Eastern Han Dynasty Jiangnan Economic Development

The historians have been keepings an eye and done some helpful work on the economy South of China in Qin and Han Dynastyes.But on its progress stages and achievements no agreement has been concluded. Thanks to the fruits barrested by the former authorities,the author here try to go further into this field.For it is a heavy task involving numerious problems,this thesis will as the followings unroll the achievements reached by the economy South of China in Eastern Han Dynasty.First,compared to that of Western Han Dynastry, in Eastern Han dynasty ,the populution South of China enjoyed a great enlargement,which,with the lapse of time,together with the scale of the prefectures and counties,was pregnant with a tendacy of being accalmated,resalting in the change of rate between the populations of south and north. The enlarged population provided animation and power for the development of the economy South of China and was helpful to the prosperity of agriculture,handicraft and commerce.But with the swelling,the very lopsided distribution of the population appeared, which for shadowed the unblanced developmend of the economy South of China.Second,the swollen population had stimulated the progress of agriculture through building irrigation works,cultivatmg more arable land,improving tods and further utilizing the technology.This played a key role in leading to the appearance of transporting the Southern grain to the north and the birth of numerous well-to-do families,which also ban much to do with the abundantly emeging of able officials and their effectiv administration .Although the agriculture South of China of Eastern Han Dynasty had progress much farther from that of Western Han Dynasty,tacking in to account the whole region,the productive force was still weak, the lower reaches of Qiantang River and Changsha,the rest still suffered from low productive force .This shows the unblanced development of the economy South of China in Eastern Han Dynasty.Third,the primery progress of the economy South of China brough about thedevelopment of domestic poultry and cattle rearing.Both some new poultry and cattle rearig skills and breads had been made use of to feed the six main kinds of poultry and cattle.The poultry and cattle rearing was more progressive than that of Western Han Dynastry.But the poultry and cattle rearing South of China was after all at its embryonic stage,greatly limitted and handicapped by the imbalance of both the regional distribution and the reared breeds.Fourth,the handicapped South of China in Eastern Han Dynasty too enjoyed better harvest than in Western Han Dydasty.lt is featured by excellent skill,sole artistic style and oustanding local colour.The quality of some products,to some extent,was approaching or even better than that of the north. This layed a foundation for the handicraft development Wei,Jin and Southern Dynasties.Finally,the enlarged population and progressive agriculture and handicraft South of China not only had the routes initially blazed but also provided elemental conditions for the circulation of commodities and materials.As for blazing the routes,except continously keeping the close relation with the central plain,both the land and water routes leading from the western part of the region South of China to ChuanGui and from the southern part to Lingnan and the south-eastern island. Else where,meeting the communicating demand of the people and materials,the opening of the routes with in the region itself South of China had also been strengthened and atraffic net had primaril been formed. The appearance of some commercial metropolis in the regions with convenient land and water transportation,the commercialization of numeous handicraft and agricutural products and the widely use of currency in the commerce showed the recovery of the commerce South of China from the still of Western Han Dynasty.All the above mentioned say the great progress of the economy South of China in Eastern Han Dynasty.