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Alcoholic drinks from The home county of Cao Cao, China

Nine-addition spring wine of Cao Cao (魏武帝上九醞法)九醞春酒

A spring rice wine whose method Cao Cao presented in a memorial, quoted in the 6th-century Qimin Yaoshu. Thirty jin of qu steep in 5 dan of flowing water from the 2nd day of the 12th month, and after the thaw rice is added every three days until 9 dan have gone in. Ten additions make a milder wine if nine taste too bitter.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks3 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe memorial's own amounts. Nine additions use 9 dan of rice and ten use 10 dan, both with the same 30 jin of qu.
Qu30 jinPrepared like spring-wine qu[qmys-ws][qmys-siku]
Flowing water5 dan[qmys-ws][qmys-siku]
Good rice (稻米)9 dan (or 10 dan)Washed as for spring wine[qmys-ws][qmys-siku]
Starterkoji/qu/mold-starter

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 days

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a grain

What changes: Qu steeps in flowing water through the coldest month

Step 1 of 4
Steep the qu in flowing water in the 12th month
Time
From the 2nd day of the 12th month until the thaw in the 1st month
Reported
Temperature
steeped from the 2nd day of the 12th month until the ice thaws in the 1st month (正月凍解); the text gives no figure
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: qu liquid.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

A spring rice wine whose method Cao Cao presented in a memorial, quoted in the 6th-century Qimin Yaoshu. Thirty jin of qu steep in 5 dan of flowing water from the 2nd day of the 12th month, and after the thaw rice is added every three days until 9 dan have gone in. Ten additions make a milder wine if nine taste too bitter. Made in 4 steps over 3 days. The longest step, add rice every three days until 9 dan have gone in, takes 3 days (Jia Sixie 2026).

Key numbers
Main step3 daysReported[qmys-ws][qmys-siku]Add rice every three days until 9 dan have gone in

What makes this one different

Unlike the Qinzhou spring wine, which is fed every other day, this method sets a fixed rhythm of one addition every three days and a fixed total of nine (or ten) dan of rice. The qu is strained out before the rice goes in.

Related ferments

Safety

The memorial says nine additions can make the wine bitter and hard to drink, and that a tenth makes it easy to drink without making the drinker ill. That is the memorial's own claim, not a health finding.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Qimin Yaoshu chapter 66 quotes a memorial by Cao Cao (Emperor Wu of Wei) presenting the nine- addition method used by a former magistrate of his home county. The memorial fixes the amounts at 30 jin of qu, 5 dan of water and 9 dan of rice. The two editions differ slightly (the Siku text has 清麴 where the Wikisource text has 漬麴).

Microbes
No study we found names its microbes.
Temperature, salt and pH
The 6th-century Qimin Yaoshu gives warmth only in words, and no study we found has measured this recipe.
  1. [qmys-ws] Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), juan 7, ch. 66 笨麴餅酒, 魏武帝上九醞法; transcription on Chinese Wikisource (齊民要術/卷第七), read 2026-10archive
  2. [qmys-siku] Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu, Siku quanshu edition, juan 7, transcription on Chinese Wikisource (齊民要術 (四庫全書本)/卷07), read 2026-10archive
  3. [wp-jiuqu] Wikipedia, Jiuqu (outline; qu history, the Qimin Yaoshu of 544 and the microbes of qu)wiki
  4. [song2025] Song D., Zhong X., Wu Y., Guo J., Song L., Yang L. 2025, From artisan experience to scientific elucidation, preparation processes, microbial diversity, and food applications of Chinese traditional fermentation starters (qu), Foods 14(22):3814 (abstract)paper