Fujianese Agricultural Pattern: An Archaeological Perspective

The agriculture of Fujian province in the preQin period and the Han Dynasty developed very slowly. Primitive agriculture emerged around 3000 B.C. in the late Neolithic Age. Only in the Western Zhou Dynasty did the slash and burn farming method become dominant. The hoeing and ploughing method existed merely in the north of Fujian and its political center, Fuzhou, in the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty. Because of the special ecological environment and the isolated location of Fujian,its agriculture lagged behind its neighboring areas. It was in the Six Dynasties that Fujian gradually narrowed the gap, thanks to the migration of the northern Han people into Fujian.