Agricultural Diffusion Around the World
Wang Jianan and Wang Hui
Fishing Gear, Fishing Boat, and Marine Culture: the evolution of sea farming technology
As an agricultural country,China attaches more importance to the farming industry than fishery industry since the ancient times. However, the fishermen in the Beibu Gulf and the South China Sea have lived for thousands of years, and their hookers and fishing gears are equivalent to farming implements for farmers. In the process of production, with enlarging land areas and increasing savings, farmers have made efforts to improve farming tools,planting efficiency,yields and incomes,which has shaped a series of farming culture and civilization in China.It is the same for fishermen. According to the fishery environment, aquatic resources and various size and characters, the fishermen create a variety of fishing and operation methods, which in coordination with different fishing boat types.The fishermen fished in the same area come into being a small fishing community by teaming up , using feasible fishing vessels and fishing gear, and making an alliance. Therefore, even in Hainan, the southernmost island of China, the fishing gear, fishing vessels and mode of operation that western,eastern and southern fishermen used are very different, and created their own unique traditions and customs. Fishermen’s techniques which planting in water have also evolved with changes in the external environment.On the one hand, with the changes in aquatic resources and the expansion of fisheries, fishing gear has risen and abandoned. On the other hand, due to the emergence of modern new ships, small sailboats that dominated China’s coastal areas before the 1950s were gradually reduced.
Focusing on the fishermen’s life in Hainan Island and taking fishing gears, hookers, and the marine culture of them as the starting point, this paper researches the fishermen’s selection and use of usable implements when they adopt external environments and struggle for life.
Yu Dong
The slow adoption of wheat agriculture in the late Neolithic and Bronze Age China
Wheat is the most important crop in modern northern China. However, wheat was not a native crop, it was first domesticated in the Near East and introduced to China during the late Neolithic. When and how wheat became important through time in Chinese history is not well understood. The native crop–foxtail and broomcorn millets in Neolithic northern China and the introduced crop–wheat have different carbon isotope values; hence stable carbon isotope analysis of human remains can reflect the consumption of wheat or millets. Published stable isotope analysis results of human remains dated to the late Neolithic, Bronze Age and early Iron Age are synthesized in this talk to shed light on the adoption of wheat in different regions of China. Even though wheat was introduced as early as late Neolithic, it seems wheat only became important in late Bronze Age or early Iron Age. The possible causes, including climatic constrains and technical difficulties of wheat cultivation, political factors, and the culinary tradition of the preceeding Neolithic, are discussed.
Chen Zhi-Guo
Exploitation, Protection, Development, and Utilization of Litchi Resources in Zengcheng from the Perspective of Agricultural Cultural Heritage
Zengcheng is the main producing area of Litchi in the Pearl River Delta. It enjoys the reputation of “the hometown of litchi” and has abundant ancient litchi resources. In recent years, with the vigorous promotion of industrialization and urbanization, the ancient litchi trees scattered around Zengcheng have been destroyed continuously, and the ancient litchi resources have not been well protected and utilized. In fact, the ancient litchi in Zengcheng has outstanding agricultural and cultural heritage value, including outstanding ecological and environmental value, economic and livelihood value, social and cultural value, scientific research and education value and promotion and demonstration value. In order to better protect and make good use of ancient litchi resources, we should focus on strengthening the rescue and protection of ancient litchi trees, strengthening multi-industry cooperation and development, strengthening legislation and system construction, in order to promote the application of Zengcheng ancient litchi for important global agricultural and cultural heritage.
Han Ning-yu, Zhang Zhe and Siming Wang
Art wake up native land: the wisdom road that inherits the spirit of agricultural culture
Inheriting the essence of agricultural culture is one of the most important topics in the era of mediation. Through rural activation and revitalization, promoting urban-rural interaction is an important research direction for the protection and dissemination of agricultural culture. Drawing on the experience of neighboring Japan, which belongs to the East Asian small-scale peasant economy and experienced similar situations in rural areas, the typical rural revitalization of Setouchi Triennale taken as an example. Analyzing the use of artistic flexibility to wake up the native land as an entry point. Through its intensive interpretation of media events, media personlities and media time, which are concentrated in the expression, it condenses the mutual diffusion of art and capital to achieve the wisdom transmission path of rural activation and urban-rural interaction.
In the field of agricultural culture, this is one of the important ways to enhance the vitality and revitalization of the countryside, presents unique practical significance, too. It is conducive to the regional identity of agricultural culture, inheriting the spiritual trace of agricultural culture and consciously applying to the spread of agricultural culture.
