The Study On The Production And Trade Of Salt Industry Before The Qin Dynasty

Since ancient times, the diet is not a lack of salt, because salt can not onlyflavor the taste of dish and soup, but also is the necessary nutrient of human survival,growth and development. Salt is a kind of necessary thing in daily diet, so ourancient ancestors began production of salt in ancient times, for example, Su Sha Shiin Shandong cook seawater for salt. Su Sha Shi used seawater to wash beach sand,which contained salt, to increase salinity in the seawater, and cook the seawater toseparate out salt. Before the Qin Dynasty, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan and otherplaces had started to produce salt, through land or water, salt was sold to other areas.ZhouLi recorded various salt sent as the tribute to the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty,also showed different uses of various salt. GuanZi recorded the production and tradeof salt in Qi. This paper will discuss the production and trade of salt in variousregions. This paper is divided into eight chapters:The first chapter discusses the legend on salt before the Shang Dynasty.Shandong and Shanxi have ancient salt legends. Through analyzing legends, we canknow salt production technology in ancient times. Shandong spreads the legend ofSu Sha Shi, Su Sha Shi was to scrape the beach sand,use seawater to wash the sand,making salty brine dissolved into seawater and increasing salinity in the seawater,when sand was deposited,workers poured the seawater inside the container andcooked it with fire to separate out salt. Salt Lake existed in Anyi County of Shanxisince ancient times. In salt lake salt was separated out by natural evaporation, lakesalt deposited on the bottom, people could pick up the lake salt. Since the FiveEmperors era our ancestors had eaten lake salt. The more efficient method was usedby Shun. The method was in the summer and fall, next to Salt Lake built furrowridge with soil, leaded lake water to furrow ridge with ditch, until the water filled,and blocked the entrance of furrow ridge with soil. At this festival it often scrapedsoutherly wind, which accelerated the evaporation of water, and speeding up the lake salt to be separated out. This method had been used to offspring.The second chapter discusses the salt industry of the Shang Dynasty, includingthe salt industry of Shandong and Shanxi. Firstly, this chapter will combine literatureand archaeological data, and discuss the material, method, and workers of ShandongSalt industry. In Shang Dynasty, in Laizhou Bay Area of Shandong, workers hadunderground brine as the raw material. In the first step, workers built wells to drawunderground brine, discharged it into the pit pool, relying on natural evaporation topurify brine, and underground brine could be used to produce salt after purification.The tool for producing salt was the helmet-shaped device, it was a round bottom, nofoot, and muddy pottery. The method for producing salt was pouring undergroundbrine into multiple helmet-shaped devices, then helmet-shaped devices were placedin the stove room, helmet-shaped devices were baked with fire, with the evaporationof water, the salt would crystallize and be separated out. Shandong workers livedtogether with own family as a unit, the members of a family worked together, theproduction method of salt was passed along for generations in the family. Then thischapter would also use the literature and archaeological data to discuss theproduction of Shanxi lake salt. At the end of the Xia Dynasty, Shang Tang perishedthe Xia Dynasty, and occupied Shanxi Salt Lake. According to the literature andarchaeological data, we can know that the Shang Dynasty set up Lu Xiao Chen, anofficial to manage the lake salt production, built warehouses near the salt lake, andstored lake salt.The third chapter discusses the salt industry of Qi in the Western Zhou Dynasty.This chapter will use the literature and archaeological data to discuss the methods ofproducing salt, and tools and workers. According to the literature and archaeologicaldata, we can know that workers of Qi used pouring boiling technique to produce salt.Workers exploited underground brine, poured the underground brine over the floor,and then covered the floor with wood ash. Brine reacted with wood ash, andproduced salt. Salt stuck with wood ash. Workers poured wood ash withunderground brine, salt was dissolved in the underground brine, which increased thesalinity of underground brine. Finally, workers poured brine into the helmet-shaped devices and baked these devices with fire. The workers lived together with ownfamily and passed skills for producing salt within the family for generations. Thefamily leaders were officials, led family members produce salt.The fourth chapter discusses the salt resources origin in Qi during the EasternZhou Dynasty. With the territorial expansion, Qi had increased salt resources origin,including four periods of Qi Xiang Gong, Qi Ling Gong, Qi Jing Gong and Tian Qi.Within each period, in addition to inheriting the previous resources, and byexpansion Qi got new sea salt resources. This chapter uses literature andarchaeological data to discuss how Qi got new salt resources origin in each of thefour periods. In the Spring and Autumn Period, Qi Xiang Gong occupied Ji, andcaptured the sea salt resources in the Shouguang. Qi Ling Gong destroyed LaiziCountry in the northeastern part of Shandong. Laizi Country had many salt resourcesin the Laizhou and Dengzhou, which were occupied by Qi. Qi Jing Gong capturedthe Jizhang City, which formerly belonged to Ju, the area was rich in sea saltresources, which were used to produce salt. Tian Qi replaced Jiang Qi, inherited saltresources of the Laizhou Bay, archaeological data show that the establishment of saltworkshop in the Weifang of Laizhou Bay, workers drew underground brine toproduce salt. Tian Qi captured the Zhu City, Ju City, and Jijin City in Shandong, andcaptured Cangzhou in Hebei, these areas were rich in salt resources.The fifth chapter discusses salt production and trade of Jin. In the beginning ofWestern Zhou Dynasty, the emperor established Rui, Xun and Jin in Shanxi.According to the relevant literature, we can know there might be Xia. Rui, Xun, andXia were built around the salt lake in Anyi County. People in the three countriesmight eat lake