Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c6.s3.t2: Sugar Making

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c6.s3.t2

Language: English

Sugar Making

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India is one of the countries in the world which have a long history of sugar making and consuming. China is the near neighbour of India and they both have had close exchanges of technology in sugar making for more than a thousand years.

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The earliest sweets in ancient China were not made of sugar. Yi and Tang, as the main sweets during the times from the Zhou Dynasty (1046 BCE-256 BCE) to the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420 CE-589 CE), were made from rice, wheat or barley. It was much late when sugarcane was introduced and planted from abroad, and, as a precious variety of crops, it was not afforded by normal families for a long period of time.

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Sugarcane was generally cultivated during the times of Northern and Southern Dynasties. However, its planting region was confined to south China. There are various theories about the native habitat of sugarcane and quite a lot of scholars produce linguistic evidence in favour of India as the homeland of sugarcane. They argued that the name of a country in central Bengal was Gauóa and this word was derived from Sanskrit guóa meaning sugar. Besides, one of the most famous families in ancient India was Ikùvàku and its name came from Sanskrit ikùu meaning sugarcane. India has a long history of sugarcane planting partly because the environment of many places. Bengal, for instance, is very suitable for sugarcane growing. All these tend to form the grounds for the argument favourable to India as the native habitat of sugarcane.

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In China, the cane sugar-making seemed to begin at some time between the Three Kingdoms (220 CE-280 CE) and the Tang Dynasty (618 CE-907 CE), while the Northern and Southern Dynasties merits special attention. Being left behind in technology Chinese decided to learn from their neighbours. During the reign of Tang Taizong (598 CE- 649 CE), he sent envoys to India to get the sugar-making skill. It is recorded in vol. 221 of New Annals of Tang Dynasty that “the king of Magadha, a former vassal state of Central India Kingdom, lived in the city of Pàñaliputra which was situated at the south bank of Gaïgà. In the 21st year of Zhenguan Era (627 CE-649 CE), a diplomatic mission was sent by him to the royal court of the Devaputra (Tang Taizong) with as a present the palà÷a(?), a sort of tree like white poplar. And Taizong also sent a mission later on with the duty to get the sugar extracting technology.”

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Qi Min Yao Shu’s book

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It is also recorded in vol. 4 of Continuation of the Biographies of Eminent Monks that “Tang Taizong sent Wang Xuance and 20 other persons in search for craftsmen skilled in making gritty-honey among the monks in Mahàbodhi Monastery. Two craftsmen and eight monks came to Eastern Xia (China) and were soon despatched to Yuezhou (nowadays Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province) where they successfully made sugar from sugarcane”. Here the gritty-honey was the ancient name of granulated sugar. By acquiring the Indian technology, China made considerable progress in sugar-making. Also can be found in books like Tangshuangpu by Wang Zhuo is a well-known tradition of Tang Dynasty about a monk named Zou who taught the sugar-making technology to the people in Suining, Sichuan province.

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Song Yingxing made his comment on this matter in his famous book Tiangongkaiwu published in Ming Dynasty, saying, “China knew nothing in ancient times about the fact that sugar could be made from sugarcane. It was Western monk Zou who imparted the technology to the local people when living in Suining during Dali Era (766 CE-779 CE) of Tang Dynasty. Sugarcanes are widely planted now in Sichuan and they are actually introduced from Western Regions gradually.” It is clearly indicated that the cane sugar has its origin in Western Regions including India. Another example, a Dunhuang fragment found in the early 20th century, is still more concrete. It is about the sugar-making process written in Chinese and a kind of high quality cane sugar called Shageling is mentioned here. According to Prof Ji Xianlin, this curious word is the transliteration of Sanskrit ÷arkarà meaning granulated sugar. This is good evidence that Indian sugar making technology spread widely and had a remarkable influence in ancient China.

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However, having mastered the technology learnt from India, Chinese workers exerted their effort for generations and achieved excellent progresses including invention of the method to decolourise the granulated sugar. In the light of the evidences in books such as Minshunachanzhi and Wulixiaoshi, it can be sure that, at least, before Ming Dynasty (1368 CE-1644 CE), China had been able to produce high quality white sugar on a grand scale. In India, on the other hand, two new names of sugar, *puùpasità* and *sitopalà*, appeared in a well-known medical book, *Bhàvaprakà÷a* of 16th century. Both of these compounds had the same word sita meaning white. And in Bengal, at the same time, *puùpasità* was also called *padma-cãnã* or *phul-cãnã*. Since cãnã had the meaning of Chinese, it implies that Chinese white sugar had been imported and its relevant making technology introduced into India before 16th century. Therefore, it seems to be able to conclude that China and India had learnt from each other to make high quality sugar and through this kind of exchange, they both contributed much to the improvement of sugar-making technology in the world.

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(Ge Weijun)

Linked texts (1)

Bhāvaprakāśa — Bhāvamiśra 1550, Sanskrit