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Starters and koji from China

West-wing divine qu and its millet wine (又神麴法 + 造酒法)神麴

A 6th-century Qimin Yaoshu recipe for divine qu made in a west-wing room. Steamed, roasted and raw wheat are kneaded stiff, shaped by boys into cakes 3 cun wide, laid out with four "qu slaves" and sealed in for three weeks. The qu then ferments proso millet fed in three or more lots.

Fully documentedStarters and koji21 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceAmounts are the recipe's own, in the book's own measures (1 hu or dan = 10 dou; 1 dou = 10 sheng). The wheat amount is left to the maker; the shares are fixed.
Wheat, steamed and stir-roasted in equal shares[qmys-ws]
Raw wheat1 share, plus 1.5 dou for each danEach kind milled fine, then mixed[qmys-ws]
Proso millet (黍米), for the wine1 hu[qmys-ws]
Divine qu, chopped fine2 dou[qmys-ws]
Water8 sheng[qmys-ws]

Total time across the recorded steps: 21 days

Start
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What changes: Boys shape the stiff wheat dough into thick cakes

Step 1 of 4
Knead the three wheats into a stiff dough and shape cakes
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Yeasts

Chickens and dogs must not see or eat the qu. Output: raw qu cakes.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
cakes 3 cun wide and 2 cun thick, shaped by boys
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 6th-century Qimin Yaoshu recipe for divine qu made in a west-wing room. Steamed, roasted and raw wheat are kneaded stiff, shaped by boys into cakes 3 cun wide, laid out with four "qu slaves" and sealed in for three weeks. The qu then ferments proso millet fed in three or more lots. Made in 4 steps over 21 days. The longest step, lay the cakes in the west-wing room and seal it, takes 21 days (Jia Sixie 2026). In modern Liu Shenqu (Massa Medicata Fermentata, a medicinal descendant made from flour, bran and herbs at 32 °C and 77 % RH in a lab chamber): the yeast Saccharomycopsis fibuligera, reaching 90.69 % relative abundance in the fungal community by 72 h and In modern Liu Shenqu (same study): Bacillus velezensis and Bacillus safensis, reaching 40.43 % and 17.97 % relative abundance in the bacterial community by 96 h do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step21 daysReported[qmys-ws]Lay the cakes in the west-wing room and seal it

What makes this one different

Unlike the chapter's first divine qu, this one uses unequal wheat shares (raw wheat plus 1.5 dou per dan), much thicker cakes, a west-wing room and four "qu slaves" in place of five qu kings, and it is taken out on day 21 with no jar stage.

Related ferments

Safety

The recipe names no hazards. Its method guards against spoilage: the room is swept clean, its door is sealed with mud so no air escapes and resealed after each opening, and the qu is chopped fine before brewing. As general guidance, the WHO notes that the moulds that make mycotoxins grow on cereals, often in warm, damp conditions, and that most mycotoxins survive food processing. Owolabi et al. (2022) add that some fermentation conditions favour growth of toxigenic Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium. The Qimin Yaoshu is a 6th-century text, not a tested recipe, and the sources give no safety limits for this qu.

Hazards the sources name: In modern Liu Shenqu (same study): Fusarium sp., an indicator and dominant species at 0 h; the genus includes toxigenic species (Owolabi et al. 2022).

History and sources

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

Qimin Yaoshu, chapter 64. Yu (2022) traces later medicinal shenqu back to the chapter's recipes.

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [qmys-ws] Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), vol. 7, ch. 64 造神麴餅酒, recipe 又神麴法 and its 造酒法; Chinese text on Wikisource (齊民要術/卷第七), read 2026-10. The author line on the work's Wikisource title page (https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/齊民要術) reads 後魏賈思勰撰.archive
  2. [yu2022] Yu D.M. 2022, The making method of Shen Qu in Qi Min Yao Shu, Zhonghua Yi Shi Za Zhi 52(2):75–83 (abstract)paper
  3. [li2025mmf] Li Y., Wang Y.-J., Guo X.-P., Zhao H.-Y., Ren H.-W., Li H.-Y. 2025, Comprehensive analysis on the regulatory mechanism of active ingredient accumulation during fermentation process of Massa Medicata Fermentata, microbe and metabolic profiles, Frontiers in Microbiology 16:1548427 (a modern medicinal Liu Shenqu, used here only for the labelled microbe lines)paper
  4. [owolabi2022] Owolabi I.O., Kolawole O., Jantarabut P., Elliott C.T., Petchkongkaew A. 2022, The importance and mitigation of mycotoxins and plant toxins in Southeast Asian fermented foods, npj Science of Food 6:39 (general safety text only)paper
  5. [who2023] World Health Organization 2023, Mycotoxins, fact sheet (2 October 2023) (general safety text only)gov