Household Production And Economic Life Of The Ming And Qing Dynasties Of Small Farmers

With the people's industrious development, the south of the Changjiang River, advantageous in geological environment, had been gradually evolved into a key economic area in China since Tang and Song Dynasties. In the period of Ming and Qing dynasties, cotton, mulberry, and rice had finally become local farmers' optimum options, based on which, three relatively centralized and complimentary agricultural zones had come into being. In view of the mode of production in small farmer family, the traditional pattern of "male out and female in" had been broken through so that the practice of "couple working together" no matter in plough or household weaving had already prevailed. The mode of production not only freed farmer wives from laboring "internally" but also raised their position in household production from assistant to dominative. Whereas, the farmers and their wives in the south of the Changjiang River in Ming and Qing dynasties, although worked laboriously all the year round, could not break away from the rough conditions, living a poor life and being pressed by the taxation imposed by the feudalism.