Wine Drinking Rituals and Customs

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Since ancient times there have always been numerous ritual rules associated with wine drinking and banquets in China, and in ancient society, with its view of wine as an instrument of ritual, the hierarchical ritual code, in which the old took precedence over the young and the lowly deferred to their betters, was observed with special strictness on such occasions. There were clear rules which took account of the social status, ages and habits of life of the drinkers and also of the circumstances and season of the party and the type of wine and the drinking vessels. Whether it was a state banquet or a private occasion, there were rules to conduct sanctioned by usage and shaped by the characteristics of the period.

There is an old saying to the effect that if you don't have wine vessels, you don't have the means to drink wine, and that whore, the size of these vessels, is concerned there are a right and wrong to it. Wine vessels from their origins to their prime were always closely related to ritual vessels, and if the Chinese have always been particular about having fine tableware for fine food, they have been still more particular about having elegant and beautiful drinking vessels that were just right for the purpose. For this reason from antiquity to the present day there has been an enormous variety of drinking vessels of every shape and form, from earthenware to bronze, from porcelain to jade, not only embodying the ritual customs of their period but also in many cases displaying an artistry and choice of materials that ranks them among the finest products of their age. Drinking vessels came to be an indispensable element of the culture of drinking.

The history of Chinese wine vessels can be divided into 5 periods.

1.The Neolithic period: primitive wine vessels appeared, and early forms of pottery wine vessels emerged.

2.The Xia, Shang, and Zhou: the evolution of bronze vessels went through a whole cycle from beginnings through development and maturity to gradual decline. In the Early and Middle Shang bronze vessels were already used widely as ritual vessels, and at the time of use a certainly ordered specialization of function had appeared in the way they were used, showing that the bronze vessel system was taking shape; the Late Shang was the golden age of bronze art, and by this period the types and shapes of bronze vessels had basically reached their classic form, and their functions were clearly defined; also, the relationship between the utensils in line with the requirements of ritual had been established. With the importance attached to wine being such an important part of the bronze system in the Late Shang, the bronze wine vessels of the time were extremely varied in shape.

3.The Eastern Zhou, the Qin, and the Han: lacquerware was the most common material for wine vessels, and porcelain wine vessels began to be made.

4.The Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang: most wine vessels were made of porcelain, but in the Sui and Tang there was a fashion for gold and silver vessels.

5.The Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing: with porcelain making reaching its peak, all kinds of porcelain vessels emerged to take the place of older forms.

In 1979, at a Dawenkou Culture burial site in Shandong Province, archaeologists unearthed a full set of wine vessels 5,000 years old (including vessels for drinking wine as well as for making it), and among them were wine cups of considerable beauty, some small and bowl-shaped with round handles, some perforated and standing on tall stems. Because wine in the early period was not strained but had a sticky, semi-solid consistency, often the sources in their references to wine talk of 'eating, not 'drinking' For this kind of wine, bowl-shaped vessels were more convenient for ladling and drinking. For the convenience of shaping and materials, early wine vessels were made of lacquered bamboo as well as of pottery. Pottery vessels were the more numerous of the two, and with the development of the art of pottery making, they went through a series of styles, from colored ware to grey ware, to redware, to whiteware, to black ware. The most frequent shapes were Hu, Zun, and Gu, and the black ware period saw the appearance of black pottery cups with the shape of egg-shells.

The period from the beginning of the Shang Dynasty in the 21st century BC to the end of the Spring and Autumn Period in 476 BC was the period of China's slave society. For China, history based on written records starts with the Shang. "The Xia received the mandate of heaven/' the Xia rulers proclaimed that they had received their political authority by the will of "the lord on high" or "heaven." In the Shang period, the rulers declared that their ancestors were closely connected with this "lord on high," even by ties of blood, and the identification of the spirits of their ancestors with the spirit of the lord on high supplied a convincing explanation for why the Shang kings alone enjoyed heaven's mandate. At the level of social practice, this idea was expressed in the belief that sacrifices to heaven to ascertain I he will of heaven be conducted by the Shang ruler alone, after which he would make heaven's well known to his numerous ministers and subjects. When the Zhou replaced the Shang, the theory of rule by divine right established by the Xia gave way under the new historical circumstances to a new theory of the divine basis of the ruler's power, that the ruler 'ranks with heaven because of his virtue' This opened the way from a theocratic polity to a secular one. Under the Western Zhou, it was thought that ritual did not apply to commoners: it was the relationships of the aristocracy ruling this slave society that was regulated by ritual rules. The central principle of these ritual rules was that degrees of kinship, rank, and age and the distinction between men and women must be observed, and this changed a political life dominated by the state to that of a clan society made up of enormous clans defined by blood relationships. In consequence, a ritual ideology centered on a hierarchy of clan relationships became central to ideas of political legitimacy in ancient China.

In the Xia, Shang, and Zhou the ritual rules gradually developed into a complete system, and wine rituals were an important part of this. As exclusive ritual vessels and not utensils for daily use, bronze vessels have a very important place in the history of Chinese culture. The shapes of bronze wine vessels, their detailed specialization of function, their level of artistry, their styles of decoration, and the way they combine into a system all give full expression to "ritual" ideology. Different dynastic periods or different social strata within a dynastic period preferred different shapes by their ritual needs, and as the specific content of the rituals changed the preferred shapes changed with them. The types and categories of wine vessels were particularly numerous in the Shang period when bronze making techniques had improved, and the art of bronze making reached its zenith. Among the most important vessels were the Jue (爵), Jue (角). Gu, Zhi, Jia, Zun, Hu, You, square Yi, Gong, Lei, Fou, Bu, He, Dou, and Shao, all appearing in diverse forms, each of which flourished for a time. The period also saw the emergence of specialist lineages which made wine vessels for a living and were called Changshao ("Long-ladle") and Weishao ("Tail-ladle") after the products they produced. Even more important is the fact that rules for the use of wine vessels as ritual vessels gradually became more elaborate, and under the Shang, wine vessels were used in all great sacrifices and other major activities so that wine drinking became a habit of the age. Transmitted texts and Western Zhou inscriptions on bronze unite in saying that the Shang Dynasty fell because of its excessive indulgence in wine. Ritual wine vessels played an important part in the social life of the Shang Dynasty as a whole.

In the Qin and Han period lacquer vessels for serving and containing wine began to proliferate in the south of China, and became the main type of vessel. In 11 Qin period graves excavated in Hubei, 114 lacquer handled cups were unearthed, and in the Han period graves at Mawangdui near Changsha in Hunan another 90 of these cups were found. According to the written sources, people of that period dined sitting on mats on the ground. The large vessel containing the supply of wine was placed in the middle between the mats with ladles resting in it, while the handled cups used for drinking were placed on the ground. In the Wei and Jin period, the cups used for drinking tended to become more slender and elongated; this was in response to the more upright sitting posture of the drinkers.

