Chapter 21 5. Jiangnan Special Economic Zone

The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were characterized by great social turmoil and great national integration.Just like the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States period, the feudal lords separatist wars and ethnic fusion, this is the second climax of ethnic integration in Chinese history, because it is easier to integrate when it is more chaotic. The first point is the rapid development of agriculture in the south of the Yangtze River during the Six Dynasties. The Six Dynasties refers to the Eastern Wu established by Sun Quan of the Three Kingdoms. He established his capital in Jianye, and later the Eastern Jin Dynasty established his capital in this place (today's Nanjing) and changed its name to Jiankang.In order to avoid the taboo of Emperor Jin Sima Ye, it was renamed Jiankang.Since then, Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen, which replaced the Eastern Jin Dynasty, are collectively called the Six Dynasties, so Nanjing is the former capital of the Six Dynasties.This is what is said in the Tang poem "The river is raining and the river is full of grass, and the Six Dynasties are like a dream and birds sing in the sky".

During the Six Dynasties, the development of agriculture in the south of the Yangtze River expanded from the east of the Yangtze River to the entire Yangtze River Basin.Now I only hear that there is Jiangxi, but there is no Jiangdong. In fact, Jiangdong was Jiangnan at that time, also called Jiangzuo.If you stand on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and look down the river, towards the mouth of the sea, that is East.If you stand at the mouth of the Yangtze River and look upstream, you will see Jiangzuo, the same place from different angles.The development of the Yangtze River has expanded to the entire Yangtze River Basin since the period when Wu and Yue fought for hegemony, and then spread to Lingnan, Guangdong, Guangxi and Minjiang River Basin (Fujian).

The second point is that the Sanwu area is the most developed.Taihu Lake, Dongting Poyang Lake Basin and Chengdu Plain are important grain-producing areas. The economic development in the south of the Yangtze River made the north and south economies tend to balance, and laid the foundation for the gradual southward shift of my country's economic center of gravity in the future.It used to be that the economic level of the north was much higher than that of the south, but now it has begun to balance, but the center of gravity is still in the Yellow River Basin.Jiangnan began to develop at this time for the following reasons.

The first is that people from the north moved south to bring labor and advanced technology.During the Han Dynasty, the population in the north accounted for 81.2% of the country, and the population in the south accounted for 18.8%.The population of Guanzhong accounted for two-fifths of the total population of the country at that time, that is, two-fifths of the population was concentrated in Shaanxi.The production conditions in the south are better than those in the north, and the climate is better than that in the north, but the reason why it can't develop is because there are no people.There were two large-scale southward crossings in Chinese history, one was the "Yongjia Rebellion" at the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, and the other was the "Jingkang Change" at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty.For example, in order to avoid the wars of the ethnic minorities in the five Hu and sixteen countries in the north, the Han people with their hair on the right lapel are going south, and those who stay in the north are all wearing their left lapels.With a large labor force in the south and the advanced production technology brought in from the north, you should stop slash-and-burn farming. I will teach you how to farm the land, and the development will naturally be rapid.

The second is national integration.The southern minorities used to be able to farm land, but their methods are too backward. We teach them to integrate with the Han people, and the business will be done easily. The third is that the rulers implemented measures to persuade farmers to teach mulberry, reward farming and weaving, appease refugees, and build water conservancy. The lesson of persuading Nongsang is the meaning of investigation.There are three criteria for examining the political achievements of local officials: the establishment of fields, the increase of household registration, and the level of taxes and services.More land needs to be reclaimed, the population needs to increase, and the amount of taxation must be affordable by the common people.Of course, it can’t be used today. Field provision, household registration increase, conversion of farmland to forests, and family planning are in opposition to each other. They should have been dismissed early!In ancient times, because it was an agricultural economy, it was possible to open up fields, increase household registration, and level taxes and services.Reward farming and weaving, appease the refugees, and build water conservancy, and the south has developed.Why didn't you do this earlier?

The ruling center of the Central Plains Dynasty was the Yellow River Basin, and now it was brought here by people, and it was only when there was nothing to do that they came to develop this place.Luoyang, the dream capital, was robbed, so he had to go south to Jiankang to start from scratch.To use a very inappropriate analogy, if today is the Republic of China, do you think Taiwan can be the most developed province in China?Impossible, its center is in Nanjing, and the southeast coast and Shanghai must be the most developed. Taiwan should just bend over there.Now that he wants to develop Nanjing, he can't develop it. Since Nanjing was liberated, he can only develop Taiwan.The rulers at that time attached great importance to Jiangnan, because the north was occupied by ethnic minorities, and it became the Northern Wei Dynasty, so they could only develop Jiangnan.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the south of the Yangtze River was continuously developed, and the economy kept moving forward. Because of the repeated wars in the north, the economy was in a cycle of destruction, recovery, destruction, and recovery.During this period, the scale of farming decreased and the animal husbandry expanded. The reason was that the Han people fled and the ethnic minorities entered the Central Plains, so the animal husbandry expanded.This is also beneficial, which eased the environmental damage caused by over-cultivation during the Han Dynasty.

Agriculture in the north is generally recovering and developing, mainly manifested in the emergence of new farm tools and technologies.Cao Wei and Ma Jun invented the overturned cart for irrigation.The principle is similar to that of a bicycle, like the chain of a bicycle. Half of it is in the water, and a bunch of bamboo tubes are tied. When people step on it, the chain turns, and the bamboo tube brings up the water.Then the water from the bamboo tubes is poured into a trough one by one, and that trough extends into the field, so that the water is diverted and turned over.Its advantage is that it can be used not only for irrigation, but also for drainage. If the ground is flooded, turn it upside down and put it in the river.

In addition, the north also built water conservancy and developed the frontier, and developed the Hexi Corridor and the Liaodong area.The Hexi Corridor is today's Gansu, between the Qilian Mountains and the Kunlun Mountains.During the period of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, many regimes were divided here.It is written that Murong Fu wants to restore the country, and the country built by the Murong family is in the Hexi Corridor and Liaodong area.