Ancient Chinese Sugar -made Fa Hui Hui and Ryukyu Camer Industry

In the history of East Asian agriculture, China often spreads economic crop planting and product processing technology to neighboring countries through culture, economy and trade, and has effectively promoted the agricultural development of neighboring countries. Among them, the spread of sugar -making method is one of the most typical cases. In the ancient Ryukyu kingdom, in the interaction with China, it obtained the most advanced sugar -making technology at that time. With its unique geographical conditions, Ryukyu has developed a sugar industry in just over ten years. Camer has since become the pillar of the Kingdom of Ryukyu, which has a profound impact on its historical development.

Path in East Asia

In ancient China, in the interaction with neighboring countries, she began to output granulated sugar products very early. The "Datang Monk of the Datang Monk" in Japan records that the items carried by Jian Zhendu "have more than 500 pounds such as Bi Bowl, Pei Laile, Pepper, Awewei, Stone Honey, and sucrose. "Stone honey" is rock sugar, and "sucrose" is sugar. At the beginning of the 17th century, at that time, Yami Island, which was still under Ryukyu, had already appeared to produce sugar in large quantities. According to later legends, the reason is that Nakawa Tomo Oshima encountered seafront on the way to Ryukyu Island. The ship drifted to Fujian. Naokawa Zhi took advantage of the opportunity to come to China to learn the local sugar -making method and bring sugarcane seedlings to the country to promote it in his hometown to promote it. Essence Later, Amami was under the jurisdiction of Japan. In view of the success of the local sugar industry, it began to try sugar cane and sugar in all parts of Japan. Origin of history.

The beginning of the development of the sugar industry of the Ryukyu Kingdom was spread to Ryukyu through the trade between the sugar -making method through the trade between Zhongliu. The specific time for sugar cane to be introduced into Ryukyu is unknown. North Korea's "Li Chao's Records" contains the seven years of Shizu (1461) in December, Ryukyu is making Pu Xugu and the deputy envoy Cai Yan to the North Korea to negotiate the drifting people. Because the container is similar, the messenger mistakenly dedicated the molasses as "Tianzhu wine" to the Korean king. In the eleventh year of Ming Jiajing (1532), Chen Kan came out of Ryukyu, and recorded in his bookmaker: "The rotes include bananas, sugarcane, pomegranate, orange, persimmon. Both are not. "This shows that Ryukyu has a long history of planting sugarcane, and has always regarded it as a sweet food. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Zhouhuang's "Ryukyu National Strategy" was contained. The sugar cane of Ryukyu was "red, short, and short for a year. Small, used to make sugar."

The opportunity to really make major changes in the Ryukyu sugar industry is the tribute trade with Fujian as a fulcrum between Zhongliu. Since the tribute was sent to the Ryukyu in 1372, the tribute to Fujian will be available in Fujian, staying in the Ryukyu Hall, and then to Beijing. As an extension of the tribute activities, Ryukyu dispatched international students under the permission of the Chinese court. In addition to the "official students" who have officially entered the country, there are also "diligence students" who mainly go to China to learn technology at their own expense. These "diligent students" shoulder the mission of bringing China's advanced production technology back to Ryukyu to promote social development. On the Ming and Qing dynasties, Fujian was one of the main sugarcane production areas in China. During the Wanli period, the technology of Fujian's sugar -making technology has evolved significantly. The use of sugar sugar and the popularization of yellow mud sugar has increased the yield of sugar. These technologies also introduced to Ryukyu in the end of the Ming Dynasty through "diligent students".

Introduce the Chinese Sugar Method

At the beginning of the 17th century, the Ryukyu officials were true, and the Chinese names were balanced, and they attached great importance to the introduction of foreign crops into Ryukyu to promote economic development. ACC Heng created a certain scale of kapok planting in Ryukyu, and also tried to plant the sweet potatoes brought back from Fujian, which was successful. Since then, sweet potatoes have become one of the important sources of food in Ryukyu. Tomorrow for three years (1623), Ma balanced the villagers in their territory and took the tribute ship to Fuzhou to learn the most advanced sugar -making technology at the time from Fujian and brought it back to Ryukyu. A record of "Three -year Balance Balance Black Sugar" in the history of the Ryukyu State Book "Ball Yang": "The hemp is deeply chanting the sugarcane in the country, so the people of the village of Yijian went to Fujian and learned the method of making sugar. Has taken sugarcane juice to boil black sugar, and finally in the middle of the country. "" The Ryukyu State "also records:" Although the country has had sugar cane since ancient times, the people are unknown to make sugar. In the time of Minama (going), the pro -cloud of Ma Shiji often made him learn to make sugar. He returned from Fuzhou, and he had already been made of sugar. He was really overjoyed. The creation of 焉, then it has spread throughout the middle of the country. "It can be seen that the sugar -making method of the Ryukyu Kingdom originated from Fujian and spread to Ryukyu through production technology exchanges. After a small -scale trial of hemp balance, it gradually promoted to the country.

