Bars and wines in old Beijing

Historically, Beijing was not a place to produce liquor on a large scale, and there were no famous wines, but there were many winemaking workshops. The "Erguotou", "South Road Jiu Shao" and "West Road Jiu Shao" sold in old Beijing are all made in Beijing, and Beijingers call them "burning knives".

After the TV series Little Women under Zhengyangmen was broadcast, people had some memories of bars in Beijing. Little Women under Zhengyangmen is a literary creation, not a history, and the creator's imagination can be freely used in the play. However, because the play involves bars, people are interested in anecdotes and historical allusions in Beijing, especially bars in old Beijing. ...

Bars and hotels

In the old Beijing era, pubs in Beijing were graded to serve different drinkers. Big pubs are called "big jars", Chinese pubs and bistros. Large wine jars are opened in the streets, and small wine shops are mostly opened in hutongs. Some vats generally have food and rice, such as Daoxiao Noodles, noodles and jiaozi, and some vats are integrated with the so-called "Erhun Shop" and other restaurants. Because most of the small wine shops are located in hutongs, there are not many mobile drinkers, and most of them are good drinkers in their neighbors. So there are only simple side dishes to accompany the wine, such as fried broad beans, peanuts and dried tofu. As for "smoked fish" (pig's head meat) and other meat dishes, the small wine shop is not prepared. If the drinker needs it, he can bring it himself or ask the waiter to buy it.

There are also medium-sized pubs in Beijing, such as Xianheng Hotel, where Kong Yiji often drinks, and the joint venture between Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun, all of which belong to pubs with high cultural taste, so there are beautiful legends and tragic stories. But this did not happen in Beijing. The pubs in old Beijing, such as Liuquanju and Liubiju, later changed their business contents. Liuquanju sold vegetables and became a restaurant. Liubiju was changed into a pickles monopoly, and their pub status was forgotten. According to Essien Giro Duncheng's Collection of Four Song Tings in Qing Dynasty, Dunmin and Duncheng made friends with Cao Xueqin. Their brothers live near Taiping Lake in Xuanwu Gate, and their family has a "Huai Garden". One autumn, Cao Xueqin visited friends in the city from Xiangshan in the western suburbs and happened to meet the Dunmin brothers. On this day, the weather was bad, and there were bleak and desolate scenes everywhere. After the three met, they drank in a pub to catch up with the past. With the momentum of "three cups and two lamps, Mo Wen's future is bumpy", "Xueqin is thirsty as crazy". Three people yelling in the bitter autumn night, talk about ancient and modern, express the feeling of * * *, stay up all night, "Qin Xuehuan Long song" heroic nature shows the bold spirit of "Yan's not a good drinker". There were several literati bars in Beijing in the Qing Dynasty, which spread to the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Scholar Jin Shoushen introduced Siyixing Hotel in his book Old Beijing has a Happy Taste, which is a pub. According to the book, Four Yixing is the general name of four Yixing hotels in the east, west, south and north. Among them, Beiyixing in the north of the city, "When I was in Gan's home, business was very good. Because it is adjacent to the Married Palace (now Alcohol Palace), and Cheng Zi is a famous calligrapher, he loves poetry and wine, and often takes a drink to Beiyixing to write a book in Jiaqing for six years. "

With the changes of the times, well-run medium-sized pubs have merged into large wine vats or two meat shops, while those that are not well-run have become small wine shops. Most people who run small wineries in old Beijing are from Huangxian County (now Longkou City) in Shandong Province. They work hard on the principle of small profits but quick turnover, because the people who come here for consumption will not be literati and dignitaries, but the people who drink are mostly pawns of peddlers, such as rickshaw pullers, masons and coolies. The partners in the shop are not allowed to drink on weekdays, so they can't see it. Small hotels are small everywhere, and they are usually a frontispiece. There are at most two or three tables and several benches in the room. People who drink here drink a lot of alcohol but have poor spending power, usually only two or three liang. A slightly rich drinker may want a plate of frozen skin or fried broad beans, while a person who is short of money may bring a bag of peanuts or a cucumber to accompany the wine. As for those who know the shopkeeper of the restaurant and can buy wine on credit, they don't want any food, just drink two glasses of wine when their necks are tilted back, because they want to work hard for "chewing the valley" and won't sit in the restaurant and talk about Tatan Mountain and Beihai Xidan all day.

