Huangjiu in the context of "Rice wine"

Sake, saké (Japanese: 酒, Hepburn: sake; English: IPA: /ˈsɑːki, ˈsækeɪ/ SAH-kee, SAK-ay), or saki, also referred to as Japanese rice wine, is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name Japanese rice wine, sake, and indeed any East Asian rice wine (such as huangjiu and cheongju), is produced by a brewing process more akin to that of beer, where starch is converted into sugars that ferment into alcohol, whereas in wine, alcohol is produced by fermenting sugar that is naturally present in fruit, typically grapes. This process is called Multiple Parallel Fermentation.

Although similar, the brewing process for sake differs from the process for beer, in which the conversion from starch to sugar and then from sugar to alcohol occurs in two distinct steps. Like other rice wines, these conversions occur simultaneously when brewing sake. The typical alcohol content also differs between sake, wine, and beer; while most beer contains 3–9% ABV and wine generally contains 9–16% ABV, undiluted sake contains 18–20% ABV (although this is typically lowered somewhat by diluting with water prior to bottling).

Ding (Chinese: 鼎; pinyin: dǐng) are prehistoric and ancient Chinese cauldrons standing upon legs with a lid and two fancy facing handles. They are one of the most important shapes used in Chinese ritual bronzes. They were made in two shapes: round vessels with three legs and rectangular ones with four, the latter often called fāng dǐng (Chinese: 方鼎; lit. 'square ding'). They were used for cooking, storage, and ritual offerings to the gods or to ancestors.

The earliest recovered examples are ceramic tripods from the Neolithic Peiligang culture, but they are better known from the Chinese Bronze Age, particularly after the Zhou deemphasized the ritual use of huangjiu alcohol practiced by the Shang kings. Under the Zhou, the ding and the privilege to perform the associated rituals became symbols of authority. The number of permitted ding varied according to one's rank in the Chinese nobility: the Nine Ding of the Zhou kings were a symbol of their rule over all China but were lost by the first emperor, Shi Huangdi in the late 3rd century BCE. Subsequently, imperial authority was represented by the Heirloom Seal of the Realm, carved out of the sacred Heshibi; it was lost at some point during the Five Dynasties after the collapse of the Tang.

Mijiu (Chinese: 米酒; pinyin: mǐjiǔ; Wade–Giles: mi-chiu; lit. 'rice wine'), also spelled michiu, is a Chinese rice wine made from glutinous rice, with the alcohol content ranging between 15% and 20% v/v. It is generally clear in appearance with a balanced taste of sweetness and acidity, similar to its Japanese counterpart sake and Korean counterpart cheongju, and is usually drunk warm like sake and cheongju. A particularly popular category of mijiu is huangjiu or 'yellow wine'. An unfiltered form of mijiu containing whole rice grains is called jiǔniàng (酒酿) or láozāo (醪糟), with extremely low alcoholic content and often consumed by children. A type of baijiu (Chinese liquor) called rice baijiu (Chinese: 米白酒; pinyin: mǐ báijiǔ) is made via further distillation from mijiu.

Beverages similar to mijiu are noted on oracle inscriptions from the late Shang dynasty circa 1200–1046 B.C.E., and archaeological evidence confirms that the production of alcoholic beverages containing rice as part of a mix of fermentables (often including honey and/or fruit) dates back to over 8000 years ago. Rice wine production then spread to Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and other East Asian countries around the Sinosphere during the height of the Han and Tang dynasties. It played an important cultural role in historical Chinese life, with prominent poets such as Li Bai being some of the most famous drinkers. Although largely overtaken by the much stronger baijiu since the Mongol Yuan dynasty, mijiu is still a traditional beverage in parts of southern China and some of the families still follow the custom of homebrewing rice wine. It is sometimes served as an aperitif believed to be beneficial in improving metabolism and skin and is also frequently mixed with herbs and made into medicinal wines such as snake wine and dit da jow.