The history of medicinal liquor

The main feature of China medicinal liquor is that Chinese herbal medicines are added in the brewing process or in the wine. According to the usage of medicinal liquor, medicinal liquor can be divided into two types: oral and external use. According to its function, tonic wine can be divided into qi-invigorating, blood-enriching, yin-nourishing, yang-strengthening and qi-and-blood-supplementing types. & lt& lt natural history >; & gt It is recorded that there were three people walking in the fog in the morning, one was drinking, one was full and the other was empty. People who eat on an empty stomach die, people who are full are sick, and people who drink are healthy. This wine is more evil than anything. "From this record, we can see the effect of wine on health, but it can better explain the internal factors of the close relationship between wine and medicine, and can also be found from the following points.

Combination of food and medicine: medicine is often bitter and difficult to be accepted by people, but wine is a popular food. The combination of wine and medicine makes up for the bitter taste of medicine and improves the flavor of wine. Complement each other. It is psychologically unacceptable for people to take medicine regularly, but it is a quick thing in life to mix drugs with wine to make medicinal liquor, which can not only strengthen the body, but also enjoy it.

Wine is the best medicine:> There is a saying in China that "wine is the best medicine". It can be understood that wine is the best one among many drugs. On the other hand, alcohol can also improve the effect of other drugs. Wine and medicine are closely related. In ancient times, wine was a medicine. The ancients said that "wine can cure diseases". The ancient Chinese character for "medicine" is "_ _", which is a kind of wine-making in itself. One of the purposes of ancient people to make wine was for medicinal purposes. It can be seen that wine played an important role in ancient medical treatment. In ancient times, medicinal liquor was mostly brewed, and the medicine was mixed with wine mash for fermentation. In the process of fermentation, the pharmaceutical ingredients are continuously dissolved out, so that they can be fully utilized. In addition to "wine" and "glutinous rice", there is also "glutinous rice" in the wine of Shang Dynasty. Black millet is used as brewing material, and tulip grass (also a kind of traditional Chinese medicine) is added. This is the earliest recorded medicinal liquor. Candles are usually used for sacrifice and divination. It also has the function of exorcising evil spirits and preserving corrosion. & lt& lt Zhou Li >> The book also records: "The collapse of the king is a reward." In other words, after the emperor died, bathing the body with wine can keep the body from rotting for a long time.

A special book on medical prescriptions unearthed from the No.3 Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha, was later called < < 52 prescriptions > > It was considered as a manuscript between the end of the 3rd century BC and the Qin and Han Dynasties, in which no less than 35 kinds of wine recipes were used, at least 5 of which can be considered as wine recipes for treating snake wounds, gangrene, scabies and other diseases. Among them, there are medicinal liquor for oral use and some for external use.

& lt& lt Health Prescription >> It is one of the silk books unearthed from the Western Han Tomb in Mawangdui, in which six brewing methods of medicinal liquor are recorded. Unfortunately, most of these prescriptions are broken, and only Lao Lizhong is relatively complete, including ten processes.

However, it is worth emphasizing that in ancient times, medicinal liquor was mostly medicine, which was fermented by adding brewing raw materials. Instead of the impregnation method commonly used in later generations. The main reason may be that it is not easy to preserve wine in ancient times, and soaking method is easy to lead to wine rancidity. The wine goes bad before the pharmaceutical ingredients are completely dissolved. The medicine and brewing raw materials are fermented at the same time, and the fermentation time is long, and the medicine components can be fully dissolved.

The classic article of Chinese medicine & gt& gt once pointed out: "Since ancient times, the soup of saints has been fermented for ear preparation". This means that the reason why the ancients brewed mash wine was to keep it for medicinal purposes.

& lt& lt Huangdi Neijing; Among them, "left-handed wine" is used to treat corpse syncope, and "mash wine" is used to treat meridian obstruction. "Chicken vector wine" treats abdominal distension.

Third, medicinal liquor from Han Dynasty to Tang Dynasty

The adoption of wine decocting and wine soaking began at least in the Han Dynasty. Written in the Han Dynasty & gt For example, the next paragraph says: "Those who have medicinal properties should take pills, those who should disperse them should take water, and those who should be stained with wine should take wine." Soaking in wine can improve the solubility of some medicinal components in medicinal materials, on the other hand, it can also improve the efficacy and curative effect of wine. In Zhang Zhongjing's book, there are many examples of soaking and decocting methods. "Trionyx sinensis Wan Jian Fang" takes more than 20 kinds of medicinal materials such as Trionyx sinensis as the end, takes one barrel of baking furnace ash, one barrel of sake and five barrels, soaks them in the ash, puts Trionyx sinensis in the middle until the wine is half full, cooks them until they are rotten like glue, wrings juice, and decocts them into pills. There is also a case of "Red and Blue Flower Wine Recipe", which is also drunk after decocting with wine. & lt& lt synopsis of the golden chamber; There are also some taboos about drinking, such as "Carassius auratus should not be eaten with wine and fruit", "Drinking white wine and eating raw leeks will make people sick" and "Xia Yue is drunk and sweaty, so he can't wash himself and fan himself with cold water, which will make people sick." Don't eat and drink cold when you are drunk. "This practical knowledge has played an important role in protecting people's health.

