1.3 Characterizations of the Salt Culture of"the Two-River Basin"in Western Yunnan

Modern sciences have proved that humans and other animals including protozoa,who have metabolic physiological functions,need a certain supply of salt. As higher animals,human beings need more salt. No human can survive completely free from salt. If humans lack the salt supply,their will encounter declining appetites and difficult excretions. What's more,their blood circulations will mutate. Cattle,sheep,horses,deer and other herbivores often lick saline soil immersed by salt springs and refuse to leave. With indigestion,animals will recover if fed with salt. Up to now,the Bai Ethnic Group living in the mountains in"the two-river basin"has retained the custom of feeding salt to cattle,sheep,horses and other livestock every year. Every Beginning of Spring (one of the twenty-four solar terms)marks the local "Salt-Feeding Festival". On this day,the people in the Bai Ethnic Group took out the best corn powder in their homes. Added with concentrated salt water,doughs are fed to horses and cattle in their homes,and to worship "the Divine King of the Six Livestock". Households with sheep flocks drive them to specific places outside the village to feed them with salt water. Each village has a special place for feeding sheep with salt water. It is called "a salt trough land". It is often set up on an open flat land near the stream not far from the village. All the year round,there are several long wooden troughs chiseled from whole tree trunks for feeding salt water to sheep,so that the sheep can drink salt water from both sides of the trough. Herders gathered in the salt trough land to worship"the Divine God of the Six Livestock"and had a picnic to bless each other.

Mankind's understanding and utilization of salt has gone through a process from being passive to active. In this long process,animal's instinctive dependence on salt plays an important role for humans to consciously exploit salt resources. Many salt wells in Yunnan,such as"Lang Well"(Wolf Well),"Hou Well"(Monkey Well),"Heiniu Well"(Black Ox well),"Baiyang Well"(White Sheep Well)and "Laji Well"(Chicken-Pulling Well)and others,are all related to animals. In fact,there is a hidden history of early human discovery and development of salt wells.

It is recorded in The Unofficial History of Nanzhao that in Chuxiong,the black well is good. As for the wolf well and the black well,they were named for that wolves and oxes licked the soil and knew the existence of salt. In Records of Yunnan written by Liu Wenzheng in the Ming Dynasty,it says"Li Azhao"is a native of Dali. He lives in Qiju Village. A black ox raised by him was drinking from a pool which is glitteringly fatty. As a result,he discovered a brine well. He submitted a report to open up the well,thus establishing the black well. Given an official title,Li refused and asked to be a monk. So,he was given a purple kasaya. The people living around the well set up a temple to worship Li. In"Geographic Records"of Records of Yunnan is such a paragraph about Yaoan."Shiyang is a salt well of the Bai Ethnic Group. In the past,the beloved daughter of Dragon King of Dongting Lake shepherded here. With her sheep licking the soil,she discovered a salt spring."A legend is also recorded in Brief History of Salt and Mines in Qiaohou ."At the beginning,Chen Wenxiu,a herdsman in Dacun,often found that his oxes were fond of drinking water from a pool. After tasting it,he found the water quite salty. He took some water back and boiled them into salt. He told this to the villagers who then prepared buckets to bring the water back and boil them into salt for sale."Also discovered during sheep herding is the Nuodeng Salt Well in the"tworiver basin". It is said that long ago,Deng's Family came to settle down in Nuodeng. An old lady surnamed Deng often herded sheep on nearby mountains. Those sheep went to a fixed place to drink water every day. The sheep became rather fat. One day,the old lady couldn't help tasting the spring water,only to find that the spring water was salty. The old lady told the other people about this discovery. Only then did everyone begin to drink the spring water. They began to boil for salt with the water. It gradually developed into a salt well village with boiling for salt as its industry .

The discoveries of salt springs seem accidental,but it is the inevitable result of the development of human instincts. Although there is enough salt in humans' natural food to satisfy lives' consumption of salt,the amount of salt needed will increase dramatically if people work or exercise intensely. This physiological nature of the human body cannot be explained by people's preference for the salty taste. Now it seems a common sense. However,in ancient times,this is a common sense that can be acquired only after human beings repeatedly paid heavy prices.

Not commonly produced at that time,salt played a role in promoting social composition and development in the primitive society. Salt-producing areas,or areas with convenient salt supplies were where human beings were willing to form habitats. On the contrary,areas with inconvenient access to salt were certainly having sparse populations,even no population at all. Although the earliest commodity exchange of the mankind was based on the agricultural and animal husbandry,hunting and handicraft products,salt was the main force to control the business. It can be said that salt was the first commodity to promote the business. Daily necessities such as grains and leather can be produced and kept anytime. Despite a small consumption,salt is not produced in all places,but it is necessary for daily life. In a place with a surplus of food and other daily necessities,even if they are very poor,someone would bring their items from afar in exchange for salt. That's how business started. The human culture always develops first from places where salt was produced. With the production,transportation and sales of salt,it extends to other cultural fields. The speed of cultural expansion is in direct proportion to whether its geographical and social conditions are conducive to salt transportation and sales. Before the 17th century,the whole history of the world could not get rid of this basic law. After the 18th century,it changed as most people no longer felt the value of salt. In fact,it is rightly because of convenient transportation and easy commodity circulation that we no longer paid attention to salt. Strategically speaking,in a siege of a city for a a decade,the cut-off of the salt supply,despite the continual of its water and food,will bring down a city without any fight. Such events happened in Europe.

