China Unit Handout 1.3
Technological Advances during the Song Dynasty
Rice Cultivation
During Song times, new developments in rice cultivation — especially the introduction ofnew
strains of rice from what is now Central Vietnam, along with improved methods of water
control and irrigation — spectacularly increased rice yields. Rice was used primarily as food, but
was also used to brew the wine consumed in homes and taverns.
Rice was grown primarily south of the Yangzi River. This area had many advantages over the
north China plain, as the climate is warmer and rainfall more plentiful. The mild temperatures of
the south often allowed two crops to be grown on the same plot of land — a summer and a winter
crop.
The many rivers and streams of the region facilitated shipping, which reduced the cost of
transportation and, thus, made regional specialization economically more feasible. During the
Song period, the Yangzi River regions became the economic center of China.
A Labor-intensive Crop
As grown throughout East Asia before modern times, rice required much labor — to level the
paddy fields, clear irrigation ditches, plant and especially transplant the seedlings, as well as to
weed, harvest, thresh, and husk.
Farmers developed many varieties of rice, including drought resistant and early ripening varieties,
as well as rice suited for special purposes such as brewing. They also remade the landscape
by terracing hilly land, so that rice could be grown on it.Agricultural manuals helped to
disseminate the best techniques for rice cultivation.
To feed all the city people, most Chinese had to remain farmers. We do know, however,
that millet, wheat, and sorghum were the basic subsistence crops in the north, while rice
predominated in the south.
New Varieties of Rice
“In the early part of the Song dynasty ... a new variety of early-ripening rice was introduced into
China from Champa, a kingdom then located near the Mekong River Delta in what is now
Vietnam, and by 1012 it had been introduced in the lower Yangzi and Huai river regions. ...
Because the variety of rice was relatively more drought-resistant, it could be grown in places
where older varieties had failed, especially on higher land and on terraces that climb hilly slopes,
and it ripened even faster than the other early-ripening varieties already grown in China. This
made double-cropping possible in some areas, and in some places, even triple-cropping became
possible ... the hardiness and productivity of various varieties of rice were and are in large part
responsible for the density of population in South, Southeast, and East Asia.
According to the Buddhist monk, Shu Wenying, the Song Emperor Zhengzhong (998-1022),
when he learned that Champa rice was drought-resistant, sent special envoys to bring samples
back to China.”
— Lynda Noreen Shaffer
In “A Concrete Panoply of Intercultural Exchange: Asia in World History,” in Asia in Western
and World History, edited by Ainslie T. Embree and Carol Gluck (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe,
1997), 839-840.
Source: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/song/tech/rice.htm