Tao Hongjing, a famous pharmacist in the Qi and Liang Dynasties in the Southern Dynasties, summarized the previous experience in preparing medicinal liquor by cold soaking. & lt Compendium of Materia Medica >> This paper puts forward a set of routine for making medicinal liquor by cold dipping: "All medicinal liquor dipped in wine must be finely cut, put into raw silk bags and sealed. With the number of hot and cold days, depending on its intensity, it can be _ _ _ _ _ _, and it is not necessary to wait for the wine to run out. " I can be violent, slightly beaten, or I can drink more, or I can eat casually. "This passage pays attention to the crushing degree of medicinal materials, and the influence of soaking and soaking temperature on leaching speed and leaching effect. It is also proposed to soak for many times to fully extract the effective components in the medicinal materials, which makes up for the defects of the cold soaking method itself, such as incomplete leaching of medicinal components and waste caused by the absorption of wine by the residue itself. It can be seen from this passage that the cold soaking method of medicinal liquor had reached a high technical level at that time.

In the first year of Han 'an (126 ~ 144), Zhang Ling (Zhang Daoling), a native of Pei Guofeng (now Fengxian County, Jiangsu Province), advocated the way of righteousness and alliance in Hemingshan, Dayi County, commonly known as the way of fighting rice, also known as the way of Shi Tian. According to legend, when Zhang Tianshi preached in Hemingshan, it happened that the local plague was raging and the people were devastated. In order to save people from fire and water, Shi Tian combined the self-made elixir with Taoist medical thoughts to develop a mysterious herbal formula for strengthening the body. Zhang Tianshi soaked the medicine in wine and gave it to people, and the plague was eliminated. After illness, people feel more relaxed and healthier, and their spirit is stronger than before. Because medicine enters wine, wine carries medicine, and medicine promotes wine strength, making wine mellow, sweet, refreshing and wonderful. People are grateful for Shi Tian's kindness in saving the people, and praise this kind of medicinal liquor as "Miaoqin Shenjiu", which is a famous Miaoqin medicinal liquor at present.

The earliest record of preparing medicinal liquor by hot soaking was probably in the Northern Wei Dynasty. & gt An example of "Zanthoxylum bungeanum wine" is to put dried ginger, Zanthoxylum bungeanum powder and pomegranate juice into the wine, and then "take the temperature by fire". Although it is not medicinal liquor, it is circulated among the people as a method, so it may also be used for the preparation of medicinal liquor. Hot soaking did become the main method of preparing medicinal liquor later.

Wine is not only used in internal medicine, but also as an anesthetic. It is said that the "Ma Fei San" used by Hua Tuo was taken with wine. Hua Tuo found that the drunk had no pain when receiving treatment, which inspired him to develop "Mafeisan". During the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was popular to brew tonic wine with medicated wine. Some medical masterpieces in this period, such as Volume 7 of> has a special section on "wine cellar" and Volume 12 has a special section on "wind deficiency and miscellaneous tonic wine and decoction". & lt& lt Forward to Fang Yi >> Volume 16 has a special chapter on "wine". & lt& lt secrets of foreign radio stations >> volume 3 1 has a special section on "ancient and modern winemakers".

There were as many as six special festivals of> medicinal liquor in Song Dynasty. Besides these special sections, there are a large number of prescriptions scattered in other chapters. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, due to the strong drinking atmosphere, there were more and more alcoholics in the society, so it seemed necessary to sober up and give up drinking. Therefore, in these medical works, prescriptions for sober-up and abstinence came into being. According to statistics, there are more than 100 cases of prescriptions in these four books.

In the prescription of medicinal liquor in Tang and Song Dynasties, the proportion of compound medicinal liquor with more medicinal flavors increased obviously, which was a remarkable feature at that time. The increase of compound prescription indicates the improvement of the overall level of medicinal liquor preparation. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the methods of making medicinal liquor were brewing, cold soaking and hot soaking. It used to be mainly two. & lt& lt "Sheng Ji Tong Zhi >"; There are many cases of heating medicinal liquor with water insulation. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, with the progress of economy and culture, medicine had a new development. Medicinal liquor has made new achievements in sorting out predecessors' experience, creating new formulas and developing preparation methods, which has made the preparation of medicinal liquor reach a higher level.

During this period, China accumulated a large number of medical documents, and the valuable experience of predecessors was generally valued by doctors in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Therefore, many works were published in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, which made important contributions to sorting out the experience of predecessors. & lt& lt is necessary to eat >> This is the first monograph on nutrition in China. There are three volumes. Calendar for three years (1330).