Therefore,in the beginning,after laying their hands on fire,stone tools and food,human did not have the consciousness of seeking salt. However,once they occasionally found the place with salt water or rock salt,they became dependent on such special places. Thus,it is easy for such a place to develop into a primitive community,and then into an ethnic group,and then to a regional ethnic culture. The areas where ancient ethnic cultures were first formed must be where there were natural production or convenient supply of salt. This inference applies at least to the human society before the Stone Age. Ancient civilizations of the world,such as Babylon and India,were not salt-producing areas. However,in the primitive society,most of them thrived on seashores with constant supplies of sea salt. With the development of world agriculture and commerce and the increasing convenience of salt channels,it is possible for cultural centers to move to non-salt-producing areas. The more the society advances,the more natural constraints it can get rid of.

In the history of Chinese civilization,the clearest explanation on salt's relationship with the human civilization is the relationship between salt pools in Hedong and Chinese culture. Hedong area of Shanxi Province,besides the Yellow River Delta and Weishui Plain,is a narrow basin in the small valley of Sushui River. Because of salt resources in Xiechi Pond,it developed into the region where Chinese culture sprouted. According to historical records,Pingyang as the capital of Monarch Yao,Puban of Monarch Shun,Anyi of Monarch Yu were all close to this salt pond area. Back in the Yellow Emperor's era,"migration without a fixed place","reaching eastward to the sea","reaching westward to Zhaitong","reaching southward to the river","reaching northward to Hunzhou"(Xunyun)in the historical records were all centering around this area. The reason why this area could "be defended by military divisions",reach as far as rivers and seas,and develop unceasingly was that it controlled key salt profit. Without currencies at that time,salt was regarded as the only precious commodity for trading. In that era,the commerce was enabled by salt. Like gold in modern time,salt was used across China. This is probably the reason for the travel of King Mu of the Zhou Dynasty as recorded in historical books. The clan tribe formed by Yellow Emperor used the salt from salt ponds in Haizhou to trade with surrounding tribes. After a few centuries,by the Yao and Shun periods,it had developed into a powerful ethnic group with higher power than other tribes. By the time of Monarch Yu,a state was formed. Historically,this area was called "Huaxia"and the tribes subordinate to it were called "Zhuxia".Despite fall of Xiahou Clan in the time of King Jie,Chinese culture has been forging forward without end. Therefore,without salt lakes in Haizhou,there would be no further development after the Tang,Yu and Xia dynasties. Without the Tang,Yu and Xia dynasties,there would be no Chinese culture.

In the primitive society,in the vast Central Plains region,salt was only produced from salt ponds in Haizhou,Hedong. Because of their common salt profits,people living around Haizhou developed into clan tribes,earlier than primitive inhabitants who did not have natural materials as a force of unity. After mastering the techniques of sundrying and boiling for salt and making salt a commodity,they exchanged salt with clan organizations in other areas,so that they could easily own the materials owned by other clan tribes. Thus,it absorbed outstanding life experience of other tribes,integrated them into the special knowledge into their own ethnic group,and formed a Chinese culture superior to that of any other clan. With the control of the salt supply,it made neighboring clans attach to itself,gradually forming an economic and cultural unity.

However,the invention time of salt boiling in salt ponds in Haizhou was probably after the Qiang salt was transported to and sold in the Central Plains,because it is said that the oldest Fuxi clan may be a tribe of the ancient Qiang people who transported salt and settled in the Central Plains. And up to the Han Dynasty,Longxi area was still fed with Qiang salt from the salt ponds of the western sea. The ancient history of China had absorbed many factors of the culture of the Qiang Ethnic Group. The method of sundrying salt from salt ponds in Haizhou may be inspired by the methods of extracting salt by the Qiang Ethnic Group.

Ancient salt springs in "the two-river basin "of Western Yunnan were mostly developed by the non-Han Kungming people.

The ethnic origin of the Kunming people was the Qiang people in Heyuan area who lived on herding sheep and cattle. They were adept at producing and selling salt and good at identifying salt springs. They migrated with the herds and gradually found new salt producing areas. One branch of them traveled southward along the Lancang River and discovered salt springs in Chalingduo,northeast of Changdu. Those who continued southward found salt springs in Chaquka(present-day Yanjing County)on the banks of the Lancang River. The Kunming people traveled southward from Chaquka found many salt springs in the valley of "the two-river basin"formed by two tributaries of the Lancang River. It was Bisu County in the Han Dynasty. The salt here was also relied on by the people of Ailao State. Traveling eastward from Yeyu and crossing the Jinsha River,some Kunming people discovered back salt ponds and white salt wells in the western boundary of Qiong State. Historically,the black salt ponds were used by the Kunming people to boil for salt. Their method was simple."They accumulated firewood and pour salt water. After being burned,it produced salt. " Records of Huayang Kingdom called it a black salt pond. Those Kunming people emigrating eastward found Anning Salt Spring in the upper reaches of Tanglang River at an outlet of Dianchi Lake. They fetched and boiled the water,with salt sold back to Yangke region. As this happened when Yelang state established itself,Yelang became a powerful country. The salt spring was later occupied by Dian state. While establishing Yizhou Commandery,the Han Dynasty set up Lianran County in this land with salt springs.

