China has many inventions to be proud of. They include paper (Marco Polo took it to Italy), printing, gunpowder, and the compass. They used their beginning of 4000 years of written word to record their history of inventions!
The Chinese creator is Pangu, who made humans from the parasites on his body. He died but he was followed by wise rulers. Fuji domesticated animals, and invented marriage. Shennong invented medicine, agriculture, trade, the plow and hoe. Huangdi (Yellow Emperor) invented writing, bow and arrow (weaponry), the cart (transportation), and ceramics. Legend says presided over the the first war over salt. Yao passed over his unqualified son to name Shun, a modest sage, his successor.
Salt was harvested in crystal form each summer when a Shanxi lake called Yuncheng dried up around 6000 BC. It took until 800 BC for salt production to be recorded. They boiled ocean water in clay pots to reduce it to salt crystals. 1000 years after the Chinese account was written, the Roman Empire spread the same technique through souther Europe.
Iron first came into use in China around 1000 BC, so Confucius taught morality after it’s invention, but before salt was being boiled in iron pans. The western Qin (“chin”) state had a new philosophy develop, called legalism. They attempted to oust aristocracy, and attempted to create a meritocracy system that rewarded achievement. Unfortunately, by 221 AD, Qin took the Qi policy of price-fixing, which exploited the desperate and asked of them the highest prices for salt. A monopoly on salt and iron, justified for economic stability for the state, raised the prices even further. It would also be taxed for revenue over the centuries.
The conquering Qin state was the first dynasty to be ruled by an Emperor, which would continue until 1911. The revenues from salt would fund armies and the Great Wall, in defence against the Huns. Although the monopolies would be debated the Han dynasty with discussions of the “responsibilities of good government” (“duties of grove ent ent, state profit versus private initiative, the logic and limit of military spending, the rights and limits of goverment to interfere in the economy”), recorded in the Discourse on Salt and Iron, they would remain in place until the first century AD.
During the Tang Dynasty, the salt monopoly returned, after a six century hiatus. Aristocrats would show off their salt wealth by serving pure salt at the dinner table, in a lavish, ornate saltcellar. Now we can buy it at the dollar store, and find it so cheap that I cannot imagine there is a household without a box of it in their cupboard or a shaker near their table.
There are two great rivers in Chinese history, both running from the Tibetan plateau to drain to the East coast. There is the Yangtze, which is the wider and more navigable, and the Yellow river, which is knows as “the father of all floods” and named for the silt that colours it yellow.
The golden age of ancient China was ruled by wise Emperor Yao, and it was believed he tamed nature and introduced the much appreciated concept of flood control. This became part of his mythology. By 250 BC (Punic Wars raged in the Mediterranean between Carthage and Rome over Sicily), that mythology was becoming reality. Water management skills were critical in the development of China, and hydraulic engineering skills and political leadership went hand in hand. At this time, Li Bing was the governor of Shu, Sichuan, and he built China’s first dam called Dujiangyan that still functions in a modernized form, off a tributary of Yangtze. He placed 3 stone figures in the water as gauges. If their feet were visible, the dam’s gate’s were opened to let in water. If their shoulders were submerged, the dam’s gates were closed. It is because of this system that eastern Sichuan became an affluent agricultural center of China. It was recorded as “Land of Abundance”. Two later versions of the stone figures, carved in 168 AD were discovered, and is ascribed to be the figure of Li Bing.He is considered one of the greatest geniuses of hydraulic engineering of all time. He also discovered that natural brine did not originate where it was found, and drilled the first brine wells.
At first, the brine wells were wide, and as the drilling skills improved, the shafts got narrower. Sometimes those drilling wells were poisoned, and explosions occurred. By 100 AD, the concern for evil spirits was replaced with the utility of the invisible substance, and this was the first use of natural gas in the world. They learned to insulate bamboo tubes and pipe the gas to boiling houses, where brine was cooked into salt crystals. By 200 AD, iron pots helped the process further. Complex webs of bamboo piping resembling rollarcoasters transported the brine throughout the Sichuan countryside. By the 11th century percussion drilling advanced things further.
Salt, for a long time, was so precious that it was stretched by using it in condiments instead. From the Mediterranean to SE Asia, fish fermented in salt was a popular condiment. In China, soybeans were added, and eventually fish was dropped. Soy sauce came first from China, but was brought to Japan by Buddhist missionaries in 6th century. By the tenth century, Japan had industrialized soya sauce and sold it around the world.
Other notable inventions from the Chinese: fish farming, arrows, and gun powder (from saltpeter).
Mao, during his 1950s literacy campaign, simplified the language to 40,000 characters, and although the words are completely different (jiangyou and shoyu), the character was the same in Japanese and Chinese.
Fermenting soy beans was done by “lactic acid fermentation” or pickling. Fortunately, this happens at room temperature (64-71degrees). Full immersion of the vegetables prevents oxygen (by sealing or weighting down the vegetables) and around 1% of the vegetables weight in salt keeps them from rotting.
1000 year old eggs take 100 days to make, and keep another 100 days (but better earlier on!)
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