Chris Muther - Qing Dynasty Agricultural Development

The Qing dynasty was a time of growth in China. The economy began to boom as trade routes and market towns established themselves all along the coastlines and rivers. Feuling this rise to a bustling economy was the success and establishment of a strong agricultural system. Technological advancements allowed the Qing to take control over the water. Employing canals and new irrigation systems turned the Qing into masters of agriculture. As a result 80% of people lived in the countryside and most people worked in farming or with a byproduct of farming. (Shi) As products increased so did trade. 

Though still lacking a central market, commerce hubs began to become more and more common. People stayed in the countryside for the most part but still 80% of the population was within a day's ride to any merchant village. (Shi) The range and abundance of products was also astonishing. Medicinal herbs from the mountains in the West moved East to be used for medicines and salves. Cotton from North China was shipped to weavers in Central China. Rice, however, moved in more localized markets due to its bulk and availability in many places.Where there was a market for a product, merchants would find a way to move the product. 

Agriculture during the Qing Dynasty was described as the zenith of traditional agriculture in China. With advances in technology and the increasing knowledge of farming techniques, the farming business took off. The introduction of canals and irrigation allowed farmers to acquire the resources they needed in order to get the most of their land. As technology advanced, so did the Qing understanding of land and practice. The Qing increased their cultivated land area by taking to the mountains and border regions along with traditional farming plots. 

Along with a growth in cultivated land, advanced farming systems, such as crop rotation, inter-cropping, and multiple-cropping, became more common and widespread and led to greater yields. (Zelin) Crop rotation is the practice of planting different crops sequentially on the same plot of land. This will improve soil health, optimize its nutrients, as well as combat pest and weed pressure. Inter-cropping is the practice of growing two or more crops in proximity in order to produce a greater yield on a given piece of land by making use of resources that would otherwise not be utilized by a single crop. Multiple-cropping or harvesting more than once a year yields greater production and allows for diversification in the crop mix.

Intensive, meticulous agronomic practice spread through China as well. Advances in soil cultivation, breeding, field management, fertilization, irrigation and other farming activities, practices that are still common today, were compounding the Qing success in agriculture. (Zelin)

In the Qingming Shanghe tu scroll, starting from the far right, we see people preparing for a day of commerce. We get a look into life in the Qing Dynasty. 

In the early scenes, Section 2 of the scroll particularly, we have depictions of farmland, people are few and far between. We see a patch of what look to be rice crops with two farmers or farm-hands mounted on oxen tending to the crops. This is how it was. Farmers would work their land for the most part and prepare their yields for the market. 

Eventually the farmers would gather their products and make the voyage into the merchant towns. We start to see this in Section 3 of the scroll. We see more patches of rice crops but no workers attending to them. More people are depicted in this scene, many of which are travelling as part of a procession, others are preparing materials and watching the procession. We also see the first evidence of the transportation of goods. Few carriages are being towed towards the town, more people gather, ships begin to float down river, we see more carts and carrying poles. 

These scenes are intensified in Section 4. Carts are totally full, carrying poles with various grain-like forms are abundant and herds of sheep are being shepherded along the river. In this section we also see potential evidence of different crops types. There are open fields attended by farmers with hoes and shovels at work. A patch of tall grass-like plants within a fenced area indicate a third potential crop. Further past that is more rice fields lay. The close proximity of these three potential crops suggest an area in which crop rotation could have been used. 

Section 5 is where most of the agricultural aspects have disappeared. There is still a single small rice field that is slightly hidden by buildings and trees. More travelers transport their supplies to the merchant town. We also see the world's first food truck(maybe) in the form of rafts tied up on the bank of the river that seem to be cooking or preparing food.

Soon enough we arrive at the bustling streets that make up the merchant town. Everyone has arrived with their goods from near and far to buy, trade, and haggle. The scroll mirrors the Qing dynasty lifestyle quite accurately. From farms voyaging into merchant towns, the viewer takes this journey upon viewing the scroll.

Shi, Zhihong. "5 Development and Limitations of Agriculture in the Qing Dynasty". In Agricultural Development in 
Qing China, (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2017) doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004355248_007

Jin, Xiaobin, Xue Cao, Xindong Du, Xuhong Yang, Qing Bai, and Yinkang Zhou. “Farmland Dataset Reconstruction and Farmland Change Analysis in China During 1661-1985.” Journal of geographical sciences 25, no. 9 (2015): 1058–1074.

Zelin, Madeleine. “The Grandeur of the Qing Economy”. 2021, Asia for Educators, Columbia University. http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/qing/economy.html