Historical Information

It is proved that grape cultivation and wine making in China took place before the Han Dynasty (206B.C.). Wine was first mentioned in Si Ma-qian’s Historical Records. In 138B.C., Zhang Qian, who was sent to the “WesternLand” by Han-wu Emperor as an envoy, found that “in the neighborhood of Wan people make wine with grapes. The done-well possess stores of up to 10,000 piculs and preserve the wine for scores of years. The inhabitants drink wine habitually and the horses like to eat lucerne. The emperor then started planting grapes and lucernes in fertile fields with the seed brought back by the envoy. As the horses were introduced in great number, more foreign couriers came, and some of them would left the imperial palace and look at the boundless fields of grapes and lucernes.” (Historical Records, Biographies No.63: Dawan). Dawan being an ancient state of the West located in the Fergana Valley in Central Asia, we’re convinced that the West Han Dynasty’s China introduced the technology of grape cultivation and winery from its neighbors, and the West has been the grape-basket of China ever since. “The Excavated Depictions of Tulufan” , based on the ancient descriptions of the past, tells us a lot of Tulufan’s grape cultivation, management and wine business during the 4th-8th c. period. All the above materials show the considerable scale of wine production in that era.

In the time of the East Han Dynasty, wine was still precious, which could be proved by the story of a bribery recorded in the Han’s History Sequels. A man named Meng Tuo from Fufeng bought the position of a governor with one dou of wine from the then Premier Zhang Rang.

Wine-making process is simpler compared with that of yellow liquor. However, for the seasonal attributes of the raw material, it’s not ready to be used as grains are, and the technology of winery didn’t spread widely in the past. In the heartland it only has scarcely stayed. Wine-making method was introduced into the heartland during the Tang and Yuan Dynasty, and it flourished in Yuan’s time, with the most prosperous area at the neighborhood of Xinjiang. There is recorded history of large scale grape planting and wine making in Taiyuan area. However, the Chinese people at that time didn’t know much about wine making technique.

Though winemaking technique was introduced into China in Han Dynasty, it was restricted within a small area, and it’s believed that grape cultivation no longer existed afterwards, which could be proved by the fact that wine was offered to emperors as contribute from frontiers from time to time. By the time of Tang Dynasty, the central China knew nothing about grapes, and the Tang’s Tai Emperor had to introduce grapes from the West Land. “The Tai Emperor occupied Gaochang and collected Maru grape seeds there to be planted in the Imperial Garden and made wine with the introduced technique. The wine is green, tastes cool and strong, with a flavor of Sihu. It’s the first time Chang'an people knew wine.” (the New Book of The South, Vol.3). According to Song Dynasty’s classification book Cefuyuangui, vol.970, the then Gaochang was 20km east of present Tulufan, with uncertain sovereignty. By the time of Tang Dynasty, wine was so popular in the hinterland, that it’s mentioned frequently in Tang literature. Wang Han in his Liang’s Poem had “with wine in crystal and fluorescent cup, warriors are reluctant to get on their chargers.” Liu Yuxi, one of the most renowned poets of that period, admitted that “ being a native Shanxi man, I plant this jady fruit. Brewed into delicious wine, I cannot get enough of it.” These and some other passages convince us that there were grape planting and wine making in Shanxi at the time. Other poets sang wine too, and some foreigners in Changan run pubs in which western wine was sold.

Rulers in Yuan Dynasty were fond of wine and ordered that only wine could be used in supreme temple rituals. They set up grape gardens in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, and a wine cellar was built in the Imperial Palace in 28BC.

Xu Guangqi of Ming Dynasty, in his Farming Encyclopaedia, Vol.30, listed the grape varieties in the then China: Crystal grapes – whitish aureole, large and long, downy, sweet; purple grape – black, large or small, sour and sweet; green grape – originated in Sichuan, green when mature, just like the green grape from the West, also named hare’s eyes, sweeter than honey, the elite is without seeds; small grape – comes from The West, as tiny as pepper;… those from Yunnan are as big as dates, and taste much better.”