The earliest complete set of brewing apparatus unearthed at present: Dawenkou culture period in Shandong Province. ?
The oldest existing wine: 1980 wine unearthed from tombs in the late Shang Dynasty in Henan (about 3000 years ago) is now in the Palace Museum.
The earliest discovery so far: bronze wares of the Eastern Han Dynasty (now in Shanghai Museum). ?
The earliest monopoly of wine was implemented in the third year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (98 BC). ?
The earliest record of wine price: In the sixth year of Han Dynasty (8 1 BC), officials sold wine at a price of four yuan per liter. ?
The earliest written record of wine: Oracle Bone Inscriptions in Shang Dynasty. ?
The earliest record of wine: Sima Qian's Historical Records Biography of Dawan. ?
The earliest record of malt production method was Qi Yaomin's Book by Jia Sixie in the Northern Wei Dynasty. ?
The earliest record of medicinal liquor production technology: the silk book "Healthy Prescription" unearthed at Mawangdui in the Western Han Dynasty. ?
The earliest advertisement for selling wine records that Han Feizi's "Han Feizi" at the end of the Warring States period "Song people drank alcohol and held a high banner".
Liquor and the Origin and Development of Chinese Liquor Culture?
Liquor is also called shochu or fire wine. Some ethnic minorities call it Araghi wine, which means "reprocessed" wine. Liquor is a unique liquor in China, which originated from the reprocessing of brewing liquor. Therefore, to say the origin of liquor, we have to start with brewing liquor.
It is generally believed that wine was invented by Du Kang. In the past, some wineries took 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 Everything" contains: "Du Kang initiated wine". However, some books, such as Shiben, say: "Yidi started with wine mash, changed it into five flavors, and Shaokang made wine." Shao Kang is Du Kang, much later than Xia's formal Yidi. From this point of view, it seems that Yidi made the wine first. "The Warring States Policy" said: "In the past, the emperor's daughter ordered the righteous emperor to make wine beautiful, and he would like to drink it when drinking it ...". Not that Yi was the first to make wine, but that he could make sweet wine. In fact, Du Kang and Yidi just mastered certain skills and were good at making wine. 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 the working people in ancient China. Generally speaking, the origin of liquor can be divided into the following three stages. 1, brewing in nature
Sugary wild fruit in nature is the food of apes. After ripening, they fall off and pile up in potholes, or are picked by apes, and the unfinished wild fruits are placed in stone potholes. Over time, these wild fruits were fermented by wild yeast attached to their epidermis in the air and rain, or in the soil, and became the original fruit wine with rich aroma, sweet and sour taste. There is a similar record about this natural process in Pengge Nighttalk: "There are many apes in Huangshan Mountain. In spring and summer, the stone cave collects mixed flowers and fruits, making wine, and the aroma is overflowing. 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. In the process of storing surplus animal milk, milk wine fermented by microorganisms in nature was discovered. Around the time of farming, people realized starchy seeds (grains, etc. ) Wild plants can satisfy hunger, so they collect and store them for food. Because the preservation method at that time was primitive, grain was easy to get wet or get wet during storage, which led to germination and mildew. If these germinated and mildewed grains continue to be soaked in water, the starch in them will be saccharified and fermented by microorganisms such as grain buds, wild molds and wild yeasts, and become wine brewed from raw grains. In addition, when cooked grains are inedible, they cover them with leaves or store them in tree holes. Later, due to the action of wild microorganisms such as Rhizopus and yeast, these cooked grains became "fermented grains". This is another way to make wine with raw grain.
At this stage, about 7000 to 10000 years ago, due to the role of nature, wine was gradually discovered and recognized by human beings. However, human beings have not imitated and purposefully used nature for profit.
After the beginning of agricultural production, there was a surplus of grain, and human beings discovered the original wine, which was fragrant and sweet. After drinking it, it's all hot and exciting, so you start to imitate it, consciously let the grains germinate and use it to make wine, thus entering the stage of making wine with natural microorganisms. Crops have existed in China for a long time. A sharp-bottomed wine container similar to the word Oracle Bone Inscriptions wine was found in the cultural relics unearthed at Dawenkou site. It can be inferred that this stage began about 6000 years ago. The book Huai Nan Zi says: "The beauty of Qing Dynasty begins with thunder". Thunder and halberd are ancient agricultural tools. That is to say, good wine began when agricultural production appeared. Moreover, in the Longshan culture period 5,000 years ago, there were special wine-making and drinking utensils, such as Zun, Yi, goblet and small pot. Therefore, it is not surprising that there were people like Yi Di who mastered certain skills and could brew sweet and delicious wine in early summer.
In the Shang Dynasty, there were specialized winemaking workshops. For example, Erligang in Zhengzhou and Taixi Village in Gaocheng, Hebei Province have all found the ruins of Shang Dynasty brewing workshops, 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 passage in Shangshu Book of Life that "if it is used as wine grain, it is second only to bream", which reflects that bream was used as food with high saccharification and low alcohol content at that time, and bream was used to make wine with high accuracy.
In the Zhou Dynasty, the ruling class not only set up official positions in charge of brewing, such as "Jiuzheng", "Jiuren", "Pulp Man" and "Grand Cheftan", but also summarized the main points of brewing. There is a description in the Book of Rites: "Mid-winter Moon is the great chief, but rice will be neat, the tiller will be timely, Zhan will be clean, the spring will be fragrant, the pottery will be good, and the fire will be neat. Six things can be done at the same time. The big chief supervised that it did not have any bad loans. " It means that after the arrival of winter, wine is giving orders to DaEmirates, preparing high-quality and uniform sorghum and rice, providing fresh glutinous rice in time, paying attention to cleanliness in the soaking and cooking of grain, choosing pure and good water, having excellent brewing equipment and properly controlling the temperature (fermentation temperature). DaEmirates should strengthen supervision and management and do these six things well in order to brew good wine. These points are comprehensive even from the requirements of modern brewing technology, which can be said to be the earliest brewing technology regulations in the world.
Because of its low alcohol content and weak taste, Qujiu was gradually eliminated and developed. After Qin and Han dynasties, the technology of making bream has made great progress, and the variety of bream has increased rapidly. There are nearly 10 kinds recorded in dialects alone, and the brewing technology has also improved, and different flavors of brewed wine have appeared in various places. In The Book of Qi Yao Min, Jia Sixie, a native of the Northern Wei Dynasty, made a systematic and detailed summary and description of the various methods and techniques of making koji at that time, and later generations also wrote many accounts about making koji and making wine.
In short, at this stage, the working people in ancient China have mastered the basic laws of koji-making and wine-making through the imitation and practice of natural phenomena, and have been able to effectively use natural microorganisms to make wine.