Prior to the introduction of the Chinese sugar -making method, the method of making sucrose in Ryukyu people was still quite primitive. People cut the harvested sugarcane and cut into two or three inches, put them in a stone mortar, put it in a cloth bag, put it in Squeeze the juice of the bamboo cage, and the sugar cane juice adds lime to the crystallization to obtain the sugar block. In this way, it has not had a decisive impact on Ryukyu agriculture due to labor, lack of efficiency, and high sugar loss rate. The method introduced from Fujian is called the "two rotor and three pot methods". The two rotary is a wooden juice cart. Out of sugar juice, put the lime's clarified sugar juice into the three -sided iron pot of the graded shape, and finally summarize the thick sugar juice into a large pot to crystallize. The juice part is carried out by animal power, and the refinement is completed by manpower. It is continuously operated. The sugar juice is squeezed out at one time. The retention rate of sugar can reach more than 30 %, and it is quickly promoted. In the first year of Kangxi (1662) in the Qing Dynasty, in order to improve the quality of sugar, the Kingdom of Ryukyu sent "Qin Student" Lu De first to celebrate the Gulian Mountain in Fuzhou to learn about the system of sugar and rock sugar from the locals. The so -called white sugar system is the yellow mud slurry of Fujian, and the law of rock sugar is a sugar refining method. Lu De first brought back these two sugar -making methods in Ryukyu to get a certain spread in Ryukyu. Zhou Huang's "Ryukyu National Zhi" contains, the Ryukyu people make sugar -making "squeezing small cane juice, and there are rock sugar and cream." Compared to brown sugar, sugar and rock sugar only account for less part of the total amount of sugar. The quality of the overall finished product of Ryukyu sugar is not outstanding in the early stage, but since the introduction of the Chinese sugar -making method, Ryukyu can steadily produce sugar in large quantities.

Ryukyu formed the sugar industry economy

The manufacturing of sugar covers the process of harvesting, juice, cooking, precipitation, transportation, storage, etc. Each link requires more labor compared to ordinary crops, and farmers cannot produce separately. As a result, Ryukyu produced a series of new systems of sugar in the mid -17th century. The first is the establishment of "Gan Sugar House". All villages that allow sugar to produce sugar in Ryukyu have established livestock sugar workshops. The "sugar house" is adjacent to the sugarcane field. The villagers plant sugar cane under the strict supervision of local officials. After the sugar cane is harvested, they enter the workshop to complete the process of squeezing juice and cooking syrup. Secondly, the neighbors of sugar farmers and their relatives and other relatives became a group named "sugar and" to participate in collective production. "Grunting and" generally consisting of five people, the order of entering the sugar house is determined by the mature situation of the sugar cane field. This production organization uses the village as the unit to work together to share taxes together. In general, the introduction of the Chinese sugar law law has promoted the development of the collective economy of the village as a unit.

Ryukyu planting cane adopts a farmer in the spring and autumn harvest of Chinese spring, but China is broadcasting sugarcane in the first month of China. Ryukyu is a little later, usually sowing in March, harvesting on the eve of September frost, and the seedlings are taken again on the occasion of the first year of the following year, so as to reciprocate. Boiled brown sugar was listed in the spring and summer farming leisure. The land of the Ryukyu Islands is barren, and many typhoons are very difficult to carry out normal food farming. Instead, sugar cane crops can adapt to the local environment. Due to the use of improved planting methods and suitable climate, in just over ten years, sugarcane has become the largest domestic crop in Ryukyu during the Shangxian King (1641-1647), with an annual output of brown sugar reaching about 870,000 kg.

The most profound impact on the history of Ryukyu is the sugar monopoly system. After the introduction of the sugar -making method, the sugar cane planting industry was quickly rolled out in Ryukyu. The generous profits of sugar were finally valued by the Ryukyu palace. The Wangfu set up a sugar monopoly system in 1652, all the sugar products was owned by the Wangfu, exported to Japan in exchange for the capital to maintain the tribute trade. In 1697, in order to prevent the production of overcapacity, the sugarcane planting restrictions were issued in order to prevent the production of excess sugar prices, strictly stipulated the planting area and upper limit, and set up agricultural officials to "gran sugar" to supervise sugarcane planting. Since then, the sugar industry has become the pillar of funds for the Ryukyu trade, and even the 21st year of Qianlong (1756), Zhou Huang wrote that the "Angel Hall" that welcomed the Chinese band of the Chinese book was free. "". Ryukyu transports sugar to Satsuma, Japan every year, and then shipped to the Osaka market to sell it. Finally, it is profitable by earning a difference. Ryukyu sugar was sold in the Osaka market as early as 1706. It was like a charcoal group and was called "Maruyu" by people. In the middle of the 19th century, the brown sugar produced by Ryukyu and Amami occupied about 51%in the Osaka market in Japan, and it was an important commodity to maintain trade relations between China, Ryukyu, and Japan.

In summary, the sugar -making technology from China laid the economic foundation of the Ryukyu Kingdom, and provided financial support for the tribute trade between Zhongliu. It not only reflects the spread of ancient Chinese agricultural technology in East Asia, but also reflects the close connection between China and Ryukyu in history.

(Author Unit: School of Social History, Fujian Normal University)

Source: China Social Science Network-Journal of Social Sciences of China

Author: Lin Fanguo

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