Yandongguanwujiapiniangjiujiyi
01 · Historical Records
The craft of brewing wujiapi (Acanthopanax bark) wine has a long history; it was already widely current among the people in the Ming and Qing dynasties and flourished in the Xin'an River area of Jiande, Zhejiang. According to the Jiande County Gazetteer, in the twenty-eighth year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty (1763 CE) the Huizhou merchant Zhu Yangmao founded the Zhi Zhong He distillery in the old Yanzhou prefecture seat, brewing Yandongguan wujiapi wine, which has been transmitted down to the present.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yandongguan wujiapi wine is an outstanding representative of Chinese wujiapi wines; it takes its name from Dongguan, east of the old Yanzhou prefectural city, now Meicheng Town in Jiande City, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Jiande lies near 30° north, known as the golden belt for brewing; it belongs to the mountainous area of western Zhejiang, with a warm, humid climate, abundant rainfall and a high forest coverage rate, all highly favourable to the reproduction and growth of yeast flora. The place is the water-source area where the Xin'an, Fuchun and Lan rivers meet, with shallow shoals, many bends, deep pools and swift currents, and excellent water quality. Favourable timing and terrain brought about the emergence and development of the Yandongguan wujiapi brewing craft. The Yandongguan wujiapi brewing craft carries on traditional techniques such as solid-state fermentation, distillation and steeping of Chinese medicines. Using pure-grain spirits, glutinous-rice honey wine, medicinal juice and white sugar as raw materials, and going through process steps such as steaming, spreading to cool, mixing with starter, solid-state fermentation in vats and distillation in earthen stills, it has formed a complete brewing process centred on “secondary fermentation” and “four-stage steeping”, producing a traditional wujiapi wine that combines distilled spirits, brewed wine and a compounded Chinese-medicine infusion. It uses its own distinctive traditional “secondary fermentation” technique to brew the “mother wine” of wujiapi wine: local quality glutinous rice and wujiapi are taken as raw materials and the traditional poured-rice method is used, going through a first fermentation of 7 to 15 days, after which an appropriate amount of wujiapi and Chinese-medicine infusion is blended in for a second fermentation; more than three months of fermentation in all are needed before the wine is made. “Four-stage steeping” means that the Chinese medicinal materials, chiefly wujiapi, go through four process steps: steeping at normal temperature, circulating steeping, heated steeping and steam steeping. Yandongguan wujiapi wine is strict in the selection of materials, scientific and rigorous in its formula and exacting in its craft; it embodies practical experience from traditional brewing and from Chinese medicine, has the effects of relieving fatigue and dispelling cold and damp, and is deeply favoured by consumers.
Archival Records of Process Steps
The Yandongguan wujiapi brewing craft carries on traditional techniques such as solid-state fermentation, distillation and steeping of Chinese medicines. Using pure-grain spirits, glutinous-rice honey wine, medicinal juice and white sugar as raw materials, and going through process steps such as steaming, spreading to cool, mixing with starter, solid-state fermentation in vats and distillation in earthen stills, it has formed a complete brewing process centred on “secondary fermentation” and “four-stage steeping”, producing a traditional wujiapi wine that combines distilled spirits, brewed wine and a compounded Chinese-medicine infusion. “Four-stage steeping” means that the Chinese medicinal materials, chiefly wujiapi, go through four process steps: steeping at normal temperature, circulating steeping, heated steeping and steam steeping.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Yandongguan wujiapi wine has a firm place in the markets of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Jiangxi and is exported far afield to the countries of Southeast Asia, where it is deeply liked by local consumers and by Chinese communities abroad. Wujiapi wine has become part of the daily life and festival customs of the local people and is sold overseas; it both helps rural revitalization and local social and economic development and plays a positive role in cultural exchange with other countries.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present the project's protection unit has built an exhibition hall for the Yandongguan wujiapi brewing craft and gives full play to the role of representative inheritors; on the basis of traditional master-to-apprentice transmission, it keeps strengthening the transmission and dissemination of the project through training classes, greater emphasis on production practice and media publicity. The wujiapi brewing craft has high value for technical research and is a vivid vehicle of Chinese health-preservation culture and wine culture.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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