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酒经 The Classic of Wine and Spirits - Cheers to classic text on alcohol
October 14, 2012, Sunday
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Print Edition
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IT goes without saying that wine and spirits, just like tea, are an integral part of Chinese people's daily life and culture. Since days of yore, these alcoholic drinks have been deemed an essential element in rituals involving sacrificial offerings to Heaven, Earth and ancestors, and also in celebrations and family gatherings.
Wine and spirits are also closely associated with Chinese literature and other arts, particularly, ancient works. Not only were they frequently extolled in novels, poems, paintings and other arts, but alcohol was also said to assist the creative process, helping writers, artists and calligraphers produce their finest works.
However, this relationship was not always beneficial. According to a legend, Li Bai (AD701-762), one of China's finest poets, drowned one night when, half drunk, he fell off a boat drifting along the Yangtze River while trying to scoop the moon out of the water.
Ancient China mainly produced two types of alcoholic drinks, huangjiu or yellow wine, made from rice, millet or wheat, and baijiu or white liquor made from glutinous rice, sorghum, wheat, barley or millet. The milder of the two, huangjiu usually contains 14 to 20 percent alcohol, while baijiu is the hard stuff, at between 40 to more than 65 percent proof.
Some scholars believe that the Chinese developed wine and liquor-making techniques in the Xia Dynasty (circa 2100-1600 BC). People usually credit Yi Di and Du Kang, two semi-legendary historical figures, as the inventors of wine and liquor.
Yi Di, a woman in charge of wine making during the early Xia Dynasty, is reputed to have invented the method of making rice wine from fermented rice, presenting it as a gift to Da Yu or Yu the Great, a legendary hero who tamed the frequently flooding rivers of central and east China.
Du Kang, however, is said to have discovered the techniques of making baijiu by sheer luck. A herdsman, one day in summer, Du Kang forgot to eat his lunch of cooked sorghum which he had hung from a tree. Later, he noticed that the now-fermenting sorghum was giving off a special aroma and had produced exotic tasting juice. Interested in this phenomenon, Du Kang conducted repeated experiments, refining the method of producing a white spirit from sorghum.
Today, Du Kang's name is often used as a name for exceptionally good alcoholic drinks.
However, for hundreds of years, all this information about wine and liquor making could only be found in bits and pieces in ancient Chinese books until Zhu Gong (1050-1125), a renowned scholar-official in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), produced the "Classic of Wine and Spirits," China's first monograph on alcoholic drinks.
Zhu was born into a scholar-official family and passed the imperial palace examination and obtained the title of Jinshi or Presented Scholar when he was 33. He was assigned to a number of government posts, but as an upright man who disdained fawning, his career in officialdom was doomed.
After some ups and downs, Zhu retired to the scenic city of Hangzhou, in today's Zhejiang Province in east China, to write about Chinese medicine and wine making. His interest in wine and liquor could be attributed to his hometown, today's Huzhou, also in Zhejiang Province, known in ancient China as the Capital of Wine.
Zhu's monograph is comprised of three volumes. The first volume tells the long history of wine-making in China and the different characteristics of different wines and spirits. Zhu wrote that moderate consumption of alcoholic drinks would benefit people's health, but excessive drinking was harmful.
The second volume introduces 13 wine yeasts and the steps of production, while the third focuses on theory and production.
Probably due to his rich knowledge of Chinese medicine, Zhu proposed many recipes adding herbs to wines and liquors to boost taste and effect.
Wine and spirits are also closely associated with Chinese literature and other arts, particularly, ancient works. Not only were they frequently extolled in novels, poems, paintings and other arts, but alcohol was also said to assist the creative process, helping writers, artists and calligraphers produce their finest works.
However, this relationship was not always beneficial. According to a legend, Li Bai (AD701-762), one of China's finest poets, drowned one night when, half drunk, he fell off a boat drifting along the Yangtze River while trying to scoop the moon out of the water.
Ancient China mainly produced two types of alcoholic drinks, huangjiu or yellow wine, made from rice, millet or wheat, and baijiu or white liquor made from glutinous rice, sorghum, wheat, barley or millet. The milder of the two, huangjiu usually contains 14 to 20 percent alcohol, while baijiu is the hard stuff, at between 40 to more than 65 percent proof.
Some scholars believe that the Chinese developed wine and liquor-making techniques in the Xia Dynasty (circa 2100-1600 BC). People usually credit Yi Di and Du Kang, two semi-legendary historical figures, as the inventors of wine and liquor.
Yi Di, a woman in charge of wine making during the early Xia Dynasty, is reputed to have invented the method of making rice wine from fermented rice, presenting it as a gift to Da Yu or Yu the Great, a legendary hero who tamed the frequently flooding rivers of central and east China.
Du Kang, however, is said to have discovered the techniques of making baijiu by sheer luck. A herdsman, one day in summer, Du Kang forgot to eat his lunch of cooked sorghum which he had hung from a tree. Later, he noticed that the now-fermenting sorghum was giving off a special aroma and had produced exotic tasting juice. Interested in this phenomenon, Du Kang conducted repeated experiments, refining the method of producing a white spirit from sorghum.
Today, Du Kang's name is often used as a name for exceptionally good alcoholic drinks.
However, for hundreds of years, all this information about wine and liquor making could only be found in bits and pieces in ancient Chinese books until Zhu Gong (1050-1125), a renowned scholar-official in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), produced the "Classic of Wine and Spirits," China's first monograph on alcoholic drinks.
Zhu was born into a scholar-official family and passed the imperial palace examination and obtained the title of Jinshi or Presented Scholar when he was 33. He was assigned to a number of government posts, but as an upright man who disdained fawning, his career in officialdom was doomed.
After some ups and downs, Zhu retired to the scenic city of Hangzhou, in today's Zhejiang Province in east China, to write about Chinese medicine and wine making. His interest in wine and liquor could be attributed to his hometown, today's Huzhou, also in Zhejiang Province, known in ancient China as the Capital of Wine.
Zhu's monograph is comprised of three volumes. The first volume tells the long history of wine-making in China and the different characteristics of different wines and spirits. Zhu wrote that moderate consumption of alcoholic drinks would benefit people's health, but excessive drinking was harmful.
The second volume introduces 13 wine yeasts and the steps of production, while the third focuses on theory and production.
Probably due to his rich knowledge of Chinese medicine, Zhu proposed many recipes adding herbs to wines and liquors to boost taste and effect.
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