In xiangxi, there has never been a cultural element that can arouse the strong interest of experts and scholars like it, and it is not hesitant to trace back to the roots and ask the questions, so that the academic views obtained are enough to have a subversive impact on the traditional theory of the origin of wine; there has never been a local special capacity that was born as early as it was, and there are strange waves in the historical source of the Tujia and Miao peoples in western Hunan Province, and the customs, rituals, art, myths, religions, and even the details of life of the two ethnic groups are quietly integrated. It has become a bright halo in the development chain of the Xiangxi nationality; there has never been a characteristic industry that can trickle into a river like it, once regarded by Xizhou Toast as a home-owning industry for hundreds of years, and it has lost no time in today's sudden rise in the world, smelted into a strange product in the aromatic liquor family, and is famous for its unique quality. It is the wine of Xiangxi - a wine that once drunk on history and drunk on the rich fragrance of today's world.
Xiangxi wine is long, mellow, sweet, and peculiar. It is the legend of Xiangxi, the story of Xiangxi, the song of Xiangxi, the power of Xiangxi, and the dream of Xiangxi.
"The sky in Chu is wide and the clouds are flying, and the mountains are chaotic and the rivers are long." Located in the western corner of Jingchu, the Xiangxi Mountains and Valleys are deeply forested, with streams and streams. In ancient times, Xiangxi "is a place where mountains and forests are beautiful, and it is advisable to have famous materials and different products." "The mountains of Xiangxi and the water of Xiangxi are destined to have a long history of wine in Xiangxi, and the fragrance is far away.
In western Hunan Province, there is the Youshui River, which flows for thousands of miles, the EryouShan Mountain, which has a collection of thousands of books, and the history of the Youshui River Basin, which was once the place where the Unitary people lived and multiplied. Qin Jian's "Book of the Day" records that "unitary" is "wine", "wine" is from "yin" from "unitary", and unitary day is "rice is wine, wine is beautiful". Xu Shen's "Explanation of Words and Characters" said: Wine, from water from unitary, unitary also sound. The two books share the same record, "wine" originates from "unitary", and there is no difference. The wine and wine connotations of the landscape of Xiangxi cannot but arouse the associations and thoughts of everyone. Some scholars have specially written an article "Fine Wine Unitary Brewing", which is comprehensively examined from multiple angles and perspectives such as linguistics, folklore, archaeology, geography, etc., and it is determined that wine is made by unitary people, and wine is a major invention of the Miao ancestors in ancient times, and the history of winemaking has reached more than 10,000 years. This statement is tantamount to a new theory of stone-shattering new theories about the origin of wine—there are wine stars making wine, apes making wine, Yellow Emperor making wine, Shennong making wine, Yidi making wine, and Du Kang making wine—but for cultural Xiangxi, it opens a window that can stimulate more reverie, adding a lot of classical beauty and fun.
Leaving aside the credibility of the theory of "fine wine and unitary wine", just by virtue of the phenomenon and fragments of scholars hooking some sinking, it is enough to reflect the long history of wine and the heavy wine affairs in western Hunan Province.
There is a very quaint tribute in the land of Jingchu called Baomao, and the Shangshu Yugong lists the Jingzhou tributes stipulated by Dayu as "Zhu Mao". A special function of the bud grass is to shrink the wine for the Jongmyo Temple - in ancient times, the wrapped jingmao was placed in the grape to filter out the dregs in the wine. The shrank of the bracted wine had become a highly valued sacrifice ceremony for the ancient Tianzi at that time, and the disapproval of the bract grass once became the reason for the war. The "Fourth Year of the Duke of Zuo Chuan" records that the Duke of Qi Huan entangled the princes and attacked Chu in the south in the name of Cai. When the Chu envoy questioned the reason, Guan Zhong, the Minister of State of Qi, bluntly told him: "Ergong Baomao does not enter, the king sacrifice is not shared, there is no way to shrink the wine, and the widow is a sign." One of the reasons for asking for guilt was that the Chu people did not pay tribute to Zhou Tianzi, and Zhou Tianzi could not shrink the wine. A herb, a rural object, but can become the fuse of war, setting off such an uproar, which shows its rarity and scarcity, but also to see the obedience and stubbornness of the princes at that time.
