What are the generalizations in the ancient books of paddy field farming in southern China during the Qin and Han Dynasties?

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the southern part of China was still a region with a vast territory and a sparse population and backward production, and extensive farming techniques such as fire tillage and hydroponics were mostly used.

Simply put, burning water means burning weeds and planting rice with water. This is recorded in many history books.

Biography of Historical Records of Huo Zhi describes the backward agricultural production in the Yangtze River valley in the early Western Han Dynasty.

In short, the more vast and sparsely populated Chu is, there are rice, soup and fish, or fire and water.

The Book of Pinghuai quoted the imperial edict of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in dealing with the victims in Shandong: "Fire farming in the south of the Yangtze River will make the hungry people eat between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River."

Seven or eight hundred years later, when "Geography of Sui Shu" recorded the paddy field farming methods in the south of the Yangtze River, it still said that it was "the custom of the south of the Yangtze River to plow water with fire, feed on fish and rice, and take fishing and hunting as a profession".

Judging from the above records, from the Han Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty, the cultivation of paddy fields in the south of this period was summarized as "burning paddy fields" in Yan Tie Lun Tong You Pian, Han Shu Wu Di Ji, Han Shu Geography and many poems of the Six Dynasties.

Paddy field pattern