Chapter 4 Section 3 A New Chapter of Iron Ware Cattle Farming - Agriculture in the Warring States Period, Qin and Han Dynasties, Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties

The second stage of my country's traditional agricultural development includes the Warring States Period, Qin and Han Dynasties, Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties. This is a period of comprehensive development of agricultural production in the Yellow River Basin, and it is also a period of formation and maturity of the intensive farming technology system of dry farming in the north.During the time of Emperor Pingdi of the Western Han Dynasty, the registered population of the whole country was more than 59 million, and 80 to 90% were concentrated in the Yellow River Basin. The Yellow River Basin had basically been developed and was the most advanced area in the country at that time.Our presentation is still centered on the situation in the Yellow River Basin.

The leap forward in agricultural productivity in the Yellow River Basin started with the use of iron tools.It is hard to say when China officially entered the Iron Age, but it may be from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle Spring and Autumn Period.From the perspective of world history, this is not too early, but my country's iron smelting technology has developed rapidly.Western Europe has experienced more than 2,000 years from the emergence of block iron smelting in the 10th century BC to the use of cast iron in the 14th century AD. However, judging from the current materials, block iron smelting and cast iron appeared almost at the same time in my country.By the time of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, my country had mastered the technology of producing malleable cast iron (also known as ductile cast iron) and block hardened steel, which was 2,000 years ahead of similar inventions in Europe and the United States.The emergence of cast iron, especially malleable cast iron with enhanced strength and toughness, is of great significance. It makes it possible for pig iron to be widely used as production tools and greatly enhances the service life of ironware.The use of iron-cast agricultural tools in my country generally began in the middle of the Spring and Autumn period or a little earlier. By the middle of the Warring States period, iron agricultural tools had become popular in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.People regard farming with iron tools as common as cooking with clay pots.Since the appearance of the bronze ware, the process of replacing wood and stone tillage tools by metal tillage tools has finally been completed (Figure 3).The use of iron implements greatly increased the productivity of agricultural labor, greatly enhanced the individual independence of agricultural laborers, and the joint farming of two people was no longer necessary. As a result, the well field system gradually collapsed, and the feudal landlord system gradually formed. From the Warring States period to modern times.

The appearance of cattle farming may be earlier than iron implements, but its popularity is later than iron implements.According to the large iron plow in the "plough" in the oracle bone inscriptions, this kind of plow needs to be pulled by two oxen and driven by three people, which is called (Figure 4). to the whole country. From the Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, in addition to the continued improvement of the plow, there were also matching 耱 (〔mo绕〕, or 耢〔lao洞〕) and harrows (Figure 5).At first, it was just a long slat, and then it was made of cork strips wrapped around a wooden frame. It was drawn by animal power and used to break up and level the soil, replacing the wooden hammer that was previously manually operated——耰 [you worry].To deal with larger keba, it is necessary to use animal power to rake.The animal-powered harrow used in the dry land in the north is a herringbone harrow composed of two intersecting planks with iron teeth, also known as iron teeth (钅屚) [lou浏] (钅赛).In the Western Han Dynasty, there was also a special seeding machine, the columbine plow (columbine cart) (Figure 6), and it is said that the inventor was Zhao Guo.There is a square wooden bucket above it, which is connected with three hollow wooden legs equipped with iron columbine feet.During the operation, the feet of the columbine break through the soil and open the ditch, and the seeds are then sown into the ditch through the wooden legs. One cow per person, "one hectare per day", the efficacy is increased by more than ten times.This is the embryonic form of the modern seed drill, and the Western European seed drill appeared after 1700.Another major invention of agricultural tools in the Han Dynasty was the "Yang [yang] fan", that is, the windmill.Shaking the leaf-shaped fan in the windmill forms a directional airflow, which can separate the grains with different specific gravity (heavy ones are heavy) and husks (light ones are heavy), which is an ingenious creation, which is more than 1400 years ahead of Europe.Grain processing tools have also come a long way.Huan Tan of the Eastern Han Dynasty once made such a summary: "Mi Opera (that is, Pao Xi's family) made pestles and mortars, and all people benefited from them. Later generations added cleverness. Because of the extension of strength, the