Bud grass is Jingmao, also known as Mao, Lemongrass, Qiongmao, its main production area is in Xiangxi. Huang Min, a Wuling man of Southern Qi, wrote in the "Records of Wuling": "There are snakes in Wushan, with four eyes and a large body of ten. The mountains have water out, and the so-called Wuxi is also, in the west of the county (Luxi). The mountain has buds, thorns and ridges, so it is called bud mountain. "Mount Wu is east of today's Lal Mountain in western Hunan Province, and Baoshan Mountain is the Baomao Mountain at the junction of Luxi and Mayang. Since the distant ancestors of Xiangxi were familiar with the great use of baomao filter wine, could they not know the method of winemaking?
In the Hmong priest's "Wine Song", there is a poignant and moving legend of "Dionysus Lady" that has been sung for a long time: a beautiful "Depa" (A-sister) on the way to deliver lunch to his family has a crush on the handsome "Dai Cui" (A-Brother) who can sing mountain songs, and can't help but wrap the food in tung leaves and bury it in the grass full of orchids, and rush to the song for a date. Ah Mei did not expect that she missed delivering food because she forgot her love for the song, delayed the family's farm work, and was mistakenly injured and killed by her brother who was extremely impulsive when she heard the news. A few days later, when the remorseful family came to the orchid where she buried her lunch, she suddenly smelled a strange fragrance and suddenly realized the mystery, and the Miao people mastered the secret of making sweet wine. Ah Mei with her young flower life inadvertently exchanged for fragrant wine, the kind villagers are full of sympathy and gratitude, all say that Ah Mei did not die, but was summoned by the Heavenly Palace to manage the world's winemaking, they honored her as "wine lady", worshiped as "Dionysus", all said that the shining "wine flag star" in the sky is her beautiful embodiment. The "Ancient Song of the Miao People's Badai", which is known as the epic of the creation of the Miao people, also has a singing lyric for the Miao people to brew wine and pick meat: "Heba Fat Songgou Wine, Henong let Miao Cha Ang repay." The white of the wine river shines on the white soil, and the soil of the river runs old according to the liquor. Let Miao let Angsa make up for it, and Ang Chop Mi Ban out of the super. The general idea of this obscure lyric is that making music and making wine (wine running old) is the specialty of Miao women, and hunting meat is the vocation of Miao men. Ancient singing words are the root of Miao memory, concise description is sonorous evidence, Miao ancestors are very good at brewing very strong and sweet glutinous rice sweet wine, the Deep Mountains of Xiangxi Miao people wine has been passed down from generation to generation, has been around for a long time.
In order to insist on capturing the origin of winemaking and drinking in Western Hunan Province, in addition to folklore and folk songs, more imprints can be found in the wine vessels excavated by Qu Yuan's "Chu Ci", Baojing Sifang City and Liye Qincheng. However, these can only depict a general outline of the history of Xiangxi wine at most, and cannot reflect the historical facts and scenes of Xiangxi winemaking. The real famous record of Xiangxi winemaking still dates back to the Song Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty Zhu Fu's "Xi Man Cong Laugh" said that the Wuxi area: "Wine is made of fire, not sour, not sharp." Two strands of things, absorbed by the vine, the name of the fishing vine wine. "The core area of Wuxi is today's Xiangxi. Fishing vine wine is a veritable specialty of the Wuxi area in the past, and the wine is mostly made of glutinous rice, which is sucked in an urn with fishing vines. Fishing vine, also known as hook vine, is a traditional Chinese medicine, but also can make wine. Qing Dynasty horticulturist Chen Shuzi's "Secret Flower Mirror" Yun: "Hook vines are produced in Liangzhou, and are found in present-day Qin, Chu, Jiangnan, and Jiangxi. The leaves are slender and green, with thorns between their stems, like fishing hooks, and grow on the knots, and their color is purple and red, curly and firm. One or two feet long, as big as a finger, hollow. Seal it with a wine-making urn, insert it to take the wine, and inhale it with a trickle. ”
