Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T10:05:46.569Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Ecological Change and Resource Constraints

from Part II - 1000 to 1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2022

By
David A. Bello
Edited by
Debin Ma  and
Richard von Glahn
Debin Ma
Affiliation:
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
Richard von Glahn
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access

Summary

Intricate relations between people, animals, and plants were the basis of the entire imperial Chinese order no matter what dynasty was ostensibly in charge. Such relations were environmental in the sense that they formed interdependencies between species under diverse ecological conditions of climate and topography. The most significant environmental historical result of these relations for the eight centuries under study here was agriculture, the main source of China’s human-induced (or “anthropogenic”) ecological change. An extended, instructive example of the intricacies of farming’s requisite resource management comes from the Ming (1368–1644) town of Pingwang in the Yangzi delta, likely the most developed area of contemporary imperial agrarian practice.

Keywords

environmentMedieval Warm PeriodLittle Ice Agesoilirrigationdeforestationclimate changeresource constraintsmonsooncunninghamia
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Economic History of China , pp. 259 - 299
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further Reading

Bao, Maohong, “Environmental History in China,” Environment and History 10.4 (2004), 475–99.Google Scholar
Bello, David A., “Environmental Issues in Pre-modern China,” in Oxford Bibliographies in Chinese Studies (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014), https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199920082/obo-9780199920082-0087.xml?rskey=RJOZ1s&result=46.Google Scholar
Bray, Francesca, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6, part 2, Agriculture (London, Cambridge University Press, 1984).Google Scholar
Cui, Jianxin, Chang, Hong, Cheng, Kaiyue, and Burr, George S., “Climate Change, Desertification, and Societal Responses along the Mu Us Desert Margin during the Ming Dynasty,” Weather, Climate and Society 9.1 (2017), 81–94.Google Scholar
Daniels, Christian, and Menzies, Nicholas K., Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 6, part 3, Agro-industries and Forestry (London, Cambridge University Press, 1996).Google Scholar
Yu, Di 翟禹, “Yuandai huozai shi yanjiu (yi) (er)” 元代灾害史研究述评 (一), (二), Chifeng xueyuan xuebao (Hanwen zhexue shehui kexue ban) 赤峰学院学报(汉文哲学社会科学版) 7 (2018), 10–15; 8 (2018), 32–38Google Scholar
Elvin, Mark, The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2004).Google Scholar
Elvin, Mark, and Ts’ui-jung, Liu (eds.), Sediments of Time: Environment and Society in Chinese History (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998).Google Scholar
Elvin, Mark, Nishioka, Hiraoka, Tamura, Keiko, and Kwek, Joan (eds.), Japanese Studies on the History of Water Control in China: A Selected Bibliography (Canberra, The Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University, 1994).Google Scholar
Wenxue, Gao 高文学 (ed.), Zhongguo ziran zaihai shi 中国自然灾害史 (Beijing, Dizhen chubanshe, 1997).Google Scholar
Tao, Guo 郭涛, Zhongguo gudai shuili kexue jishu shi 水利科学技术史 (Beijing, Zhongguo jianzhu gongye chubanshe, 2012).Google Scholar
Marks, Robert B., China: Its Environment and History (New York, Rowman and Littlefield, 2012).Google Scholar
Miller, Ian Matthew, Fir and Empire: The Transformation of Forests in Early Modern China (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 2020).Google Scholar
Mostern, Ruth, “Sediment and State in Imperial China: The Yellow River Watershed as an Earth System and a World System,” Nature and Culture 11.2 (2016), 121–47.Google Scholar
Muramatsu, Kōichi 村松弘, Chūgoku kodai kankyō shi no kenkyū 中国古代環境史の研究 (Tokyo, Kyūko Shoin, 2016).Google Scholar
Sterckx, Roel, Siebert, Martina, and Schäfer, Dagmar (eds.), Animals through Chinese History: Earliest Times to 1911 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2019).Google Scholar
Yude, Wang 王玉德 and Quanming, Zhang 张全明, Zhonghua wuqiannian shengtai wenhua 中华五千年生态文化, 2 vols. (Wuchang, Huazhong shifan daxue chubanshe, 1999).Google Scholar
Ruiling, Xiao 肖瑞玲, Yongnian, Cao 曹永年, Zhiheng, Zhao 赵之恒, and Yong, Yu 于永, Ming–Qing Neimenggu xibu diqu kaifa yu tudi shahua 明清内蒙古西部地区开发与土地沙化 (Beijing, Zhonghua shuju, 2006).Google Scholar
Xu, Jiongxin, “A Study of Long-Term Environmental Effects of River Regulation on the Yellow River of China in Historical Perspective,” Geografiska Annaler, Series A, Physical Geography 75.3 (1993), 61–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yin, Shaoting, People and Forests: Yunnan Swidden Agriculture in Human–Ecological Perspective (Kunming, Yunnan Education Publishing House, 2001).Google Scholar
Zhang, Ling, The River, the Plain, and the State: An Environmental Drama in Northern Song China, 1048–1128 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2016).Google Scholar
Tao, Zhang 张涛, Yongqin, Xiang 项永琴, and Jing, Tan 檀晶, Zhongguo chuantong jiuzai sixiang yanjiu 中国传统救灾思想研究 (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2009).Google Scholar
Zhen, Zhao 赵珍, Ziyuan, huanjing yu guojia quanli: Qingdai weichang yanjiu 资源，环境 与国家权力:清代围场研究 (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 2012).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×