The Development of Ancient Agriculture in China

(a) Measures taken by central governments in past dynasties to promote agricultural development

? (1) Spring and Autumn Period: Guan Zhong of Qi reformed internal affairs and developed production.

? (2) Warring States: Shang Yang of Qin rewarded plowing, and those who produced more grain and silks were exempted from corvee; Restrict the activities of industrialists and businessmen and prohibit abandoning agriculture to do business.

? (3) Western Han Dynasty: Liu Bang practiced a policy of rest and recuperation: soldiers were demobilized and were exempted from corvee for several years; People who fled during the war went home and restored their original farmland houses; Release people who are sold into slavery because of hunger as civilians; Rent reduction, fifteen taxes and one. Emperor Wenjing reduced the rent by 30% and even did not collect land rent for more than ten years, encouraging farming.

? (4) Eastern Han Dynasty: Nine orders were issued to release slaves, prohibit the mutilation of handmaiden, reduce taxes, and restore land rent, from ten taxes in the Western Han Dynasty to thirty taxes.

? (5) Three Kingdoms: Cao Cao cultivated land and attached importance to protecting agriculture and mulberry; After Wei Jianguo, the rulers continued to attach importance to agriculture and water conservancy; Zhuge Liang of Shu Han implemented the policy of reducing taxes and emphasizing agriculture.

? (6) Northern Dynasties and Northern Wei Dynasties: Emperor Xiaowen issued a land equalization order to ensure that farmers got certain land.

? (7) In the early Tang Dynasty, the system of land equalization and rent adjustment was implemented to ensure that farmers got a certain amount of land and production time.

? (8) Mid-Northern Song Dynasty: Wang Anshi promoted farmland water conservancy law and encouraged reclamation and water conservancy construction. The government actively promotes Zhancheng rice and promotes crop exchanges between North and South.

? (9) Gold: Jin Shizong has implemented some measures to restore agricultural production and reclaimed land by using the old course of the Yellow River; Tax relief in disaster-stricken areas.

? (10) Early Ming Dynasty: Ming Taizu encouraged reclamation and reduced taxes; Implement measures such as reclaiming farmland and promoting cotton planting.

? (1 1) Early Qing Dynasty: encourage reclamation; Kangxi practiced a famous field; Yongzheng implemented the system of spreading land into mu and putting land into silver.

(B) the progress of ancient agricultural productivity in China.

? (1) Primitive society: Yuanmou people and Beijingers learned to make and use stone tools (Paleolithic Age). Neanderthals were in the late Paleolithic period and had mastered the drilling technology of hammering stone tools. Banpo culture and Hemudu culture have entered the Neolithic age, and ground stone tools are widely used. Stone chisels, axes and a large number of bones were unearthed at Hemudu site, and wooden relics were also found. Stone axes, hoes, shovels and bows and arrows were found in Banpo site. In the middle and late period of Dawenkou culture and Liangzhu culture, the production tools were more advanced. There are many kinds of bones and stone tools, such as hoes, sickles, arrows and spears, and small bronzes have appeared.

? (2) Slave society: most of the agricultural tools used in Shang and Zhou Dynasties were made of wood, stone, bone and clam, and only a few were bronze. Iron was used in the late Western Zhou Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn Period, iron farm tools have been widely used.

? (3) Feudal society: A. Iron farm tools were widely used in the Warring States period, and the Iron Age came. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the application of Niu Geng was an agricultural power revolution in the history of agricultural technology in China. B Qin Dynasty: Central Plains ironware spread to the Pearl River Basin and was gradually mastered by the Yue people. C. Western Han Dynasty: Iron farm tools spread to the frontier, and the western regions began to use iron; Niu Geng and Ma Geng are widely used; Farming appeared, and Zhao invented the rickshaw. D. Three Kingdoms: Ma Jun of Wei invented rollover. E. Tang Dynasty: Qu Yuan's plough and cart.

? (3) The emergence of agriculture and the cultivation, popularization and introduction of crops.

? (1) Primitive society: During the prosperity of matriarchal clan, China's primitive agriculture appeared. Hemudu people learned to grow rice. Banpo people have mastered the technology of planting millet, and also grow vegetables and marijuana. China is the first country to grow rice and millet in the world, and has made outstanding contributions to mankind.

? (2) Shang and Zhou Dynasties: All the later "five grains" were planted.

? (3) Han dynasty: rice and wheat were planted and popularized, and winter wheat, the main crop in the north, also began to grow rice; Rice is widely planted in the south, and double-cropping rice has been planted in the Eastern Han Dynasty. The planting mode of rice-wheat rotation has appeared in Hanshui River Basin, with two crops a year.

? (4) Northern Song Dynasty: crop varieties were adjusted nationwide. Millet, wheat and cowpea were widely planted in Jiangnan, and rice was widely planted in Jiangbei. Zhancheng rice imported from Vietnam also spread to the north. Tea planting has been further expanded. Cotton planting has expanded from Fujian and Guangdong to Jianghuai, Sichuan and Sichuan.

? (5) Yuan Dynasty: Crops increased, and cotton was planted all over the south. Began to introduce watermelon and Artemisia.

? (6) Ming and Qing Dynasties: Cotton planting was extended from Jiangnan to Jiangbei in Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, new varieties of corn and sweet potato with high yield were introduced from abroad, and they were continuously promoted and planted in the Qing Dynasty. At the beginning of Qing Dynasty, the planting area of cash crops such as cotton, ramie, tea, tobacco, sugarcane, flowers, oilseeds and medicinal materials was expanded.