use of pestles and mortars was ten times more beneficial. The pestle and mortar Another mechanism was established to use donkeys to win (mule) cows and horses, and to use water for pounding, and the benefits are a hundredfold." ("New Language") The pestle and mortar are one of the most primitive grain processing methods, which may have originated in the hunting era. continued into the agricultural age.At that time, people dug shallow pits on the ground, spread animal skins, put the collected grains in them, and pounded them with wooden sticks.Some ethnic minorities in my country still have similar grain processing methods in modern times.Later, a stone mortar was used to replace the ground mortar, and then the lever was used to change the hand pounding into a foot pedal, which is what Huan Tan called the foot pedal (Picture 7).By the Eastern Han Dynasty, animal power reels and water reels had appeared.In the Jin Dynasty, Du Yu made improvements to the water reel, which was called Lianji reed.Wang Zhen's "Agricultural Book" describes this kind of water pestle as: "The water wheel turns over without morning and evening, and the pestle is low and low." Another major invention of grain processing tools is the stone turning mill.In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, animal power continuous grinding and water power grinding appeared.During this period, a new type of water-lifting and irrigation farm tool was also rolled over. For the convenience of description, it will be introduced in the next section.

In short, from the Warring States Period to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, especially the Han Dynasty was the golden age for the development of agricultural tools in our country. Many major inventions and creations of traditional agricultural tools appeared in this period. Another sign of the great development of my country's agricultural productivity since the Warring States period is the construction of large-scale farmland irrigation and water conservancy projects.Before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, although farmland irrigation appeared sporadically in the Yellow River Basin, the focus of farmland water conservancy was always on the ditch construction for flood control and drainage.In the Warring States period, due to the great changes in the waterlogged and waterlogged conditions of farmland during the long-term cultivation process, and the expansion of cultivated land to a larger area due to the promotion of iron ox farming, drought once again became the main contradiction in agricultural production.This has just produced the urgent need of developing farmland irrigation.At the same time, the use of iron and the improvement of tools provided a material basis for the construction of large-scale farmland water conservancy.Iron plows became the most commonly used tools for water conservancy construction. In the Han Dynasty, a super-large iron plow—the dredging plow—used for digging ditches in water conservancy projects also appeared.Large-scale farmland irrigation canal projects in the Yellow River Basin began to appear in the Warring States Period.The most famous ones are the Zhangshui Twelve Canals successively built and improved by Wei State Ximen Bao and Shi Qi in Hanoi (now the northern part of Henan and the southwest corner of Hebei), and the Zheng Guo Canal built by South Korean hydraulic engineer Zheng Guo in the northern part of Qin State’s Guanzhong Plain.They all turned tens of thousands of hectares of "repelling bittern" (saline-alkali land) into good fields with a yield of one bell per mu (six stones and four buckets), and the latter directly laid the foundation for Qin to destroy the six kingdoms.After the unification of the Qin and Han Dynasties, especially during the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, a new upsurge in farmland and water conservancy construction was set off. The Guanzhong area where the capital is located was particularly important, making Guanzhong the richest area in the country at that time.The Han Dynasty also developed large-scale water conservancy projects in the Hetao area, the Hexi Corridor, and Xinjiang and other villages.During the reign of Cao Wei, great progress was made in water conservancy development in the Haihe River Basin and Huaihe River Basin.In short, the foundation of farmland water conservancy in North China was laid in the Han and Wei dynasties, which greatly promoted the development of agriculture in the Yellow River Basin.With the occurrence and development of farmland irrigation, a new form of farmland——qi [qiqi] appeared.A furrow is a field area surrounded by [cheng Cheng] that is higher than the field surface.This form of farmland was first adopted in gardens where vegetables were often irrigated, and was later extended to fields.With the popularization of ox farming, flat plowing and low-row farmland finally replaced the farmland with an acre structure and became the main form of farmland in the Yellow River Basin.This form of farmland is convenient for irrigation.However, due to the limitation of water resources in North China, only a small part of the farmland can be irrigated, and dry farming is still the mainstay of agriculture in North China.The problem of local drought prevention and moisture conservation is largely solved by soil cultivation measures.

