Westerners’ Investigation Of Sichuan Well Salt In 19th Century

Salt tax is an important source of national finance,and salt production is also a top priority for people’s life.Sichuan Well Salt has a long history and is a unique craft,which is considered by some scholars to be one of the representative of the 19 th century handicraft industry.In addition,well salt has an important position in revenue of salt tax of the latter part of Manchu Dyn.Which attracted a large number of westerners to investigate.The German geologist Ferdinand von Richthofen,the British explorer William John Gill and British consul Edward Harper Parker made the most detailed and whole investigations.And due to their different professional identities,backgrounds and purpose of the investigation,they have distinctive examination characteristics.Through their accounts and comments to Sichuan well salt,they each constructed their own pictures of China from different perspectives for western readers.Therefore,from the perspective of the history of science and technology,this paper takes the investigation disquisitive papers of Richthofen,Gill and Parker as the research objects,to analysis of the content related of the process of well salt making technology.This thesis is divided into six chapters.The first chapter is the introduction.The second chapter investigates the 19 th century westerners expeditions to well salt and the background of those expeditions.This chapter first analyses the situation of Sichuan salt well administration and the development of the Sichuan well salt process,and then summary of the characteristics of the 19 th century westerners’ investigates various types of salt making technology in China and the content of the text related well salt in Sichuan.Chapter 3 to 5 is case studies.These three chapters respectively select the salt well process related contents in the disquisitive papers of Richthofen,Gill,and Parker.And these three chapters combine their respective professions,backgrounds,and purposes of investigation,discuss contents with well salt in their papers and explore the different focus on the three points on well salt.Chapter 6 makes a further compare and conclude based on the previous analysis,compare and summarize the differences between Richthofen,Gill and Parker’s investigated and try to find the reasons and finally draw conclusions.Through analysis the above discussion and analysis,it was found that Richthofen investigated well salt from a professional geology perspective,praised the drilling technology involved and demonstrated the advantages of the well salt process.Guided by his own interests,Gill made investigation in his travel.He compared the well salt process with the British salt-make process and used it as a thread to consider Chinese innovations.He constructed a picture of China for Wester readers from a memory and emotional perspective.And economic mission by the government was the main task of Parker’s investigated.His examination of the well-salt process was a part of whole examination of Sichuan salt industry and was the most comprehensive of the three investigators.He constructed a picture of China for Wester readers from an economic and commercial perspective.This study provides an external perspective to reflect on traditional Chinese culture and craftsmanship,and provides a specific case of“Western view of China” hot research.