The earliest porcelain was made in the Eastern Han period. When porcelain became more and more common both for making wine and for storing and serving it. As production techniques developed and stabilized, fine glazed porcelain wine vessels with beautiful shapes became an important part of the output of porcelain workshops everywhere. In the Tang Dynasty the introduction of tables brought about a big change in the way people dined, and this had a knock-on effect on banquet manners. Matching sets of smaller and shorter drinking vessels were made in response to the new situation. Under the Song Dynasty, it was customary to warm rice wine before drinking it, and the most frequently seen wine vessels were sets consisting of wine pots and wine bowls used in combination. The Ming Dynasty produced numerous wine vessels with blue and white patterns or underglaze red. The Qing was the time for vessels of doucai (“contrasting color"), famille rose and other enamelware. One could say that each age made its distinguished contribution to the porcelain wine vessel tradition.

Wine rituals and wine morality

From ancient times China has been a land of ritual and beginning with the Western Zhou the rituals to do with wine, one of the important ritual subsystems of this ritual-based society, became standardized and systematized. Western Zhou wine rituals were later summed up in four words: timeliness, precedence, measure, and regulation. "Timeliness" meant that there were proper times for drinking wine - wine could be drunk only at capping ceremonies, weddings, funerals, sacrifices, and celebrations. "Precedence" meant that when wine was drunk, an order of precedence must be observed, placing heaven, earth, ghosts, and spirits first, and then among men giving precedence to the older and more imminent. "Measure" meant drinking in proper measure, in other words stopping after three large cups, and not going wild on wine. "Regulation" meant that when wine was drunk, there were toastmaster issuing regulations that drinkers must obey, and they could not just follow their inclinations and do what they wanted. Infringements of these four principles were seen as serious breaches of etiquette. These ritual rules were based on traditional Confucian moral thinking. Confucians were not against drinking wine. Respectfully offering wine to ancestors and spirits and serving wine to one's superiors and guests were moral conduct. But normally people should drink only sparingly, so that food grain could be saved excess avoided. It could be said that drinking only in moderation is the central idea of the Chinese wine ritual.

In ancient times when wine was drunk at official banquets the drinking rules wore overseen and upheld by a special toastmaster, and anyone who broke the rules would be expelled by him. In fact in some dynasties when drinking was conducted under military law, those who disobeyed the toast master’s staff were sometimes oven beheaded. Obey the ritual rules when drinking, it is said, and the drinking will be virtuous. When I have ancients drank wine, they advocated "mildness and self - control. A poem in the Lessor Odes of  The Book of Poetry savs "If a man is grave and wise when he drinks he is mild but self-controlled.” Even if he drinks a lot, he must be able to control his behavior and be sure not to disgrace himself by anything he says or does while drinking or after drinking.

Similarly, The Book of Poetry also criticizes those who do not behave properly while drinking, and one poem describes how after the guests drink too much there appearance gets messed up, they come and go erratically, they wave their arms and dance and say things which should not be said. The poem insists that the supervisor of the drinking, the toastmaster, must keep order to ensure that the occasion remains decorous, and encourages people not to be the kind of drinker who is "senseless after three cups" and does not know when to stop. Another Confucian classic, The Book of Rites, records the "three cups" ritual. "When the gentleman drinks wine he takes one cup and his demeanor is solemn and reverent, with the second cup he is gentle and respectful and when the ritual ends with the third cup he withdraws, cheerful and still respectful, and after withdrawing, he sits." So at a banquet, the chief guest had to observe strictly the #three cups only" rule and must display moderation and civilized courtesy. In the centuries that followed, there were changes in the units of measurement and the strength of wines, but people continued to regard drinking in moderation as an important part of observing propriety and practicing virtue while drinking. In the Qing Dynasty, a scholar called Zhang Jinshou wrote a book called Wine Virtue, which was widely read, and it can be seen as an expression of how people thought about wine at that time: "If people want to drink little, let them; each guest must enjoy himself to the full; strictness and leniency are both advantageous; let each drinker suit himself; don't force people to do what they don't want." He not only refers to the fact that people have different capacities for wine, and that we must respect each other in this, but also says that in toasting and drinking people should not be forced to drink against their will.

The ancient ritual of drinking, from the palace to commoner, consisted of four steps. When a host and his guests were drinking together, they first kowtowed to each other, and when younger people were drinking in the presence of their elders, they kowtowed to them before taking their places below them. After the drinkers had expressed their respect for each other in this way, they sprinkled a little wine on the ground to honor the fertility of the great earth. Next, the guests took a sip of the wine to taste it, and complimented the host on its quality. After that, the guests and host alike raised their cups together and emptied them. The custom of making a gesture of respect to heaven and earth when drinking is still observed in some areas with high concentrations of minority peoples and in some remote villages; it is an expression of man's reverence and gratitude in the face of the natural world.

At banquets, there are different terms for different kinds of toast. When the host toasts his guests it is called Chon; when the guests toast the host in return it is called Zuo, when guests toast each other, it is called Lit chon, and going round and toasting one's fellow diners in order is called Xing Jiu. The person making the toast and the person receiving it both have to stand up, and the toast is expressed briefly in a few words. Generally, the toasting stops after three cups. Respect for one's elders while drinking is embodied in the rule that younger people must get the assent of older people before raising their cups; when they are drinking together younger people should not empty their cups while their seniors still have some wine left, and when wine is poured it is done in order of seniority. These customary rules are still observed today when the wine is drunk on formal occasions.

In fact, if you want to understand modern wine-drinking manners you should start with how wine is poured at banquets. There is a common saying "With wine all the way up, with tea half the way up." This means that when you are entertaining a guest if you are pouring wine you should fill the cup until it all but overflows, and pouring less is a sign of disrespect; on the other hand if you are pouring tea for a guest it is all right to till the cup half way up or a little more, and if your hand slips and you fill the cup to the top this can be misunderstood by the guest as a sign that he is not really welcome and you hope he will hurry up and leave.

When wine is poured, the host or waiter should go first to the guest of honor and then to the other guests, usually circulating anti-clockwise. The pourer stands to the right of each guest and fills them up one after the other until finally the host himself is served. If Chinese spirit or beer is being drunk the 'fill it up' rule still applies, but grape wine is poured customarily. After cups have been filled, before the first cup is drunk it is up to the host to propose a toast. The terms of his toast are determined by the theme or purpose of the banquet, and he can either speak off the cuff or deliver words carefully prepared in advance. If he is at a gathering of old friends, for example, he will speak of the yearnings of friends parted and the importance of friendship; if it is a birthday celebration, he will wish the birthday guest health and long years. The words should be brief and elegant, and they should not only express the host's personal feelings but should also be right for the happy, convivial atmosphere.