Here we would like to point out by the way that some foreign scholars with ulterior motives have distorted Marx's theory about the "ancient East" and described China as a so-called "water-control society" in which water conservancy and irrigation projects were organized and unified by the state. The Roots of Oriental Despotism.This is not in line with historical facts.Indeed, water conservancy is of great significance to China's agricultural and social development.The era of Chinese civilization can be said to have started with Dayu's water control. Governments of all dynasties have regarded the construction of water conservancy as an important economic function.However, ancient Chinese agriculture is different from the complete reliance on natural rainfall in the Middle Ages in Europe, and it is also different from the "ancient East" (mainly referring to the vast area from North Africa to India) that Marx said was completely dependent on artificial irrigation.In the history of China, there was no irrigation canal system built by the government throughout the country.People of all nationalities in various regions of our country solve the problem of water in agricultural production under very different conditions.Until the mid-1980s, dry land still accounted for more than half of the country's cultivated land.Due to the limitation of the length of this book and the division of labor in the series, it is impossible to give a detailed introduction to ancient Chinese water conservancy here.

Another sign of the great development of my country's agricultural productivity since the Warring States Period is the formation of the intensive farming technology system.If we say that this technical system began to sprout before the Warring States Period, then it has been formed and systematically summarized from the Warring States Period to the Southern and Northern Dynasties.This is mainly manifested in the cultivation of the dry land in the north.From the Warring States period, the continuous planting system of continuous planting replaced the fallow system as the main planting method, and a rich and colorful crop rotation method was formed in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.Agricultural technology is still centered on drought prevention and moisture conservation. A farming system combining plowing, harrowing, plowing, pressing, and hoeing has been formed. Special drought-resistant and high-yield cultivation methods such as "substituting field method" and "district (ouou) field method" have emerged.Fertilization and improvement of soil began to receive attention.my country's unique traditional variety breeding technology has also been formed, and many varieties adapted to different cultivation conditions have been bred.The above are some of the main achievements of agricultural production technology in this period. These achievements are reflected in the book "Qi Min Yao Shu" written by Jia Sixie, which systematically summarizes the experience of intensive farming and agricultural technology in the Yellow River Basin. A classic in agricultural production.

The development of agriculture in the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties was all-round.Not only food crops, but also economic crops, garden industry, forestry, animal husbandry, sericulture, and fishery have all made great progress.The reason is that in addition to the improvement of productivity and the reclamation of more land, the unification of the country and the exchange of agricultural cultures of various ethnic groups and regions have also enriched the content of agricultural culture in the Yellow River Basin. From the Warring States Period to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the types of food crops in my country were basically the same as those of the previous generation, but some changes occurred in the composition of food.Millet is still the most important food crop, rice continues to be popularized in some areas in the north, the status of soybean and wheat has risen, the status of millet has declined, and hemp has gradually withdrawn from the ranks of food.

According to recent research, the soybeans that originated in my country are likely to be "different places and the same origin", that is, they were domesticated in several regions of my country at the same time or successively.Soybeans were planted very early in the Northeast.During the Yin and Zhou dynasties, Shan Rong (an ethnic minority who was active in the northeastern part of Hebei Province and the area to the north during the Yin and Zhou dynasties) included "Rong Shu" (probably an excellent strain of soybean) among the tributes to the Central Plains Dynasty.During the Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Huan of Qi conquered the Shan Rong and spread the Rong Shu to the vast areas of the Central Plains.At that time, the Central Plains area was changing from the recreational system to the continuous cropping system, and it was necessary to find ways to restore and fertilize the soil under the new conditions. The spread of Rong Shu met this need.From the end of the Spring and Autumn Period to the Qin and Han Dynasties, soybean and millet became the most important food crops.After the Han Dynasty, soybeans developed in the direction of being processed into non-staple foods. Fermented soybeans, tofu, bean sprouts, and bean paste appeared one after another in the Han Dynasty. These foods have always been loved by people. Great feature and great contribution.

