Amber Shine and Black Dragon Pearls - The History of Chinese Wine Culture

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Peter Kupfer
• Subject Area: Asian Studies
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426619404

The starting point of my book "Amber Shine and Black Dragon Pearls - The History of Chinese Wine Culture" (written in German language, more than 400 pages, Deutsche Ostasienstudien 26, OSTASIEN Verlag, Gossenberg, 2019) are the early Eurasian connections with Chinese wine and alcohol culture since the Neolithic period and its relations with human evolution. This treatise is depicting the history of wine (putaojiu and generally alcohol (jiu ;i) in China within Eurasian contexts from prehistoric times up to the present in thirteen chapters. For the first time it attempts to cover a space of around nine thousand years presenting the various facets of mankind's oldest continuing alcohol culture from an interdisciplinary approach, taking into account all kinds of evolutionary, anthropological, archaeological, ethnographic, biochemical, historical, mythological, philosophical, religious, medical, literary, linguistic, artistic, socioeconomic and political aspects. The crucial impetus has been given by the discovery of the Neolithic settlement of Jiahu, China (9000 BP), v&\ere the world's oldest alcoholic beverage with residues of wild grape has been located and by the discovery of the earliest wine production in Georgia (8000 BP). Abundant other recent findings, facts and perspectives are presented and discussed and lead to a new understanding of human evolution, the rise of Eurasian and Chinese civilizations and the close connection with the cultivation of wine and alcohol from distinct points of view.The early genesis of alcohol culture in China can be ascribed to the extraordinary varieties of indigenous Vitis species. Besides, several recent discoveries in China and in other Eurasian alcohol cultures shed a new light on synchronic developments and prehistoric exchange. In this context a general survey is given of the development of China's unique alcohol culture focusing on grape wine culture in different regions and epochs as well as on long-distance contacts with Central Asia (especially Persian-lranian culture), Near East and the Caucasian region along the Eurasian trade routes and throughout all historical epochs. Conclusively, outstanding examples of indigenous vitiand viniculture in Northern and Southern China as well as an overview of latest developments and future trends in globalizing contexts, finally new data of China’s rise to world class are given.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants