types of distilled liquor in the world. The raw materials that are used to make Moutai wine are high-quality sorghum and high-grade wheat. These are heated to a high temperature to start the brewing process, which involves a set of unique techniques. Raw materials are added twice, the drink is distilled nine times and fermented eight times and the finished wine is taken out seven times. This production cycle lasts for up to a year. After it is finished, the wine is stored for more than three years. Then it is mixed with aged wine(that has been stored for many years) and is stored again for another year. It is only after five years have passed that the wine is finally bottled and shipped from the factory. No flavoring is added during the whole production process, but more than 100 fragrances are formed during the wine’s repeated fermentation. The wine is not strong but it is fragrant, mellow and fine. Its alcohol content is always between 52 and 54 percent.
Wine makers in many other regions try and replicate the flavour of Moutai wine. They use the same production methods and raw materials and even transport water and cement from Maotai to make their kiln walls. They also invite experienced brewers from Maotai Town to help them. Despite this, no one outside of Maotai Town has been able to replicate the wine’s special sauce fragrance. This shows that Chinese wines have their own “hometowns”. Like Moutai wine, many other famous Chinese wines are produced using unique techniques. The cellar in Luzhou with a history of more than 400 years began to be used in the Wanli Period (1573-1620) of the Ming Dynasty.
Wine has been long thought to have health-giving properties and modern medical science has proved that phenolic compounds in high-quality wine can prevent the accumulation of fat in arteries and that it can also have an anti-aging effect. Researchers have also found that the folic acid, pantothenic acid and alpha acid found in wine can curb certain pathogenic bacteria and help to clear away internal heat and toxic materials. In additon,a small amount of alcohol, when combined with potassium ions, can promote urination and salt excretion and so help to balance the amount of salt in a person’s body. This means that drinking an appropriate amount of wine can help treat certain diseases and can also help preserve a person’s health.
In China, wine is often combined with traditional Chinese medicines to produce medicated wines in order to prevent and treat diseases. These include tiger bone wine and three snakes wine, which are used to treat rheumatism and traumatic injury, black chicken white phoenix wine for the treatment of gynecological diseases, gecko wine for the treatment of tracheal diseases and snakegall wine for the treatment of rheumatism and tracheitis. In recent years, modern medical science has researched and confirmed the special effects of medicated wines.
Chinese people also like drinking beer.Beer spread to China in the early 20h century and thefirst beer brewery was established in Harbin in 1900.Today，many Chinese people like drinkingbeer.Beer helps cool people down.It has therefore become a beverage that many Chinese people drink in summer to quench their thirst.Beer also helps with the digestion of food，stimulates the appetite，promotes blood circulation，and can even help people suffering from heart disease and hypertension.
As a result of China’s fast economic development in the past ten years or so，many foreign wines have been introduced into the country.These include brandy，whisky，rum，vodka，grape wine and fruit wine.A”bar culture”now thrives in many areas.This attracts many young people who socialize and spend their money on drinks.Many foreigners who visit China for the first timeare amazed by the popularity of bars in China’s large and medium cities.It is a development that reflects the freedom and openness of the lives of modern Chinese people.
Chinese offered wine as a sacrifice to their ancestors to show their respect.They drank wine toput themselves in the right frame of mind to create poems and essays.They also enjoyed drinking wine with their relatives and friends at banquets.Some Chinese people even thought that couldn’t live without wine and that wine was much more important than food.Over a history that spans thousands of years，wine has played an important part in China’s eating culture and has permeated almost all aspects of Chinese life.It has exerted a particularly strong influence in various specific fields，including politics，history，literature，art，religion，culture，science，technology，folk customs and social psychology.
Ancient Chinese people brewed their wine using cereals.If the yearly grain harvest was below a certain size，the rulers of ancient China would levy a wine tax or would even ban wine in order to ensure adequate food supplies.Therefore，the health of the wine making industry each year showed whether there had been a bumper grain harvest or not.
Throughout much of China’s history，wine has had a direct impact on people’s livelihoods and has been taxed by many dynasties. Emperor Wu of Han implemented a wine monopoly policy in the 3d year of the Tianhan Period (98 BC). After this, one of the main sources of fiscal revenue for China’s central government was the monopoly fee or monopoly tax collected from the wine-making industry. Lifting the ban on wine for ordinary people usually had to do with change of dynasties, change of emperors and some major royal activities.
Wine has been closely linked to many Chinese scholars. In particular, in the Wei and Jin dynasties (220-420) and the Tang Dynasty, many scholars were known to be fond of drinking.