Siming Wang
China’s Four Great Inventions in Agriculture: The influence of Chinese Traditional Farming upon the Development of the World
China is one of the five centers of agricultural origination in the world and has a history of farming over ten thousand years. Chinese farmers made numerous inventions in agriculture and the most important ones are rice, soybean, silk and tea. They were spread around the world in different historical periods and left long-term and profound impacts upon the development of the world. Rice and soybean have become the most important main food and feed crops in the world, silk became the symbol of cultural communication between China and other parts of the world, and tea even greatly affected the interrelation between China and UK as well as the political structure of the world. The present paper traces the diffusion of the four Chinese inventions in agriculture and gives analysis of their profound influence upon the world.
Wei Luling
The Distribution, Knowledge, and Usage of Giant Silkworms in South China
”Giant Silkworm” is a kind of wild silkworms, which live in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Hunan and so on, in South China. They live on the leaves of camphor trees, three-leaf maples and big-leaf willows. The silk of giant silkworms is produced by pulling long the silk gland of mature silkworms, different from that of the mulberry silkworms. It was believed that the giant silkworms seldom had been researched or used in history in China, especially, the Guangdong giant silkworms were neglected. But enough references can prove that giant silkworms had been known and used for long time in South China, mainly in Guangdong. In the book ”On Guangdong” , composed at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, giant silkworms were clearly recorded. In the chorographies of Guangdong and Guangxi of the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were also such records. Besides, there are many reports of the scanning of Guangdong during the Republic time. All those references can show the distribution of giant silkworms in South China. As for the usage, the Danjia people, living on the rivers, used the fishing nets and fishing threads made of silk from giant silkworms. The people in Xinhui made palm fans with silk from giant silkworm as thread. In the Republic of China, Japanese found the value of the silk from giant silkworms and they bought the silk in South China secretly. Japanese made the silk into fishing thread and the thread for surgery, and then sold them to Europeans and Americans, gaining much money. In order to protect the local wealth, the Republic government of Guangdong ordered the giant silkworms to be scanned, researched and experimented. The shape, life, class, silk-making techniques, selling of giant silkworms and their silk became clear. And Guangdong became the important researching place of giant silkworms by Chinese scholars.
Wenliang Hu
Introduction, Diffusion and Its Driving Factors of Jackfruits Production in China
Abstract: Jackfruits were introduced species through Maritime Silk Road to China. This paper summarizes jackfruits’ introduction history, containing discussions on the Origin of jackfruit Cultivation, route of spread, and demonstrates the jackfruits’ extension process. Last but not the least, this paper also attempts to find out the reasons why jackfruits were cultivated and nurtured in China based on the first three parts.
As for the Origin of jackfruit Cultivation, opinions are divergent. Ancient India was undoubtedly one of the oldest birthplaces where jackfruits grew and bred. Theophrastus come up with this opinion in his book “Historia Plantarum”.Augustin Pyrame de Candolle, known as a Swiss botanist, was in accordance with Theophrastus in this matter. However, in recent years, new findings challenged perceptions of jackfruits’ origin with the help of AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism).
For this reason, history of jackfruits remain controversial, with little agreement on where jackfruits were originally cultivated. Jackfruits were introduced to China through three routes. Route 1: As early as in the Xiao and Liang of Southern dynasties, the diplomatic representative DaXiSiKong was dispatched to China and brought Jackfruit trees as well. This story recorded in the history book is believed to be the derivation of jackfruits in China. Route 2: During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Offered to emperors as a tribute, jackfruits came out of southeast Asia and took root in Hainan island of China. Route 3:Dating back to the Ming dynasty, Taiwan province was occupied by Netherlands, which explains why jackfruits in Taiwan were introduced and transferred from Netherlands.
Driving factors of jackfruits production in China are listed as below：Firstly，climate factor, such as warm and humid weather，loose and fertile soil，abundant rainfalls and sunshine. Secondly, desires. As for the upper class, they inclined to pursuit the exotics to meet their curiosity and requirements. Generally speaking，the feudal ruling class-dominated species exchange had a great impact on the agricultural development . Thirdly, population growth and economic development should not be neglected. Commercial agriculture in southern China developed rapidly in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and southern China confirmed its position and economic supremacy step by step. Last but not the least, religious and culture also took a role in the long-distance acquisition.”Rare or exotic food items and species often acquire symbolic meanings that drove long-distance acquisition and trade. Its centrality to sustenance and capacity for elaboration have ensured that food has long constituted a fixture in the human symbolic universe, finding meaning in ethical, religious, social and cosmological systems of understanding, behavior and materiality Certain foods have therefore come to imply as well as to impart purity, aestheticism, godliness or high status as well as decadence, depravity or low status.”
