With the rise of agriculture, people not only have food to live on, but also use grains as raw materials for wine making. The appearance of pottery made people have the habit of drinking tea, and from then on, it differentiated into a special tool for holding wine. In ancient times, wine vessels were mainly made of pottery. As early as 6,000 years ago, during the Neolithic culture, various kinds of pottery for holding wine appeared.
The quality of wine vessels often forms a symbol of the identity of drinkers, and a special winemaker has appeared. An ancient tomb was discovered in Shandong, in which a large number of wine vessels appeared. According to the analysis of archaeologists, the owner of the tomb may be a person who specializes in making wine sets.
In Shang dynasty, the technology of wine-making industry was more developed. The proportion of bronzes has gradually increased, and porcelain has reached unprecedented prosperity. Bronzes in Shang and Zhou dynasties can be divided into four categories: food containers, wine containers, water containers and musical instruments, among which wine containers are subdivided into 24 categories.
In the Han dynasty, ceramics gradually rose. When drinking, people sit on the floor with the wine bottle in the middle. The spoon for scooping wine is put inside, and the utensils for drinking water are also put on the ground, which is relatively fat. Lacquered wine vessels became popular in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Lacquer ear cups are the most common drinking utensils.
Porcelain wine vessels probably appeared around the Eastern Han Dynasty. Compared with pottery vessels, both wine-making vessels and drinking vessels are more outstanding. The shape of the wine glasses in the Tang Dynasty was much smaller than in the past, because distilled liquor appeared in the Tang Dynasty. In the heyday of ceramic production in Song Dynasty, many exquisite wine sets appeared.