The Geographical Distribution Of The Main Economic Crops During The Qin, Han, Wei, Jin And Southern And Northern Dynasties

The planting of cash crops is one of the important parts of agricultural production in ancient China. Conducted research on the geographical distribution of the ancient cash crops in China plays an important role in learning the evolution of crop structure and spatial distribution in different periods of ancient China.Qin, Northern and Southern Dynasties arethe significant stages for the spread of the main cash crops and the extension of planting scale in the ancient times of China. During that period, the main economic crops include hemp crops, mulberry crops, vegetable crops and oil crops as well as sugar crops.From the perspective of historical geography, this paper aims to classify the geographical distribution of the main economic crops in the period of Qin and Han Dynasties, Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties. The thesis is divided into five parts:For the chapter one and chapter two, they focus on the geographical distribution of the fiber crops, such as mulberry, hemp and so on. Each chapter can be divided into three sections, namely the Yellow River River Basin, Yangtze River Basin and other regions. In this period, the Yellow River River Basin is the most developed area of mulberry and hemp, and it is followed in the order by those of Yangtze River Basin and other regions. Ad for the Yellow River basin, species of Loess Plateau is for majority.While there are more species of mulberry in Huanghuaihai plain. In Qin and Han Dynasties, mulberry planting in Yangtze River basin developed in Hunan, Hubei and Sichuan, which is in the upstream region. In the southern and Northern Dynasties, agriculture in Jiangnan region has developed greatly, and the cultivation of silkworm has made great achievements. As for some other remote areas, the development of agriculture has moved frommulberry planting to scratch, from less to more. Overall, mulberry planting has distributed in some regions.Chapter three is about vegetable crops of geographic distribution for nationwide vegetables and regional vegetable. Meanwhile, it also introduces the distribution of seasoning vegetables. During this period, there are more than thirtyvegetable species, but this paper only research on those common vegetables in daily life. According to documents, Kwai vegetables, turnip and Panhu are distributed in the north and south. Kwai vegetables and turnip are two common vegetablesat that time, which are widely distributed; Gourd Variety, in the south region of Shanxi Province and Yangzhouarea, and its young leaves have been served as food. Alfalfa,as alien species, introduces from the western regions. It can be regarded as forage, but itcan also be cooked or soup. Amont ginger, onions, leek, garlic and other seasoning vegetable,onion and leek have good adaptation to the environment, and its distribution is relatively wide, including North and South. Jiang mainly distributes in the Yangtze River Basin, there is a distribution in the north, but relatively few. Garlic has a high requirements of the soil, for instanceit grows better in Henan, but in Shanxi grow poorlyIn terms of the fourth chapter, it concernsthe geographical distribution of oil-bearing crops and sugar crops, which introduced during this period, and it also deals with types of oil-bearing crops and sugar crops and the distribution of them. In Qin and Han Dynasties,the edible oil is mainly animal fat;and linseed oil also serves as edible oil, but the taste is not good, so people seldom eat it. In Wei, Jin and southern and Northern Dynasties, sesame oil, perilla seed oil came into people’s life.In terms of taste, sesame oil is best, castor oil is the worst, Suzi perilla oil between the two. Sesame seeds are distributed in the north and the south, and hempmainly distributes in the north. In Qin and Han Dynasties, artificial sugar is mainlycaramel which is made from wheat, millet, sorghum, rice and a wide range of sources. Sugarcane only planted in Lingnan area.Due to the lack of raw materials and the limitaion of technology, sucrose in that period is still rare items, so only the upper classes of society can enjoy it. To the Wei, Jin and southern and Northern Dynasties, the planting area of sugar cane extended to the Yangtze River, it can also be found in the north, such as Nanyang, Henan Province.With the development of sugar production technology, sucrose is more common than before. The conclusion part summarizes the spatial distribution and evolution law of various types of economic crops from Qin and Han Dynasties to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and the author preliminary tries to sum up the economic crop planting structure, its formation and its influence in the period of Qin and Han Dynasties. The period of economic crop planting structure is:fiber crops mainly covers mulberry, hemp, Pueraria lobotaand cotton fiber crops; vegetable plays a more important role people’s lives, because on the one hand, there are more types of vegetables, on the other hand is the diversities of vegetable storage method, processing method and different edible methods; status of oil crops in the people daily life has also changed. Before the appearance of sesame oil, people mainly eat animal fat, occasionally edible linseed oil. At the beginning of the 6th century, with the progress of oil technology, more and more people eat vegetable oil; sugarcane planting extended from Lingnan area to the entire Yangtze River Basin, so people began to eat sucrose rather than maltose.