History of alcoholic drinks had previously thought beer was invented. The earliest evidence of wine was found in what is now China, where jars from Jiahu which date to about 7000 BC. This early rice wine was produced by fermenting rice, honey, and fruit. What later developed into Chinese civilization grew up along the more northerly Yellow River and fermented a kind of huangjiu from millet. The Zhou attached great importance to alcohol and ascribed the loss of the mandate of Heaven by the earlier Xia and Shang as largely due to their dissolute and alcoholic emperors. An edict ascribed to BC makes it
Realgar wine Realgar wine Realgar wine or xionghuang wine (Chinese: , "xiónghuángjiǔ") is a Chinese alcoholic drink that consists of Chinese cereal wine ("huangjiu", "yellow wine") dosed with powdered realgar, a yellow-orange arsenic sulfide mineral (AsS). It is traditionally consumed as part of the Dragon Boat Festival at the height of summer. A pesticide and insecticide used (particularly) against mosquitoes, realgar was considered to be a universal antidote against poison by traditional Chinese medicine, which therefore advocated its use for protection against disease, snakes, and evil spirits. The Dragon Boat Festival coincides with what Chinese astronomy considers the height of summer and