The New Year wine the youngest drink first

It is the first morning of the year, and the family stands in order. Not oldest first, as a European might expect, but the other way round. The smallest child steps up and drinks before anyone else. The grandparents wait until the very end. For many centuries in China, this was how the New Year was poured.

The youngest drink first

The wine was 屠苏酒 (túsū jiǔ), a medicinal wine for the morning of the Chinese New Year. The 《荆楚岁时记》 (Jīng Chǔ Suìshí Jì), a calendar of seasonal customs compiled by 宗懔 (Zōng Lǐn) in the Liang dynasty, records the offering of tusu wine on New Year's morning.

The reversed order needed an explanation, and a ritualist of the Western Jin, 董勋 (Dǒng Xùn), supplied one that is still quoted. The young, he said, "得岁": they gain a year, so they are toasted first. The old "失岁": they lose one, so they drink last.

The young gain a year, the old lose one: so the cup goes to the children first.

There is real tenderness in that logic. A New Year toast is usually a celebration of the elders. Tusu was also a small acknowledgement of time passing, with the grandparents waiting at the end of the line.

A bag of herbs in the well

The historical method, recorded in the 《小品方》 (Xiǎopǐn Fāng) under the heading "正朝屠苏酒法", reads like a folk tale. Seven herbs were sewn into a silk pouch. On New Year's Eve the pouch was hung in the family well overnight. In the morning it was drawn up and steeped in wine.

One of those seven herbs was 乌头 (wūtóu), aconite. Aconite is poisonous. That is why this page gives no list of ingredients and no instructions, and why the historical tusu must never be recreated at home, however charming the well and the silk pouch may sound. Tradition records the recipe; it does not make it safe.

Legends, pharmacies and a slow farewell

Like many old customs, tusu gathered famous names along the way. The 《小品方》 attributes the recipe to the legendary physician 华佗 (Huà Tuó), but that attribution cannot be proved. Another story, in the 《四时纂要》 (Sìshí Zuǎnyào), links the name to 孙思邈 (Sūn Sīmiǎo) and his hut. It does not hold up: the recipe was already recorded in Liu-Song times, before Sun Simiao lived.

What can be followed is the drink's slow change. By the Tang and Song, according to the same 2025 Newsduan history, tusu had become a ready-mixed powder, 屠苏散 (túsū sǎn), sold by pharmacies as a festive gift. By the Qing it had been replaced by yellow wine; one Qing writer, 许琰 (Xǔ Yǎn), put it simply: "以黄酒代之", it was replaced with yellow wine. Today tusu survives mostly as a symbol of the Spring Festival.

It also had a companion. In the Han dynasty, 椒柏酒 (jiāobǎi jiǔ), a wine made with Sichuan pepper, was drunk on New Year's Day to ward off epidemics, and the 《荆楚岁时记》 lists it alongside 桃汤 (táotāng). The first morning of the year was clearly a moment for protection as much as for pleasure.

A line that outlived the drink

If the drink has faded, a single verse keeps its name alive. In his poem 《元日》 (Yuánrì, "New Year's Day"), the poet 王安石 (Wáng Ānshí) wrote "春风送暖入屠苏": the spring wind carries warmth into the tusu. The line still opens many New Year greetings, so the word 屠苏 still carries the feeling of a fresh start.

For a European reader the custom offers a gentle provocation. We tend to honour age with the first glass. Tusu honoured it with the last, and gave the first sip to the people with the most years ahead of them.

Today the safe way to keep the gesture is with an ordinary glass of rice wine, poured from youngest to oldest. Yellow wine, after all, was the drink that took tusu's place, and it remains one of the great roads through Chinese drinking culture.