salt. The fief of Jin was in Tang City, close to Jinyang, the two citiesall lay in the Taiyuan of Shanxi province. The soil of Jinyang was rich in salt, andcould be used to produce salt. The people of Jin might produce salt from the soil inJinyang. In the Spring and Autumn, Rui, Xun and Xia were occupied by Jin, and Jinoccupied the salt lake. The people of Jin produced lake salt and also sold lake salt tothe Henan region. According to inscriptions of Jin Jiang Tripod and Rong ShengChimes, we can know, in the early years of the Spring and Autumn, Jin Jiang, who was the wife of Jin Wen Hou, had managed lake salt trade, she sent the ministers ofJin to transport lake salt, through the Zhongtiao Mountains into Henan to exchangecopper materials. Both ends of the road were two countries of Yu and Guo, Jin XianGong occupied the two countries, and occupied the road on the ZhongtiaoMountains. Jin used carriages to transport lake salt, and sold lake salt to Henanregion.The sixth chapter discusses the Sichuan salt industry before the Qin Dynasty.Sichuan had two countries, including Ba and Shu.During the late Warring StatesPeriod, Shu was occupied by the state of Qin. In the Guangdu County of Shu, Qindigged wells, drew the underground brine and produced salt. Since the country wasbuilt, the people of Ba began producing salt with natural spring, the creator of the Bawas Lin Jun, Lin Jun and his tribe migrated along the Yi Water and reached Yanyang,a war with the local tribes, the tribe of Lin Jun won, occupied the fish and saltresources. According to related literature, we can know Yanyang might lie inChangyang County of Yichang City in Hubei province, its salt resources was naturalsalt spring and Lin Jun might use spring water to produce salt. With the developmentof the kings, the territory expanded gradually, Wu County, Pengshui County andQuren County all lay in the Ba, which all had natural salt spring, and the springwater could be used to produce salt. In addition, according to literatures, ZhongCounty of Chongqing City, also had spring, Zhong County also unearthed saltproduction sites, these sites can be determined to be built in the Western ZhouDynasty, based on the analysis of site facilities and tools, salt producing process canrecover from these sites, including materials, salt workshop settings, as well as toolsfor salt producing. The workshop was not closed, there might firstly be erectingpillars, on the top, covering a shed, workers worked under the shed. In the housingsites, there are brine tanks and traces of using fire, which indicates that brine mightbe stored in the brine tanks, when workers produced salt, the brine was bailed out,and poured into the container, then the workers ignited, cooked the brine and madebrine separate out salt. Archaeological research shows that boiling container was akind of jar, and it had lace, small mouth, and round bottom. The seventh chapter discusses the Zhou Li that records the category and the useof various kinds of salt. The people who managed salt, was named “Salt Person” inZhou Li, his duty was to receive salt from various regions for the royal family, anduse various kinds of salt for different transactions. The bitter salt and powder saltwas used to sacrifice. The shaped salt and powder salt was used to entertain guests.The sweetest salt was used to flavor for the emperor, queen and crown prince.According to the research, bitter salt and shaped salt was lake salt in Shanxi, powdersalt was sea salt in the Shandong and Hebei, sweetest salt was rock salt and lake saltin Gansu. Bitter salt was lake salt, compared with other salt, lake salt was especiallysalty, and it is a natural formation, no need manual machining. Because of its naturaland simple feature, bitter salt was used to sacrifice. Shaped salt was also lake salt,used to entertain senior guests. Shaped salt and powder salt was all used to entertaingeneral guests, and powder salt was sea salt produced in coastal area of Shandongand Hebei. Shaped salt had natural shapes like a tiger, and it was used to entertainsenior guests, this was because the monarch would show his martial arts, so the dietshould have corresponding goods, which is the symbol of the might, so entertainingsenior guests should use shaped salt, its tiger shape showed the martial arts of themonarch. Sweetest salt has sweet taste, including rock salt and lake salt, andsupplying emperor, Queen and crown prince for meals. Rock salt was producednaturally on the cliff, including white, red and black, especially the white is the best.Lake salt in Gansu was azury and red, taking Xiutu Lake of Wuwei County for thecommunity, the northern salt lake produced azury salt, southern salt lake producedred salt.The eighth chapter discusses the Guan Zi, which recorded the productionmethod and trade of salt. These content included using salt lake to produce salt in thevalley of Ji River, and in the period of Warring States, Qi might have private systemof salt production, so Guan Zi advised to ban private salt production, and then thenational salt would be sold expensively at home and overseas. Ji River was a river inthe state of Qi, from the Western Han Dynasty rewritten as Ji River. Ji River valleyhad salt lake, such as Piqu Puddle, Wuchang Lake, respectively in the Bogu and Linzi. The salinity of salt lake water is high, suitable for producing salt. Before theQin Dynasty, people might produce salt around the salt lake, which can be inferredfrom the literature of Guan Zi. As for the salt trade, Qing Zhong Jia of Guan Ziadvocated the state should prohibit the private to hire peasants to produce salt inbusy season, that is in the beginning of spring, so that the country could monopolizethe sea salt production, then transport salt with the fleet along the the Yellow Riverto the Central Plains, and sell salt with high price in the Liang, Zhao, Song, Wei, etc.At the same time, Hai Wang of Guan Zi also advocated that the price of sea saltwould be raised at home. Through research, the above literature of salt trade waslikely to be written in the Warring States Period, there might be private saltproduction system in the Tian Qi, so the author of Guan Zi advised that the stateshould prohibit the private to hire peasants to produce salt in the busy season, thenthe state would monopoly salt production, and would sell salt for high price at homeand overseas.