Since the Spring and Autumn Period, the acreage of wheat planting has been increasing, and the promotion of winter wheat in Guanzhong in the Han Dynasty has achieved remarkable results.The Southern Dynasties also promoted wheat cultivation in the Jianghuai area.The development of wheat crops in this period has something to do with the popularization of stone turning mills.The traditional eating habit in my country's agricultural areas is "grain food". Wheat was originally boiled and eaten, but the palatability of wheat rice is poor; with the stone turning mill, wheat can be ground into powder and made into various fine and delicious foods.Foods made of flour in the Han Dynasty are collectively called "cakes", such as steamed buns called steamed cakes, noodles called soup cakes, sesame seed cakes called hu cakes, etc., many of which are directly derived from the western minorities.

In the development of my country's agriculture, independent field crops appeared one after another after the Warring States Period, Qin and Han Dynasties.Hemp was the most important fiber crop in the ancient Yellow River Basin, and it was even a food crop first.After the Han Dynasty, hemp seeds were generally not used as food.At that time, a large area of ​​hemp fields of thousands of acres was dedicated to providing fiber.During the Cao Wei period, household preparations were implemented, and linen was one of the main collection contents, reflecting the generalization of cannabis cultivation.Before the Spring and Autumn period in our country, dyes (such as blue) had been produced, but they were only planted in gardens. In the Han Dynasty, some urban suburbs had been produced on a large scale, and the variety of dyes also increased.my country's utilization of animal oils was earlier, and the utilization of vegetable oils was later.Although hemp, turnip, and brassica, which have high seed oil content, were planted earlier and later domesticated ren ren (white su), they are all eaten directly and not used for oil extraction.After Zhang Qian traveled to the Western Regions, sesame and red and blue flowers were introduced to the Central Plains one after another, and oil extraction technology may have been introduced at the same time.There are records of growing sesame seeds in the Western Han Dynasty Agricultural Book.Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the extraction and utilization of vegetable oils has been quite common in the Central Plains. In addition to sesame and red and blue flowers, hemp seeds and turnip seeds are also occasionally extracted for oil. In this way, my country has real oil crops.Sesame is native to Africa, and settled in Xinjiang before it was introduced to the Central Plains. Because it comes from the land of "Hu" (in ancient China, the northern ethnic minorities were generally referred to as Hu), it is called "flax".After the Tang and Song Dynasties, it was called Zhima according to its use, and it was later mistaken as sesame.It has high edible value and medicinal value, and it has been the main oil crop in my country for a long time.People in the Central Plains used honey and caramel (maltose) as edible sugar in the pre-Qin period, and later introduced cane sugar from the south.Sugarcane in our country was originally thought to have been introduced from India.According to recent research, my country is also one of the origins of sugarcane.The earliest people to grow sugarcane were the Baiyue ethnic group in the south of Lingnan. During the Warring States period, it had spread to the territory of present-day Hubei. The "zhe [zhe cane] pulp" mentioned in "Chu Ci" is sugarcane juice.Cane juice is condensed and sun-dried to form lumps, which are called "stone honey". Nanyue once used it as a tribute to the Central Plains Dynasty.my country is the hometown of tea.According to legend, the detoxification effect of tea was discovered in the Shennong era.The Ba nationality in the southwest was the first to use and cultivate tea trees. In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, they had planted tea in gardens and tribute tea to the Central Plains dynasty.There was a tea market in Sichuan in the Han Dynasty, and Bashu was the center of tea production in my country for quite a long time.After the Wei and Jin Dynasties, tea production was extended to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the areas south of it.