After this toast, the host will generally out of politeness urge his guests to drink their fill. Over drinks, the hospitality of the Chinese is on open display, and people's expressions of feelings for each other are never so intense as when toasts are being proposed. At business banquets, hosts usually press drink on their guests with politeness and restraint. After the host has proposed a toast he invites the diners to drain their cups; they all stand up, and the host finishes the wine in his cup in one go, exposing the bottom of his cup, to show his respect for his guests; after that, he invites his guests to drain their cups. This sequence will most often be repeated three times, and is called "the first three cups." With the exception of those who have made it clear in advance that they do not drink, the diners generally have to drink these first three cups in full.

“Returning the toast" is when guest toasts host. This is also very important. There is no limit to the number of times, it can be done, and this basically depends on the capacity of the guests. If only the host at a banquet proposed toasts and no guests toasted him in return, the atmosphere would be very awkward.

"Toasting each other" generally refers to when the other diners toast each other after the host has proposed his toasts and the guest of honor has replied. Etiquette requires that the host should not regard such behavior as a breach of good manners, but he should encourage it. Usually, at banquets, the host out of politeness hopes that the guests will drink and chatter freely so that guests and hosts can enjoy themselves to the full and as the toasting proceeds people's behavior towards coach others may become increasingly intimate, warm and spontaneous.

The Chinese sometimes describe refusing to do something and then being forced to do it anyway as refusing the toast only to drink the forfeit." The reference is to use the imposition of a forfeit as a punishment for breaking wine drinking rules, a practice closely parallel to toasting. These days the most common kind of drinking forfeit is when close friends get together for a drink, and a latecomer is forced to drink a forfeit. No real punishment is intended, but the penalty is imposed in a joking spirit to liven up the atmosphere.

Because of the stimulating effect alcohol can have on peopled mood# consciousness, metabolism and conduct, Chinese people have come up with some brief codes for drinking. Children are generally not allowed to drink, and when adults drink, the rules most commonly referred to are the "three? prohibitions," the "five things to do when drinking" and the "seven things to avoid."

The first of the three prohibitions are on drinking early in the morning since drinking on an empty stomach irritates the stomach and does harm to health. The second prohibition is on drinking competitions. It is true that the the atmosphere can be improved when drinkers challenge each other to matches of capacity and drink to games like guess-fingers; but drinking with competition as the main purpose is not to be recommended, since excessive drinking is not only bad for you, it also produces emotional instability which can easily lead to accidents. The third prohibition is on taking part in a succession of drinking sessions in one day or in a short period: it is better to drink in moderation.

The "five things to do when drinking" are as follows: 

1) When you drink, eat something at the same time; eating a dish with meat is especially good for protecting the stomach. 

2) Drink slowly and savor your drink, relishing the flavor; don't gulp it down. 

3) Sit comfortably; don't use alcohol to go into a spin, and don't rush around with a glass in your hand. 

4) Drink authentic wines and spirits; don't touch anything with murky origins. 

5) Drink in moderation.

The "seven things to avoid" are: 

1) Avoid cold drinks. 

2) Avoid drinking when you are angry. 

3) Avoid mixed drinks. 

4) Avoid forcing down drinks that are too strong for you. 

5) Avoid baths straight after drinking. 

6) Avoid drinking during pregnancy. 

7) When fertile avoid sex after drinking.

The Chinese maintain that moral standards apply not just to the drinking of wine but also to the making and selling of it. Winemakers should carry out the technical processes scrupulously and observe quality standards; there should be no skimping or saving, and everything should be done entirely in the proper order. Wine sellers should sell genuine products at fair prices, and should not give short measure. The reason why some of China's famous traditional wines have remained famous for such a long time is that the producers have always put quality first and treasured their reputation. This is wine morality in practice.

Chinese wine has existed for a long time and enthusiasm for alcohol is widespread, but drunkenness is not a serious problem in China. The most important reason for this is that good manners and behavior in wine drinking have been strongly promoted ever since the Zhou Dynasty. When successive dynasties issued restrictions on alcohol, their primary motive was always their wish above all to protect the supply of grain for food, because they did not want the making of wine to threaten the stability of government; they were not reacting to waves of drunkenness sweeping through society. In Chinese history, large-scale restrictions on alcohol appear 15 times in the sources, and each time the restrictions were observed, with notably good results. This is a further sign that the Chinese in their attitude to alcohol are heirs to a very rational tradition.

Drinking Games

The toastmaster was in ancient times the official who supervised the drinking ceremonies when the royal house was holding a banquet. His Chinese title means "an official in charge of drinking orders.” Because he had the right to interfere in the way that wine was drunk he was respected by the diners. But as time went by it became more and more usual for people to drink mainly for pleasure, and the purely supervisory and disciplinary content of these drinking orders became extended in scope. Scholars and men of refinement played literary games, outdoing each other in cleverness and trumping each other's quotations from the classics. Ordinary people preferred number games, engaging in entertaining battles of wits. So there arose 'drinking orders,' in which knowledge, intellect, entertainment, and instruction were fused, and the drinkers in following these orders were, in reality, playing drinking games, amusing and enjoying themselves and increasing the fun of the drinking. In China today, both in the cities and in the countryside, drinking necessarily involves people who know these games, and knowledge of more than one kind is required. Below we will say something about some of the most common popular games.

Guess-fingers In every part of China the most widespread drinking game is guess-fingers. Usually, two people compete against each other, and the winner does not have to drink, while the loser does. The competitors together each hold a bunched fist out in front of them and then extend some of their fingers, at the same time shouting out a number between 0 and 10. If the number someone calls is the same as the total number of fingers extended by both players combined, he wins. If neither player gets the number right, they play and guess again. There are some further rules. Firstly, you cannot just stick out your little finger, since in China this is a gesture of contempt and disrespect. Secondly, if you extend any fingers, you must include either a thumb or a little finger. Thirdly, the number you call must be less than the sum of the fingers you are extending plus 5. Anyone who breaks one of these three rules loses the round. There is a special rhyme with a certain rhythm that is recited while playing. Because this game is quite complex the players usually agree before they start to play the best of three or the best of five. If a whole group wants to play, generally two players start, and then there is a succession of singles matches with the loser each time dropping out.

Stone, scissors, cloth The "stunt" is the hand bunched into a fist, the “scissors" is the hand with the index and middle fingers extended, and the "cloth" is the hand with all fingers extended and with the palm showing. Because scissors can cut cloth, if one player sticks out the index and mitklle fingers and the other player shows his palm, the one who makes the "scissors" wins; cloth can wrap stone, and so the player with the open hand boats the player with the bunched fist; scissors cannot cut stone, so the player who makes 'stone' beats the player who makes "scissors." If the players make the same choice, it is a draw. This game can be played by two or three. The loser has to take a drink, and if there are a lot of draws, the players can take an ad hoc decision on whether or not they should both drink. The amount to be drunk each time is decided before the game starts.

