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DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY OF PADDY RICE AND ARID
AGRICULTURE IN ANCIENT CHINESE CIVILIZATION
CHEN, Chun
Culture And Museum Department, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, PRC
Agricultural Archaeology, pp. 51-53, 86, vol. 3, 1997
(translated by Elaine Wong; edited by Elaine Wong & Bryan Gordon)
The origin of agriculture is a revolutionary process in the history of human evolution. Not
only does it reflect increased manipulation of nature and the environment, but more importantly,
increased land yield in the agricultural economy. It allowed larger population living in a community
environment. People can combine their collective intelligence and effort to improve and invent new
technique to increase yield. It is the foundation for improving society, wherein the urban and
industrial revolutions could not have happened earlier (Childe,1951) without agriculture.
In mankind’s long slow 2 million year history, economic agriculture only began ca. 10,000
years ago, with animal and plant domestication appearing 8-9000 years ago in widespread parts of
the world (western Asia, Central America, China). This indicates a similar catalytic mechanism in
major economic progress, but we know very little about its overall process. But one thing is very
obvious: countries with the earliest civilization had the earliest agriculture, meaning economic
progress directly affects advanced social growth.
Considering present archaeological evidence, the lower Yellow and Yangtze Valleys are two
independent origins of agriculture. They both not only were very early, but their domesticated plants
differed vastly. In central China, agriculture is mainly maize, pinnacle millet, millet and sorghum,
the middle and lower Yangtze mainly paddy rice; i.e., arid and aquatic agriculture, respectively; with
obviously different motivations and paths in plant domestication.
Two main theories of agricultural origin are Optimal Foraging and Competitive Feasting.
The first by Boserup (1965) was thoroughly discussed and substantiated by Cohen (1977), and
implies animal and plant domestication as a reaction to food shortage from massive population
increase; i.e., the food chain was greatly disturbed by drastic postglacial environmental change, with
some animals moving away or disappearing. In the long Palaeolithic period, people slowly increased
and spread to all corners of the world except Antarctica. With this and low hunter-gatherer yield due
to large animal extinction, they faced food shortage and used lower grade foods that were smaller
and widespread, needing more time and effort to process for consumption. If large hoofed animals
were abundant, these lower grade seeds, mollusks, snails, fish, fruit, etc., were ignored. Gathering
and processing these foods required new tools and methods, with labor investment and improved
methods obviously higher than large hoofed animals. To assuage hunger, lower grade foods were
harvested, with some of them unavoidably domesticated. This foraging change is regarded as
common in the Palaeolithic, with many very reliable examples in the study of optimal foraging
theory.
In contrast to Optimal Foraging, Canadian academic Brian Hayden (1992) coined
Competitive Feasting Theory. He believes agriculture began when animals and plants lost their
effectiveness in solving food shortages. As these foods had limited harvest, they were not very
important food resources. Even some animal and plants abundant after domestication had nothing to
do with solving hunger; e.g.s, grain to make wine, plants as herbs and condiments, gourds as
drinking and eating vessels, dogs used for hunting as well as food.
While both theories contrast greatly on agricultural origin, both are reasonable, and indicate
different agricultural origin stimuli in diverse areas. Along the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers of China,
aquatic agriculture and arid agriculture originated in completely different environments, with certain
representations from both theories.
In Great Plains research on ancient cultural change, Madson (1982) found hunter-gatherers
fissioned when wildlife became sparse, becoming nomads in their food search, with agricultural
beginnings very unlikely due to difficulties in settling and dealing with unpredictable agricultural
experiments. Where wildlife was abundant and people were free of “eat or wear worries”, they spent
little time trying unpredictable experiments in animal domestication. Thus, agriculture originated
mainly in areas where available wildlife was uncertain, people rarely travelled and seasonal food
shortages existed. Survival required people to know the necessity of animal and plant domestication
to counter hunger from uncertain wildlife. Agriculture dominated the economy only after long
experimentation, when harvesting far exceeded domesticated animal yield.
Modern data is limited in China on arid agricultural origins, especially on human survival
and ancient maize, pinnacle millet, millet and sorghum ecology, but from an arid agricultural
viewpoint involving barley and wheat, motivation for countering seasonal shortages greatly effected
the onset of cultivation.
Paddy rice is an aquatic crop, its ecology distinct from arid crops. Madson’s Great Basin
research indicates wet environments like marshland have abundant food, with shallow lakes having
unusually dense site remains. Whether large or small, there is an obvious increase in the number of
site remains in lake areas. This indicates marshland is not only ideal for growing aquatic animals and
plants, but attracts many land animals and birds. Thus, this type of environment tends not to have
potential food shortages.
