Shaiyanjiyi
01 · Historical Records
In the Yuan dynasty, salt-making by solar evaporation was called 'aobo' (boiling waves), and the salt-producing craft developed further. After the Yuan dynasty, the methods of scraping mud and leaching brine, and of sprinkling ash to produce brine, were gradually adopted. After the Jiaqing reign of the Qing dynasty, the Xiangshan salt industry introduced the slab-solar crystallization and the vat-bed solar crystallization methods from Zhoushan, bringing about a great transformation in the salt-making craft. After the 1960s, the flat-spread solar method was tested successfully; Xiangshan's sea-salt production began to adopt new techniques, and machine production gradually replaced some of the heavy manual operations, yet the traditional handcraft of solar sea-salt making was preserved. The traditional solar salt-making craft used in the Yangpu salt fields belongs to the slab-solar method, and has a history of more than one thousand years.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Solar salt-making is an ancient craft, closely connected with people's daily life and productive labor. The sea-salt solar craft takes seawater as its basic raw material, making use of coastal tidal flats and their saline mud (or artificially prepared ash-laden earth). Combined with solar and wind evaporation, through manual labor such as leaching and sprinkling, brine is produced; then by methods such as fire-boiling, sun-drying, or wind-blowing, the brine is naturally crystallized into crude salt. The entire solar-making process consists of a dozen or so process steps, carried out purely by hand, and embodies a wealth of production know-how. The sea-salt solar craft of Xiangshan County, Zhejiang Province, has a long history, and its production technique is a microcosm of nearly a millennium of China's traditional sea-salt production skill. Historical records of Xiangshan salt-making by solar evaporation already appear in works such as the 'New Book of Tang · Treatise on Geography.' Its process first lets the high-tide seawater flood the seawater storage pond, so as to soak the sand and mud in the solar salt-making mud fields (salt pans). After the tide recedes, the sand and mud that were submerged in seawater is turned and raked, then sun-dried for two or three days. Once dry, dry thatch is laid underneath and the material is tamped into the built-up filtering pond (salt-mud pond). Then water from the seawater storage pond is poured into the filtering pond to soak the sand and mud; the seawater slowly seeps to the bottom of the salt-mud pond, then flows through stone crevices into the brine pond beside it, which lies below ground level. The next morning, once the brine in the pond has accumulated to a certain amount and settled and cleared, it is poured directly into stone troughs; after a long half-day of sun exposure, salt crystallizes by the afternoon.
Archival Record of Process Steps
The entire solar-making process consists of a dozen or so process steps, carried out purely by hand, and embodies a wealth of production know-how.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yangpu Peninsula salt fields in Danzhou City, Hainan Province, cover more than 750 mu, and are an important local sea-salt producing area, with more than 7,300 large and small stone solar-salt troughs, some of which have existed for over a thousand years.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Shaiyanjiyi · Shaiyanjiyi · Shaiyanjiyi · Shaiyanjiyi · Shaiyanjiyi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Yangpu salt fields are an ancient salt works relatively well preserved in China today; the traditional solar salt-making craft still practiced here is a precious historical and cultural heritage left behind in the course of the development of China's salt industry. Tan Zheng (per the official archive record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in December 1942, a native of Danzhou City, Hainan Province. A representative inheritor of the fifth batch of the national-level intangible cultural heritage item 'Salt-Making Craft (Sea-Salt Solar Craft).' A technician of sea-salt solar making. In the practice of the sea-salt solar craft, he switched to laying thatch under the mud troughs, which not only increased salt output but also served an excellent filtering function. He has been interviewed many times by news media such as CCTV and Hainan Television, disseminating the sea-salt solar craft and the experience of its development. He has actively carried out transmission activities, taking on apprentices and passing on the craft, and has trained six successor talents including Tan Chunru and Tan Yefu.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Shi Qigang 03-1422
- Zhuo Mayangzong 03-1423
- Tan Zheng 05-2854
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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