The Transitions Of Environments And The Adoptions Of Agricultural Techniques In Central Plains Region During The Qin And Han Dynasties

The effects on the agricultural region and techniques by environments were evident. Except for the relations of production, the environmental factors constraining agricultural techniques in general included climate, water resource, land and soil, vegetation and population, all of which centred on the agricultural techniques. During Qin and Han Dynasty, the agricultural techniques of Central Plains region basicly represented the level of development of traditional agricultural techniques, the accumulation of which made transformation from primeval farming to intensive and meticulous farming and a series of theory and techniques of farming accumulated. As the techniques advancing, intensive level gradually increased and the realization manner gradually materialized.It was generally believed that the former Han was warm and humid, some changes occurred from the Eastern Han Dynasty, which have been proved by studies on agricultural techniques and phenology. Weather conditions and climate changing directly affected the formation of farming technology system and indirectly affected other natural factors and the number and distribution of the population. During Qin and Han Dynasties surface water resources on the Central Plains were abundant, showing the North-South differences and regional characteristics and there being more irrigation canals and ditches in the north and more reservoirs in the south. There wre considerable quantity of forests, but with the advances in agricultural techniques, a large area of agricultural land had been cleared out, the natural vegetation has been replaced by agricultural vegetation. As the core of population the regional population density was relatively high, whereas the change varied. The shift from the extensive farming to intensive agriculture, in essence, was a kind of transformation of the production type from the extension to the content-type. Often, sufficient population promoted the expansion and intensification of agricultural reclamation improvement, and the given uneven distribution of productivity levels and temporal and spatial differences in the population were important selection criteria of agricultural techniques. While agriculture theory perfected comprehensively, the technical systems were taking shape. The agricultural technology emerged upward trend and showed different implementations in the varied regions with different environments.There existed the interaction relationship between the environmental changes and the advances in agricultural techniques. The nature of agriculture decided the dependence of agriculture techniques on environmental factors, therefore, there were different agricultural practices and the corresponding agricultural techniques according to different environmental conditions. Overall, the impact of the environmental factors on agricultural techniques was integrated and diverse. The advances of agricultural techniques were bound to bring a certain impact on the environment, the positive and negative effects being coexistent.