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糖霜譜

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Text ID
KR3i0028
Date
1154–1175
Dynasty
宋

Tángshuāng pǔ 糖霜譜

Treatise on Sugar-Frost (Crystallized Sugar) by 王灼 (Wáng Zhuó, 撰)

About the work

The world’s first technical monograph on crystallized sugar (the tángshuāng 糖霜 — literally “sugar-frost” — pure sucrose crystallized from sugarcane juice, the great Chinese contribution to global confectionery technology). A one-juàn mid-Southern-Sòng work in seven piān by Wáng Zhuó 王灼 zì Huìshū 晦叔, hào Yítáng 頤堂, of Suìníng 遂寧 in Shǔzhōu — the Sòng-period centre of sugar-crystallization technology. Composed during Wáng’s Shàoxīng-era mùliáo career, c. 1154–1175.

The seven chapters: (1) Yuánwěi dìyī 原委第一 (Origin) — narrates the legendary founding of the tángshuāng industry by the Buddhist monk Zōu Héshàng 鄒和尚 in Tang Dàlì (766+); (2) (untitled) on the historical development of cane-sugar from antiquity (the earliest mention being in the Chǔcí Zhāohún 楚辭招魂 — “cugar-juice” — and the Sānguózhì); (3) (untitled) on sugarcane cultivation; (4) (untitled) on the apparatus of sugar-making; (5) (untitled) on the crystallization technique; (6) (untitled) on the unpredictability of crystallization (with reference to Xuānhé tribute episodes); (7) (untitled) on the medicinal nature, flavour, and culinary uses of sugar-frost.

Tiyao

We submit that the Tángshuāng pǔ is in one juàn by Wáng Zhuó of the Sòng. Zhuó, zì Huìshū, hào Yítáng, a man of Suìníng, was a mùguān (private-secretary) during Shàoxīng. This compilation divides into seven piān; only the opening piān is titled “Origin: First” — narrating that in Tang Dàlì, Zōu Héshàng first created sugar-frost. From the second piān onward there are no titles.

To examine the text: the second piān speaks of making sugar from cane from beginning to end — saying that zhèjiāng 蔗漿 (sugarcane-juice) first appears in the Chǔcí, and zhèyí 蔗餳 (cane-syrup) first in the Sānguózhì. The third piān speaks of growing the cane; the fourth speaks of sugar-making apparatus; the fifth speaks of the method of crystallization; the sixth speaks of how the sugar-frost either crystallizes or fails to, seemingly subject to fate-and-fortune — extending to Xuān-hé-period imperial-tribute matters. The seventh speaks of the nature-and-flavour and the various edible-preparations of sugar-frost.

Now in the Sòng, the producing-localities of sugar-frost were five: Fútáng, Sìmíng, Pānyú, Guǎnghàn, Suìníng — and Suìníng was the foremost. Wáng Zhuó was born in Suìníng, hence he wrote this pǔ. The literary-quotations he gathers begin with Sū Shì and Huáng Tíngjiān. Investigating: the ancients used táng 糖 for what we call zāo 糟 (lees); the Jìnshū Hé Zēng zhuàn says “the crab approaching the糟 stirs all the more” — that is the usage. The Shuōwén has the character yí 飴 but not táng 糖. Xú Xuàn’s new-supplement-characters do include táng, but he glosses it as yí, not mentioning cane-manufacture. Xuàn was a Five-Dynasties / early-Sòng person and still did not know of cane-sugar — so Wáng’s tracing-of-anecdotes starting from Yuányòu is not negligence-and-omission.

However, Wáng calls the zǐsè (purple) sugar-frost top quality and the white-coloured inferior; whereas today’s preference is to value white and despise purple. Wáng says sugar-frost requires one-and-a-half years to crystallize, with the crystallization spontaneous; today the process is very easy and not the same. Such are also points where ancient and modern differ; we should not press later judgement upon earlier persons. Submitted Qiánlóng 46 month 12 (1781).

Abstract

The Tángshuāng pǔ is one of the most important works in the entire Chinese technical literature: it is the foundational document of crystallized-sugar technology, the technology that — diffused via the Yuán-period overland trade to the Islamic world, and onward to medieval Europe — would become the foundation of the modern global sugar industry.

