Studies On Spreading And Growing And Influences Of Crops Originated In American During Ming And Qing Dynasties

Nearly 30 kinds of crops originated in American were imported to China during Ming and Qing Dynasties. There are maize,sweet potato,potato,cassava,peanuts,sunflower,hot pepper,papaya,tomatoes,bean,pineapple,sweetsop,guava,avocado,cashew,cocoa,American ginseng,papaya,tobacco and so on. In these crops,maize,sweet potato and tobacco had the greatest influences to the social life of Ming and Qing.In the first chapter,its main focuses on the route,time and other name in various parts of China of those three crops. Then it gives a general introduction about their spreading and growing in different parts of China . This chapter is the basis of next two chapters argument。The second chapter focuses on the impact of the imported maize,sweet potato,tobacco to the social life,especially diet of Ming and Qing Period。After maize being imported,it became people's especially mountainous people's main food along with its wild spreading. Maize could be bombed, deep-fried and cooked as cake, pie, powder, porridge and so on. At the same time it was used as raw material to brewery .The advantages of maize such as its high output, easy to grow on mountainous region and dry land , eating before its greenness and so on made it one of the most proper crops to be prepared against natural disasters. The value of medical use, feedstuff , fuel, fertilizer of maize were gradually known and made use of by the people. Sweet potato's cooking methods include boil, steam ,bake, fry, deep-fry ,after cooked and steamed thoroughly, it could be served as solid food, also be blended with rice and millet to cook porridge and be used as raw material in brewery like maize. In contrast with maize, sweet potato could be grown everywhere, with higher output and wind-resisting quality , Short growing period , and high resistance to plague of locusts ,this makes it suitable for people to grow it to against natural disaster. Sweet potato's medical use and feedstuff efficiencies also are outstanding. People's recognition of tobacco is also the main point discussed in this chapter .There are three main smoking manners during Ming and Qing Dynasties are amoker, shredded tobacco and snuff. Equal with these three smoking manner, there are three smoking set culture. Among these three culture, snuff culture held special features and the most influences. Tobacco's medical use ,entertainment, pastime, ommunication efficiency are gradually known and made use of by the people, which made tobacco together with tea, wine the most popular hobbies at that time. In addition, maize and sweet potato's introduction came into the market not only increased peasant's income but also stabilized the price of foodstuff. The active tobacco traders promoted tobacco growing and the spread of smoking vogue.The third chapter discusses the attitude and reasons of Ming and Qing government toward corn, sweet potato and tobacco. Corn was not concerned and highly thought of during and after Qianlong period, because of population growth, corn's supplementary effect was gradually recognized by some local governors, they took measures to promote the growing of it. On the other hand, as it is the first choice of refugees who planted it in mountain areas, corn planting in these areas easily caused soild loss , destroyed ecosystem and environment. Besides, the Qing Dynasty government was afraid that refugees gathering would threaten its governance , so some local government limited corn planting in mountain areas. As soon as sweet potato imported China, its advantage for providing disaster relief was recognized and thought highly of by Ming and Qing Dynasties, some officials such as Xu Guangqi, Wang Xiangjin, Huang Kerun even concluded and explored the storage and plant techniques comprehensively. In the middle Dynasty, after tobacco was brought into China, both Ming and Qing governments realized that growing tobacco affected other crops'planting, reduced land nutrition, consumed a lot of human resource and fertilizer, led to price growing, wasted money, did harm to health, corrupted social ethos, caused fire disasters easily, so governors took measures to forbid tobacco planting, selling and smoking. But for its great interest, besides, the majority of nobles and emperors of Qing Dynasty smoked tobacco, smokers were easily addicted to it, governors of Ming and Qing Dynasties had to let it along after forbidding.