The Regional Differences Of Shaanxi Farm Sideline Industry In Qing Dynasty

The study about Chinese historical agricultural geography has lasted for more than 30 years.During this period,some historians have produced a lot of achievement.However,these scholars are not satisfied with the current Chinese historical agricultural geography research that taking the planting industry as the focus of research,therefore,they call for this kind of study that paying more attention to farming family sidelines geography.The agriculture of Qing Dynasty serves as a transition between traditional agriculture and modern agriculture,meanwhile,the farming family sidelines geography have some great changes with the development of commodity economy.Because the Shaanxi province have three different natural areas including Northern Shaanxi,Southern Shaanxi and Guanzhong,farming family sidelines geography of north Shaanxi Province of the Qing Dynasty have distinctive regional characteristics.According to the literature materials,farming family sidelines geography of north Shaanxi Province in the Qing Dynasty only contains three important types,including of textile industry,vegetable and fruit industry and livestock farming through consulting literature materials.Hence,this work will be focused on the regional differences of these three different farming family sidelines types.The farming family textile industry in Shaanxi Province have been flourishing in the early Qing Dynasty,but have been recessionary in the late Qing Dynasty.Specially,in south of the Xi'an Fu and Tongzhou Fu,and some counties near the Hanjiang River,farming family textile industry have been developed.However,some other areas of northern Shaanxi Province in the Qing Dynasty,Yulin Fu,for instance,have not developed farming family textile industry,which was due to the different climatic conditions,traffic conditions and degree of marketization.The farming family vegetable and fruit industry is also an important type of farming family sidelines geography.It is suitable for planting fruits rather than cultivating vegetables in north of Shaanxi Province in the Qing Dynasty.However,all of these were cultivated in Guanzhong and northern shaanxi.Moreover,cultivating agaric is a great industry in south of Shaanxi.In summary,the farming family vegetable and fruit industry had been developed in Guanzhong area and southern Shaanxi area,and these industries have a high level of specialization and commercialization.The farming family livestock industry is the third important family sideline in Shaanxi province of Qing Dynasty,and also show regional district differences.It is worth noting that the north of Shaanxi Province of the Qing Dynasty has a fairly developed farming family livestock industry more than the Guanzhong and the south of Shaanxi Province.But Guanzhong and the south of Shaanxi are still developed farming family livestock industry,specially,the south of Shaanxi have a great developed pork production.Moreover,Guanzhong have also developed big livestock industry,such as horses and donkeys.Overall in Qing Dynasty,the developmental level of farming family sidelines in the Shaanxi Province is general.In particular,the developmental level of farming family textile industry in this area is not as good as that in the south of the Yangtze River.Second,the development level of farming family vegetable and fruit industry is also more undeveloped than other Chinese western provinces.However,farming family livestock industry in northern Shaanxi province is very prosperous than that in other provinces,specially,in south of the Yangtze River.Besides,the developmental level of farming family sidelines in the Shaanxi Province of the Qing Dynasty is not more special than that of Ming Dynasty.Finally,the work only focused on the analysis of the regional differences among the three main types of farming family sidelines in Shaanxi province of Qing Dynasty is not enough obviously.But it will be a preliminary attempt that restores the regional differences of farming family sidelines of Shaanxi province of Qing Dynasty and it can play a valuable role to cause scholars' thinking to solve the similar problem.