Time-honored salt industry (1)

After the Nantong area took shape, the first thing it did was to boil seawater for salt.

In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24), Liu Bi, prince of Wu state, "boiled seawater for salt," and the river for transporting the salt he made connected to present-day Rugao.

In the early Tang Dynasty (618-907), the government set up an administrative salt field on Hudou Sandbar.

During the Tang Dynasty, the people of the northern part of the city who worked in salt production were officially registered as salt producers. The rulers of the following dynasties continued using this registration system.

The production of sea salt continued to flourish after the mid-period of the Tang Dynasty.

During the Yuanhe period of the Tang Dynasty, the Hailing industrial prefecture produced 600,000 Chinese dan of salt every year by boiling seawater, about half of which was produced by the salt-boiling fields in present-day Nantong.

In the fifth year of the Taihe period of the late Tang Dynasty (831), the Rugao Field was established for the five townships in Dongjing of Hailing county, making it the first separate salt administration agency in Nantong.

Time-honored salt industry (2)

After the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the areas to the south and north of the Huaihe River, which were on the northern bank of the Yangtze River by the Huanghai Sea, were full of salt fields, and Nantong was located in the southern part of the salt region to the south of the river.

In about the eighth year of the Kaibao period of the early Northern Song Dynasty, Lifeng industrial prefecture was established under Tongzhou to oversee the eight salt-boiling fields, including Xiting.

In the 28th year of the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song dynasty (1158), there were 301 stoves and more than 3,000 registered salt producers in the 10 salt-boiling fields of Tongzhou.

During the Qiandao period (1165-1173), 780,000 Chinese dan of salt was produced in Tongzhou, accounting for one-third of total salt production in the region south of the Huaihe River. A total of 530,000 Chinese dan of salt was produced in Rugao and Hai'an of Hailing county, accounting for 22.3 percent of total salt production in the region south of the Huaihe River.

In the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the salt industry in Tongzhou continued to develop. It was home to seven salt-boiling fields, and its total area for producing salt was around 1.75 million mu (116,666 hectares).

Time-honored salt industry (3)

In the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), there were three divisions under the Lianghuai Region Salt Distribution Department (located in Yangzhou): Tong, Tai, and Huai. Within present-day Nantong, there were the "Ten Upper Fields" under the Tongzhou Division and two of the "Ten Middle Fields" under the Taizhou Division.

In order to oversee salt taxes in the Ming Dynasty, the government sent imperial salt oversight officers to the north and south of the Huaihe River every year.

During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the annual output of the "Ten Upper Fields" in the Tongzhou Division reached 120,000 metric tons, the highest level in ancient times.

In late Ming and early Qing dynasties (1644-1911), salt production was disrupted by wars and didn't recover until the mid-Qing Dynasty.

In the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1770), the number of salt-boiling fields was reduced to nine, which were called the "Nine Tongshu salt-boiling fields" by the late Qing dynasty.

Since salt was an important source of taxes, each dynasty established special agencies to control its production and sale.

Sea salt is the highest-quality salt, and salt from the south of the Huaihe River was the best sea salt.

Abundant and high-quality salt boosted the development of the commerce and transportation industries, and salt-boiling fields gradually grew into towns and cities.

Editor-in-chief: Yu Lei

Editor: Wang Yun

Photo by Gu Yao

Translated by Wang Haifei from the Shanghai Waiyuan Translation Agency