The development of agriculture in ancient China (keep it simple)

Chinese agriculture has a long history. Agriculture originated in the ancient times when there was no written records, and it took place in the mother of the primitive gathering and hunting economy. In the ancient history of China, there is the so-called "Shennong's". It is said that before Shennong's, people ate reptiles and beasts, fruits and vegetables, snails and mussels, and then the population gradually increased, the food is insufficient, and there is an urgent need to open up new food sources. Shennong's for this taste of all kinds of herbs, ready to go through the hardships, many times poisoned, and found a way to detoxify, and finally chose the grains for people to eat. Then he observed the time and place, created the axe catty Lei and plow, and taught people to plant grains. Thus, agriculture appeared, and medicine also came into being; at the same time, people also mastered the technology of pottery making and textile weaving. This legend is the historical shadow of the time when agriculture occurred and was established. Modern archaeology has provided us with rich new information to understand the origin of agriculture and the condition of primitive agriculture in China. Thousands of Neolithic primitive agricultural sites have been discovered, spreading over a vast area from Lingnan to Desert North, from the coast of the East China Sea to the Tibetan Plateau, especially in the Yellow River and Yangtze River Basins. Famous ones are the agricultural settlements of Peigang in Xinzheng, Henan Province, and the agricultural settlements of Maishan in Wuan, Hebei Province, which were mainly planted with corn in the seventh and eighth millennia before the present, the agricultural settlements of Hemudu in Zhejiang Province, which were mainly planted with rice in the seventh millennia before the present, as well as the ruins of Half-slope in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, which were later on. In recent years, the remains of cultivated rice were found in Pangtoushan in Li County, Hunan Province, Yuchanyan Rock in Dao County, Xianren Cave and Hangbucket Rock in Jiangxi Province, which are tens of thousands of years old. It can be seen that the origin of agriculture in China can be traced back to 10,000 years ago, to 7,000 to 8,000 years ago, the primitive agriculture has been quite developed.

From the world, there are three main centers of agricultural origin: West Asia, Central and South America and East Asia. The center of origin of East Asia is mainly China. Chinese primitive agriculture has obvious characteristics. In the planting industry, the pattern of corn in the north and rice in the south was formed very early, unlike the planting of wheat and barley in West Asia, and the planting of potatoes, bonobos and corn in Central and South America. China's primitive agricultural tools, such as the hand- and foot-operated Leiyu (耒耜), a straight-plunging type of plow used to turn the soil, and the stone knives used to pinch and cut the ears of grain for harvesting, are also different from those of other regions. In animal husbandry, China's earliest livestock are dogs, pigs, chickens and buffaloes, and later increased to the so-called "six animals" (horses, cows, sheep, pigs, dogs, chickens), unlike the West Asia very early in the rearing of sheep and goats as the main, and even more different from the South and Central America only know how to raise alpacas. China is one of the world's largest centers of crop and livestock origins. Primitive agriculture in most areas of China occurred directly from the collection, fishing and hunting economy, with cultivation at the core and livestock rearing existing as a sideline, developing along with cultivation, while at the same time taking collection and hunting as a supplementary source of means of subsistence, forming a structure in which agriculture, animal husbandry, collection and hunting coexisted. This structure led to a relatively stable sedentary life, compatible with sedentary agriculture, pigs have always been the main livestock, the early emergence of a combination of captive breeding and grazing feeding; the formation of nomadic tribes later. At the same time, China is the world's first silkworm-reeling countries. In short, Chinese agriculture originated independently and formed its own system. Chinese civilization was built on the basis of its own agricultural development, and the so-called "Chinese civilization to the west" that was once circulated is not in line with historical reality.

Looking at the scope of China itself, agriculture did not originate from a center and spread around, but was formed by the convergence of several sources. Corn agriculture in the Yellow River basin and rice agriculture in the Yangtze River basin each had a different origin, while agriculture in southern China may have begun with the cultivation of potato and taro root and tuber crops. Even agriculture in the same crop area may have different origins. On the basis of polycentric origins, agriculture in China, in the course of its development, based on the differences in natural conditions and social traditions in different places, has undergone differentiation and reorganization, and has gradually formed different types of agriculture. These different types of agricultural cultures became the basis for the formation of different ethnic groups. Ancient Chinese agriculture was formed by the fusion of these different regions, ethnic groups and types of agriculture, and developed through their mutual exchanges and collisions. This phenomenon can be called "diversified convergence".

The development of ancient Chinese agriculture can be divided into six stages of development:

(1) The Budding Period of Agricultural Technology

The Neolithic Age (about 10,000-4,000 years ago) Chinese agriculture originated about 10,000 years ago. It developed gradually in the economy of gathering and fishing and hunting. The emergence of agriculture laid a solid foundation for the progress of human civilization.

(II) The Period of Initial Formation of Agricultural Technology

Summer, Shang and Zhou (about 2100 BC - 771 BC) During this period, China invented metal smelting technology, and bronze agricultural tools began to be applied to agricultural production. Water conservancy projects began to be built. Agricultural technology had a preliminary development.

(3) The Occurrence of Precision Farming

Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period (770 B.C. - 221 A.D.) The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were a period of great social change and technological and cultural development in China. The invention of iron making technology marked the arrival of new productive forces on the stage of history, and the utilization of iron farming tools and animal power promoted the great development of agricultural production.

(4) The Formative Period of Precision Plowing and Cultivation Technology in the Northern Drylands

Qin, Han, and the North and South Dynasties (221 B.C. - 589 A.D.) was a period of maturity for dryland agricultural technology in the northern regions of China. Tillage, harrowing, ursing supporting the formation of technology. A variety of large and complex agricultural tools have been invented and utilized. The famous agronomist Jia Si Fo wrote a large-scale encyclopedia of agriculture called "The Essentials of Qi Min".

(E) the formation of the southern paddy fields of the formation of the period

Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan (581 AD - 1368 AD) the center of economic gravity shifted from the north to the south. Formation of supporting technology for paddy field technology in the south. Specialized agricultural tools for paddy fields were invented and popularized. Cotton is gradually popularized in China. Numerous agricultural books appeared. Land utilization increased. Agriculture in the north and south gained great development at the same time.

(6) The period of intensive development of precision farming

Ming Dynasty to the first half of the Qing Dynasty (1368 AD - 1840 AD) during this period, China generally appeared to be the contradiction between the large number of people and the scarcity of land, the development of agricultural production to further precision farming. Many crops from the American New World were introduced to China, which had a significant impact on the crop structure of China. Diversification and multi-cropping became the mainstay of agricultural production.

After the founding of New China, China's agriculture achieved even greater success based on the application of high technology. With only 7% of the land, China has been able to support one-fifth of the world's population. In terms of agricultural science and technology, the gap between China's developed countries has become smaller and smaller. The contribution of science and technology to agricultural development has increased from 20 percent in 1949 to 42 percent