Today begins the Chinese New Year for 2021, when many rituals and celebrations welcome in the future in hopes that it will bring happiness, health, and prosperity. One of the traditions is shown in the image here: the drinking of a sort of wine called “Tusu.” Of course, it was specially important for the Emperor to have this beverage, as shown here, but all sorts of people imbibe Tusu wine on the New Year. Its special property is particularly important these days, because the wine was supposed to bring about health by warding off disease.
Documentation for Tusu wine extends as far back was the Jin Dynasty (266-420), when in the _Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies_ by Ge Hong, the drink is described as having seven ingredients from Tradional Chinese Medicine, including rhubarb, Sichuan pepper, shaved cinnamon bark, and wolf’s bane (the latter is highly toxic). In medical texts recorded after, the recipe was repeated and tinkered with.
Tusu wine has been associated with the New Year for centuries. The calligrapher Wen Zhengming (from the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644) wrote about how traditionally the young drink it before the elderly as a sign of nostalgia for families to be reunited. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), an author called Han E recorded folk customs that tell a story of an old man living in a thatched hut who gave a special medicinal drink to his fellow villagers. The kindly man’s name was forgotten, but the style of his hut was called “Tusu,” and so that became the name of the wine.
Source(s): Shao Tianhong, author. Translated and edited from _Guangdong Daily_. Edited by Bai Lee. “Tusu wine drinking: A blessing and epidemic prevention ritual,” 3/31/2020, _Chinese Social Sciences Today: social sciences in China press_.
