Agricultural Progressive History In Sorthern Shaanxi Province

Southern Shaanxi Province is a rare special physical region. Circled by mountains and hills , bordering by the Qinlin Mountain range in the north and by the Mechang Mountain and the Grant Bashan Mountain range in the south ,this region is a safety area for agricultural development and progressions from ancient times for the sake of the mountain and hill surrounded area. Meanwhile the Qinlin Mountain range also forms the border between Yellow River Valley in the north and the Yangzhi River Valley in the south, hence the region serves as a sole bridge between the Qin's area(representing Northern China region) and Shu's area (representing Southern China region), and from a geographical view, Southern Shaanxi Province works as a channel for the remote areas in Huna and hubei provinces. Drainaged by the Hanjiang River in the centeral of the region, a large fertile basin with the favorable climate, Southern Shaanxi Province has been suitable for trees and plants growing and for living things reproducing since the earliest time and it gets its fame as germplasm bank for plants and national park for wild animals.For this natural created almighty region, our forefathers have been cultivated the soil and developed agriculture in Sorthern Shaanxi Province as early as Stone Age and the region is one of the areas in which Chinese Agricultural developed in its early stage ,and it also serves a cradle for Chinese civilization. The characteristic features ,bridge jointing the south and the north as well as the channel for the east and the west, makes the region an unequal key points function in Chinese agricultural exploitation, and on the other hand, the economy ,society and culture of this region has its significance for our study. For instance, the agricultural economical exploitation history study might involve the subtropical paddy cultivation system in the South and warm temperate zone rainfed farming in the North; it surely includes more than four types of topographical features such as plains, basins, hills and mountain areas.The agricultural exploitation history in southern Shaanxi Province is covering the pre-Qin Dynasty( before 221 B.C.) period, Qin and Han Dynisties (221 B.C.-220) period, Three Kingdoms and Jin Dynasty(220-420) period ,Sui and Tang Dynasties(581-907) period, Song and yuan Dynasties(960-1368) period, and Ming and Qing Dynasties(1368-1911) period; The agricultural exploitation progressions were made step by step, and were going upward from the basin to the hill and mountain areas with comprehensive, vertical and cash crops system emphasized in different stages.