Traditional Distilling Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The history of Yanghe liquor-making begins in the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty and has passed through six generations to the present day. What has been transmitted across the six generations is mostly not the exact proportions of the formula, but a set of habits for judging temperature, timing, and the condition of the jar mouth—such as which family's starter culture behaves best in what weather. Words like these can only be passed down one sentence at a time. The town sits at the junction of Siyang, Sihong, and Suyu counties, with a dense network of waterways, abundant groundwater, and ample rainfall. This climate keeps the fermentation pits and the 'wine seas' (large storage vessels) from losing moisture, and also steers the liquor's character toward a soft and sweet register, never toward the light and bland. That Yanghe was later able to hold its own among the many liquor types came from gathering the whole town's manual experience into a single distillery: its four great processes—making the starter culture, brewing, sealing and storing, and blending—were written down as items, and the six-character formula in the hands of the blenders—rong (blend), cheng (multiply), chen (set off), lian (restrain), yan (mask), xiu (refine)—was fixed as a craft language.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Yanghe liquor-brewing craft is one of the representatives of China's traditional distilled-liquor brewing crafts, distributed mainly in Yanghe Town, Sucheng District, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, and radiating to the surrounding area. The town lies at the junction of Siyang, Sihong, and Suyu counties, with convenient transport. It has a temperate monsoon climate, with distinct four seasons, ample sunshine, abundant rainfall, a dense water network, rich groundwater resources, and sweet-tasting water; the local soil is an organic-rich clay, providing a favorable climate and natural environment for the birth and development of the Yanghe liquor-brewing craft. The Yanghe liquor-brewing craft relies chiefly on traditional manual operation and mainly comprises four great processes: making the starter culture, brewing, sealing and storing, and blending. Making the starter culture uses wheat, barley, and pea as raw materials, completed through such steps as moistening the grain, crushing, and manual trampling. That is, the raw materials are ground into husk, grit, and powder, then mixed with water in proportion, formed into balls and pressed into molds, trodden by foot into blanks—tight at the edges and loose in the center—and conditioned for temperature and humidity, producing a medium-high-temperature daqu (starter cake) with a 'golden coat, purple ring, white belly, and red heart.' Brewing uses sorghum, rice, and glutinous rice as raw materials and the starter culture as the saccharifying and fermenting agent, completed through such steps as solid-state fermentation, distillation in the steaming barrel (zeng), and drawing the liquor by quality. The grain is milled into flakes, steam-cleaned to release aroma, mixed with the fermenting mash and moistened, solid-state distilled in the steaming barrel, and the liquor is taken by observing the 'flowers' (bubbles) and grading by quality; the spent mash is then cooled, mixed with starter and sent into the pit for extra-long fermentation, repeating the cycle. Sealing and storing uses ceramic jars as the storage vessels, sealed with a secret mixture of pig's-blood paste, glutinous-rice juice, quicklime, and water-cotton paper, and placed in a temperature- and humidity-controlled underground cellar for long-term storage. Blending uses base liquors, repeatedly blended and tasted by the blender to form liquor products of different styles. The blending craft applies the six-character formula 'rong, cheng, chen, lian, yan, xiu' (blend, multiply, set off, restrain, mask, refine), fully engaging the visual, olfactory, and gustatory senses, and through the combination of base liquors and repeated seasoning forms the distinctive style of Yanghe liquor—'sweet, soft, mellow, clean, and fragrant.' The Yanghe Liquor History Exhibition Hall built in recent years displays the process flow and brewing knowledge of this craft to the public, promoting its transmission and development.
Archival Process Record
Making the starter culture uses wheat, barley, and pea as raw materials, completed through such steps as moistening the grain, crushing, and manual trampling.
The six-character blending formula
The blenders work by six characters covering blending, carrying, backing, closing down, masking and repairing the finished style.
Sealing jars with pig-blood mortar
A sealing mortar of pig blood, glutinous rice juice, lime and water-proof paper isolates the jar and lets the wine age in an underground cellar.
Picking the middle cut by the foam
The stillman watches flow, foam and colour, discarding the harsh head and the cloudy tail to keep only the middle cut.
Extended pit fermentation
Cooked rice is cooled, mixed with qu and held in the pit for many rounds, giving a longer fermentation than ordinary strong aroma spirits.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yanghe liquor-brewing craft bears the historical course of the development of China's brewing industry; it is a valuable witness to the developmental history of distilled-liquor brewing technology in modern and contemporary Chinese brewing, and also an important specimen for the study of the liquor culture of eastern China, the Jianghuai region, and the Huang–Huai river basin.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
From the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty to the present, the Yanghe liquor-brewing craft has a fairly clear line of six generations of inheritors and transmission communities, who pass on the core knowledge and skills of the craft through oral teaching and master–apprentice transmission, and who continuously deepen research into the brewing craft, upgrading and iterating it in response to changes in consumers' tastes. In recent years, the item has played a positive role in providing employment, driving the development of such industries as cultivation, breeding, packaging, and logistics, and promoting the sustainable growth of the local economy.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Gao Jingyan 03-1409
- Shang Liyun 03-1410
- Qin Wenke 03-1411
- Li Yuheng 03-1412
- Lai Dengyi 03-1414
- Li Jiashun 03-1415
- Yang Dajin 05-2838
- Zhou Xinhu
- Li Tianhua
- Xu Zhancheng
- Zhao Deyi
- Li Zexia
- Lu Zhenying
- Zhao Dong
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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