Small wine shops are full of fun, grounding gas, and full of ordinary people's life. In the past, there was a small hotel in the south of Dongsi Zhu Shi Street. The owner's surname is Hao, and everyone calls him Lao Hao. He is a serious Shandong businessman. His small restaurant is more leisure in the morning, and there are many descendants after lunch. Four small tables are full of people. People sit here chatting instead of drinking to kill time. The wine here is mainly Shandong yellow rice wine, and some of the wine in the jar is a kind of white wine called Shaodao. There are few people who are "drunk" and crazy in small wine shops. When I was a child, my family was poor, but my father still had a hobby of drinking two glasses of wine. Sometimes when I was short of money, I often let me drink on credit ... Fortunately, Lao Hao is a small business, and there are not a few people who come here to drink on credit. Moreover, people are honest, and they pay their debts as soon as they have money, and there is absolutely no default. At that time, you could smell the faint scent of wine far away from the small hotel, especially in winter nights, when it was freezing outside, but the inside of the small hotel was as warm as spring, filled with the smell of alcohol, water vapor and inferior cigarettes, and your life was full. Everyone sat around the fire, drinking a little wine and baking the fire, forgetting the troubles and fatigue of the day and killing the winter time. It was very pleasant.

The bistro in Beijing is also called the "yellow pub". As the Chinese Dream in Beijing published by 1935 said: "Most of the Huangpubs are run by Shandong people. Fifty years ago, there was a yellow pub outside Beijing Customs. The situation is not big, but it is elegant. " In the yellow pub, "people who drink can drink enough and call out if they want to eat." They measured the wine in half a bowl. Although it is half a bowl, it actually falls in the wine bowl and is still full. "People have the habit of drinking warm wine in winter, so the Huangtavern" scalds it with hot pot and then pours it into the wine bowl ". However, the yellow tavern "gradually declined around the middle of Guangxu", and the number of yellow taverns in the city is also decreasing. Today, only Liuquanju in the north of Xisipailou and Baijinglou in the coal market bridge outside Zhengyangmen are left, but both of them were pure yellow pubs at first, but they have changed recently. "

The Record of Hua Meng in Central Beijing was written by Mu Rugai (1884— 196 1), the flag bearer of Jianrui Camp in Xiangshan. He is an expert in tea drinking. After liberation, he became a librarian of Beijing Literature and History Research Institute 1949. He has a lot of research and experience on pubs and wines in Beijing, and the description of Huangpubs in the book is reliable first-hand material.

Large wine jar

Old Beijingers call big taverns big jars. As the name implies, this pub is closely related to the altar of wine. In  matchmaker's Scenery of Beiping, there is a clear description of the big jars. He said: "The big jar is a business of selling wine, but there is no table at home. Regardless of the size of the place, the home is full of' big jars' buried in the soil. " There is a wooden cylinder cover painted with red paint on the top of the jar, and there are four or five stools around it. This wine jar is a table. In the book "Beiping Taste", there are also descriptions of big jars. According to the author, "almost every street or bustling alley in Beijing's inner and outer cities has a big jar."

The way of selling wine in the urn is also different from today. They say "one" when they sell wine. One is a cup, and one cup is two. "The wine glasses are all made of tin, and then they were changed into porcelain cups. Have a drink. Have another drink. When you leave, settle accounts by glass. " In the past, the big jar didn't sell hot dishes, let alone rice. It was a place for "pure drinking". People are still full after drinking enough, so "the big jars in Sijiu City are in front of it, one on the left and the other on the right, no matter whether it is a fixed shop or a cart, whatever you sell." It's convenient to just shout "whatever you want to eat".

At first, the wine sold in vats only sold white wine, that is, sorghum wine. Later, the big wine jars "sold Shandong Huang and Liangxiang wines, as well as wormwood, lotus white and rose dew", and there were more varieties of wines and more customers. At that time, people had feelings for the big jars, and many intellectuals left a good impression on them. Someone wrote: "When it snows in winter, or when the yellow sand blows on your face and the northwest wind howls at the wires, you walk in the street with your neck down and your hands in your pockets, open the thick blue cotton curtain hanging on the big wine jar and walk in." You can take a seat in any corner and let it dry two or three bowls for nothing. Ask the waiter to cut a few cents of sheep's face on the cabinet selling sheep's head meat at the door and support it with an old newspaper. Slices of meat are as big as paper, sprinkled with fine salt, eaten by hand, without daggers, and swallowed in three bowls to drive away the cold. "

With the development of the times, the vat has also changed. Some vats have changed their business model of selling wine as their main business and turned to selling rice. Many people have added staple foods such as Daoxiao Noodles and cat ears in their hometown. Hengheqing, located in the west of Dongsipailou South Road a few decades ago, is a famous big jar. Not only selling Shanxi Fenjiu, Zhuyeqing, but also selling various wines such as beer and Shanxi pasta, it has become a restaurant with Shanxi flavor. At one time, its business was booming, and it was closed after the Cultural Revolution.

Tea can nourish, and wine can fornicate. Beijing is an ancient cultural city, which has quite national characteristics. In old Beijing, pubs, restaurants, yellow pubs, big jars, etc. It won't be controlled by women, even "little women under Zhengyangmen" are not allowed, and there will be no women drinking in pubs. Therefore, the folk customs of the ancient city are simple and lasting.

