Chapter 66 Dong village bitter wine

I have been to many places where ethnic minorities live together, and there is one thing that is indispensable - wine, they regard wine as life.Minorities in the south - Miao, Yao and Dong also have the habit of good wine.The Miao, Yao, and Dong ethnic groups all have a kind of water wine made of glutinous rice, which is very popular among ethnic minorities, but the brewing method and name are different, which can also attract my wine and Wen Xing, and achieve the purpose of getting together with ethnic minorities. From September 19th to 21st, 2008, the Hunan Writers Association arranged a literary pen meeting on the Hunan-Guizhou border, inviting a large number of writers who lived in Changsha, the provincial capital, to collect stories, and I also added it.Our group of literati are all acquainted friends who understand each other's temperament and preferences. We live in Dong County, the border channel of Hunan and Guizhou, and start to enjoy the very legendary Dong bitter wine and Dong food. In just three days ,left a deep impression on me.Back in Changsha, I still miss the bitter wine of the Dong people.

Tongdao is a small county in the southwestern border of Hunan Province, bordering Guizhou and Guangxi provinces. The population of the Dong nationality accounts for 78.3%, making it a typical settlement of the Dong nationality.The channel has splendid Dong nationality culture and strong Dong nationality customs, especially Dong nationality singing and dancing and Dong nationality Shengyue deeply attracts us. The channel is the foothold of the main route for the Red Army's Long March to enter Guizhou, and a famous channel meeting was held here.Tongdao County was established relatively late, and it was established in 1956, and it was determined to be the only Dong Autonomous County in the country.30% of China's Dong population is in the southwest of Hunan, mainly concentrated in Tongdao County.

The first time I came to the Dong people, what caught my attention most was their buildings. From a distance, they were black and white, full of edges and corners.The Drum Tower is a landmark building in the Dong nationality's architecture. The entire Dong village is centered on the Drum Tower, surrounded by other buildings.As the saying goes: If there is a Dong village, there must be a drum tower.The Drum Tower mostly imitates the shape of a fir tree and is divided into thirteen floors.The Dong people often gather on the Drum Tower to hold meetings or celebrate major festivals. This has been passed down to this day, and it has become the best place for celebrations and tasting bitter wine. All the good bitter wine in the village will be drunk in the Drum Tower.The Drum Tower is also a place where Dong villages hold banquets, carrying the essence of the folk culture of the entire Dong people, which has been passed down from generation to generation.

Fengyu Bridge, also known as Huaqiao, is built in the lower reaches of the entire Dong village. Most of them are built for Fengshui. The construction techniques are exquisite. It shows the most beautiful landscape paintings of the Dong village.As for Huaqiao, it is also inseparable from the company of bitter wine. Many sacrifices are held on Huaqiao, and Huaqiao also enshrines many Bodhisattvas. In fact, they are all connected with bitter wine. Most of the Dong villages are in the mountains, and they are often built near the mountains. Youxi live across the water. The wooden buildings on stilts of the Dong people spread out on the sunny slopes, and the eaves are next to the eaves. Slowly moving, the Dong village will expand and grow bigger and bigger.

All cultural people who have been to the Dong villages are all impressed by the exquisite Dong culture.What attracts young men and women more is the original ecological folk songs of the Dong nationality. The lyrics and vocals full of ambiguity are very shocking and cohesive to every young man and woman. That is their restless soul. more emotional. Many literati call the Drum Tower, Huaqiao, and Dong songs the three major national treasures of the Dong people, but I think that the original power of the three national treasures is bitter wine, which gives them inspiration and strength, as well as fine craftsmanship.

When we go to the Dong village, we will see the legendary bitter wine. As tourists or cultural people, we should not ignore the bitter wine of the Dong family. It has become a traditional custom of the Dong family to treat guests with wine, and they often talk about "eating wine regardless of food".Every Dong village is inseparable from their bitter wine and wine rituals, regardless of birth, old age, sickness and death, wedding reception, construction and innovation, village friendship, visits to relatives and friends, farming management and harvest, and seasonal fashion.There are many banquets of the Dong people. The ones I know include Three Dynasty Wine, Festival Wine, Celebration Wine, Reunion Wine, and Helding Wine, etc. There are also many other less common ones.Dong people pay attention to etiquette and seniority in drinking, and there are countless rules. The common ones include toasting, changing glasses of wine, exchanging glasses of wine, supporting glasses of wine, and turning dragon wine.Living in the Dong nationality for a period of time, we can fully feel the Dong nationality's wine culture and wine customs, and let us realize the other side of the Dong nationality from the perspective of wine, which is the traditional culture of the Dong nationality.