During this period, the garden industry developed greatly, and large-scale commercial production bases appeared in the suburbs of cities. There was also a clear division of labor between "garden" (planting fruit) and "garden" (growing vegetables).There are many innovations in horticultural technology, the most prominent being vegetative propagation (rooting, cutting, grafting, etc.) and greenhouse cultivation.The types of vegetable and fruit trees have increased significantly.There are as many as 35 kinds of vegetables recorded in "Qi Min Yao Shu" in the 6th century AD. Among the added vegetable types, some are imported, such as pickled cucumbers (cucumbers), coriander (coriander, commonly known as coriander), coriander (coriander, commonly known as coriander), Garlic (garlic), (beans (bean double)) [xiangshuang detailed double] (cowpea), pig [bi Bi] beans, peas and alfalfa, etc.Some are newly cultivated. For example, during the Han and Wei Dynasties, people in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River bred a new variety from the locally cultivated mantra—"Song" [song Song], that is, cabbage, and it is like Bei [bei Cup] with artificial water storage. With the development and comprehensive utilization of ponds, more aquatic vegetables are cultivated by people.Some are transformed from food crops, such as wild rice (also known as 苽) [gu solitary], which used to be one of the ancient "six grains". It was parasitized by smut and could not bear fruit, but the base of the stem developed abnormally. It can form delicious and nutritious fungus galls [ying ying], which is Zizania.Zizania rice has become a famous dish in Jiangdong in the Jin Dynasty.Cultivation of asparagus is a unique creation of our country.Taro, originally used as food, also entered the list of garden crops at this time.Among the newly-added fruit trees, the most important ones are grapes from the Western Regions and Nai Nai (i.e. cotton apples) from Xinjiang, and walnuts from the Xiqiang region.The citrus produced in the south was already a tribute to the Central Plains Dynasty by the southern people in the pre-Qin period. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, lychee and longan were also transported to the north, where they were loved by people. As a production activity, forestry has existed for a long time, but in the pre-Qin period, it was either attached to Yu Heng industry or garden industry, and did not become an independent production department.After the Warring States period, this situation changed.While developing food crops, economic crops, and garden crops, people also plant bamboo and wood on hilly slopes that are not suitable for the growth of grains, so as to obtain production and living materials such as timber, fruits, and firewood.In the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were also people who managed large-scale timber forests and economic forests, indicating that forestry had become an independent production department.In the Qin and Han Dynasties, an artificial elm forest belt was built on the northern border, which was called Yulin Sai at that time, and it was a green Great Wall comparable to the Great Wall. From the Warring States Period to the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the animal husbandry in the Yellow River Basin continued to develop.There are three types of animal husbandry operations.One is the government-run animal husbandry based on horse breeding.The Warring States began to develop greatly. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, an official pasture was established in the northwest frontier county. The scale was very considerable. For example, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty raised 400,000 horses.During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the northern nomadic peoples entered the Central Plains, and the Yellow River Basin raised more livestock. For example, the Hexi pasture in the Northern Wei Dynasty raised 2 million motors and many cattle, sheep and camels.The second is animal husbandry operated by landlords.Generally, landlords own large herds, and there are also some private ranchers engaged in commercial operations, with tens of thousands of livestock, all over the mountains and plains.The third is animal husbandry operated by individual farmers.Pigs and chickens were the most commonly raised livestock and poultry, and cattle breeding was also paid attention to. This kind of animal husbandry was not large in scale, but almost every family had it, and it was still the largest animal husbandry at that time. The center of sericulture in the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties was in the Yellow River Basin, and Shandong is the most developed area in the country's sericulture industry, known as "clothes and shoes lead the world".The sericulture industry in Jingchu area and Bashu area is also relatively developed.During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, although the sericulture production in the north was destroyed by the war, it still maintained a considerable scale and certain advantages, and developed. The most developed areas of sericulture production and silk weaving technology tended to move to the Hebei Plain east of the Taihang Mountains.It also developed rapidly in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and spread to Xinjiang, Northeast China, Tibet and other places. Human beings engaged in fishing earlier than farming. After entering the agricultural era, fishing has not stopped, and artificial fish farming has appeared at the same time.my country's artificial fish farming originated