Traditional Plowing In Guangxi Area And Its Protection And Utilization

The topography of Guangxi region is complex and the plain area is small,and it is said that "seven mountains,two waters and one plain".In order to open up the wasteland and improve food production,the people of Guangxi region introduced and modified some tools suitable for local agricultural development under the contradiction of more people and less land in ancient times,and the tread plow is one of them.This agricultural tool was introduced to Guangxi region from the north in the period of Chinese Song Dynasty and has been used for a thousand years,which has contributed to the agricultural development of Guangxi region.Although the structure of the plow is simple,the plowshare used by many ethnic groups in Guangxi is quite different,which is influenced by the type of early agricultural tools on the one hand,and the social history and environment of the region where it is used on the other.Some museums in Guangxi have plows in their collections,including straight-handled plows and crank-handled plows,which provide some clues for further research on plow-related issues.Many farming peoples in Guangxi used to use pedal plows,which are now mostly distributed in the Bashir Mountain area in northern Guangxi.With the influx of other tools into these areas and the influence of factors such as agricultural modernization,there is a trend that the area where the plow is used is gradually shrinking,the population using it tends to be homogeneous,and the production tends to stagnate.It is the mission of contemporary cultural and museum people to collect this production tool,which is about to leave the stage of history,and to record the memory of this peculiar agricultural production.In regions where the plow has been used for a long time,the development trajectory of this artifact itself also carries the changes of social productivity in these regions,forming a more unique apparatus culture,and the study of the plow and its culture can understand the history of agricultural production in these regions,so it is necessary to collect and protect the plow.