Áobō Tú 熬波圖
Diagrams of Boiling-the-Brine [Salt Manufacture] by 陳椿 (撰)
About the work
A unique illustrated technical manual on Yuán-period coastal salt-manufacturing, by Chén Chūn 陳椿 of Tiāntái 天台 (Zhèjiāng), who served as Salt-Bureau Director of the Xiàshāchǎng 下砂場 salt-works near present-day Shànghǎi during the Yuántǒng era (1333–1335). The work documents the entire salt-production process—from sun-drying ash on the salt-flats, through brine-collection and “boiling-of-the-waves” (áobō 熬波), to packaging and dispatch—in 47 illustrated stages, each with a caption-essay and a verse. The work modeled on Lóu Shù’s 樓璹 Gēngzhī tú 耕織圖 and Zēng Zhījǐn’s 曾之謹 Nóngqì pǔ 農器譜. Originally drafted by an earlier Salt-Bureau Director (surnamed Qú or Táng); Chén Chūn supplemented and completed the work. Five of the original 47 diagrams are now lost in the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn recension preserved in Sìkù.
Tiyao
By Chén Chūn of the Yuán. Chūn of Tiāntái; biography unknown. The work was made during the Yuántǒng era, when Chūn was Salt-Bureau (Yánsī) Director of the Xiàshāchǎng, supplementing a former Director’s old draft. From the various salt-flat zàozuò clusters down through the dispatch-shipping of finished salt, 47 diagrams in all; each diagram has its caption-essay and a verse. The methods of sun-drying the ash, of beating the brine, of fuel-transport and trial-shipment—every detail is given. It belongs in the same lineage as Lóu Shù’s Gēngzhī tú and Zēng Zhījǐn’s Nóngqì pǔ.
The preface mentions a Mr. Qú and a Mr. Táng as former Salt-Bureau Directors, and gives a Director’s huì-name as Shǒurén but the surname is missing. The Yúnjiān old gazetteer records the Qú clan as a major lineage of Xiàshā: Qú Tíngfā, Qú Zhènfā, Qú Diànfā, Qú Shíxué, Qú Shímào, Qú Shízuǒ, Qú Xiānzhī, etc.—either as Promoters or as Salt-Tax Supervisors, almost continuously holding salt-office; sites named Qújiā gǎng, Qújiā lù, Qújiā yuán preserve their traces. Who originally drafted the Áobō tú among them is unclear. The Táng clan does not appear in the gazetteer; they are not now recoverable.
The diagrams are quite skillfully drawn. The Yǒnglè dàdiǎn version, having been re-traced, still preserves the proportions. Five original diagrams are lost; no other copy exists, and supplement is impossible. When Yáo Guǎngxiào and his colleagues compiled the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn, even at their loose collation they should not have lost so many—presumably the original was already incomplete.
Abstract
A unique surviving Yuán-period technical manual. Chén Chūn’s work documents the salt-production processes of a specific working salt-yard—the Xiàshāchǎng near Shànghǎi—during the late-Yuán Yuántǒng era (1333–1335). The dating bracket here reflects this. The work is preserved through the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn and is incomplete: 42 of the original 47 diagrams survive.
The work belongs to a small YuánMíng tradition of illustrated industrial manuals (with Lóu Shù’s Gēngzhī tú, Zēng Zhījǐn’s Nóngqì pǔ, the late-Míng Tiāngōng kāiwù of Sòng Yǐngxīng) and is the principal documentary source for pre-Míng Chinese salt-manufacturing technique. Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5.4 (“Salt Industry and Deep Borehole Drilling”), uses it extensively. Modern Yuán-economic-history scholarship (Hattori Naohiro 服部直紀, Sakuma Shigeo 佐久間繁雄) treats it as a primary source.
Translations and research
Standard editions: Wényuāngé Sìkù. Modern reference: Liú Yìng-Shèng 劉迎勝, ed., Áobō tú jiào-zhù 熬波圖校註 (Shàng-Hǎi Gǔ-jí Chū-bǎn-shè, 2008). Western: Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5.4 (Cambridge, 1980), the principal Western technical-history treatment. Hans Ulrich Vogel, Marco Polo Was in China (Brill, 2013), pp. 367–406, on the Yuán salt economy. Chinese: Wū Yìzhú 烏一筑, Yuán-dài Lú-yán shēng-chǎn jì-shù yán-jiū 元代鹵鹽生產技術研究 (Zhōng-guó shèhuì kē-xué chū-bǎn-shè, 2010).
Other points of interest
The Qú-clan domination of Yuán Xiàshā salt-administration mentioned in the Sìkù tíyào is a small but striking instance of late-imperial bureaucratic regionalism: a single lineage held the salt-office almost continuously across multiple generations, leaving name-traces (Qújiā gǎng etc.) on the local landscape. The pattern is documented in modern Shànghǎi historical-geography work.