in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. At that time, there were fish breeding in some ponds in the gardens of emperors and nobles, but the main purpose was to meet the needs of the ruling class for entertainment or sacrifice, and the scale was not large.During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the rise of artificial ponds for water storage and irrigation, artificial fish farming broke through the scope of noble gardens and became a large-scale production enterprise.Wuyue was an area where artificial fish farming was relatively developed at that time.However, artificial fish farming has also been developed in many places in the Yellow River Basin.In the Han Dynasty, a large-scale fish pond with an annual output of "thousand stones" appeared, and rice fields began to be used to raise fish (first appeared in Sichuan).The species of artificial fish were mainly carp at first.my country is the first country in the world to raise carp.The "Tao Zhugong Fish Raising Classic", which was probably written in the Western Han Dynasty, is the first monograph on fish farming in my country, focusing on the artificial breeding of carp.During this period, fishing tools and methods have also made great progress. Fishing with ospreys is more common, and the sea fishing industry is also more developed. Since the Warring States Period, my country's agricultural production structure and regional layout have had a distinct feature, that is, areas dominated by farming peoples and dominated by planting and areas dominated by nomadic peoples dominated by animal husbandry coexist and are clearly distinct. separated.The formation of this feature has gone through a process. In the era of primitive agriculture, nomads had not yet formed, and the only clans and tribes that still lived on gathering and hunting coexisted with the farming clans.Roughly from the middle of the Neolithic Age, most of the ruins have presented an economic outlook dominated by planting, combined with agriculture (planting), animal husbandry, hunting and hunting.Some areas that have become the birthplace or stage of activity of nomads in later generations are no exception.For example, the Qinghai region of Gansu where the Xirong ethnic group emerged, the Monan Hetao region, one of the origins of the Xiongnu, and the upper reaches of the Liaohe River, the center of Donghu activities, were all dominated by planting at this time.When the Central Plains transitioned from primitive society to class society, nomadic tribes and nomadic peoples appeared in some areas in the west, north and east.The first to grow stronger was the nomadic and semi-nomadic tribe known as Xirong.They moved from the Gansu and Qinghai regions to the Central Plains, forcing the Zhou royal family to move from Hao (hao) (southwest of Xi'an, Shaanxi today) to Luoyi (now Luoyang, Henan). Mixed coexistence with nomads.The Xirong people made a living by raising sheep. At that time, the Rongdi who entered the Central Plains were not good at riding horses, so they fought on foot when they fought with other countries in China. In the Warring States period, the situation changed a lot.The nomads who entered the Central Plains basically accepted farming civilization and became part of the Huaxia people. This was basically the same as the process of ironware promotion and more land reclamation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.The dominant position of the planting industry in the Central Plains was further established.At the same time, some nomads collectively called "Hu" rose up in the north, and they were famous for their horseback riding.Later, the Xiongnu unified these nomadic peoples in the north and constituted a powerful force threatening the regime of the agricultural peoples in the Central Plains.In this way, the areas ruled by agricultural peoples and nomadic peoples were finally clearly separated regionally.Qin Shihuang expelled the Xiongnu from the Ordos area south of the Yellow River, and connected and built the Great Wall, marking that this pattern was further fixed. It is no accidental coincidence that the Great Wall is distributed near the northern boundary of today's geographically divided regions. It shows that the formation of the two major economic regions in ancient my country was based on the difference in natural conditions.The temperature and rainfall in the areas south of the Great Wall and east of Gansu and Qinghai are more suitable for the requirements of agricultural development, and multiple cropping can be implemented.Here, the settled farming nation is dominant, and its production structure is characterized by the implementation of diversified operations centered on grain production. Ban Gu, the author of "Hanshu", said: "Create soil and grow it into agriculture." It reflects the central position of grain planting in agricultural production in agricultural areas.To the north of the Great Wall lies the Mongolian-Xinjiang Plateau, which has a dry and cold climate and alternates deserts and grasslands. The conditions for developing farming are relatively poor, but it is an excellent pasture.In this vast arena, some powerful nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples have arisen one after another.They have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of huge herds, live on water and grass on the vast grassland, eat livestock meat, drink [zhong swollen] (kumiss) cheese (cheese), wear leather, Covered with felt fur, live in Qionglu (felt tent).Herds are their main means of subsistence and also their means of production.Hunting has the function of defending