Shaiyanjiyi
01 · Historical Records
The Yuncheng Hedong salt-making craft began in the Tang dynasty; it is an ancient pool-salt making craft, mainly distributed in Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province, and radiating to surrounding areas.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yuncheng City has a warm-temperate semi-humid continental monsoon climate, with abundant light and heat resources and evaporation far exceeding rainfall, which is highly favorable to pool-salt production. The Yuncheng salt lake is the world's third-largest natural inland sulfate-type salt lake, with high salt content and a salt density above 1.25 per cubic centimeter. The Yuncheng Hedong salt-making craft has five major steps, hence the name 'five-step salt-making method.' The first is brine collection and evaporation: brine is conveyed to the evaporation beds and evaporated through several stages, 'one step one check' until 'hazy bloom' forms, during which the crystallization of bloedite forms the nitrate board. The second is sieving and blending: the brine is filtered several times over the nitrate board via a water-level difference to reduce the sulfate-ion and impurity content. The third is brine storage: the purified brine is sent to the storage pond (the haizi). The fourth is crystallization: the filtered brine is moved into the crystallization beds. Through sunning and wind, the brine evaporates and concentrates until the salt in the water gradually reaches saturation and turns into crystals, forming salt grains. The fifth is shovelling out. The salt is shovelled from the nitrate board into piles, and the ridged-bed sunning production process is thereby completed. Hedong pool salt has large grains, pure quality, and white color, and is of excellent grade; not only is it edible, it is also an important raw material for the chemical, light, and food industries. Yuncheng pool salt has a considerable influence on the production and livelihood of the people and on the economic development of the related regions, and to this day still plays an important economic role. The Yuncheng Hedong salt-making craft may be called a living fossil of the development of China's salt-making crafts and is the crystallization of the wisdom of China's working people.
Documented Process Record
The salt is shovelled from the nitrate board into piles, and the ridged-bed sunning production process is thereby completed.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yuncheng Hedong salt-making craft spreads in a band along the nitrate beds on the north shore of the salt lake, with the evaporation, storage, and crystallization beds as its skeleton, and the salt-producing area extends toward the pool beds of Xiezhou and Wenxi. Each household gauges the divergence of brine concentration by the check points from 'one step one check' to 'hazy bloom'; whoever can hold the number of sieving-and-blending passes can determine the salt quality—a method of judgment transmitted only orally from master to apprentice at the pool side.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Shaiyanjiyi · Shaiyanjiyi · Shaiyanjiyi · Shaiyanjiyi · Shaiyanjiyi.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The favorable natural environment and the unique salt lake provided superior conditions for the birth and transmission of the salt-making craft. The Yuncheng Hedong salt-making craft uses the old beach water of the Yuncheng salt lake and produces crystalline salt through brine collection and evaporation; its core craft has been transmitted without interruption for a thousand years, and in production practice human intuition and experience play an important role. Yuncheng pool-salt production is done by hand, using simple tools and water-conservancy facilities, and the craft is transmitted mainly through master–apprentice oral instruction. At present, more than 50 salt workers are engaged in pool-salt production, including over 20 skilled workers and 5 representative inheritors. The relevant units and inheritors use various forms to publicize the traditional salt-making craft and its culture, continually developing and amplifying it, and have achieved good social and economic benefits. Carrying forward and developing this heritage item is of great significance for studying the history of China's salt industry and related cultural development, promoting traditional culture, developing the local economy, and fostering social harmony.
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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