Home> News> How long does Huangjiu exist?
January 01, 2020

How long does Huangjiu exist?

Huangjiu, as one of the oldest alcoholic beverages in the world, is originated from China and is unique to China. Before then, I wrote an article called [How long does Huangjiu exist?" and expressed that Chinese Huangjiu has a history of six or seven thousand years, which can be proved by wine sets unearthed from the Hemudu Site. And the Hemudu Site is located in the Yue State of the ancient Shaoxing. Therefore, similarly, Shaoxing Huangjiu has a history of six or seven thousand years.

However, when I attended the 100th national sugar and wine fair and met Dr. Chen Shuang from Jiangnan University, I was told a new message that the history of Chinese Huangjiu has a history of more than 9000 years, which can be proved by the Jiahu Site in Henan Province. And it was discovered of American scientists. Later, Dr. Chen sent me an English paper which introduced the discovery of the oldest Huangjiu in China in detail.

It is understood that the Jiahu Site in Wuyang County, Henan Province, has a history of about 7500 to 9000 years. It is the earliest cultural relic of the Neolithic Age in the Huaihe River basin so far, and is rated as one of the 100 great archaeological discoveries in China in the 20th century. It is located in Jiahu village, 1km southwest of Beiwudu Town, Wuyang County, Henan Province. The Jiahu Site is nearly circular, 280 meters long from north to south and 250 meters wide from east to west. And the core area of the site is 55,000 square meters. The Jiahu Site was excavated by Henan Institute of Archaeology and University of Science and Technology of China jointly from 1983 to 2013. Under the guidance of Professor Zhang Juzhong (who worked in the Henan Institute of Archaeology) of the History and Archaeology Department of University of Science and Technology of China, eight excavations were carried out, and a large number of precious cultural relics such as bone flute were found.

Around December 1999, at an international archaeology conference in Beijing, Professor Zhang Juzhong asked Professor Patrick McCowan who was in charge of the molecular biology laboratory of University of Pennsylvania to test and analyze the inner wall attachments of pottery unearthed at the Jiahu Site. Professor McCowan agreed and brought some pottery fragments back to the United States. After returning to the laboratory, Professor McCowan made a careful analysis, and found tartaric acid deposits on some similar pottery fragments. In order to further demonstrate the research results, Professor McCowan asked Professor Zhang Zhong for 16 pottery fragments to continue the research in early 2001. Professor McCowan is a famous archaeologist, anthropologist, chemistry doctor, and expert in the study of the origin and history of alcoholic beverages in the world. He said that although the alcohol on the pottery unearthed at the Jiahu Site had completely evaporated and we cannot prove that alcoholic beverages were definitely brewed in these pottery, it was not difficult to infer that there was wine by then. Professor McCowan said that in a mild climate, Jiahu people put juice and liquid honey into pottery to produce alcohol by fermentation, then added polished round-grained rice into pottery. The ancient Jiahu Jiu was made finally.

In an American science report, Professor McCowen boldly proposed that the ancient Jiahu Jiu might be brewed by the [chewing method" which was created by the women who stayed at home. Women put rice grains and hawthorn into the mouth, chewed them and spat them into pottery. Then the polished round-grained rice was fermented by the function of saliva. This method is still used by the original residents in China Taiwan, Africa, Japan and other places in the world. And it is also considered to be an important reason why women invented wine. In addition, Professor McCowan also said that the scale of the Jiahu Site is very large and the resident population is also large, which shows that the ancient wine stored in the pottery may be alcoholic beverages drunk in important activities such as religious ceremonies or funerals.

In December 2004, Professor McCowan published his research results in the American Academy of Sciences. The article is named [the research result of fermented beverages of pre- and proto- historical China", which demonstrates that the residue in pottery is the earliest direct evidence for making ancient Jiahu Jiu in ancient China. On December 9, 2004, the Xinhua News Agency announced that American scholars had studied and confirmed that people lived in Jiahu village, Wuyang county, Henan province, China made the earliest wine 9,000 years ago. And the Reference News, Beijing Evening News and other media published the news in the first place. After the great discovery of ancient Jiahu Jiu was widely reported by the media at home and abroad, there was a great stir in the archaeology world. Many experts and scholars paid close attention to it. Some foreign wine merchants seized the opportunity and developed the ancient Jiahu Jiu with the slogan of "let people taste the nine thousand years of oriental culture".

Dr. Chen Shuang said that Huangjiu is closely related to the history of human development. We should be proud of Huangjiu, which is invented by the Chinese nation. Why do people invent wine? Because wine can bring people fresh spiritual experience and happiness. And the mission of brewers in the new era is to brew wine with higher quality.

Share to:

LET'S GET IN TOUCH

We will contact you immediately

Fill in more information so that we can get in touch with you faster

Privacy statement: Your privacy is very important to Us. Our company promises not to disclose your personal information to any external company with out your explicit permission.

Send