Tiger, stick and insect In this game, tiger, chicken, insect, and stick are used as symbols of gradations of strength. The tiger eats the chicken, the chicken eats the insect, the insect chews the stick, and the stick beats the tiger. When this game is played the players usually hold one chopstick and boat time with it, calling out the name of one of the four symbols. If two neighbors on the food chain encounter each other, the weaker has to take a drink. If the two names called are not next to each other, then it is a draw, and the players play again. The game is usually played by 2 to 4 players, but when more players play the quantity the loser has to drink is always increased a bit.

Sevens This is a game that can be played by an Inrge number of players. It is a counting One person starts with 'one' and the other players continue, each person in order saying the next number up. But if the number is a seven or a number with a seven in it or multiple of seven, the person whose turn it is will not be allowed to say the number, but must say "pass" or indicate that he is passing by some gesture like tapping the table. When the players get to 49, the round is over, and then they start again from the beginning. In other words, when they are counting they are not only forbidden to say 7, 17, 27, 37 and 47, they are also forbidden to say 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and 49. Anyone who says a forbidden number has to take a drink. This simple game is, in fact, a tough test of concentration and mental agility. Normally it is pretty rare for anyone to be able to get through a round first time without making a mistake.

The statues game For this game a group of drinkers needs to elect an officer to issue orders. Usually, the officer first takes a cup of wine himself; then, he chooses a time when nobody is paying attention and calls out "statues!" At that point, everyone at the banquet, whether they are opening their mouths to speak or raising a cup or picking up some food with their chopsticks, must freeze in the position they were in at the moment the order was issued and stay like that for one minute, not making a sound. Anyone who laughs or moves has to drink a forfeit cup. If everybody makes it through the minute, that means the officer himself has chosen the wrong moment to issue his order, and he has to drink a forfeit cup, and then hand over to another officer before the game resumes.

Beating the drum and passing the flower For this game you need a flower and a small drum and someone to direct the game. First, someone is chosen to beat the drum, which he has to do with his back to the rest of the diners. The game director holds the flower in his hand and shouts "Begin!", And the drummer begins to beat the drum. The director then takes the flower in his left hand and passes it to his right hand behind his back, then gives it to the player next to him, who follows the same sequence of movements. If the drum beats are fast, the players have to move quickly, and if the drum beats are slow, they have to move slowly. When the drum suddenly stops whoever is holding the flower has to take a drink. When he has drunk the game starts again with him. Everybody always takes turns beating the drum.

Folk Customs and Wine

There are some turning points in human life, such as birth, marriage, becoming a parent, retiring and dying. In China, great importance is given to these turning points, and they are always marked with ceremonies of celebration and commemoration. These ceremonies, for the most part, include a meal with wine as a medium of celebration or commemoration. Let us take the course of human life as a guiding thread and visit the various regions of China to investigate wine-related folk customs in all their variety.

In some areas in the south of China, people celebrate the birth of a child in the following way. After his wife has given birth, the husband loads meat and a pot of wine into a special basket and goes to the house of his in-laws to report the good news. When the father and mother-in-law see their son-in-law arriving with these two things they know that their daughter has safely delivered. If the spout of the wine pot points towards the inside of the basket, this means that the baby is a boy. If it points outwards, that means it is a girl. The parents-in-law will have prepared foodstuffs like chicken, brown sugar, glutinous rice, noodles and Chinese mushrooms for their son-in-law to take back with him. In some regions the mother-in-law even pours all the wine out of the wine pot and fills it instead with rice, telling the son-in-law that when he gets back, he should use this rice to make congee for her daughter. In Jinhua of Zhejiang Province, the new father at the first opportunity loads himself up with wine on a carrying pole and goes to his wife's family to report the good news, and the in-laws share this celebration wine with their neighbors.

On the third day after the baby is born many regions continue the custom of drinking "third-day wine." Especially in the south of China, on the third day after the first son is born family and friends are summoned not just to drink celebration wine but also after the drinking to plant a tree together, to bestow on the newborn the good fortune of growing strong and sturdy like the tree. While we are on the topic of bringing a new baby good fortune, there are some other remarkable practices to relate to. In many places another mother is asked to provide a baby's first mouthful of milk, the implication being that the baby will grow successfully in any environment; before the baby sucks in this first mouthful its lips are touched with o a decoction of bitter herbs, to suggest that in life sweetness comes after bitterness; after the baby has drunk its first milk, it is given on its lips a drop of soup made from Kit meat, scholar cake, rice wine, fish and sugar, and those present chant these words: “ Here’s meat – eat that; grow nice and fat. Here’s cake – eat it all; grow good and tall. Here’s wine – cheers! Wealth and long years. Here’s fish and here’s sugar for you; your life will be sweet, and you’ll be well-to-do.” This is to wish on the baby the blessings of peace, health, and happiness.

In the vast majority of places, it is customary to prepare a feast with wine to celebrate a baby’s first full month or first hundred days. This is the most solemn of the celebrations of a child’s birth, and the family and friends who are invited to prepare congratulatory gifts. There is a practice, especially at the end of the baby's first month, of giving the baby its first haircut, and the hair which is cut off is disposed of extremely carefully. In some places, it is wrapped in red cloth and taken to the temple, which amounts to prayer for blessings on the child. The barber who cuts the hair may be invited to the first-month banquet, and may even receive a red envelope which rewards him for his service at a level far above the usual rate.

A wedding banquet is given the special name of '"happiness banquet,” and being invited to a wedding is also referred to as being asked to “drink the wine of happiness.”' Many people choose a place where wine is served for their wedding ceremony, and after the couple has completed the procedure for the official registration of their marriage the most important item is for family and friends on both sides to have a wedding banquet with the bride and bridegroom. Some newlyweds even lay on a banquet which lasts several days to thank the guests who come to wish them well. Amongst the wines of Shaoxing, there is a special kind called Niier Hong (“Daughter Red"). One tradition relates that it goes back a time when a maker of wine buried some wine at his daughter's birth and then dug it up again when she got married. Because it has matured over many years, Daughter Red is exceptionally mellow, and it symbolizes all the care which has gone into a daughter's upbringing. The special choice of this wine to entertain family and friends at a wedding banquet also stands for the confidence that the bride's parents are placing in the bridegroom and the charge that they are laying upon him - they hope that the new couple will love and cherish each other and that their life together will be filled with blessings. 

