The earliest complete set of brewing apparatus unearthed at present: Dawenkou Cultural Period in Shandong Province. ?
The oldest wine in existence: 1980, which was unearthed from the tomb in the late Shang Dynasty in Henan (about 3,000 years ago), is now in the Palace Museum.
The earliest still found: bronze still in the Eastern Han Dynasty (now in Shanghai Museum). ?
The earliest monopoly of wine was implemented: the third year of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty (98 BC). ?
The earliest record of wine price: in the sixth year of the Han Dynasty (8 1 year BC), the official sold wine at four yuan per liter. ?
The earliest written record of wine: Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty. ?
The earliest record of wine: Sima Qian's Biography of Historical Records in Dawan. ?
The earliest record of malt manufacturing method: Qi Min Yao Shu by Jia Sixie in Northern Wei Dynasty. ?
The earliest record of the production technology of medicinal liquor: the silk book "Healthy Prescription" unearthed at Mawangdui in the Western Han Dynasty. ?
The earliest advertisement for selling wine records: Han Feizi's "Han Feizi" at the end of the Warring States Period, "Song people drunk wine, and the banner was very high".
The Origin and Development of Liquor and Chinese Liquor Culture?
Liquor is also known as shochu or fire wine. Some ethnic minorities call it Alaji wine, which means "reprocessed" wine. Liquor is a unique kind of liquor in China, which originated from the reprocessing of brewed liquor. Therefore, if we want to talk about the origin of liquor, we have to start with brewed liquor.
It is generally said that wine was invented by Du Kang. In the past, some wineries used Du Kang as the ancestor of brewing, and even the Japanese sake industry regarded the brewing technician as "Du Shi". The basis of this legend can be found in ancient books. For example, "The Origin of Things" contains: "Du Kang initiated wine". However, some books, such as Shiben, say: "Yidi started the wine mash and changed it into five flavors, and Shao Kang made the wine". Shao Kang is Du Kang, who is much later than the official Yidi of Xia Yushi. According to this, it seems that Yidi made the wine first. "The Warring States Policy" said: "In the past, the emperor's daughter made Yidi make wine beautiful, and when she entered Yu, Yu drank it but was willing to drink it ...". It is not said that Yidi made wine first, but that he can make sweet wine. In fact, Du Kang and Yidi just mastered certain skills and were good at making wine. Just like most production technologies, the creation and development of wine is also the result of constant observation of natural phenomena, repeated practice and numerous improvements by working people in ancient China in their life and production practice. Generally speaking, the origin of liquor can be divided into the following three stages. 1, natural wine making
Sugar-containing wild fruits in nature are food for apes. They fall off after maturity and accumulate in potholes, or are picked by apes, and the unfinished wild fruits are placed in stone potholes. Over time, these wild fruits are fermented by wild yeast attached to their epidermis, in the air and rain, or in the soil, and become the original fruit wine with a fragrant aroma, sweet and sour taste. There is a similar record about this natural process in "The Night Talk in Penge": "There are many apes in Huangshan Mountain. In spring and summer, mixed flowers and fruits are collected in the stone depression, and the wine is brewed, and the aroma is overflowing, and hundreds of steps are heard ...". This phenomenon was probably noticed by our ancestors in the Paleolithic Age. With the development of society, human beings began to learn the primitive animal husbandry production, and in the process of storing the remaining animal milk, they found milk wine fermented by microorganisms in nature. Before and after the farming era, human beings realized that starchy seeds (grains, etc.) of wild plants could satisfy hunger, so they collected and stored them for consumption. Because the preservation method at that time was primitive, grains were prone to moisture or rain during storage, which led to sprouting and mildew. If these sprouting and mildew grains continued to be soaked in water, the starch in them would be saccharified and fermented by microorganisms such as grain buds, wild molds and wild yeasts, and become the original grain-brewed wine. In addition, when there are cooked grains that can't be eaten, they cover them with leaves, or store them in tree holes, etc. Later, these cooked grains become "fermented grains" due to the action of wild microorganisms such as Rhizopus and yeast. This is the discovery of another way of brewing wine from raw grain.
This stage was about 7000 to 10000 years ago, because of the role of nature, wine was gradually discovered and recognized by human beings. However, human beings have not imitated and purposefully used nature for the benefit.
After the beginning of agricultural production, there was a surplus of grain, and human beings discovered the original wine, which tasted fragrant and sweet. After drinking it, they were all hot and excited, and you began to imitate it, consciously let the grain sprout and use it to make wine, thus entering the stage of making wine with natural microorganisms. Agricultural crops have existed in China for a long time, and a sharp-bottomed wine storage container similar to Oracle Bone Inscriptions's wine characters was found in the cultural relics unearthed from Dawenkou site. It can be inferred that this stage began about 6000 years ago. The book Huainanzi says: "The beauty of Qing Dynasty begins in Lei". Lei and Ji are both ancient agricultural tools. That is, delicious wine began when agricultural production appeared. Moreover, during the Longshan culture period 5,000 years ago, there were special utensils for making wine and drinking, such as Zun, Yi, goblet and small pot. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the early Xia Dynasty, people like Yidi appeared who mastered certain skills and could brew sweet and delicious wine.
By the Shang Dynasty, specialized winemaking workshops appeared. For example, Erligang in Zhengzhou and Taixi Village in Gaocheng, Hebei Province have discovered the ruins of brewing workshops in Shang Dynasty, and the brewing technology has also developed. As a result, the utilization of grain buds (tillers) and moldy grains (bream) began to separate. There is a discussion in the Book of Life in Shangshu that "if you make wine grains, you are only inferior to the bream", which reflects that at that time, the bream was used to make grains with high saccharification and low alcoholicity, and the bream was used to brew wine with high alcoholicity.
By the Zhou Dynasty, the ruling class not only set up official positions in charge of brewing, such as "Jiuzheng", "Jiuren", "Pulp Man" and "Dachieftain", but also summarized the key points of brewing. There is a description in the Book of Rites: "The mid-winter moon is a great chieftain, and the rice must be neat, the tiller must be timely, the Zhan must be clean, the spring must be fragrant, the pottery must be good, the fire must be neat, and the six things can be used simultaneously. The great chieftain supervises it without any bad loans." It means that after the arrival of winter, wine is giving orders to DaEmirates to prepare high-quality and uniform sorghum and rice, provide fresh glutinous rice in time, pay attention to cleanliness in the soaking and cooking of grain, choose pure and good water for water, have excellent brewing equipment, properly control the temperature (fermentation temperature), and DaEmirates should strengthen supervision and management, and do these six things well to make good wine. These points are comprehensive even from the requirements of modern brewing technology, and it can be said that this is the earliest brewing technology regulation in the world.
Because of its low alcohol content and weak taste, qu was gradually eliminated, while Qu-brewed wine was gradually developed. After Qin and Han dynasties, the technology of making bream has made great progress, and the varieties of bream have increased rapidly. There are nearly 10 kinds recorded in Dialect alone, and the brewing technology has also improved, and brewed wines with different flavors have appeared in various places. In Qi Min Yao Shu, Jia Sixie, a native of Northern Wei Dynasty, systematically and detailedly summarized and described all kinds of methods and techniques of making koji at that time, and later generations also wrote many accounts about making koji and making wine.
In a word, at this stage, the working people in ancient China have mastered the basic laws of koji-making and wine-making by imitating and practicing natural phenomena, and have been able to effectively use natural microorganisms to make wine.