Without the Communist Party, there would have been no new China, and without New China, there would have been no Moutai Distillery with a worldwide reputation, and without the Moutai Distillery, there would have been no "master of national liquor" -- Zheng Yixing. Only with the founding of New China can we show political concern and daily care for our national craftsmen, can we enable our national craftsmen to have the opportunity to be masters of their own affairs, can they become the masters of enterprises, can they have the platform of the times to carry forward the inheritance of traditional crafts, and can they have the opportunity to make greater contributions to the country, the people, and society! Zheng Yixing is also a national craftsman and winemaking master who stood out after the founding of socialist New China.
As already introduced, the Zheng family of Maoxi, Sichuan, has been recorded since the third generation of Zheng You, the ancestor of the first ancestor of Sichuan, and since the fifth generation, after the 117 flavors of Traditional Chinese Medicine of "Zheng's Qu Making Secret Recipe", the inheritance of Zheng's winemaking technology will follow the ancestral precepts.
Zheng Yixing relied on his superhuman memory to follow Zheng Yingchong and Zheng Yingcai, the ninth generation of the Zheng family's winemakers (both of whom were Zheng Yixing's uncles), to learn the Zheng family's winemaking techniques in Maoxi, Sichuan and Moutai in Guizhou.
From the end of the Qing Dynasty to the beginning of the Republic of China, the large-scale brewing workshops in Moutai competed for the Zheng family wine master, and Zheng Yixing's uncle Zheng Yingcai also shouldered the chief liquor division of many shochu houses such as "Chengyi" and "Ronghe" in Moutai Town (then known as the Palm Fire Winemaker). "Hengxing Burning House" and "Chengyi Burning House" In order to compete for the Zheng family's wine division, Zheng Yingcai was forced to sign a guarantee that he would no longer interact with the "Hengxing Burning House.". Under the ingenious arrangement of his uncle Zheng Yingcai, Zheng Yixing resigned from the "Chengyi Burning House" and returned to his hometown in Maoxi Gangou, Sichuan. Less than a year later, Yang Duanwu, the treasurer of the "Hengxing Burning House," went to Maoxi, Sichuan Province, to hire a young winemaker, Zheng Yixing, to be a sommelier in the "Hengxing Burning House" as a winemaker; in order to increase the popularity of the "Hengxing Burning House" and the Zheng family's winemaker, the "Hengxing Burning House" and Yang Duanwu meticulously planned: Using eight large sedans to bring Zheng Yixing from Maoxi, Sichuan to Maotai, the treasurer of the burning house led the workers and local gentry to beat gongs and drums, and set off firecrackers across the Chishui River to Maotai "Hengxing Burning House" to solemnly welcome Zheng Yixing, and the workers shouted: Hengxing has a Zheng family wine master"... Hengxing has a Zheng family wine master"! Since then, Zheng Yixing, with the secret sauce brewing skills passed down from generation to generation by the Zheng family, has left Zhangshu Village, Maoxi Town, Gulin County, Sichuan Province, and came to Moutai Town, Guizhou Province, which is only four kilometers away from Zhangshu Village.
He successively worked as a winemaker in the "Chengyi Yaofang", "Ronghe Yaofang", "Hengxing Yaofang" and Zunyi "Longkeng Jiyi Liquor House" in Maotai Town, Renhuai County. Before liberation, when Zheng Yixing was a master of liquor in major shochus, he strictly abided by the rules of his ancestors and did not teach apprentices to foreign surnames.
After the founding of New China, in November 1950, the state took the name of 1. 300 million yuan (equivalent to 13,000 yuan of people's yuan) to redeem the largest brewing workshop in Maotai Town, Chengyi Roast House (of which 1,000 yuan is the cost of work and deed tax). The People's Government of Renhuai County, Guizhou Province, entrusted Wang Shanzhai, then director of the Renhuai County Taxation Bureau, to manage the factory affairs, presided over the work, and established the "Guizhou Provincial Monopoly Business Company Renhuai County Moutai Distillery." Between 1951 and 1953, the state redeemed, confiscated, and accepted two other large-scale brewing workshops in Moutai Town before liberation, the "Ronghe Roasting Factory" and the "Hengxing Roasting Factory," and established the local state-owned Moutai Distillery in the form of reorganization. In 1953, Zheng Yixing entered the Moutai Distillery as a winemaker and was responsible for guiding production technology. In April 1956, Zheng Yixing was promoted to deputy director of Moutai Distillery, specifically responsible for production technology.
