Thank you for watching, and I hope you enjoy this exciting series of short videos describing Chinese history and legend! Also, please do consider becoming a subscriber and follow my content long into the future. Here’s the transcript down below for your reference only.
Did you know that alcohol has been consumed in China from millennia preceding recorded history through to modern industrialization reaching all four corners? Nine thousand years ago, farmers in the central plains brewed the oldest known alcoholic beverage from a mixture of rice, honey, grapes and hawthorn, which helped them communicate with gods and spirits. As Chinese civilization developed, ancient kings maintained court brewers to foster bonds of friendship, and when the kingdoms were finally united, yellow rice wine brewed from cereal grains became dominant across the empire, and even the famous poet Li Bai eulogized the communion of moon and shadows through wine. Ming Dynasty brewers then refined millennia of wisdom to distill a ‘burnt wine’ which later became the precursor of the rice wine famed today. Since industrialization led under the PRC, this spirit has reached consumers worldwide, and the next chapter remains to be written.
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