During these dynasties, intellectuals such as the “Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove”liked idle talk and “eating dishes and drinking wine”. Scholars who lived under chaotic social conditions “drank heavily for no special reason”. When they had been drinking, they used wild language to express their dissatisfaction with politics. They also used wine to ease their worries and escape from their misfortunes. This behavior illustrates the helplessness of scholars in troubled times. However, over time, the excessive drinking that scholars indulged in ceased to be regarded as reprehensible and began to be seen as elegant behavior. As a result, people developed romantic fancies about the relationship between wine, poems and scholars. In the Tang Dynasty, drinking was advocated by many scholars. The great poets Li Bai and Du Fu found that they acquired a kind of creative freedom when they got drunk, and created many famous works when they were inebriated. These works have been handed down through the ages. Some painters and calligraphers were also inspired by wine. For example, the “Master of Calligraphy”Wang Xizhi wrote his Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion with a writing-brush when drunk. Huai Su wrote his Autobiography with a writing-brush when he was drunk. While the”Master of Cursive Script”Zhang Xu”shouted, ran wildly and began to write whenever he got drunk.”Because Chinese traditional art forms such as poetry, music, painting and calligraphy emphasize emotions, it is not surprising that wine can play a part in the creative process. For many traditional Chinese artists wine helped them retain a certain purity and innocence. It also allowed them to “face their souls directly”and provided them with creative inspiration.
Wine plays a major part in Chinese banquets and other social occasions.”A banquet is not a banquet without wine,”as they saying goes. It is also a Chinese tradition that “when cups are raised, the banquet begins; when cups are put down, the banquet is over”. The Chinese attach great importance to eating and drinking together, as this is a way to strengthen friendships and to share good times. This is summed up in the saying:”When drinking with a bosom friend,a thousand cups will still be too little.”As a result, Chinese banquets usually last for at least one or two hours. They can last for a whole night. Because people eat and drink wine for such longperiods, drinking games have been invented to provide entertainment and to make banquets more interesting. Drinking games are games in which people are urged to drink. In some of these games people are made to drink as a forfeit. Such games have been played at Chinese banquets since ancient times, and they are an important part of Chinese wine drinking culture. There are many different drinking games. For example, scholars often compose poems, write antithetical couplets, guess Chinese characters and solve puzzles while drinking. However, the finger-guessing game isthe most common drinking game played by ordinary people. In this game two drinkers sit face to face(like two armies ready for battle) and then hold out their hands simultaneously. As they do this, they have to guess the number of fingers that will be extended. As they play they beat time, shout Dong people toasting each other and celebrating the Tujia people”sipping wine”.
New Year.
“bravo”and try to out do each other in terms of the amount of liquor they can drink. Modern finger-guessing games are sometimes slightly vulgar and are prohibited on some occasions.
China has a long folk tradition of “welcoming and treating guests with wine,”and the custom of “drinking a toast”at a banquet is prevalent around the country. At the beginning of a Chinese banquet, the host often speaks first and then proposes a toast. He then says,”I will drink up first”and downs his cup of wine in one gulp. This is done to show respect for the guests at the meal.
Sometimes, the host toasts a number of guests by name. These guests then toast the host in return. If they don’t, they are deemed to be impolite. Guests can also toast each other. When toasting, bothdrinkers often stand up. The more a guest drinks, the happier the host feels. Indeed, Chinese people generally like to see other people drink more wine. If guests are late to a banquet, the host and other guests will often ask them to drink as a forfeit.
Many of China’s minority ethnic groups have their own unique customs and habits when it comes to looking after their guests and toasting. When toasting,a Mongolian host usually holds a wine bowl with his hands and sings toast songs until both he and his guests are drunk. When toasting,a Zhuang host and guest both intertwine their arms and drink each other’s wine using white porcelain spoons. The Miao, Qiang and Tujia people from the southwest of China often drink by”sipping”. To do this, they sit around a wine jar and sip wine from it using a bamboo or reed pipe. They usually take turns based on their seniority. Tibetans treat their guests with highlandbarley wine.A Tibetan first offers a cup of this wine to his guest. The guest then takes the cup with both hands, dips a middle finger and thumb into the wine, and quickly flips them towards the sky three times. This is done to show respect for the gods, the earth and Buddha. The guest then drinks for the first time(drinking the whole cup in one gulp), after which the host immediately re-fills the cup with wine. Then the guest drinks for a second and third time, with the cup being replenished each time.
