Salt originated in China. The word "salt" originally meant "salt water boiled in a container". It is recorded in Shuowen that raw food is called brine and cooked food is called salt. Legend has it that there was a warlord named Su Sha in the era of the Yellow Emperor who boiled brine with seawater and fried it into blue, yellow, white, black and purple salt. Around the time of Shennong (Emperor Yan) and Huangdi, people in China began to make salt. In ancient China, salt was boiled in sea water. In 1950s, cultural relics unearthed in Fujian, including salt frying utensils, proved that the ancients had learned to cook sea salt in Yangshao period (5000-3000 BC). According to the above information and physical evidence, in China, the origin of salt was as far back as 5,000 years ago in the Yanhuang period. Su Sha, the inventor, was the originator of making salt from seawater and roasting by fire. Later generations respectfully called him "Salt Sect". Before the Song Dynasty, a temple dedicated to Yanzong was built ten miles southeast of Anyi County, Xiezhou, Hedong. During the Tongzhi period of Qing Dynasty, Qiao Songnian, a salt messenger, built a "salt temple" in Taizhou. Su Sha, who cooked the sea to get salt, Guan Zhong, who transported brine in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and Guan Zhong, who practiced "salt administration official camp" in Qi State in the Spring and Autumn Period, were placed in the position of accompanying sacrifices.

China is also the birthplace of salt wells. Biography of King Shu: "During the Xuan Di Festival (69 BC-66 BC), dozens of salt wells were drilled." Since the Han Dynasty, salt ponds have also been used to extract salt. Wang Xun's Luo Du Fu: "There is a salt pond in the east, which is clean and fresh, natural and not hard to cook." Serina Liu's "Lu Du Fu": "There are salt ponds, which are fried in Yangchun and sprayed with fire. Salt self-sufficiency, no loss, no diligence. "

In the early days, salt was directly put on the stove rack and cooked in an iron pan. This primitive salt cooking is time-consuming and laborious, with low yield and high salt price. Thus, from the birth of salt, the royal family formulated the salt law. In the Zhou Dynasty, officials in charge of salt administration were called "salt people". Li Zhoutian's Yan Guanren describes being in charge of salt administration and managing all kinds of salt affairs. Bitter salt and scattered salt should be used for sacrifice, special-shaped salt should be used for hospitality, and salt should be used for royal meals. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty enacted a salt law, monopolized official salt and prohibited private property. According to historical records, anyone who dared to make salt privately at that time would be punished by cutting off his left toe. In the Jin Dynasty, people who cooked salt privately were sentenced to four years' imprisonment, and officials were sentenced to two years' imprisonment. After the establishment of the Salt Law, there are regulations for citizens to eat salt. "Pipe": "In January, the amount of salt is less than five liters for husband, three liters for wife and two liters for baby."

There were many kinds of salt in ancient times, including crimson snow, peach blossom, blue, purple and white. From the source, it can be divided into: sea salt is fried by sea brine, well salt is fried by well brine, alkali salt is fried by scraping alkaline earth, pool salt is dried by pool brine, and cliff salt is born between soil cliffs. Sea salt, well salt and alkali salt come from people, while pool salt and cliff salt come from heaven. "Ming History" records: "Xiezhou salt is made of geomantic omen, Ningxia salt scraped the ground, Huai and Zhejiang salt boiled, Sichuan and Yunnan salt pumped wells, Fujian and Guangdong salt bittern, Huainan salt fried, Huaibei salt dried, Shandong salt fried and dried, with a large scale." Tao Hongjing's Records of Famous Doctors in the Southern Dynasties recorded that East Sea Salt, North Sea Salt, South China Sea Salt, Hedong Salt Pool, Liang Yi Salt Well, Xiqiangshan Salt and Huzhongshu Salt have different colors, and Hedong Salt wins.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, Hedong County was located in Yuncheng and Linfen, Shanxi Province. Because the Yellow River flows through the southwest of Shanxi Province, but Shanxi is east of the Yellow River, this place was called Hedong in ancient times. The ancients diverted water from Hedong Yanchi to nearby cultivated land. Whenever a strong south wind blows in midsummer, the cultivated land is full of salt flowers day and night. Locals call this "planting salt", and the quality of salt is very good. Lu Chunqiu Ben Wei Pian: "The beauty of harmony is the ginger of Yangpu, the bright osmanthus, the fungus of camel, the carp (zhān) and the horseshoe crab (wěi), the salt of summer, the dew of slaughter, and its color is jade, the egg of Changze." In other words, the best seasonings are ginger from Yangpu, Sichuan, osmanthus fragrans from swaying mountain in Guiyang, Hunan, bamboo shoots from Yue, sauce made from sturgeon meat, salt from Hedong, Shanxi, nectar from Zhajie Mountain and caviar from osawa.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with salt, the country became rich. Hanshu: "Wu boiled the water in the East China Sea into salt to make a fortune, and the country used it sparingly." Guan Zhong of the State of Qi also set up salt officials to cook salt to rejuvenate the country by fishing salt. The first salt merchant in China was a Lu who died in the Spring and Autumn Period. The old saying "Tao Zhu died and became rich" refers to Fan Li. After helping Gou Jian, the King of Yue, destroy Wu, he gave up his official position and went to Dingtao County, Shandong Province, known as "Tao Zhugong" because he thought that the King of Yue could not be happy together. "19 years, I earned 3,000 yuan, and my descendants managed countless interests, so I reached a huge amount." Yidun went to Iraq in the Spring and Autumn Period. Border Han belongs to Hedong County, and now it belongs to Shanxi. Yidun has been managing Hedong Salt in Iraq for ten years and has become a very rich man.

Ancient salt merchants generally had monopoly privileges, so nine out of ten salt merchants made a fortune. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the extravagance of salt merchants in Yangzhou in the south of the Yangtze River reached its peak. According to the "Qing Chao Po", "If you want to spend 10,000 yuan at a time, ask the doorman to buy gold foil with gold, carry it to the Jinshan Temple Tower in Zhenjiang, lift it to the wind, and disperse in an instant, and it will not be recovered along the grass tree. Others bought Suzhou to cover the bowl with three thousands of feet, and poured it into the water, and the waterway was cold. " Some people like beauty, from the doorman to the female chef, they choose 28 beautiful women. While some people like ugliness, they don't hesitate to disfigure themselves, hire slaves, cover them with sauce and expose themselves to the sun.

Cooking and seasoning are inseparable from salt. However, the ancients believed that "people who like salt must have melanosis in their skin, and if they eat more, their lungs will coagulate and change color." Diaodingji said: "When salt is put into vegetables, it must be clarified with water to remove mud. There is neither salt nor dregs. " When cooking, you should pay attention to all the ingredients first, and then the salt. "If the salt is put too early, things will not rot."

In China, the ancients used salt and plum to flavor, so Shangshu said, "To make a soup, you can only use salt and plum." Among the five flavors, salt is the first, so salt is also listed as the first in condiments. Now people in China use sea salt along the coast, pool salt in the northwest and well salt in the southwest. Among sea salt, Huai salt is the best; Among the pool salts, Hedong salt ranks first; Zigong salt is the best in well salt.