The Agricultural Research Of Northern Song Dynasty

Zhao Kuangyin established the regime in the first year of Jianlong of the Northern Song Dynasty(960),the regime perished in the second year under the rule of Zhao Jinkang(1127),the Emperor Qinzong of Song.The dynasty lasted 167 years.The economy in the feudal society developed rapidly in the period,the population increased dramatically,which inevitably affected the agricultural production.This paper combines the historical background of the Northern Song Dynasty,focuses on the five problems including crop planting structure,land development,water conservancy construction,agricultural technology progress,affecting agricultural factors and natural disasters,so as to reveal the general characteristics of the agriculture in Northern Song Dynasty.The crop planting structure in the Northern Song Dynasty began to change and agricultural production technology had greatly improved.In land use,operation and management,even the types of land occupation,contractual tenancy system,rent system and tax system,the size of agricultural development were all reflected.The land occupation types included the government land of and the people land.The government land was managed directly by the ruler of Northern Song Dynasty and was used for defense spending,administrative management and emergency relief and other aspects.The people land was the private land for people.During the period,the feudal contract tenancy system developed and rent system emerged,which had a big impact on agricultural economy of the dynasty.The land annexation since its establishment was very serious,the landlords occupied a lot of land,and many farmers became tenants.In the historic background,the feudal tenancy contract system began to develop,and became more common production relations.In the Northern Song Dynasty,there were also the quota land rent,which had the most significant influence in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces,the changed production relation had an important influence on the agricultural economy and social development of the Northern Song dynasty.Moreover,the agricultural tax was heavy,governments tried to use various excusesto increase farmers' economic burden.Some people were overburdened,even left their hometowns.So the Xifeng political reform of the Northern Song Dynasty directly related to the problem of agricultural taxes,which was closely related to the social environment at that time.The land utilization in Northern Song dynasty was a major progress Because of the long-term war with Liao and Xixia,the important grain producing areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River River Basin was seriously damaged,which caused the people in the Central Plains moved to the south and began to plant the vast are in the south,which was regarded as the important economic blood.Thus,a large number of cultivated land was reclaimed and cultivated by rotation and multiple cropping.Land reclamation area includes north china plain,the lower reaches of the Yangtze plain,Guanzhong Plain,the plain of Hubei and Hunan and Sichuan basin.In the Northern Song Dynasty,the social image with straight paths cross the fields and neighboring villages was formed.With the growth of population and the continuous expansion of farming areas,flood disasters occurred frequently in the central plains.The Northern Song Dynasty attached great importance to water conservancy construction.The water conservancy construction in the north mainly reflected in the development and utilization of Hebei Dianbo,remediation of the ancient canal and old weirs,and the warping.The Dianbo were rivers originated Taihang Mountain and Yanshan,and gradually formed in the course of entering the sea.The government of the Northern Song dynasty built embankments and dams in the lake area,and the main purpose was to prevent the invasion by the Liao dynasty in the south.Moreover,the construction of these water conservancy facilities had played an active role in the development of agricultural production,especially rice planting.The southern water conservancy construction had unprecedented development,mainly in the lake Irrigation in the hillyplain,low-lying paddy fields surrounded with dikes and the Hanhaishitang in southeast coast.During the reign of Song Shenzong,many ancient canals and old weirs were repaired in the south,the officer of Yicheng Xiangyang Zhu Hongxiu repaired the wooden channel and restored the water storagefunction of irrigate fields with area of 6000 Qin.During the observation of ocean tides,the Northern Song Dynasty gradually mastered a lot of objective laws,and gained much mature experience in preventing tide intrusion from flooding and land salinization.The agricultural technology had made great progress than the Han and Tang Dynasties did.In the aspect of crops planting structure,it adjusted the single grain varieties,strongly promoted the rice cultivation techniques,the South gradually expand the basis of the original farming area,the north also increased many rice producing areas.The north continued to increase the grain producing areas of wheat,and gradually extended it to the southern areas.Therefore,the grain structure of millet and wheat was gradually replaced by rice and wheat.The grain planting structure adjustment changed the millet with low yield and increased rice and wheat with high yield,so that the food shortage caused by the huge population growth was filled in,and many officials came to the local places and helped farms solve many problems in agriculture,especially taught farmers to change the planting structure,added the crops with high yields like rice and wheat.When the Northern Song Dynasty in the face of many natural disasters and the fights with Liao and Xixia,the dynasty still could make the whole society to maintain prosperity.In the period of Northern Song Dynasty,there were seedling horses,fecal drill and other new tools emerged,and the traditional cars overturned irrigation tools got popular,and the steel blade tools were used widely.The Meng Xi Bi Tan fully recorded the process and principle of extremely fine steel,which is the most detailed historical record on this in the ancient literature.In the modern iron and steel forging technology principle,the repeated grinding of fine iron cannot only eliminate impurities,but also make the composition homogeneous,compact,and sometimes can also refine the grain,thereby the high-quality steel is forged.These craftsmen created all kinds of agricultural production tools,which laid an important foundation for the agricultural development and grain harvest in the Northern Song dynasty.The agricultural production in the Northern Song Dynasty was greatly affected because of natural factors and successive external wars.As the Northern Song Dynasty ruled for 167 years,at that time,China was in great fluctuations in the earth's climate,coupled with successive years of war,and a large number of trees were fell and the forest was destroyed,which inevitably led to increasingly serious soil erosion.Moreover,the Yellow River has broken its banks many times,seriously affecting the natural environment of the lower reaches,which was a fatal blow to agricultural cultivation.Especially the flood in the internal lakes was serious,the tidal flooding caused land salinization,so the original grain area with high yield showed a downward trend,in order to reduce food shortage crisis and continue to ensure the regime,and many terraced fields were built to increase food production.The many large-scale wars between Song and Liao,and between Song and Xia not only consumed huge material,financial and human resources,but also the national economy was on the verge of collapse.In the premise of war suffered for years,the rulers had to think the recuperation and restoration peace.In order to alleviate the pressure of war and maintain agricultural production,the dynasty had proposed many policies,even in some areas promoted new varieties of food,and even taught farmers to breed,sow and farm,many officials had taken active measures,in order to cope with the ruling crisis caused by insufficient food.In the Northern Song Dynasty,natural disasters frequently occurred,including wind,hail,drought and locusts and so on.Whenever these natural disasters happened,the Northern Song Dynasty rulers actively responded,reducing the economic loss to a certain extent,but also to protecting the common people.In view of the Northern Song Dynasty population growth,land reclamation promoting grain production became the only way to ensure the basic life,which led to a lot of upland trees were cut down,because the seriously destroyed forests could not absorb rainwater,the areas were difficult to have floods gradually increased the vicious spiral of natural disasters.In the face so many natural disasters,the Northern Song Dynasty rulers showed very liberal measures,especially the use of disaster relief methods.Giving food and relief materials to people,reducing tax and loan revenue and so on,all reflected the humane and rational political and pragmatic concepts of rule of Northern Song Dynasty rulers.In the development of agriculture,either the crop planting structure or water conservancy construction facilities,either the land use or agricultural technological innovation,had made remarkable achievements,especially in the face of natural disasters and wars.It can be seen the pragmatic political attitude of the Northern Song Dynasty,so that the time characteristics of harmonious society and healthy development of economy can be showed.