Wine has a magical function for some minority ethnic groups. For example, some groups have a custom known as “smearing the blood as a sign of the oath.”In this custom, chicken and sheep are slaughtered or a person’s arm is pierced to produce blood. This blood is then mixed with wine, which is then drunk as a holy oath.
In China, the development of wine and its associated customs happened almost simultaneously.
Some of these ancient customs are still preserved today. For example, wine plays a key part.
Miao women holding wine bowls and singing a toast song. They are standing at a village entrance to welcome guests.
In Chinese wedding ceremonies (to the extent that the phrase “drinking wedding wine”means attending a wedding ceremony). At a wedding feast, the bride and groom toast their parents and guests. They also intertwine their arms and drink from each other’s cups in the hope that they will be happy together. On the day after a wedding ceremony, the bride then takes her groom to her parents’ home, and they hold a banquet, which is called the “banquet for the bride’s home visit.”The “banquet for a baby’s first month birthday”and the “banquet for a baby’s 100-day birthday”are other common customs celebrated by Chinese ethnic groups. On these occasions,a child’s parents hold a banquet and invite relatives and friends to celebrate together. Guests usually bring gifts or red packets(small paper bags containing money).”Longevity banquets”are also held to celebrate old people’s birthdays. These take place on a person’s 60h,70h,8oh,9oh and 100h birthdays(which are known as”major birthdays”). Generally sons and daughters or grandsons and granddaughters hold a banquet to which they invite relatives and friends to attend. If an old person dies,a banquet is also held after their funeral.
Hani people singing a toast song to celebrate the Gatangpa Festival(Hani people’s New Year festival) in Menghai, Yunnan banquet should be vegetarian, while people in some other areas eat bean curd. Though these funeral banquets are vegetarian feasts, wine still plays an indispensable part in them.
Chinese people celebrate several major festivals in a year and many of these have wine drinking activities linked to them. For example,”New Year’s wine”is drunk on the night of the New Year’s Eve in the hope that the whole family will be safe and sound during the coming year(in some places it is customary to drink wine for the whole night).”Sweet flag wine”is drunk during the Dragon Boat Festival to ward off evil spirits, eliminate evil and ensure safety. Sweet flag wine is a compound wine made with juice extracted from the sweet flag(a perennial herb) and sorghum wine(which is brewed using distiller’s yeast made from barley and peas). During the Mid-autumn Festival family members and friends reunite and admire the moon. This festival takes place at the time when sweet-scented osmanthus flowers bloom, and so drinking “sweet-scented osmanthus wine”is a traditional Mid-autumn Festival custom. In addition, during important festivals, people in some regions leave a seat of honor for their dead ancestors; they also put out wine and food for them, light joss sticks and put a cup of wine and food in front of their portraits. This is done to express both grief and respect.
Wine makes people get excited. In China, people who can still maintain their manners when they are under the influence of alcohol are respected and admired. Confucianism does not oppose wine drinking, but it does emphasize the importance of “drinking manners”and good conduct.
According to Confucianism, only moderate amounts of wine should be drunk; excessive drinking and “living as if drunk”are both frowned upon. Examples of good conduct include offering wine as a sacrifice to the gods and giving wine to old people and guests. As the Chinese saying goes,”wine is for the practice of etiquette, for curing diseases and for happiness.”It is well known that excessive drinking can not only affect a person’s behavior, but that it can also damage a person’s health. Therefore, many ancient and modern Chinese books on drinking manners ask people to drink wine moderately. In modern China, government departments have stopped public servants from drinking wine with their lunch during the week. The government has also brought in some specific bans to prohibit people doing specific jobs from drinking. In addition, drivers who drink and drive can be prosecuted.
China’s wine culture has a long history and is deeply rooted in the country’s consciousness.
Wine has become integrated into various aspects of Chinese culture and life. It has influenced the way in which Chinese people live, the folk customs they follow, the way in which they relate to each other and even their psychologies and personalities.
Food and Health.
For the Chinese, food doesn’t just fill the stomach and provide culinary pleasure, it is also a medicine. Food has long been used to regulate the body, prevent disease and preservehealth. The use of foods as medicines has long been a major characteristic of China’s eating culture.
The philosophy of the Chinese people emphasizes the “unity of man and nature.”This thinking is reflected in the country’s kitchens and around its dining tables, where there are a number of taboos in place to ensure that food is properly matched and that everything is in harmony.
