The Agricultural Development In Jiankang Area During The Six Dynasties

Jiankang area is located in the Qinhuai River Valley landforms. Its administration organization system is in the model of Yangzhou Danyang County Administration, which is recorded in the official history of Darning eight years, covering Jiankang, Moling, Hushu, Danyang, Jiangning, Liyang, Jurong and the Yongshi County with the Jiankang city as central city. There are several names of the Jiankang city in the Six Dynasties period, such as Jianye Jianye, and Jiankang. In this paper, Jiankang city including Jiankang area, for simplicity, are collectively called the Jiankang area. Jiankang city, as the capital of the Six Dynasties, has a great influence on the whole southern region. The most abundant social and human resources are concentrated in this region, so the agriculture can rapidly take benefit, thus promoting its development.Based on previous research and history data, this paper explains the agricultural development in Jiankang area in the Six Dynasties comprehensively. With population growth, the establishment of the new regime and other changes of social factors, the city structure of Jiankang took a further adjustment, so does the agriculture. In this paper, by mastering natural condition and the social economic structure in Jiankang area, the author organized the irrigation works of the Six Dynasties, and irrigation that promoted the reclamation and cultivation of farmland. Under the influence of climate, soil and agricultural farming technology conditions, Jiankang area developed an appropriate farming system. From the perspecive of agricultural technology, The circulation and popularization of farm tools, the planting of rice, wheat, soybean and mulberry, the breeding of livestock, the cultivation of fruits and vegetables and etc, are all important factors in agricultural development of Jiankang area. As land system determines owner-peasants’ enthusiasm on agricultural production and the manor farm scale, agricultural production and structure are also taken into consideration when the government establishs tax and corver system. During the Six Dynasties, natural disasters frequently took place and caused severe damage on agriculture and the fragile yeoman agricultural economic system. For this reason, a part of agricultural labor is forced to rely on noble manors. All these factors have greatly influence on the developing process of agriculture and the society. Therefore, the agricultural structure can generally reflect the agricultural development outline of Jiankang area.Agriculture develops rapidly in Jiankang area during the Six Dynasties. The first reason is that large-scale farmland was reclaimed when the Sun Wu regime fight Wei Shu regime. The second reason is that after the Yongjia rebellion, a large population moved down to south and settled in Jiankang area, including royal household, nobles and peasants, whose agricultural comprehensive strength is better than normal migration. The rapid increase of the population density leads to the second stage of farmland development. Scale production of the north dry crop in Qinhuai river valley land enriched the agricultural variety.The third reason is that the government put positive forces in water conservancy engineering, thus the farmland near river and canal can be irrigated and the water transportation is also developed in the Jiankang area. Water transportation enhanced the connection between Jiankang area and the southeast of the Yangtze river downstream area, and this also creates a favorable environment for the comprehensive agricultural development in Jiankang area. The forth reason is that, Jiankang, as the capital city of the Six Dynasties, has great advantages on politics, economy and technology, and these advantages promoted the agricultural development in this region. Compared to other southern areas, Jiankang has better information sharings. In a word, there are four major reasons that make the agricultural development more smoothly:population, technology introduction, government support and the cremation manor development.The unfavorable factors of agricultural development during the Six Dynasties period are the cold weather, frequent natural disasters, wars between the North and South, heavy taxes and so on. These factors cause a series of negative impacts on agriculture, such as the impact on environment of crop growth, the reduction of agricultural labor, and the restriction on the fragile yeoman farming. However the cremation manors in Jiankang area own more power, so their resistance to adverse factors in agriculture is stronger. Thereby, absorb some bankrupted agricultural labor as their serf and maid-servants, thus preseving agricultural technology and agricultural management and forming an independent agricultural production system. Manor agriculture is self-sufficient and the harvest is mainly for the need of manor daily lives. However, there are also some manor who are rich in agricultural output so as to actively particiapte in market circulation and frequent agricultural production trade. And this is also one of the characteristics of agricultural development in Jiankang area.Through researching on the agricultural development in the Jiankang area of Six Dynasties, this paper aims to present the agricultural conditions of the capital region at that time, analyzes the impact on the transaction of the economic center from the North to South after the Six Dynasties period. From this perspective, this paper shows a full view of the Jiankang area - the capital region of the south during the Six Dynasties, helping us understand the social development situation better.