Fishing vine wine is also known as Xi Tong smashing wine. The Ming Dynasty literary scholar Yang Shen's "Outer Collection" called diaoyu vine wine "that is, today's wine." The Ming Dynasty thinker Fang Yizhi's "Tongya" also said: "Oh. Miscellaneous hemp wine, the hole is called fishing vine. In the Ming Dynasty Shen Zhan's "Five Streams Barbarian Map" annotation to the original "Barbarian Map", there is fishing wine: "Fishing vines drink a lot of fun, and after drunkenness, Miao Yin sings under the moon." Don't know and forget Dili, how about Ge Tian's world music? The Qing Dynasty Lu Ciyun's "Dongxi Fiber Zhi" says: "Smack wine, a fishing vine wine, based on rice weed seeds." Brewed with fire, not chopped and not pickled, absorbed by vines, many people who drink with their noses, that is, from the nose into the throat, more interesting. Qing Guangxu's "Chronicle of Longshan County" said: "Sipping wine, using sorghum badly, soaking in mountain springs in the summer moon, and sucking it in a bamboo pipe urn, which can best quench thirst, also known as barrel wine, and the natives like to drink it." ”
From these records, it can be seen that diaoyu cane wine is a common favorite drink of the two major ethnic groups in western Hunan and Western Hunan in the past, and is often drunk during grand festivals, weddings and funerals, and banquets for guests. The biggest feature of fishing vine wine is that the drinking method is strange, guests gather in groups to drink, no need for glasses and bowls and other wine utensils, directly use fishing vine (also with bamboo pipes) into the wine urn, take turns to suck. The greatest pleasure of sipping wine is to gather together under the moon and sing songs. Lu You's "Notes on the Old School" says: "Chenxi Jingzhou drank wildly with his nose, drank to several liters, and the name hook vine wine did not know what it was." Drunk, men and women gather and sing. Chen Yingchang, a professor in the Chu Province of the Ming Dynasty, described in "Wuxi Yin": "Before the wind, the gourd sheng is dissolved, and the group under the moon is pouring vine wine." At the end of the Qing Dynasty, when shi Dakai, a famous general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, led his troops to sichuan and passed through Wuxi, after drinking the cane wine, he once wrote a poem with great interest: "A thousand pearls are harvested in an urn, and the king also bows his head here." Wuyue hugged Optimus Prime and sucked in the yellow river water to flow backwards. "Lang Lang Mingyue, the guest Salty Set, sitting around the urn, singing to the wine, it is really wonderful."
Some experts have researched that fishing vine wine has a history of nearly 2,000 years, but today's Xiangxi has no trace of fishing vine wine. Chen Xinchuan, a Christian missionary of the Republic of China, had done an investigation when he was sorting out the "Five Streams Barbarian Atlas", and all the miaozhai were unaware, which showed that the custom of drinking and fishing vine wine in the night moon group had been lost for a long time at that time. "Drink the liquor of the vine, and sleep with the bird." That romance is gone.
There is also a famous wine in the history of Xiangxi that has to be said, although it is not as long as the history of fishing vine wine, it has a great influence in the Yongshun toast area, at least for hundreds of years. Tan Qian, a historian of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, made a very condensed account of toast wine in "Yongshun Baojing Ersi Tufeng" in the "Records of Journey to the North": "The wine is red like a double-cast method, and the song is made of thorns and mustard, and other things, the color is clear and yellow, the taste is delicious, and the wine is sold at a good price." There are also documents that record the wine, such as Qianlong's "Yongshun Fu Zhi", Tongzhi's "Yongshun County Chronicle", Guangxu's "Hunan Tongzhi", and the Republic of China's "Yongshun County Chronicle", but none of them are mentioned in the "Northern Journey Record". Although tan qian's record is short, the information package capacity is extremely large, and the origin, brewing method, koji making, wine color, wine taste, wine name and wine price of toast wine have made a comprehensive and accurate statement. In the history of Chinese wine culture, as a kind of local alcohol, it is rare to be so respected and written into the annals of history by a famous historian. If it were not for the fact that there is no special place in toast wine, there is no recognized special value; if it were not for the fame of toast wine in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the wide range of pyramid schemes, and the social attention, it would not have entered the field of vision of historians to talk about migration, inspired a thorough investigation of Yaxing, nor would it have been praised by the Tujia family as a qiong pulp jade liquid, perfumed for hundreds of years.
