How to make salt in ancient times?

There are two ways to make salt in ancient times:

Sea salt in the coastal area, there are salt fields in the area of Lin also, put sea water into the sea and then surrounded, using sunlight to evaporate water, and take salt after the salt naturally precipitated.

Inland is mainly salt wells, from the wells out of the salty brine, by steaming the water evaporated to take salt.

Salt-making in ancient times

Introduction: people in ancient times did not regard natural salt as salt, but called it brine. The earliest salt extracted by hand in ancient times was probably sea salt. Ancient records, the Yandi (said Shennong's) when the Cusha's pioneered the use of seawater to cook salt, known as "Cusha as boiled salt". Cusha's people, just a legendary figure, in fact, with seawater salt, should be living in the ancient ancestors of the sea after a long period of exploration and practice to create. Perhaps Cusha's method of boiling salt will be upgraded and popularized, and later generations will attribute the invention of harvesting sea salt to him.

Pool salt: Lake salt, also known as pool salt, is an inland salt lake that is capable of naturally producing crystallized salt due to the dry climate. Historically, the ancient Hedong Salt Ponds, where salt was naturally produced by the evaporation of wind and sun, were known as "Xieyan", "Luyan" or "Hedong Salt". The Hedong Salt Pond appeared in historical records at a very early stage, and the history of salt mining in the pond may not be any later than that of sea salt.

The Charkhan Salt Lake and Chaka Salt Lake in Qinghai Province now produce this kind of salt. Pool salt has the characteristics of natural crystallization, Jin Wang Zhu "Luodu Fu" cloud, "Hedong salt pool, jade clean ice fresh, do not bother to cook the Wo, into the natural", is that the pool salt does not need fire cooking, natural. Hedong salt pond is located in the Yellow River basin, living in the Yellow River basin of the ancient ancestors, should be very early contact with this natural salt.

Now it is difficult to determine the discovery and consumption of salt and sea salt which is the first, because sea salt can also be stagnant shallow sea water by the wind and sun, due to evaporation and natural crystallization. Ancient peoples living by the sea would also have discovered and consumed this natural sea salt that crystallizes naturally.

Naturally occurring pool salt and sea salt, as well as rock salt exposed on the surface of the ground, the natural overflow of salt springs and readily available soil salt, as long as there are human activities in the area where these natural salts are generated, the ancestors will always find it sooner or later. Just because of the long time, it is not easy to determine the chronological order of the discovery of salt and sea salt.

Well salt: well salt may appear a little later, according to the literature, the earliest in the Warring States period in the Ba Shu area. According to "Huayang Guo Zhi", Li Bing, who knew astronomy, geography and water veins, invented the technique of digging salt wells. Li Bing surveyed the distribution of underground salt brine and drilled salt wells while treating water. Chengdu and other places have unearthed a number of salt wells portrait bricks, image reproduced the ancient well salt production.