The discovery made popular Shuijing Street, where the workshop is located in central Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province. It brought greater fame for Quanxing, an already famous brand of alcoholic drinks. But the discovery also provided convincing evidence for archaeologists studying the development of the Chinese liquor industry.

Jiang Zhanghua, an archaeologist with the Chengdu Institute of Archaeology, said: "The discovery has provided the most convincing proof regarding the origin of Chinese distilled liquor as well as its manufacturing techniques."

Chance discovery

The discovery of the ruins was accidental, according to Zhang, a former official with the Quanxing Group.

In August 1998, the Quanxing Group decided to use natural gas as fuel instead of coal.

While digging a ditch to lay the pipelines, workers found a round object made of bricks and stone. Some considered it an ancient well cover, while others thought it a nether (lower) millstone for grinding cereals. Looking at it carefully, the workers found soot on the object and a stove near it.

Decision-makers in the Quanxing Group thought that the object might be an ancient relic relating to liquor distillation and reported the finding to the departments in charge of relics in Sichuan and Chengdu, Zhang recalled.

The Sichuan Institute of Archaeology and the Chengdu Institute of Archaeology have conducted joint excavations in the workshop since March 1999.

Archaeologists have dug nearly 280 square meters out of the ruins' total area of about 1,700 square meters. They have found three fermentation tanks, eight cellars, four kitchen ranges and four pits as well as wooden poles and lots of ceramic pieces, most of which are drinking vessels.

The relics' date of manufacture ranges from during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to modern times, offering convincing proof that Chinese liquor distillation started at least as far back as the Ming Dynasty, according to archaeologists.

Origin of Chinese liquor

Before the Shuijing Street workshop began to be excavated, there were disputes about the origin of Chinese distilled liquor.

Some researchers held that distillation started as early as the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), while others thought that it might have started during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) or the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). The dispute could not be solved because none could offer convincing proof.

The ruins of the liquor distillery in Shuijing Street are the only ones relatively well preserved in China, said Shen Yifang, head of the Distilled Liquor Experts' Group under the China Brewing Industry Association.

The traditional processes used in China to make distilled liquor consist of boiling, fermenting and distilling. The relics found in Shuijing Street demonstrated use of the three processes, according to the archaeologist Jiang.

In the first process, the cereals used as the raw materials are crushed and boiled in the kitchen range. The four kitchen ranges in Shuijing Street were built during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and were used to boil cereals such as sorghum.

Next, the fermentation process was conducted in both the fermentation tank and the cellar. That process had the highest technological content.

The boiled raw materials were spread out in the fermentation tank and then mixed with the distiller's yeast, which had been pounded into pieces. Tools used to pound the yeast, such as mortars, have been found in the Shuijing Street workshop.

Piled up in the tank, the materials went through the initial stage of fermentation. The later stage of fermentation was conducted underground in the cellar.

The cellars are mainly rectangular. The cellar mouth is bigger than the bottom part, making the cellar look like a dipper.

The date of manufacture of the eight cellars unearth-ed in the Shuijing Street workshop ranges from the Ming Dynasty to modern times.

All the inside walls and bottom parts of the cellars are filled with pure, yellow soil. Dense bamboo pieces are inserted into the inner walls of some cellars to support the soil layer.

Distilling, the third process, is aimed at producing liquor with a high level of alcohol. As the distiller's yeast fermented in the cellar produces a low concentration, further fermentation and condensation are needed.

To complete the distilling and condensation process, the overlapping distiller and condenser are placed upon a cylindrical base.

The round brick and stone object that the workers found in August 1998 is most likely the base used to support the distiller and condenser rather than a nether millstone for grinding cereals, said liquor expert Shen Yifang.

As wooden poles, roadbeds, drinking vessels and tableware have been excavated in the workshop ruins, archaeologists hold that a shop selling distilled liquor must have existed in front of the workshop.

According to historical records, Shuijing Street used to be a traffic hub and a bustling area in Chengdu. Next to Meiquan (Good Spring) Street, Shuijing Street was a convenient location for the workshops to get good water for their liquor. Shuijing Street used to attract many poets and merchants.

The layout -- with the shop in the front and the workshop in the back -- has provided valuable materials for the study of Chengdu's industrial and commercial development during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the archaeologist Jiang said.

Archaeologists have hailed the excavation of ceramics in the Shuijing Street workshop ruins as important for studying the development of the ceramic industry in Chengdu and the whole of Southwest China.

The remains of ceramic bowls, plates, basins, cups, saucers, spoons, kettles and jars have been excavated from the workshop ruins. Some of the ceramic pieces have characters that indicate that the pieces were made during the Ming Dynasty.

More than 100 ceramic items have been pieced together and restored. They contain designs such as pine trees, bamboo and plums, fish, birds, dragons and other legendary animals, people going fishing, and adults playing with babies.

Life goes on as usual in Shuijing Street today and the workshop is kept busy every day. However, the local government is planning a museum on the site to protect the ruins, which were named as one of "China's Top 10 Archaeological Finds of 1999" by the National Administration of Cultural Heritage in May 2000.

(China Daily May 13, 2003)