In many places, the parents of the bride and the parents of the bridegroom are not involved in their children's wedding celebrations at the same time. The bridegroom first goes to the bride's house to collect the bride, and there is a short ceremony: he toasts his parents-in-law with tea instead of wine, and pretending to correct a slip of the tongue he calls them “father” and "mother.” Three days after the wedding the newly married couple return to the bride's original home to express their respect for and thanks to her parents. On this occasion, they drink "return to the threshold wine." At the wedding banquet the bride and groom first have to toast the bridegroom's father and mother and the most important guests, and the bride when reciting her toast "corrects herself" in front of everybody and calls her parents-in-law "father" and "mother." The new couple is generally pressed by the assembled guests to 'drink the nuptial wine cup" together, and after that, they go round each table of guests, toasting them one by one and receiving the good wishes of their many relations and friends.

The Lahu people of Yunnan Province have an engagement ritual for when young men and women get engaged. When the suitor goes to the girl's house to ask for her hand, he invites a matchmaker to go with him. They take a well-tied bundle of tobacco and a pot containing around 3 liters of rice wine. When they get there, the prospective bride's father and mother invite their relations to come round. They listen to the matchmaker s explanation of why they have come, and the tobacco and wine are presented. If the girl's parents approve of the match, they receive the tobacco ceremoniously with both hands and then tell their daughter to go I out wine bowls. If the daughter also approves she puts a bowl in front of each person present. The matchmaker I hen shares out the tobacco and pours wine for everybody, and they sit and talk while they drink. If the girl does not approve, then her family cannot accept the tobacco, and bowls and wine are not distributed.

When the Naxi people of Lijiang in Yunnan Province arrange matches for their sons and daughters, they follow something rather like the ancient custom of sealing a marriage alliance with wine. When a boy is 5 or 6 years old, his parents go to the temple, and after burning, incense draws divination lots to choose his future bride. When the boy's parents have settled on a particular girl, they commission a matchmaker to take a pot of wine to the girl's family and propose the match. If the girl's parents agree they wait until she is around 10 years old and then choose a day for the engagement ceremony. This ceremony is called celebrating the lesser wine." The boy's family sends gifts of wine, white rice, brown sugar, and tea to the girl's family. After the engagement has been formalized either party has the right to pull out. If it is the girl's side that breaks the engagement they have to pay back the gifts in full, but the boy's side just has to notify the girl's side of their change of mind.

When there is an engagement among the Hezhe ethnic group, the suitor invites his relations, friends and respected elders, and they to the girl's house to ask for the match, taking a wine bottle tied in a red cloth and a carp. If the proposal is accepted, the following day the suitor has to go on a formal visit to his future father and mother-in-law and toast their health and kowtow to them. He takes his future father-in-law a horse and a marten pelt as gifts and also contributes a jar of wine and a pig for use in the party which the family will lay on for their kinsfolk when they give their daughter away.

At weddings in the Bai ethnic group, wine plays an unusual part in the proceedings. When the bride and groom go into the bridal chamber, a middle-aged couple turn up with a pot containing wine flavored with chili powder and offer it to the couple to drink. When they have partaken, the guests at the wedding banquet are invited to taste this chili wine. The drinking of this wine, because of a pun in the Bai language, constitutes a wish that the couple will enjoy an extremely close relationship. When the banquet comes to an end, the guests steal a wine cup from the table and hide it, to force the newlyweds to beg for it to be returned. At that point, all the guests call out in unison: "What do you want it for?" and the couple always replies: "We're going to need it next year—to feed the baby!" The party then breaks up in a gale of happy laughter.

The Chinese like to celebrate their birthdays, but they do not put this feeling on open display, and it is very rare for someone in his prime to lay on a big dinner for his birthday unprompted. As a rule, parents take steps to celebrate their children's birthdays, particularly their first and eighteenth birthdays. When a child has its first birthday, it is customary to set up the "grabbing around" test. Some objects with symbolic significance are spread out in front of the child, from which the child chooses three, and the choice is taken to indicate what the child's future likes and dislikes will be and how he or she will make a living. After that, the parents invite the family and friends who have come to witness this test to eat and drink with them. Generally, an eighteenth birthday is seen as a coming of age, and many parents lay on a banquet on the day, inviting family and friends and their son or daughter's teachers, to express their hopes and good wishes as he or she makes the transition into adult society. Some liberated parents may allow their son or daughter to drink a small amount of alcohol to thank the older generation for their help in his or her upbringing. When adults celebrate their birthdays, it is usually a small-scale affair. It's enough to get together with immediate relatives and close friends and have a drink and eat a bowl of long-life noodles. On birthdays a saying is often repeated: "The day the child is born is a hard day for the mother." This is a reminder to the child not to forget his or her mother.

When a person turns 60, the birthday must be celebrated with due ceremony. In ancient Chinese ideas about commemoration, 60 years was a full cycle, and for this reason, the 60,h birthday is accorded special importance and significance. The children always arrange a 60th birthday banquet for their parents and a point of difference from other celebration, banquets are that in many places the sixth day of the first month of the lunar year is chosen as the day for the banquet. The host does not usually send out invitations to the guests: it is up to immediate family and close friends, colleagues, old classmates and neighbors to remember the happy event themselves and go to the house with gifts and congratulations, and the host then while they are there invites them to the birthday banquet. On the day of the celebration, there is a congratulation ceremony before the banquet starts. In the banqueting hall, on the wall opposite the door, the character 寿 ("long life") is hung, and those who are celebrating their birthday, often husband and wife together, sit beneath the character receiving the congratulations first of their children and grandchildren and then of other younger people. For these congratulations, the most commonly used words are: "May your happiness be as boundless as the Eastern Sea, may your years be as numerous as the southern mountains." After that, there is a burst of fire-crackers, and the banquet begins. Because in Chinese the word for "long-lasting"(久）has the same sound as the word for "wine"(酒)，longevity wine is auspicious and an indispensable part of these birthday celebrations. It must first be used to toast those celebrating their birthday, and then the guests drink too.

In China, a person's 60th the year is referred to as the time when 'the ear is attuned.' The idea is that someone of that age, after a lifetime of experience, can accept the things I hey hear with an open mind and heart. In the cities, 60 is the normal retirement age for men, and in the context of the steady rise in average life expectancy in China, someone turning 60 can be seen as a young, old man or woman whose old age is just beginning. For this reason, people no longer call someone on their sixtieth birthday a "longevity star: but this term of respect is reserved for 70th, 80th or 90th birthdays.