herds and performing military exercises, and it is also a supplementary source of means of subsistence and production.The nomads are not completely devoid of planting. They have learned about planting very early, but the proportion in their production structure is very small.Nomadic animal husbandry combined with hunting is almost the only source of food and clothing for these peoples. Although the farming culture and nomadic culture in ancient my country were separated regionally, they were interdependent economically.Agricultural areas that emphasize planting need to obtain livestock and livestock products from pastoral areas as a supplement to their economy.The relatively simple pastoral areas with a weak planting industry need to export their surplus livestock and import their insufficient agricultural products and handicrafts.The two major economic zones usually carry out economic exchanges through official and non-governmental, legal and illegal trade. When normal trade is hindered, they will resort to war, and war has become a special way of economic exchange.During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the struggle between the Central Plains Dynasty and the Xiongnu regime was unprecedentedly fierce, and the economic and cultural exchanges between the Han nationality and the northern nationalities were also unprecedentedly active.In addition to introducing a series of precious crops before and after Zhang Qian’s journey to the Western Regions, the livestock and livestock products of the northern nomadic peoples continued to enter the Central Plains, which not only directly provided abundant animal power for farming and transportation in the Central Plains, but also promoted the improvement of the Central Plains’ livestock species and the advancement of animal husbandry technology. .For example, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty introduced Wusun horses and Dawan horses from the Western Regions, which played a great role in the improvement of horse breeds in the Central Plains.Another example is that mules, donkeys, and camels were first raised by the northern peoples, and the Central Plains people regard them as "exotic animals".It was probably introduced to the Central Plains during the Warring States Period, but it was still relatively rare in the early Western Han Dynasty.After the mid-Western Han Dynasty, "ying (mules), donkeys, and scorpions (camels) (that is, camels) with their tails inserted into the frontier" ("Salt and Iron Theory") gradually became important draft animals in the Central Plains.On the other hand, the agricultural products (grain, etc.) and handicrafts (ironware and silk fabrics, etc.) of the Central Plains, as well as production technology, were also continuously imported into the north along with trade and wars, which enriched the material life of the people in the area and injected farming into the nomadic culture. cultural factors.The confrontation between the two major economic zones has also profoundly affected the changes in the economic composition and production structure of both sides.In order to resist the intrusion of the powerful cavalry troops of the northern nomads, the Central Plains Dynasty urgently needed to directly master a large number of horses and establish a standing army with the ability to respond quickly. develop.At the same time, private animal husbandry is developing towards the direction of serving agriculture, and is becoming smaller and smaller.The separation of nomadic areas and farming areas, and the differentiation of government-run military large-scale animal husbandry and private-run agricultural small-scale animal husbandry in agricultural areas constitute two major characteristics of the relationship between agriculture and animal husbandry in ancient China.In order to resist the intrusion of the nomads in the north, the frontier defense was implemented from the Western Han Dynasty.During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, 600,000 garrison soldiers were deployed from Hetao to western Gansu.The farmland of the Central Plains Dynasty also penetrated into the Western Regions.Farming promoted the advancement of farming methods to pastoral areas, and formed a semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral area between the agricultural and pastoral areas.The official pastures of the Western Han Dynasty were mainly distributed in the northwest frontier county in this area. At that time, both farming and animal husbandry were prosperous here, and it was one of the most affluent areas in the country. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, there was a long-term war in the north, and the population moved south. A large number of nomadic and semi-nomadic people took advantage of the situation and once turned part of the farmland into pastures and hunting grounds.However, these ethnic groups soon accepted the farming civilization of the Han nationality.The Northern Wei regime established by the Tuoba tribe of the Xianbei nationality took the initiative to implement Sinicization and restore and develop agricultural production.In order to resist the southward invasion of the nomadic Rouran people, they also followed the example of the Han people and built the Great Wall along the line from Chicheng, Hebei to Wuyuan, Inner Mongolia today, as if they were the defenders of farming culture.This also clearly shows that the essence of the Great Wall as a symbol of agricultural and pastoral divisions is not to distinguish different races, but to distinguish different cultures.

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