Profile photo: Moutai Distillery
In May 1991, the Science Publishing House published "Moutai Distillery Chronicle", "Moutai Distillery Chronicle" 99 pages "Character Sketch" Zheng Yixing fully affirmed Zheng Yixing's great contribution to China's sauce wine brewing! The full text of Zheng Yixing's article on page 99 of the "Moutai Distillery Chronicle" is as follows:
Zheng Yixing, named Yongwei, is a native of Shuikou Township, Gulin County, Sichuan. Born in the twenty-first year of the Qing Dynasty (1895). He attended private school at an early age. In the second year of the Republic of China (1913), he entered the Moutai Chengyi Wine House as an apprentice, and successively worked as a sommelier in the three wineries of Chengyi, Ronghe and Hengxing and the Zunyi Longkeng Jiyi Wine House. In 1953, he entered the local state-owned Moutai Distillery in Guizhou Province, and was responsible for production technology guidance as a winemaker.
For hundreds of years, the production technology of Moutai wine has been taught by the master and apprentice. Technical operations, the same is different. After the establishment of Moutai Distillery, it called on old workers and old winemakers to offer advice and suggestions, so as to sum up experience, find laws, and formulate a complete and systematic process flow. Yixing first responded to the call to record the experience accumulated over the past 30 years and the brewing technology passed down by the family for five generations. He also mobilized other winemakers to emancipate their minds and teach techniques, saying: "In the past, I was worried that I would not be able to live in old age, but now the state takes good care of us, and we are worried about anything, as long as the production is good, we all have a good time." Therefore, the whole factory obtained a variety of production technology materials, and initially formulated a unified operating procedure for Moutai wine.
Before liberation, the skills of the winemakers in the various liquor houses of Moutai Liquor had always been secretive, and the old rules of "teaching apprentices, starving the master" and "passing on the son-in-law, passing on the daughter-in-law and not passing on the daughter-in-law" were strictly observed. Seeing the progress of the times and the development of science and technology, Yixing selected a budding young worker, Li Xing, to teach skills patiently in the spirit of tireless and unreserved teaching. Several experienced winemakers in the factory also took in apprentices and cultivated talents one after another. Later, Xingfa served as deputy director and served as a national sauce-flavored liquor consultant.
From 1954 to 1955, the factory carried out a socialist labor competition centered on increasing production and saving, and put forward the slogan of "sand is finely ground, wine is produced all year round" ("sand" is red sorghum), Yixing believes that this is not the Moutai wine needed by the people of the motherland, but the ordinary sorghum wine that can be brewed anywhere. Increasing production and saving means less waste, not such a production increase method that does not conform to the process regulations. This opinion was not taken seriously, so that the second pot head that was not popular in the market was brewed. Not only that, Yixing was also commented on by "being more right-wing in thought, having a sense of conformism, and having a poor understanding of new things."
In 1956, after the National Eight Famous Wines Conference was held in Beijing, the factory carried out a campaign to improve product quality, and only then adopted the suggestion of Yixing to restore the traditional operation methods, and the wine quality was gradually improved. 19%, 70% in 1957 rose to 99%. 42%。 In order to praise Yixing's achievements, with the approval of his superiors, he was given a salary of three consecutive levels (from four to seven levels), a reward of one leather coat, and was promoted to deputy director of the factory and awarded the title of engineer. Zheng Yixing was elected as a member of the second and third Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference, and Zheng Yixing died in Moutai in 1978.
1960s Moutai Distillery Leadership Team Meeting, Zheng Yixing (Li) Wang Shaobin (first from left)
Zheng Yixing (from 4th from left) poses with moutai distillery staff
Zheng Yixing introduced Moutai wine to officers and men of the People's Liberation Army
In order to commemorate Zheng Yixing's outstanding contribution to Chinese sauce wine, Guizhou Moutai Distillery erected a statue of Zheng Yixing in the "National Liquor Culture City" in Maotai Town. Nanzhulin Park in Renhuai City, Guizhou Province, also erected a statue for Zheng Yixing, the "master of national liquor".