I am not an authentic alcoholic, but I am a good drinker.I especially like water wine, I am very interested in the brewing of water wine, and I prefer to drink water wine, to distinguish the difference of water wine in different places. My hometown, Xinhua, Hunan, is a good place to produce water wine. Every household in Xinhua has rice wine, which was once sold well in the national market and loved by drinkers.When I was young, under the nurturing of my parents, I got into the habit of good wine. In the land of Xinhua, people would toast, invite and persuade people to drink during Chinese New Year. I was gradually cultivated into an alcoholic.

When I traveled to other places, I realized that the water wine of the ethnic minorities has many similarities with the water wine of my hometown. The water wine of the Yao and Dong people removes the distiller's grains and only drinks pure wine, and we don't drink the distiller's grains.When drinking, although I only see a bit cloudy, it has a bit of sweetness. I tasted and tried it slowly, and found that there is still a little sour and astringent taste. After drinking bitter wine, I can feel the taste of other foods more easily. Hook out my wine bug and drink more and more day by day.

There is a beautiful legend about the bitter wine of the Dong nationality: There is a newlywed couple of the Dong nationality, and the girl is named Kuniang. Not long after they got married, the husband went out to make a living and did not return for many years.Ku Niang waited at home for her husband to come back. Every year on the Double Ninth Festival, Ku Niang steamed a pot of water wine that her husband liked to drink.After waiting hard for half her life, she still hadn't waited for her husband to return. Ku Niang passed away in her fifties due to excessive longing, and never saw her husband again.

When the neighbor was doing funeral affairs for Ku Niang, he found that there were many wine jars in Ku Niang's house, which almost filled the entire bedroom.A neighbor wanted to lift the lid of the altar to see what was hidden in the jar. The moment the lid was lifted, a strange fragrance rushed out and quickly spread to the whole house. The village is full of wine fragrance, and everyone gathers up when they smell this strange fragrance, only then do they know that it is the fragrance of wine. That night, all the people in the Dong village drank the water wine brewed by Ku Niang and had a carnival all night.The patriarch drank Ku Niang's water wine and sighed: Ku Niang's water wine tastes cool, mellow and soft, and has a long aftertaste. It is a very rare water wine.The neighbors were amazed and wanted to know the secret recipe of wine making. The patriarch was afraid that everyone would scramble and cause fights, so he kept the secret wine making recipe and named the water wine brewed by Ku Niang as bitter wine to honor Ku Niang's virtuousness.

Many years later, the head of the clan passed on the brewing method of bitter wine to all the Dong village people. Since then, everyone has been able to brew bitter wine. Drinking bitter wine to drive away evil spirits on the Double Ninth Festival has also become a traditional custom of the Dong people. Dongzhai bitter wine mixes steamed glutinous rice with koji, puts it in a large wine jar, covers it with gauze, and after several days of fermentation, the glutinous rice becomes a sweet wine mother, milky white in color, with an alcohol content of about ten degrees, and tastes sweet and delicious. The thick juice will stick to your mouth if you are not careful.The real bitter wine is made by adding spring water to the wine mother, soaking for several days, all the wine juice seeps out of the glutinous rice, and the spring water becomes wine, which is the bitter wine we drink. Bitter wine is the stimulant of the Dong people and the condiment of their life, bringing a rich wine culture and post-drinking culture. Drink bitter wine, no matter men, women or children, people with a small capacity for alcohol can drink a large glass, and those with a large capacity for alcohol can drink more. If you drink too much, you will only be drunk for a day or two, but you will not have a headache. role. During the few days when I was in the tunnel, I was accompanied by bitter wine every day, and I often compared my drinking capacity with others, but I was never drunk, and I still miss those days.