The Chinese refer to funerals as "white occasions." Wine is no less essential for these white occasions than it is at other times, and funerals in the different regions have their wine customs. Since ancient times people have regarded wine as good for opening up lines of communication in the natural world. Traditional ideas see death as a kind of long journey, whose destination is the netherworld and from which there is no return. It is because of this idea and the belief that the soul is immortal that in many regions memorial offerings of wine are made to the recently departed—the living use wine to express their grief and respect. On the day of the funeral procession wine is offered to the departed soul as a token of respect and consolation, and after the procession, the host toasts with wine those who have taken part in the funeral ceremony. On the seventh day after the funeral offerings of wine are made to the departed, and then again on the 49th day, the first anniversary and the third anniversary, to show that they are not forgotten.

China is a large community made up of many different peoples, 56 in all. During China's long history these peoples have mixed with and influenced each other, and there has been the gradual assimilation of customs between contiguous groups. This is true of drinking customs too. But many peoples still preserve distinctive drinking traditions, some of which seem remarkable to other peoples and outsiders in general.

Drinking Styles

The Qiang ethnic group mostly live in the northwest of Sichuan Province. When there is a festival, they bring out a large container of wine and get everybody to sit around it in a circle. Each person holds a pipe made of bamboo or reed, which they insert obliquely into the container, and as they sit there chatting and laughing they suck in wine from the central supply. Because the pipes are several feet long and the surrounding circle of drinkers is quite big, it often happens that five or six of them suck at once, or even seven or eight, and this makes for lively reactions and an extremely animated atmosphere. After drinking for a while, people get up and dance in a circle. The Miao ethnic group of Guizhou also have a similar custom.

The Yi ethnic group goes in for "turnabout drinking." Whatever the place or circumstances, and no matter whether the drinkers know each other well or are strangers, they always sit on the ground, in more than one circle if the numbers are large, and holding the wine cup in both hands they pass it around and drink in turn. There is a traditional story about the origins of this custom. Once upon a time there lived on a mountain three men from different peoples. One was a Han, one was a Tibetan, and one was a Yi. They got on very well together and became sworn brothers, the Han man counting as an older brother because he was the oldest, the Tibetan being in the middle, and the Yi man being the youngest. Every year when there was a holiday they got together to celebrate. One year the youngest "brother" collected a lot of buckwheat grains from some land which he had been clearing, and after grinding it, he boiled a large quantity and invited his sworn brothers to come and enjoy it with him. They did not finish it up, and the remaining gruel, which was left for a few days, began to give off a strong alcoholic smell. But with "After you!" and "No, after you!" nobody would agree to drink this buckwheat wine, and they went on passing it politely to each other all day. In the end, a spirit appeared and told them that as long as they worked hard, there would be new wine to replace the wine they finished, after that the three men, at last, began to drink the wine as they passed it. The story was repeated until it gained legendary status, and it is still told today.

The Zhuang ethnic group has a traditional way of celebrating birthdays that is still in use today. This is called "drawing from the urn,〃 and in former times was common among the minority peoples living in a stretch of land which bridges Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces. A thick alcoholic gruel is made in a small urn and then put away until it is needed for the head of the family's birthday feast. When the guests arrive, a mat is spread on the floor, and then out com us the urn to d place in the middle of the party. Next, to the urn, they pul a dish of clean water, and when the urn is opened, they ladle some water into it. Then they take a bamboo pipe and insert it into the urn, and guests and host take it in turns to suck through the pipe and drink, starting with the guests. The pipe has a valve shaped like a small silver fish that can be opened or closed, and if the liquid comes up too fast or too slowly the little fish can be adjusted. As the party continues they go on adding water. For the 'drawing from the urn' ceremony the senior woman ladles some water into the urn, then recites a toast, then solemnly passes the pipe to the guests asking them to have a little more wine—but in reality, they are just drinking water.

The Buyi ethnic group like rice wine, which they mostly drink from bowls, not cups. When the drink they sing, in a call and response style, and the content of the songs could not be a more wide-ranging-they sing of the beginnings of things, of the sun and moon and the stars, of the history of their people, and of the mountains, rivers, and plants. One person sings a verse, and another has to reply/ and if no reply is forthcoming a forfeit must be drunk.

The Gaoshan people of Taiwan very seldom retire to drink alone, but usually, get together in large groups for heavy drinking sessions. They drink till dawn and do not stop until they are completely drunk.

Hospitality and Drinking

The Mongolians like to drink, and men and women alike drink koumiss (fermented marc's milk). They drink from large bowls in a heroic style. With guests it does not matter whether they are good friends or strangers, they look after them warmly and are generous with the drink. When they drink they first dip the ring finger of the right hand into the koumiss and make gestures of respect to heaven (upwards), earth (downwards) and their ancestors (touching their foreheads). Only after this brief ritual is complete does the host begin to toast the guests. If a Mongolian host brings his wife to a banquet, this means that the entertainment is being done in style. When the guests arrive, the oldest person present takes the place of honor, with guests and hosts being equally eligible. When the host has poured wine for a guest and toasted him, if the guest cannot finish his cup in one go (non-drinkers have to declare themselves in advance) the host will not accept his cup back and is not satisfied until the guest has drained his drink. 

When guests from far away are being entertained, the host or one of the younger people sings a toasting song, and normally the song is newly composed for the occasion. To get his guests to drink a lot the host may sing a toast with as many as eight to ten verses, and this is seen as acceptable. If the guests resist the toast or do not down their drinks completely, the song will go on until they do.

The Tibetans particularly like wine made from upland barley, which is the main grain crop of their region. Anyone entertained in a Tibetan the home must observe the "three mouthfuls to one cup" custom. When the guest is first given his cup (or bowl), he first takes a mouthful and the host fills the cup up, he takes a second a mouthful, and the host pours again, and only when he drinks for the third time does he drain his cup. If the guest does not drink, he can follow the Tibetan custom of dipping his ring finger into the wine and flicking it three times upwards and to the right.

This is a gesture of respect to the world and the spirits, to parents and elders, and to siblings and friends. The host will not only refrain from pressing the guest to drink; he will even show that he welcomes this action. Generally, after the * three mouthfuls to one cup' ceremony, the guests can drink freely as they please. When guests get up to take their leave, etiquette requires thorn to drain their cups one last time. On festival days the Tibetans always sing and dance to urge people to drink. If the guests can sing, when they are given a cup of wine, they do not drink it until they have sung some lines of thanks. The host goes on dancing and singing to toast his guests, and if a guest does not want to drink anymore, he does a mad dance, pretending to be drunk, to show that he thinks the wine is wonderful and that he has already drunk a lot. This provokes loud laughter from the host and the other drinkers, and everyone feels that the occasion is a wild success.

The Li ethnic group treat visitors from far away as highly honored guests. If the guest is a man, they drink first and eat afterward; if it is a woman, they eat first and drink afterward.

