Before the Tang and Song Dynasties

Famous wines are those ranked as first class，which are recognized by people and history as representative products of wine culture.China has been a multinational country with a long history.Wines making craft and wine culture of all nationalities have undergone tremendous development and progress.Diversified types of wine have been constantly emerging with a huge number of products，which contained contents of Chinese culture.Wine，especially famous wine，as material culture created by working people constitutes an integral part in the whole Chinese traditional culture.

Before the Tang and Song Dynasties

As early as the Xia dynasty，China’s wine making industry has reached a certain level.In the Shang dynasty，new types of wine and more developed wine vessels appeared.Wine industry continued to grow and people began to use quite fine wine vessels.However，generally speaking，though drinking had been prevalent in the Xia，Shang and Zhou dynasties，there were not many varieties，most of which were made of grain.The so-called famous wines then were:Zhi Wine，a good wine，was known for its very good taste and also for its medicinal function；Li，a sweet wine with a light taste，was made of rotten rice and had medicinal function too.Luo，which was classified into Fruit Luo，Cheese Luo and Rice Luo，were mostly seen at sacrificial Wine making，selling and vessels making had been flourishing during the Spring and Autumn-Warring States period.The whole wine industry had undergone a rapid development.Famous wines in this period included Lu Wine known for its vessel，iced wine of the Chu state and Gui Wine of the South，etc.

In the first stage of the Western Han dynasty，the rulers imposed prohibition of wine.As the centralized feudal state power had been declining，the rulers released their control over drinking wine.Driven by large margin of profit，more and more people began to make wine and brewing craft upgraded.More good taste wines appeared one after another and drinking became a prevalent fashion.Jiuyun Wine，was used as superior wine by emperors for sacrificial rites at ancestral temples，which had beencontinuously improving its making craft till the Tang dynasty and become well-known a1l over the country.Baimozhi Wine was another famous wine made of flower powder from various kinds of flowers.A landmark identifying the development of wine industry during the Han dynasty was that there appeared many places where famous wines were produced.The wine making craft reached a high level even in some areas of ethnic minorities and their wine had been brought to central plains，which had won people’s recognition and love.Among those wines was Tongma Wine，which had a long and glorious history.Tongma Wine was made of naturally fermented horse milk b putting them in a vessel and mixing round with a stick.

In the Wei，Jin and Southern&Northern dynasties，the social unrest，nationality amalgamation，conflicts between various thoughts and culture helped to advance wine industry.It is in this period of time that common people had begun to drink wine，which used to be the privilege of the royal court.Meanwhile，more raw materials as millet，paddy，broom corn，etc.were used to make wine.Then，the time to make wine should be well chosen.For example，Sangluo Wine（Sangluo:mulberry-leaves falling）was so named for its making process should be completed by the timemulberry leave falls.Choice of material，water and making craft were also improved，which was wel1-known and endured the test of time.

Chrysanthemum wine was made of a mixture of chrysanthemum and grain，which had once been a traditional drinking at the Double Ninth Festival. Song Ye (pine tree leaves), short for Song Ye Wine, was made of pine tree leaves continued to be drunk till the Tang dynasty. In the Southern dynasty, people made a low-alcohol wine namedMegranate Flower Wine of chinese prickly ash and megranate flower. At that time, the storage of wine was also improved. Shanyin Wine produced in the Southern dynasty was then a famous sweet wine and was known today as Shaoxing Laojiu (Shaoxing Rice wine), which is characterized of being stored for a long time and the longer the better. Later on, more famous wine appeared, such as Huadiao wine, Zhuangyuanhong, Jiafan wine, Xiangxue wine and Tanfan wine, which are still known all over the country. Then, there was an interesting story about a famous rice wine named Spring Lao. One day Mao Hongbin, provincial governor of Qingzhou was on his way to take his post, carrying some of this wine. Some thieves stole his belongings and was caught later for they drank the wine and became drunk. That was how Spring Lao got the famous name”Wine for catching the evils”. Medicated wine such as Tusu Wine and Zhuyeqing Wine, are still having their market today.

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