Xu Chaozhong

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Xu Chaozhong, Male, Unspecified, from Danyang, Jiangsu, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Niangzaojiuchuantong Brewing Craftsmanship (Ⅷ-145). The tradition is documented in Danyang, Jiangsu. Within the regional tradition and school record of Niangzaojiuchuantong Brewing Craftsmanship in Danyang, Jiangsu: Danyang and Jintan both belong to the southern-Jiangsu sealed-jar wine line; both produce their own glutinous rice, with similar style but different water sources, and each master has his own knack and secret. Compared with the northern-Zhejiang yellow wine, this southern-Jiangsu branch places more value on the storage work after sealing the jar. Danyang Fenggang wine is a high-grade variety of yellow wine, its lineage reaching back to the Qin and Han dynasties. It is called "fenggang" (sealed jar) because after brewing it is aged for a long time sealed in the jar, without opening another jar or starting over: from the moment a jar is filled until the wine can be drunk, the only thing in between is leaving time to the mouth of the jar.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, of Han ethnicity, born in August 1958 in Danyang, Jiangsu Province. National representative bearer of the Traditional Brewing Technique of Fermented Wine (the Traditional Brewing Technique of Fenggangjiu), a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In January 1981 he joined the Danyang Distillery, where, by learning from senior brewers such as Qiu Weihan and through long personal practice, he gained a thorough command of Fenggangjiu brewing and mastered the entire production process. Under his direction the Danyang Distillery preserved its traditional brewing workshop, compiled a fairly complete set of process documentation and collected examples of traditional brewing utensils. He has been engaged as an expert member of the Rice Wine Branch of the Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology, an adjunct professor at Nanyang Institute of Technology in Henan, and an expert of the Chinese Rice Wine Master Workshop. Within the documented technical tradition of Niangzaojiuchuantong Brewing Craftsmanship in Danyang, Jiangsu: Fermented grain wine is commonly called "yellow wine" (huangjiu). It takes rice, broomcorn millet, corn and similar grains as raw materials. After washing, steaming and rinsing, white qu and yeast are used as saccharifying and fermenting agents; river qu and high-quality water are added, and after fermentation the mash (cloudy wine) is produced, which is then finished through pressing, settling and filtering. The wine is yellow in colour, clear and transparent, rich in aroma, and mild and mellow on the palate. Fermented grain wine is a traditional Chinese liquor, rich in nutrients, with effects such as promoting blood circulation, warming the stomach and intestines, moistening the skin, dispelling dampness, and nourishing and strengthening the body; it is especially loved by the people of Jiangnan. China is the birthplace of fermented grain wine. As early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, Shaoxing in Zhejiang could already brew yellow wine, a history of some 2,400 years to the present day. In the Jinhua region, during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, there also appeared the white lao wine brewed from glutinous rice and white smartweed qu. Fermented grain wine is mainly produced in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai, among which the cities of Shaoxing and Jinhua in Zhejiang and Jintan in Jiangsu are the most famous. Yellow wine is the oldest liquor in China. Both the Danyang Fenggang wine and the Jintan Fenggang wine of Jiangsu Province are high-grade varieties of yellow wine, whose history can be traced back to the Qin and Han eras some two thousand years ago. Jintan is a land of fish and rice. The glutinous rice grown here has large, uniform grains, a fragrant taste and glutinous quality, and is white as jade; through the ages it was a tribute offered to the imperial court, and the production of fine glutinous rice created unique conditions for brewing Fenggang wine. The brewing technique of Danyang Fenggang wine is complex and demanding; the process requires long sealed-jar ageing, from which it takes its name. Once brewed, the wine is reddish-brown with an amber lustre, fragrant in aroma and full-bodied in taste, fresh, sweet and smooth on the palate, earning the praise "lighter than dew on the flowers, coloured like spring in a cave." Fenggang wine is made from special local glutinous rice and the Maoshan spring water, a yellow wine of highly distinctive flavour. Through the continuous efforts of craftsmen across generations, the Fenggang brewing technique has matured, forming a unique Fenggang wine culture, and is praised as "a marvel in the forest of wines." But as modern people's eating habits change, the market for sweet yellow wine has gradually shrunk, which has had a certain impact on the production of Fenggang wine. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival process-step record": Fermented grain wine is commonly called "yellow wine" (huangjiu). It takes rice, broomcorn millet, corn and similar grains as raw materials. After washing, steaming and rinsing, white qu and yeast are used as saccharifying and fermenting agents; river qu and high-quality water are added, and after fermentation the mash (cloudy wine) is produced, which is then finished through pressing, settling and filtering. "Long sealed-jar ageing": The name refers to the long sealed ageing that gives the wine its colour, aroma and taste. "Light as dew on flowers, coloured as spring in a cave": A folk couplet describes the amber hue and sweet fragrance that generations of brewers have used as the yardstick. "Keeping the old workshop and its records": Under Xu Chaozhong the old workshop was preserved and its process written up, with the historic tools collected as physical record.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2009, Xu Chaozhong was announced in the third batch of national representative bearers for Niangzaojiuchuantong Brewing Craftsmanship, with Danyang, Jiangsu as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Niangzaojiuchuantong Brewing Craftsmanship in Danyang, Jiangsu: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Danyang, Jiangsu as its declared area, and Jiangsu Danyang Jiu Factory Co., Ltd. as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Xu Chaozhong · National Representative Bearer Archive