Hu Sihui is a Mongolian nutritionist. When he was a doctor in the imperial court, he composed a book with precious dishes, decocted soup and paste, herbs, recipes of famous doctors, and grains, fruits and vegetables that were essential every day. The contents of the book about drinking taboos are very reasonable. Has important value. There are some tonic wines in the book, which are not recorded in detail, but they are quite effective. In> detailed records in.

Li Shizhen, a great physician in Ming Dynasty, wrote a world-famous masterpiece. ; , a total of 52 volumes, Wanli six years (1578) into a book. This book brings together the research achievements of pharmacology and botany in China in past dynasties, covering many disciplines such as food science, nutrition and chemistry. When collecting the attached prescriptions, the book collected a large number of medicinal liquor formulas of predecessors and contemporary people. Under the column of Volume 25, there is a special item of "Prescription with Medicinal Liquor", which he simply sorted out for reference.

& gt, Fang Xian's>, Wang Kentang's> His works have collected a large number of previous medicinal liquor formulas. Ming and Qing dynasties are also a period when new formulas of medicinal liquor are constantly emerging. Wu Min's>, Gong Tingxian's << recover from all diseases,>, Qing Dynasty's Sun Wei>, Tao Chengxi's.

There are also a considerable number of tonic wines in the bibliography of Qing Dynasty listed above, among which Longyuanju wine, Yanshou black silk wine, Ginseng antler wine, Shenshen wine and Jianbu wine are all good tonic medicinal wines. Compared with the medicinal liquor before Ming and Qing Dynasties, this period can be said to be a prosperous period of nourishing medicinal liquor. 2. Use hot and dry drugs with caution. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, some warm and dry drugs were commonly used in medicinal liquor, such as aconite, aconite, cinnamon and dried ginger. If these drugs are abused, they will often hurt yin and blood. During the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, the academic debate in the field of traditional Chinese medicine was very active, and the abuse of warm and dry drugs was criticized by many famous doctors. This had a far-reaching impact on medicine in Ming and Qing dynasties. Therefore, many prescriptions of medicinal liquor in Ming and Qing dynasties are composed of drugs with mild properties and drugs for nourishing yin, which can be applied to different diseases and physical conditions and make medicinal liquor play a role in a wider range of fields.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, a number of monographs on prescription science also appeared. The author focuses on the law of prescriptions, combines excellent prescriptions, and, like Wu Kun, expounds the principles of medication and compatibility in theory. & gt, Wang Ang's << medical prescription set >>. This monograph also involves medicinal liquor when expounding the formula. < < medical prescription inspection >; & gt In a book, the principles and indications of seven kinds of medicinal liquor formulations, such as Tiger Bone Wine, Stone Pot Tribute Wine, chinese wolfberry wine, Honghua Wine and Pig Slurry Wine, were discussed. This has played a certain role in promoting the research and guiding the correct use of medicinal liquor formula. In the preparation methods of medicinal liquor in Ming and Qing dynasties, the extensive use of hot soaking method was highlighted. Properly increasing the soaking temperature can soften and expand the tissues of plant medicinal materials, increase the dissolution and diffusion speed in the leaching process, facilitate the leaching of effective components, destroy some enzyme substances in medicinal materials and enhance the stability of medicinal liquor. Therefore, the hot leaching method is a scientific method with good leaching effect for many drugs. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the government attached great importance to the development of Chinese medicine, established many Chinese medicine hospitals and Chinese medicine colleges, opened pharmaceutical factories and developed Chinese medicine, which made the research and development of medicinal liquor present a new situation. The brewing of medicinal liquor not only inherits the traditional production experience, but also absorbs modern science and technology, which makes the production of medicinal liquor tend to be standardized. In order to strengthen the quality management, the specification of medicinal liquor is also listed as an important content of the national pharmacopoeia. Due to the scientific cooperation between the production unit of medicinal liquor and the medical and scientific research departments, the reliability of clinical efficacy is guaranteed. Especially in recent ten years, with the joint efforts of Chinese medicine practitioners and medicinal liquor researchers, the development history of China medicinal liquor and the characteristics, application, technology and quality of China medicinal liquor were comprehensively summarized, and many monographs were published. For example, The Complete Collection of China Medicinal Liquor has been printed nine times since it was published by 199 1, and it has become a best seller in TCM monographs. The publication of these works, in turn, promoted the in-depth development of medicinal liquor. Not only have a number of medicinal liquor products with reliable quality and remarkable curative effect appeared, which are welcomed by patients and the masses, but also they have developed rapidly in toxicological research, pharmacological research, quality control and production technology of medicinal liquor.

The development of medicinal liquor has not only gradually met the needs of the people, but also impacted the international market and won the welcome of international friends. We believe that in the near future, China medicinal liquor with China national characteristics, long history and modern scientific level will certainly make new contributions to human health and longevity, just like the development of traditional Chinese medicine.