Chieh-yen (解塩), which is now called Ho-tung-yen (河東塩), was the salt obtained from Yen-chih (塩池) in the south of Shan-hsi Province (山西省). It was because Yen-chih was under the jurisdiction of Chieh-chou (解州) in the Sung age that the salt was called Chieh-yen. Though Yen-chih is only a little salt lake, the output of Chieh-yen in the Sung age amounted to about half of Hai-yen (海塩) which meant the salt produced in all the coastal regions. In this age salt was ordained to be a government monopoly article, and various sorts of salt such as Hai-yen, Chieh-yen, Ching-yen (井塩), etc. were allocated respectively to specific consumption areas. Since Chieh-yen was produced in great quantities, a vast consumption area was set for it between Tsao-pu (曹濮) and Ch'in-feng (秦鳳). In this vast consumption area set for Chieh-yen, however, there were a number of places of production of salt other than Chieh-yen, such as Nu-yen-chih (女塩池) and Five Hsiao-chih (五小池) in the vicinity of Yen-chih, vorious prefectures (州) and districts (県) along the Yellow River (黄河) such as T'ung-chou (同州), and those in a fringe area. The salt produced at these places was not monopolized, and some of them, like T'ung-chou-yen (同州塩) was produced in such a considerable quantities that it was broadly used as private salt side by side with monopolized salt, thus disturbing the monopoly system for Chieh-yen. It is not hard to imagine that such sorts of salt as were produced in small quantities also disturbed the system to some extent even if there is no explicit evidence thereof. This short essay is an attempt to show the actual conditions at various places of salt production in the consumption area of Chieh-yen in the age of Sung, on the basis of scanty evidences in the Sung age and in the light of local records and historical literatures in the ages of Ming (明) and Ch'ing (清). The existence of these places of salt production reveals not only inconsistency of the Chieh-yen Act (解塩法) but also weakness of the Salt Monopoly Act under the reign of the Sung dynasty. It might be said that it clearly indicates the character of both national finance of the Sung dynasty and the Sung dynasty itself, and furthermore the character of the different dynasties in the history of China.
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