Shaiyanjiyi
01 · Historical Records
In the Qing dynasty, the local area changed from boiling to solar evaporation; those who made salt by solar means first manually dug a large brine well, wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, over a hundred meters wide at the mouth and more than ten meters deep, in which brine was naturally generated. In the early 1950s the salt-making process was greatly improved: first, animal-drawn water wheels, eight-sail windmills, four-sail windmills, iron windmills, and wooden windmills were adapted beside the large brine well to lift the brine; later the brine ponds were reformed, the brine being first led into the ponds and, once evaporated to around 20°C, placed in crystallization ponds and sunned until 25°C, at which point it crystallized into salt. In the Han dynasty, Shouguang was established as a county and a salt official was appointed.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The brine-well salt-making craft of Shouguang uses underground brine as raw material, exploiting the tidal flats and combining sunlight and wind to expose and evaporate it, producing saturated brine and thereby crystallizing crude salt through traditional craft. Shouguang brine-well salt making has developed from drawing underground brine in the pre-Qin period to the present-day extraction of underground brine for solar evaporation, including such craft steps as well-drilling, pond preparation, brine drawing, brine making, and crystallization, with continuous innovation. A level site is then selected and a salt pond with a red-mud bottom is built; the brine-well water is then manually lifted in two stages with woven buckets onto a water trough and led into the salt pond for sunning and evaporation, crystallizing into salt. At this stage a brine-density gauge is already in use, providing an important guarantee of the salt's composition and quality. At the present stage the salt-making craft has been reformed into brick-pipe wells and cement-pipe wells, using diesel engines and electric motors to lift water, with crystallization ponds covered by plastic sheeting; the process is standardized and management scientific, greatly raising both salt output and quality. The craft's characteristic lies in its careful observation of weather changes and the experience summarized and accumulated in practice, which facilitates analyzing and grasping the weather situation and organizing crude-salt production. The coastal north of Shouguang was an anciently famous salt-production base in China; archaeological evidence proves that the use of underground brine to make salt here has a long history. The state of Qi pioneered China's system of state monopoly on salt here. In the Yuan and Ming periods, pan-firing of salt was changed to boiling, and the Guantai salt city was established. In the early Qing, tidal-flat solar evaporation of salt began and continues to this day. Salt is a necessity of life and the master of a hundred flavors, and also the mother of the chemical industry. Boiling the sea to make salt opened the first chapter of salt making and is an important milestone in humanity's move from the fishing-hunting age to agricultural civilization, representing the progress and development of human society. The brine-well salt-making craft of Shouguang, with its traits of fast brine formation, short salt-making cycles, high yield, good quality, and low cost, has written an important page in the history of our social culture.
Documented Process Record
Shouguang brine-well salt making has developed from drawing underground brine in the pre-Qin period to the present-day extraction of underground brine for solar evaporation, including such craft steps as well-drilling, pond preparation, brine drawing, brine making, and crystallization, with continuous innovation.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
This craft is mainly distributed around Shouguang on the south shore of Laizhou Bay, with the Guantai and Yangkou areas in northern Shouguang as its core region.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Shaiyanjiyi · Shaiyanjiyi · Shaiyanjiyi · Shaiyanjiyi · Shaiyanjiyi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
This craft is carried out relying on the salt workers' practical experience and sensory grasp, and is transmitted mouth to mouth and generation to generation through the trade and the master–apprentice system.
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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