The work documents the principal facts of Sòng-period Chinese sugar-history:

  1. Origin myth. Tángshuāng (crystallized sugar) was invented by the Buddhist monk Zōu Héshàng 鄒和尚 (the “Zōu Monk”) who came from outside to settle on Mt Sān 傘山 in Suìníng during the Tang Dàlì period (766–779). The monk’s pet, an old cow, accidentally inscribed Buddhist-style sand-mandalas on the surface of stored cane-juice; the cane-juice, exposed in the sun, gradually crystallized along the patterns — Zōu Héshàng systematized the procedure into a craft. This origin-myth dates the Chinese invention of crystallized sugar to the mid-Tang, plausibly correct: pre-Tang Chinese sugar-products were liquid syrups (zhèjiāng) or thick yí (zhèyí).

  2. Geography of production. Sòng-period crystallized-sugar production was centered in five regions: Fútáng 福唐 (Fújiàn coast), Sìmíng 四明 (Níngbō), Pānyú 番禺 (Guǎngzhōu), Guǎnghàn 廣漢 (modern Sìchuān), and Suìníng 遂寧 (Sìchuān). Suìníng was the foremost producer — a striking fact, as it places the apex of pre-modern Chinese sugar-crystallization in an inland Sìchuān location rather than the more obvious coastal southern regions. Wáng Zhuó, native of Suìníng, was therefore the ideal author.

  3. Process. The work describes in detail the kángbǎn 槓板 (lever-press) for extracting cane-juice; the róngróng 熔濃 (concentration-by-evaporation) stage; and the long jiéshuāng 結霜 (crystallization) stage requiring one-and-a-half years of static crystallization — a period strikingly long, perhaps explained as the time required for spontaneous nucleation in the absence of seed-crystals.

  4. Aesthetic of color. The Sòng-period ideal of crystallized sugar was zǐsè (purple) — apparently from molasses-retention in the crystal mass. The modern preference for pure-white sugar (achieved by repeated re-crystallization and bleaching) was already noticed by the Sìkù editors and reflects an aesthetic change associated with the rise of refined sugar in the Yuán-Míng-Qing period.

  5. Sugar at the Sòng court. The Xuān-hé-period tribute references in piān 6 establish that crystallized sugar was an imperial-tribute product to the Northern Sòng court.

The composition date is uncertain. Wáng Zhuó’s known career spans the Shàoxīng period (1131–1162); the work is conservatively dated c. 1154–1175. His other principal work, the Bìjī mànzhì 碧鷄漫志 (KR4j0078), is the founding theoretical work of cí (song-lyric) studies and is roughly contemporary.

Translations and research

  • Christian Daniels. 1996. Agro-Industries: Sugarcane Technology. Volume VI part 3 of Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilisation in China. Cambridge UP. The standard scholarly treatment of Chinese sugar-history; uses Táng-shuāng pǔ as its principal Chinese source.
  • Mintz, Sidney W. 1985. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. New York: Viking. The classic global history of sugar; treats Chinese sugar-technology as a major source of medieval European-Islamic sugar.
  • Li Zhihuan 李治寰. 1990. Zhōng-guó shí-táng shǐ-gǎo 中國食糖史稿. Běijīng: Nóng-yè chū-bǎn-shè.
  • Pān Jí-xīng 潘吉星. 1989. “Táng-shuāng pǔ yǔ Sòng-dài táng-yè jì-shù* 糖霜譜與宋代糖業技術”. Zhōng-guó kē-jì shǐ-liào 10.

Other points of interest

The Tángshuāng pǔ is also a major document for Sòng-period Sìchuān economic and cultural history — Suìníng’s sugar-industry was one of the principal sources of pre-modern Sìchuān commercial wealth and remained so into the Qing. The remarkable fact that crystallized sugar-technology spread outward from China to the Islamic world (and ultimately Europe) — rather than the more common Indian-to-China-to-elsewhere pattern — places this work at a critical node of pre-modern technological transfer.

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