Du Kang, is the ancient Chinese legend of the "ancestor of winemaking", there are a variety of folk legends, Han "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" contains Du Kang to make wine. Also known as Shaokang, the monarch of the Xia Dynasty, a native of Luoyang today. Ming "Yiyang County Chronicles" contains: "There is Du Kang Temple in Du Kang Xianzhuang fifty miles north of Ruyang City, built in Wei, flourished in Tang Dynasty, was robbed at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and rebuilt in 50 years of Kangxi. The Qing "Baishui County Chronicles" recorded: "Du Kang, the word Zhongning, a native of the Han Dynasty, was born in Baishui, Shaanxi, and was good at making wine.

Because Du Kang is good at winemaking, later generations will respect Du Kang as the god of wine, and the wine industry will worship Du Kang as the ancestor. Kong Yingda quoted Han Yingshao's "Shiben": "Du Kang makes wine," and later generations used "Du Kang" to refer to wine.

According to the folklore of different regions, Du Kang, the sage of winemaking, has the Yellow Emperor's minister, the Xia Dynasty monarch, and the Han Dynasty Du Kang.

Minister of the Yellow Emperor

Legend has it that during the time of the Yellow Emperor, there was a man named Du Kang, who was responsible for managing grain. At that time, with the development of agriculture, there was a bumper harvest of grain every year. However, there was too much food to eat, so they had to store it in a cave, which was dark and damp, and after a long time, all the grain rotted. Seeing this, Du Kang began to think hard about how to store grain. On this day, Du Kang went for a walk in the woods and found a few dead trees, leaving only thick, empty trunks. Du Kang had an idea and poured all the grain into the dry trunk of the tree. After some time, Du Kang came to the woods to inspect the grain, and he was surprised to find some wild boars, goats, and rabbits lying in front of the dead trees where the grain was stored, motionless, as if they were dead. He hurriedly approached to see what was going on: the trunk of the tree that used to hold grain had cracked a few cracks, and water continued to seep from the inside out. It seems that these animals licked and ate the water before lying down. But what kind of water is this, Du Kang leaned over to smell it, only to feel a fresh fragrance coming to his face, he couldn't help but taste a few sips of this strong perfume, and suddenly felt refreshed. Later, Du Kang took the strong perfume home and invited everyone to taste it. In this way, wine gradually became popular among the people, and Du Kang was also revered as the "God of Wine".

Monarch of the Xia Dynasty

According to the interpretation of "Shuowen Jiezi Towel": "The ancients Shaokang first made baskets, brooms, and wine. Shao Kang, Du Kang also. "The initiation of the Yu throne marked the official birth of the first dynasty in Chinese history. Taikang, who succeeded Qi to the throne, was unscrupulous, and was lost after being seized the throne by Hou Yi, the chief of the Yi tribe. But Hou Yi was immediately replaced by his own cronies Han Xun. Taikang fled to the tribe with the same surname, and Hou Yi destroyed the town and supported Zhongkang. Zhongkang's son fled to Shangqiu and was defeated by the Yi tribe. At this time, Xiang's wife Hou Jinzheng was pregnant, she fled to Youzhi's and gave birth to Shaokang, because she hoped that he could make a difference like her grandfather Zhongkang, so she was named Shaokang.

Han Xun wanted to cut the grass and eradicate the roots, and sent someone to arrest Shaokang. Shaokang was helpless, ran to the territory of the Yu family, and became a small official there (a petty official in charge of meals and the like). The young Shaokang made a living by herding, and the food he brought hung on the trees, often forgetting to eat it. After a period of time, Shaokang found that the leftovers hanging on the tree had changed its taste, and the juice produced was unusually sweet, which aroused his interest, so he repeatedly studied and pondered, and finally discovered the principle of natural fermentation, so he consciously followed suit, and continued to improve, and finally formed a complete set of wine-making technology, thus establishing the position of the originator of Du Kang's Chinese wine-making industry, and the wine he made was also named "Du Kang Wine" ("Shuo Wen Jie Zi" note: "Du, Gantang also").

Shaokang is very talented and full of rebellious spirit. He corrected his surname, and with the help of the Yu clan, he finally defeated Han Xun and restored the throne, which is known as "Shaokang Zhongxing" in history.

Han Dynasty Du Kang

Gu Shuyun: "The number of good wines in the world is Du Kang, and the number of wines is Liu Ling." drank three cups of Du Kang wine, and drunk Liu Ling for three years. It is the story of "Du Kang made wine and drunk Liu Ling".