Wine in Beijing

Historically, Beijing was not a place to produce liquor on a large scale, and there were no famous wines, but there were many winemaking workshops. The "Erguotou", "South Road Jiu Shao" and "West Road Jiu Shao" sold in old Beijing are all made in Beijing, and Beijingers call them "burning knives". Wine shops are small in scale but have a long history, at least in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the Qing Dynasty, there was a "Good Brewing Department" in Guanglu Temple, which specialized in wine ceremony. Today, there used to be liquor workshops in Jiu Shao Hutong in the north of Wangfujing Street and Jiu Shao Hutong in Chaoyangmen. The former is Guanglu Temple wine workshop in Ming Dynasty, while the latter is folk wine workshop. Before the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the winery run by honest officials brewed with Yuquanshan spring water, and the wine brewed was pure as jade, so it was called "yuquan wine". When Britain and France invaded Beijing, they burned three mountains and five gardens. Yuquan wine's workshop was doomed, razed to the ground by foreigners, and people never saw yuquan wine again. So many years ago, Mr. Pu Jie was in Ceng Yun, and there were no restaurants in the Qing Dynasty, so there would be no royal wine. The "Qing Palace Imperial Wine" and "Aisingiorro Wine" bought and sold in the society are fakes, which have nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty, and the Aisingiorro family has never made wine. Pu Jie, a former "royal brother", said that history is true and there can be no mistakes.

In Beijing, besides Erguotou wine, Lianhua wine is the most famous wine, which is said to be Cixi's favorite wine. Lotus white is made of lotus plumule and medicinal materials. Liquor is sweet, and it is best made by Renhe Liquor Store in Haidian. There were five kinds of yellow rice wine in old Beijing, namely southern yellow rice wine, inner yellow rice wine, Huangjing wine, imitation yellow rice wine and western yellow rice wine. Southern yellow rice wine is Shaoxing yellow rice wine in Zhejiang, which Kong Yiji likes to drink. Beijing rice wine is Shaoxing rice wine copied from Beijing; Western yellow rice wine is produced in Shanxi, and it and Fenjiu are the main wines in the big jars opened by Shanxi people. The yellow rice wine related to the Qing Palace is called "Neifu Yellow Rice Wine", which may not be produced locally, but may be Shaoxing tribute wine, and this yellow rice wine "disappeared after the abdication of the Qing Palace". According to the statistics of 1940, the wines in the Peiping market during the Japanese Puppet War were divided into four categories: cooking wine, sake, carved flowers and Ligustrum lucidum. Because of Japan's invasion of China, Japanese sake took advantage, but Beijingers were not interested, thinking that it was just white wine with too much water. It's only sold in izakaya opened by Japanese ronin and Koreans.

In recent years, the workshops producing Erguotou liquor in Beijing have become wineries, with at least three or four, and brands such as Niulanshan and Hongxing have added a lot of color to Beijing liquor.

In old Beijing, there was a tobacco and alcohol monopoly system. Liquor can be roughly divided into official liquor and private liquor. "Official wine is a licensed seller. Private wine is naturally without official permission, but it is a rogue and trafficked privately in order to profit from it. " "Although the official wine is expensive, the quality is reliable and the private wine is not perfect." According to historical records, before the Republic of China, bootleggers tied wine in pig urine bubbles and climbed the city wall at night, so some people were injured or disabled. At that time, there were many "pots" for making private wine outside Guangqumen. Wine merchants sell wine into the city from here, climb the Chongwenmen wall, and wine merchants fall to their deaths frequently here.

Businessmen in old Beijing knew the rules well, so they set up trade organizations related to alcohol trading in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, which not only played a role in self-discipline, but also played a certain role in maintaining the safety of the alcohol market. According to the statistics of 19 19, Beijing Liquor Chamber of Commerce has seven big stores, and Beijing Oil Wine Vinegar Sauce Chamber of Commerce has 19 1 stores. As for the grocery store selling oil, salt and non-staple food, it has not been counted. In history, foreign wine in Beijing was neglected, and it was called "Japanese wine". 19 19, there were only two foreign wine firms in Beijing. One is Dafeng foreign firm run by the French, and the other is Willy Guna foreign firm run by the Italians, which monopolizes the smuggling of foreign wine. This store is located in Dongjiaomin Lane, which is not subject to the tobacco and alcohol monopoly law of China. The history of beer entering Beijing is only 100 years. That year, old Beijing called beer "horse urine". 19 14 Only after the opening of Shuanghesheng five-star beer opened by Shandong people did Beijing people drink beer. Drinking foreign wine and beer was a new thing 100 years ago. Nowadays, foreign wines are everywhere, there are many kinds of beer and bars, and the "bar street" in Shichahai and Sanlitun has also been formed, but the pubs in Beijing style no longer exist. Although bars and pubs are nowhere to be found in Beijing, it is also interesting for good drinkers to recall old-fashioned bars and old Beijing wines.

Adventure: Timu? Baodi? Skilled worker

Dissatisfied with the use of portraits and names, the host Ma Dong was compensated.