In conclusion, at the very beginning, species exchange prevailing among common citizens advanced slowly, which explains why jackfruits fail to expand its production area after being introduced to China during the Xiao and Liang of Southern dynasties. With the development of the diplomatic relationship between China and foreign countries, as well as the surge of market demanding, jackfruits were widely planted and cultivated in Guangdong,Hainan,Guangxi,Yunan and Fujian province. During this long-term process, jackfruits enriched Chinese’ dietary life, witnessed how people of Asia countries get along with each other; promoted economic and material cultural exchange; and left many stories filled with mythology including “Boluodan”, as well as made its own contributions for the development of Chinese cultivated civilization.
Xin-Sheng Li
The Introduction and Spread of the Pumpkin in China
Pumpkin is native to the Americas. According to local gazetteers, it was introduced to China’s southeastern coastal areas and southwestern frontiers in the early sixteenth century, and rapidly spread nationwide as a crop serving as both vegetable and staple. By the end of the Ming dynasty it had spread to most provinces of China, reaching nationwide distribution during the Qing. During the Republic of China in the first half of the twentieth century, high-caliber breeds became more widely known, with cultivation particularly flourishing in Sichuan Province and across North China. It had significant impact on the rural economy, resulting in changes in the planting system, the relief of famine, and the enrichment of the practice of traditional Chinese medicine.
Yongsheng Tong
On the Structure of Animal community and Ecological Environment in Inner Mongolia petroglyph: the case of comparison between Yinshan and Ulanqab petroglyph
The petroglyph of the animal theme is illustration of ancient animals in Inner Mongolia. Comparing the structures of animal community in petroglyph, we can discover the distribution of animal which existed in the same region and infers the changing process of the environment in different periods.
Ni Genjin
On the Research and Spreading of Cassava in South China During the Anti-Japanese War
Cassava , a kind of American crop, came to South China as late as the beginning of Daoguang reign , the Qing Dynasty. It spread slowly in South China, but during the Anti-Japanese War it developed more quickly than before. As for the reason, it was because the main grain-growing areas and the ports for importing foreign rice were occupied by Japanese Army, causing starve among the army and civilians of Guangdong and Guangxi, where grain were rare originally. In order to solve the grain crisis, the Republic provincial government, while laying emphasis on the rice production, pushed forward the growing of cassava, which could give high output, grow easily, without demanding good earth. First, the agricultural experts of Guangdong and Guangxi began the experimental activity on cassava, including the test of cassava poison,the increasing of cassava output, the multiple usage of cassava. In Guangdong, the experts were Liang Guangshang, He Xueyi, Cen Nianci and in Guangxi, Li Youkai, Huang Ruilun and Zhang Zhongge. Their work built up the first climax of Chinese cassava research. At the same time of cassava research, the provincial and county governments in Guangdong and Guangxi launched the cassava spreading activity. They put out the cassava growing rules, explaining cassava growing and gave out the cassava seeds, which raised the planting areas and the out put of cassava in South China. Fengshun county became the top county of cassava and Liu Yulun became the “ cassava magistrate”. During the Anti-Japanese War, the research and spread of cassava in South China not only increased the grain and industry material for the military activity in South China, but also gained the experience and technology for the cassava industry for the People’s Republic of China in the future.
Liu Xinqiu
The Origin of Tea and Diffusion of Tea Drinking Culture in the World
The origin of tea is from southwest of China, and Sichuan region in southwest China is the origin of tea culture. Tea and tea culture developed from being endemic beverage to Sichuan into one of the three most popular alcohol-free beverage in the world, which has experienced three stages: (1) diffuse from Sichuan to the Yangtze Basin and some areas in the middle and lower Yellow River (316 BC－581 AD); (2) diffuse from the Yangtze Basin to the whole nation and Asia (581－1368); (3) diffuse from China to the world (1368－1911). Rich and colorful tea cultures have been formed through the process of communication and intergration with the local culture. Among different kinds of tea cultures, Japanese tea culture inherits the core of Chinese classical tea culture, which is the representative of the oriental tea culture; British-style afternoon tea merged European and British culture into the tea culture, which is the essence of the western tea culture.
Siming Wang and Xinsheng Li
Sources and Dissemination of information about Chinese Deforestation in the American President’s Annual Message to Congress in 1908
On December 8th 1908, US President Theodore Roosevelt used a series of photos on forest destruction and soil erosion in northern China to proof the significance of forests protection in his last message to the Congress and hoped that the United States would draw a lesson from China’s deforestation, take further measures to protect the forest. The speech and the graphics used by it were quickly spread by Chinese and foreign scholars and became an important page in the modern Sino-US forestry exchange. So, what channel does the information about the forest situation in northern China come from? And why is it quickly spread by scholars? What is the path of dissemination? This dissemination process was elaborated in detail using a large number of original English documents and pictures in this paper.