As paddy rice is a swamp grass, widespread marshland produces abundant food. The
Hemudu site had abundant excavated husked rice and animal bone, indicating its environment was
rich in wildlife. Thus, the reason for paddy rice agricultural origin relates more to Competitive
Feasting Theory, meaning rice was collected and domesticated because it tasted good.
Different motivation and yield of aquatic and arid crops greatly effected civilization growth
in north and south China. While equally long histories of agricultural origins occur in Yellow and
Yangtze River basins, their civilizations evolved differently. The great Central Plains was center
stage for a bright ancient civilization, with many generations of heroes competing and acting epic
scene after scene for 5000 years. Except for the mighty Chu, Wu and Yue kingdoms, the lower
Yangtze Valley southern kingdoms of backward barbarians were not as strong as some Central
kingdoms. Why did equally long civilizations and economies grow so differently? We will search
for political and social reasons from their different economies based on arid and aquatic crop yield.
Even though we do not know full maize, pinnacle millet, millet and sorghum potential, arid
crop yield is considerably lower, each hand-plowed acre producing ca. 550 kg (Allen’s 1972
estimate), food for 12 people/sq. km. Canada’s greatest pre-European yield was the south Ontarian
Huron Indian growing maize supplemented with hunting-gathering and fishing, allowing 25-50
people/sq. km (Butzer, 1990). Early maize, pinnacle millet, millet and sorghum yield was likely at
this level.
Paddy rice has the highest yield of the five grains, each big SE Asian delta harvest supporting
500 people/sq. km (Allen 1972), with biannual harvesting to 1000 people/sq. km. We see the
magnitude of lower Yangtze Valley yields in the Song Dynasty saying “the whole world is fulfilled
when Shu Lake ripens”. Further, paddy rice yield was 70% of that of all China in Ming Dynasty
(Tong, PingYeh, 1979); i.e., much higher than arid grain and with important economic controls on
political growth.
American academic Cohen believes countries and governments were created to balance
population and land. When a population exceeded land yield, government grew to balance them
(Cohen, 1981).
Assuming Yellow and lower Yangtze Early Neolithic populations were similar and growing
at the same rate, crop yields in the latter were much higher, and people were constantly battling to
survive and grow. As ancient technology outgrew agriculture and animal husbandry, Bronze Age
technology was not tied to an agriculture-based economy. When technology raced from Stone to
Bronze Ages, bronze was mainly used in making ceremonial vessels and weapons and not farm tools
to raise crop yield. As the agricultural economy relied on manual labor and arable land growth rather
than bronze technology, there was little increase in land yield.
As government and society grew, extra provisions were needed to support noble and ruling
class lifestyles, plus many supporting officials, workers and soldiers. Rather than increase crop yield
with technology, powerful states invaded weaker neighbours, robbing their laborers and annexing
land. War initiated by land and labor fights motivated an evolution from primitive to complex
society. Such conflict-based progress occurred from Spring and Autumn Periods to the Qin Empire
and Han Dynasty.
Considering land size and population, middle and lower Yangtze paddy fields had much
higher yields than Central Plains arid agriculture. The agricultural richness of the many lower and
middle Yangtze lakes, plus unmotivated social and military growth in nearby provinces, were major
reasons for the latter to assume a comparatively secondary role in the growth of Chinese civilization.
The flat Central Plains is easy for cultural exchange between distant places, but also served as a
battlefield, setting the stage for the evolution of civilization.
The above gives reasons for differing growth in Yellow and Yangtze civilizations by
comparing their agricultural base and environment, plus the effect of powerful officials and their
supporters. To understand this, we must persevere in understanding reasons and needs for major
historic change. By going outside historic bounds, we can rebuild China’s ancient face and track its
growth on a deeper scientific level.
Bibliography
Allen, W. 1972. Ecological technique and settlement pattern. In Man, Settlement, and Urbanism (P.
J. Uckle et al., eds.). London: Duckworth, pp. 211-226.
Boserup, E. 1965. The Condition of Agricultural Growth. Chicago: Aldine.
Butzer, K. W. 1990. Archaeology as Human Ecology. Cambridge University Press.
Childe, V. G. 1951. Man Makes Himself. New York: Mentor.
Cohen, M.H. 1977. The food crisis in prehistory. New Haven. Yale University Press.
1981. The ecology basis of New World state formation: general and local model. In The
Transition of Statehood in the New World (G.D. Jones et al., eds.), Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Hayden, B. 1992. Models of domestication. In Transition to Agriculture (A.B. Gebauer et al., eds.).
Prehistory Press, 11-19.
Madson, D. B. 1982. Get it where gettin’s good: A variable model of Great Basin subsistence and
settlement based on eastern Great Basin data. In Man and Environment in the Great Basin (D.B.
Madson et al., eds.). SAA paper.2, pp. 207-226.
Tong, PingYeh, 1979. History of Agricultural Products. China Youth Publishing Society.