Drinking is in three stages; First people toast each other in a normal exchange of good feeling; next people drink freely; final I v host and guests sing to each other as they drink, and the emotional temperature rises. When the host toasts his guests he first lifts a bowl of wine in both hands and declares the toast to his guests, then he downs the howl in one, and finally, he holds the empty bowl out and shows it to his guests as a demonstration of his good faith. Next, it is for the guests to drink the toast, and when they have emptied their cups, they are immediately served with a piece of meat that is put straight into their mouths. The guests cannot refuse this but must accept it graciously.

The Boyi ethnic group go in for call and response drinking songs between host and guests. The hosts sing words of modest self-depreciation, and the guests sing of their gratitude. Each person sings verso, and in the intervals between verses, everyone drinks a mouthful. Anyone who does not sing has to drink three mouthfuls as a forfeit. The way they welcome visitors with wine is full of wit and humor. As the guest approaches the house, the host sets out a table at the main gate and puts on it a pot of wine and some bowls. He ladles some wine into a bowl and picks it up with both hands, singing the "Guest-welcoming Song, If the guest can sing he replies in song. After several rounds of this exchange from which nobody emerges victorious, the guest drinks a mouthful. When they go inside, if the guest cannot sing he takes a drink for each of the host's stanzas, and they do not stop until he has done this seven or eight times. After they have entered the house, the host asks a girl with a good voice to sing to the guest as she plies him with drink, and if the guest is a singer, he sings a duet with the girl. Otherwise for each verse that the toasting girl sings the guest must take a mouthful of wine.

Wine and Holidays

Chinese holidays are very distinctive, and one of their special characteristics is the close connection between holidays and wine. At the Chinese New Year, for example, "new year wine" is always drunk; at the Dragon Boat Festival it's the turn of realgar wine; on the Double Ninth Festival the drink is "chrysanthemum wine." When a festival day comes along, people like to get together with friends for a drink and to chat happily over a cup of wine. Against a background of cheerful and happy noise, wine can help people to lay aside the anxieties and weariness of day-to-day life and can bring a lively and joyful atmosphere to the holiday.

The Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, is the most important holiday in the Chinese year. The activities associated with it start on the eighth day of the last lunar month, and continue until the end of the Lantern Festival, on the fifteenth day of the first month of the new year. All through the new year celebrations, from the initial preparations and planning to the lanterns and colored streamers hung out by each household on the final day, there are some traditional ceremonies in which wine plays an essential part.

The eighth day of the last lunar month is commonly referred to as "Laba" ("the eighth of the last month"), and on this day and after it people's main activity is making all kinds of preparations for the new year celebrations. On the day itself people have Laba congee, and in Han Chinese villages, pigs are slaughtered, and bean curd is made, while in the city people give their houses a good clean. In town and country alike this period is used to buy all the things needed to celebrate the new year, one of which is wine. In some places, gifts are exchanged inside the family in the period before the new year, and wine is the most common gift.

The twenty-third day of the last month is commonly referred to as "Little New Year,” and it is the day on which sacrifices are made to the Kitchen God. Popular tradition holds that the Kitchen God is a god sent among men by the Jade Emperor to keep watch on each household's good or bad conduct, and he stays in his household for one year. On the evening of Little New Year, he has to return to the Jade Emperor's palace and report what the people in that household have been up to for the past year. He returns to the human world on New Year's Eve. The Chinese believe in karma. Usually, every family is under the supervision and protection of its Kitchen God, and on the evening of Little New Year the head of each household presides over a sacrifice to the Kitchen God to speed him on his journey; they pray that 'on his visit to heaven he will make a good report, and on his return to earth he will bring them continued peace'. The offerings are usually of four kinds: a special kind of candy, new year cake, fodder, and water. Some people, who might not want the Kitchen God to divulge what has been going on in their family, smear wine lees on the kitchen door as if this would get the Kitchen God drunk and make him incoherent.

The evening of the last day of the last lunar month is New Year's  Eve. The meal on this evening is the most sumptuous feast of the year, and even families without much money and those who rarely drink will get out the wine and celebrate a bit. They celebrate the fact that the whole family has got together and prayed that in the coming year each member of the family would have peace, health, and fulfillment. The wine drunk at this New Year's Eve meal is called "reunion wine,” and the younger members have to propose a toast to their elders in which the old year is bidden farewell. Before the meal starts firecrackers are set off, and then the eating and drinking begin. The old way of seeing the new year it was to stay up after the meal playing chess or cards to pass the time; but these days people mostly watch the New Year Gala on CCTV, waiting together for midnight to strike.

The last hour of the old year to the first hour of the New Year is the time for bidding farewell to the old and seeing in the new. Bursts of firecrackers welcome the new spring, and then the individual households make ceremonial offerings to the ancestors and the spirits of the natural world. For this sacrifice, offerings are prepared in advance, and wine, wine pots and wine cups have a prominent pi ace among these offerings.

Very early on the first day of the new year, people swarm out of their houses to call on their family and friends and wish thorn a happy new year. Older people usually do not go out, but prepare candied fruit to welcome guests at home. The evening meal on that day is generally o family dinner, and people drink together and wish each other well tor the new season. I ho the second day is that* day on which married daughters take their husbands and children to the home they left when they married, to wish the maternal grandparents d happy new year. I hey usually take some wine as a present. They arrive in the morning, eat and drink with everyone at midday, and leave before it gets dark. The period from the third to the fourteenth day of the new year is a time for paying visits to family and friends, and at these get-togethers inevitably wine is drunk.

The fifteenth day of the now the year is the Lantern Festival. On this day, apart from eating sweet dumplings, people also drink wine. Some regions continue the practice of sacrificing to the god Tianguan and praying to him for prosperity. Traditionally this day is the birthday of Tianguan, identified with the sage king Emperor Yao. Meat, fruit, and wine are prepared as offerings.

The Qingming Festival is on the fifth day of the fourth lunar month, a time at which, according to the ancients, everything is bursting with growth. After Qingming, the temperature rises and the rains come down, and it is the best time for spring plowing and spring planting. The traditional activities during this festival are making offerings to the ancestors and sweeping their graves, extinguishing the stove and eating cold food, and going outside the city for a visit to the countryside. Three days before the festival people go and put their family graves in good order. They present fresh flowers and make offerings, placing some on the grave some and burning others, and they sprinkle wine. These actions express their loving memory of their departed kin.

The Dragon Boat Festival is on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. On this day people eat zongzi, leaf-wrapped parcels of glutinous rice and other ingredients. Each family hangs artemisia branches and calamus reeds above the front door, and the children are given models of birds, animals, flowers, and fruit sewn with brightly colored thread to wear at their waists. In some places, the children are given red bibs to wear, with a chart of the eight trigrams printed on them. The purpose of all these actions is to avert misfortune.