In terms of its category, toast is supposed to be a kind of fragrant wine, and the koji is made of vanilla that is abundant in the Tujia area such as Jingjia. Jinghua is a very old medicinal and edible dual-purpose plant, which was named quite early in this cursive book, and was first published in the Eastern Han Dynasty's "Shennong Materia Medica" under the name of false Su. The name of Jing mustard was first seen in the Wei and Jin "Wu Pu Materia Medica", and the Northern Song Dynasty", which follows the name of false Su, saying that Jing mustard "has leaves like fallen quinoa and is thin, the first spicy fragrance can be eaten, and people take it as lettuce". When Li Shizhen wrote the Compendium of Materia Medica in the Ming Dynasty, he deliberately moved it from vegetables to herbs, and also took its big name as False Su. Jing mustard has a spicy and warm taste, has the effect of sweating and dissolving the table, dispersing stasis and stopping bleeding, and is used to treat external wind chills, diaphragm and itching, blood dizziness and bleeding. The use of multi-functional jing mustard as a sake koji wine, naturally makes the toast wine have the dual effects of fragrant wine and medicinal wine, and also forms the unique characteristics of the style of the sake. This characteristic corresponds precisely to the geographical characteristics and climatic characteristics of western Hunan - high cold, humid, changeable, cool water, steep peaks, lush forests, smoke and greenery, clouds and mist surrounding the living environment, so that the ancestors of the Tujia family had to borrow wine to drive away the cold, send wine for health, especially for the preventive and therapeutic effect of the wine is more fond of; this characteristic also just caters to the Yongshun Tubing for the imperial court to fight for the imperial court to fight in the body and spirit of a certain need, Jing mustard wine may be more like a kind of cheap and good war materials.
Su Dongpo once said: "The waste of things has become ruined, and it is impossible to know it." No matter how good things are, there will always be a day of exhaustion. Yongshun Toast Wine has been red and hot for hundreds of years, and finally, like Fishing Vine Wine, it quietly faded from the life of the Xiangxi Tujia family in the early days of the Republic of China, and the reason for the disappearance is equally mysterious. I used to do an investigation in the Tujia cottage near The Old Sicheng in Yongshun, and now the villagers are almost completely ignorant of toast. It is gratifying to see large areas of thorn mustard on some of the slopes of the mountain called the Wanma Dynasty. In late autumn, a string of purple and white thorn mustard flower spikes sway with the wind, graceful and colorful, a burst of fine fragrance comes to the nose, refreshing the spleen, but it seems a little vigorous and stubborn, injecting a lot of historical reality into people who are suspenseful and confused.
After all, the glory of fishing vine wine and toast wine has become a thing of the past. However, the winemaking skills in the western Hunan region have been passed down from generation to generation, and the craftsmanship has become increasingly skilled and pure.
Nowadays, Xiangxi liquor is constantly innovating, like mushrooms after the rain, fresh atmosphere, there are farmhouse Baogu roast, farmhouse rice wine, Tujia sweet potato wine, Tujia liquor, Tujia turtle king wine, Miaojia medicinal wine, Miaojia cellar wine, Xiangba wine, Qinjian wine, Miao soul wine, Delammer Miao Wang wine, Miao jia glutinous rice wine, Phoenix red glutinous rice wine, glutinous rice osmanthus wine, Longshan lion's head mushroom wine, Shenzhou Three Snake Wine, Wulongshan Daqu, Xiangxi Snake King wine, sorghum wine, lily wine, prickly pear wine, wine, Yezhaiwan wine, Paddy River wine, Toast King wine, snowflake beer, Tujia wine, Xiangquan wine...