In terms of the history of the word "salt",there is also a historical code for the humans to discover salt springs and boil for salt. The ancient character of salt is"Fu"(宓). "Baoxi Shi"(包羲氏)in The Words of the Book of Changes is often written as"Fuxi Shi"(宓羲氏),or"Fuxi Shi"(伏羲氏),or"Lvxi Shi"in Emperors' Centuries and the Han Dynasty's inscriptions on bronzes and stones. It is also said that since he raised domestic animals for the kitchens at the beginning and called him "Paoxi Clan"(庖牺氏). The Book of Changes was the first book to record the figure of Fuxi Shi,while records in other books came later. The notion of Paoxi came even later so that it's not adopted. Only the character of"Fu"(宓)has a similar meaning with the character of"Bao"(包). It is conceivable that"Fuxi"(宓羲)is an ethnic tribe which transported the salt of the Qiang people to Central Plains."Bao"(包)refers to salt bags with salt packaged from the West Sea Salt Pool and transported to the land of the Han Ethnic Group."Fu"(宓)refers to the salt taken out of the bags for his self-enjoyment. "Fu"(宓)is the original world for"Fuxi Shi",meaning the private ownership of salt. "Xi"(羲)reflects the sound of praises,which cannot be said as a sacrifice."Astronomical Records"in the book The History of the Han Dynasty says that "For the salty Han Dynasty,stars appeared in the north of the sphere."This also means that the salt consumed by the Han Ethnic Group in ancient times came from the northwest. It has the same meaning as"Fuxi Shi"(宓羲氏). Among the names of hexagrams is Xian,which means that"prosperous and lucky,it is auspicious to marry a woman."With some salt traders attached,it was prosperous and lucky,thus it's auspicious to marry a woman .

Fan Chuo's Man Shu in the Tang Dynasty records that the Bai Ethnic Group in Nanzhao called salt as"bin" . In the language of the Bai Ethnic Group,this ancient pronunciation has not changed much til now. At present,the Bai people still call"salt"as"Bi"(必). "Bi"(必)in Bijiang River,one of"two-river basin"which flowed past Yunlong County,has the same pronunciation with "Bin"(宾). In the language of the Bai Ethnic Group in Yunlong,"Bijiang River"means"Salt River". The commandery set up in the Bijiang River Basin in the Han Dynasty was also called "Bisu". "Bi"(比),"Bi"(?),"Bin"(宾)and "Fu"(宓)are homonyms. The ethnic groups in the area of the Longjiang River Basin called"a person"as"Su"(苏),such as"Nuosu"(诺苏)and"Baosu"(保苏). "Bisu",as a name of an ancient county,means"a tribe of salt traders".

The formation of an ethnic culture must first have the power to promote regional ethnic unity,such as food,clothing,shelter,environmental stability,or the leadership's virtue. Without these conditions,it is impossible to form an ethnic group,not to mention having cultural accumulation. To develop an ethnic culture,it must have materials to trade with tribes far or near,so as to facilitate cultural communication through economic ties. In such exchanges,the more civilized tribe will eventually win and become the mainstream,while the less civilized tribes will follow suit. Those with greater economic control become the mainstream while the weaker ones follow suit. The position of being dominant or subordinate is totally of a natural course. This is a basic law of the development of ancient ethnic groups. In the primitive society,salt was the greatest economic force that influenced each other among the tribes of different ethnic groups. It was more important than food and clothing. As for food and clothing,all ethnic groups could explore ways for their own self-sufficiency. Only salt was strictly limited by geography. It can not be created by an ethnic group with its own strength. However,human beings have to rely on salt to survive,which is the reason why salt was bound to become an important resource of inter-ethnic relations.

In this sense,the ancestors of the Bai Ethnic Group who lived in the"Two-River Basin"of Western Yunnan in ancient times had created an era of salt as precious as gold of later generations. We are right to regard this era as"A Platinum Age". With the continuous progress of the human society and the increasing convenience of material exchanges,salt,which used to be more valuable than gold,lost its power because of its easy availability at present. Responding to the easy dissolution of salt,the knowledge about salt has become common senses. The profound culture created from salt by human beings has gradually disappeared in the long history of human development. Salt becomes something most easily ignored. NsltvOivF54O8chrpYxjBlIV07Ka8vxF/m9TnmmvjdrtrR7KB4kGd4xcv1F9+IHR