Similarly to avert misfortune, drive out evil and counteract poison, some places in former times used to smear and sprinkle realgar on things, drink wine made with realgar, or set fire to it and use it for fumigation. Because of the climate after the Dragon Boat Festival, the air is muggy with humid heat and the fever it brings; mosquitoes and flies, harmful insects and germs become very active and breed and proliferate, infectious diseases spring up, and other illnesses are easily contracted through the mouth or the nose. Wearing fragrant sachets at the waist, hanging up artemisia or calamus reeds, and using realgar wine as a disinfectant- these are all traditional precautionary measures to ward off disease and avert the plague. In some other places, it is customary at this time to drink calamus reed wine to resist epidemics. Calamus reed wine is a medicinal wine that has an infusion of calamus reeds as an ingredient. It was a seasonal drink in former times, and some emperors listed it among the seasonal wines of their cellars.

The fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month is the Mid-Autumn Festival. For the Chinese with their love of family, this holiday is second only to the New Year in importance. It falls at a time when many fruits are ripe and ready to pick when the sweet smell of orange osmanthus fills the air when the ears of the rice plants are golden in the paddy fields, and when around and the full moon lights up the human world. A round moon, a flourishing people, a bountiful harvest—this is the idyllic scene. Before the day comes, family and friends give each other mooncakes. On the evening of the festival, families gather together, and drink "reunion wine" and enjoy the moon. There is a popular saying: "The blessed can see what the moon sends forth." "What the moon sends forth" is revealed on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Through an auspicious cluster of pearly clouds a procession of dragon boats and painted pleasure-boats paddles out from the moon, and it is just possible to make out eight immortals, male and female, dancing gracefully to the sound of gentle music.

The ninth day of the ninth lunar month is the Double Ninth Festival. It is the "old people's day," on which the Chinese show their respect and love for the old. The festival goes back to Warring States Period when during the Wei and Jin hegemony the day was already given over to wine-drinking and the enjoyment of chrysanthemum blooms. The Tang Dynasty formally designated the day a holiday; the Tang emperors decreed that the bureaucracy should have a day off to wash their hair and celebrate with each other, while among the ordinary people the current fashion was to climb to high peaks and enjoy chrysanthemum wine. There is a story that in Eastern Han times there was someone called Fei Changfang who could foresee the future, good or bad. A man from the same village, Huan Jing, revered him greatly, and usually followed him around to learn from him. One day Fei Changfang warned Huan Jing as follows: "On the ninth day of the ninth month your family is due for a major disaster. If you can get them to sew reticules full of cornel and attach these to their arms, and then climb hills and drink wine, the damage may be prevented."

When he heard this Huan Jing immediately did just as his master had instructed, and on the ninth day of the ninth month, his whole family climbed to a peak and drank chrysanthemum wine. When the family came down in the evening and went home, they found that their dogs and chickens had all died a sudden death. Later Fei Changfang told Huan Jing that the reason his family had escaped disaster was that they had averted the evil by climbing high and drinking chrysanthemum wine, and the dogs and poultry had suffered the disaster that was meant for them. This story had quite an influence on later generations, to the extent that many people used to believe that climbing high and drinking chrysanthemum wine on this day was a way of preventing disaster. 

There is a tradition that the great poet Tao Yuanming after he had given up his public career and retired into obscurity, had no wine to celebrate the festival one year, and had to content himself with going out to pick some chrysanthemums and then sitting in his courtyard enjoying them instead of a drink. A famous scholar called Wang Hong who had great respect for Tao Yuanming heard that the poet loved wine but did not have any, and sent him a jar of fine wine. When Tao Yuanming saw the wine, he was beside himself with happiness, and immediately opened the jar and drank without stint. After that, the idea for a poem began to take shape in his mind, and he wrote his famous poem "Living at Ease on the Double Ninth." From this event comes the age-old tradition that it's a good deed to send wine to a man without an official career. Chrysanthemum wine is specially made for this festival. Generally, new chrysanthemum flowers and some fresh green sprigs are picked on the previous Double Ninth and mixed in with some grain that is about to be fermented, and wine is made from the mixture. When the next Double Ninth comes round the wine is opened and drunk. Chrysanthemum wine is good for keeping old people healthy, and inviting older people to drink it on the Double Ninth suggests that you wish them to be healthy for many years to come.

Winer’s Therapeutic Value and Regular Usage

In our daily diet, the wine has the quickest, the most direct and the longest lasting effect on our body. Over the centuries, a significant amount of information has been collected on the nutritional, therapeutic and medicinal effects of wine. Ancient Chinese books on health preservation and medicine all devoted considerable space to wine. The Book of Poetry, written between 8th and 11th centuries BC, contains lines about the role of wine in promoting longevity; thus, in ancient China, toasting to someone was often seen as the same as "wishing someone longevity."

General experience shows that rice wine serves the medicinal functions of improving blood circulation in the human body, promoting metabolism, nourishing blood, preserving the beauty, stimulating the circulation of the blood, and causing the muscles and joints to relax, thereby building up the body and promoting longevity. Wine is best consumed in winters, and there are so my recipes specially designed for women who have just given childbirth, the elderly, and people who are physically weak. For average people, rice wine boiled with a small amount of waxberry, longan, litchi, red jujube, ginseng, and ginger produces better results. For the therapeutic effects of white spirits, traditional Chinese medicine generally holds that "moderation is the best policy": consuming an appropriate amount of white spirits can promote coronary circulation, boost the potency of drugs, stimulate appetite, remove fatigue, and facilitate blood circulation. The therapeutic functionality of rice wine and white spirits has given rise to a wide variety of nourishing medicated wine made of various mixtures of materials. For example, people immerse or boil nourishing Chinese herbal medicines in white spirits or rice wine to produce medicinal wine with a refined flavor, or immerse nourishing Chinese herbal medicines in rice wine or white spirits for consumption.

In the view of health and nutrition, traditional Chinese medical theory holds that heavy drinking will do harm to bones and reduce one's life expectancy. Drinking on an empty stomach will lead to serious diseases. Therefore, Chinese traditional medical theory emphasizes moderate drinking. Wine is not considered a daily necessity in most Chinese families in their everyday life. Only on holidays and on specific occasions that wine is served at the banquet.

Chinese dietary structure emphasizes a proper balance between plant and animal foods; Chinese people mostly drink white spirits or rice wine during meals. In contrast, people in most Western countries, such as France, the U.S., and the UK, are inclined towards animal foods, and pork, egg, and milk constitute the bulk of their diet. Drinking grape wine can help them digest these high-fat and high-protein foods, and moderate consumption of grape wine can reduce the risks of vascular diseases. In recent years, more and more Chinese have come to recognize the benefits of grape wine for health, and a lot of families have prepared grape wine for consumption after meals.