Among the many kinds of mash in Xiangxi, the most dazzling brands are the liquor series, such as Hongtan Liquor, Zitan Liquor, Huangtan Liquor, Dongzang Liquor, Neikan Liquor, etc. Formerly known as Jishou Distillery, which was founded in 1956, it is located in the Horn Valley on the northern outskirts of Jishou City, with lush greenery, green mist floating in the sky, meandering streams, and three clear springs of Dragon Spring, Fengquan Spring and Beast Spring gushing all day long. Relying on the unique natural geographical environment and regional cultural resources, inheriting the long-standing folk traditional crafts of Xiangxi, after more than 40 years of development and growth, the company created the original Chinese liquor "Tulip Type", and successfully listed in 1997, becoming "China's well-known trademark" and "world famous brand consumer goods". The innovation of alcoholic liquor is not accidental, I believe that there are inspirations from diaoyu vine wine and toast wine, there is an endless Inheritance of Xiangxi Wine, and there is a Xiangxi Wine Soul Support. The rise of alcoholic liquor is worthy of a milestone in the history of Xiangxi wine culture, and the wine of Xiangxi has reached a new height.
Xiangxi people will make wine, and Xiangxi people will drink better. Shi Qigui, a famous Miao scholar in western Hunan Province, said in the "Field Investigation Report of the Miao People in Western Hunan Province" that the people of Xiangxi "do not pay attention to tea drinking, only tobacco and alcohol, and their hobbies have been extreme." ...... Drinking alcohol is also more, the amount of alcohol is very large, drinking less than four or two and a half pounds, as much as one or two pounds. As for sweet wine, men, women and children love to eat it. ”
We know that wine is not only a delicacy, but also a good medicine, a sad dan, a reassuring pill, and a stimulant. Wine can activate blood stasis and dredge the meridians, wine can eliminate fatigue and relax nerves, wine can appetize and digest food to promote metabolism, wine can dispel wind and cold and cure diseases and strengthen the body, wine can make friends and make friends to make friends and make friends, wine can help to enjoy the atmosphere, wine can dispel sorrows and soothe the soul, wine can inspire the spirit to be grateful to yang words, wine can strengthen and help challenge the limit... Xiangxi people do not like the reason for wine, only the fear of greedy cups, but also their own unique drinking complex and fun. Wine has been integrated into all aspects of the life of Xiangxi people, and wine has become a kind of life etiquette that cannot be desecrated by Xiangxi people. When the new life lands, it is necessary to drink the first raw wine, the three dynasties wine, the bamboo rice wine (full moon wine), the hundred-day wine, and the first year wine; when getting married and marrying, you must put xieken wine, dingqin wine, daihua wine, leaving the mother's wine, sending relatives wine, Shangma wine, barricade wine, worship wine, tongxin wine, hehuan wine, noisy wine, huimen wine, and heart wine; funeral white things must set up open road wine, dojo wine, shangshan wine, send bright wine, and hang community wine; spring planting and autumn harvest are indispensable to planting rice wine, hitting grain wine, eating new wine, harvest wine, and piling flower wine; building houses and housewarming cannot avoid Liang Shu wine, Shangliang wine, completion wine, and housewarming wine ...... As the folk song goes: "Wine is a fairy in the clouds, no legs and a thousand families, no wine and no flying songs, no wine and no music, no wine and no dancing, no wine and no banquet, no wine and no etiquette." Xiangxi became a river of wine, a basin of wine, and a valley of wine. Xiangxi wine aroma brewed Xiangxi "drunken town".
The wine of Xiangxi is no longer a simple substance, but has become a kind of joy, a kind of etiquette, a kind of sustenance, a kind of romance, and a kind of culture.
the arc and fall back, help the Big Dipper to drink the cinnamon pulp. The Xiangxi wine ceremony is spectacular. Sometimes, I can't help but ask myself, "Is the wine in Xiangxi just delicious?" "In fact, far more than that, the wine of Xiangxi is better at bridging the historical wounds, forging the soul of the Xiangxi army, watering traditional art, and casting the national spirit."
Zhai Fei, real name Zhai Hui, male, born in January 1968, Tujia family, Hunan Xiangxi people. He is a member of Hunan Writers Association. Worked in the Development and Reform Commission of Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture in Hunan Province. In 1991, he began to publish more than 100 essays and documentary literature in national and provincial publications such as Chinese Writers, Farmers Daily, Chinese Nationalities, Chinese and Foreign Literature and Art, and Hunan Essays. He is the author of the collection of essays "Landscape and Water Xiangxi".