During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao wrote the famous "Short Song Xing", which has a sentence: "Be generous, and worry is unforgettable." How to solve the problem? Only Du Kang. "Highly praised the wonderful effects of the Dukang wine.

Ancient Chinese winemaking has a long history, and making outstanding contributions to the winemaking industry cannot be completed by one person, but Du Kang is a representative, in a sense, the legendary god of wine Du Kang represents the civilization, scientific spirit and original spirit of the ancient Chinese.

In the Ming Dynasty, Feng Shihua's "History of Wine" said that after Du Kang's death, people respected Du Kang as the god of wine and the ancestor of wine, and set up temples to worship, and gradually developed Du Kang into a glorious culture, which shows that people highly respect Du Kang's status in the wine industry.

Folklore has the following legends:

Du Kang dreamed of an old man with a white beard one night, and told Du Kang that he would be given a spring of water, and that Du Kang would find three drops of different human blood in the opposite mountain within nine days, and drop them into them to get the most beautiful drink in the world.

Du Kang got up the next day and found that there was a spring in front of the door, and the spring water was clear and transparent. So he went out into the mountains to look for three drops of blood.

On the third day, Du Kang met a literati, and after reciting a poem to get closer to each other, he asked him to drip a drop of blood from his finger.

On the sixth day, when he met a samurai, after Du Kang explained that he came, the samurai did not say a word, and decisively cut his finger and dripped a drop of blood.

On the ninth day, Du Kang saw a stupid man sleeping under the tree, vomiting all over his mouth, dirty and unbearable, and had no choice but to pay a tael of silver to buy a drop of his blood.

After turning, Du Kang dripped three drops of blood into the spring, and the spring water immediately tumbled, the heat increased, the aroma was tangy, and the taste was like a fairy.

Because it took nine days and three drops of blood, Du Kang named the drink "wine".

Because of the three drops of blood of Xiucai, samurai, and fool at work, people generally follow these three procedures when drinking: in the first stage, they raise their glasses to congratulate each other and exhort each other, as if Xiucai was reciting poetry; In the second stage, after three rounds of wine, love to victory, not much to say, drink it all, like a samurai generous and bold; In the third stage, the drunken person is mad, or he vomits on the ground, or he vomits wildly, or he lies everywhere, like a stupid person who is unconscious and shameless.

Du Kang makes wine, and his son makes vinegar

Legend has it that in the year when the wine saint Du Kang invented the wine-making technique, his family moved to Zhenjiang and opened a small workshop outside the city to make wine and sell wine. His son, Heta, helped his father make wine, doing some menial work such as carrying water and moving tanks. One day, Heita added a few buckets of water to the sake lees in the tank, lifted the wine jar and drank several catties in one go, and it didn't take long for Heita to fall asleep drunk.

Suddenly, a thunderclap sounded in his ears, and Heita opened his eyes in a daze, and saw a white-haired old man standing in the room, who was smiling and pointing to the vat and said to him: "Heita, the seasoned elixir you brewed has been twenty-one days, and you can taste it today."

Heita was about to ask again, but the old man had drifted away. He shouted, "Immortal, immortal!" I was awakened and had a dream.

Thinking back to what had happened in the dream just now, Heita thought it was very strange, this vat was nothing more than sake lees for feeding horses, and a few buckets of water were added, how could it be a seasoned elixir? Blacktower was skeptical, so he drank a bowl. Who knew that when I drank it, I only felt that my mouth was full of fragrant, sour, and sweet, and I suddenly felt refreshed.

Heta hurried to his father, and told him everything he had seen in his dreams and tasted in his mouth. Du Kang also felt amazing when he heard it, so he went to the water tank with Heita to see what was going on. I saw that the water in the vat was different from the past, dark and transparent. I dipped my finger in it, and I tasted it in my mouth, and it was really sweet and sour.

Du Kang remembered what the old man said about "twenty-one days" and "unitary time", he suddenly grabbed the black tower on the ground and wrote with his fingers: "On the twenty-first day, this adds up to the word 'vinegar', maybe this elixir is 'vinegar'!"

Du Kang and his son brewed balsamic vinegar according to the method instructed by the old man. This vinegar was sold in Zhenjiang City, and it was spread out of Zhenjiang City, and it was famous all over the world.

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