DOI Heft:
Vol. VI : 4 1991
DOI Artikel:Xing-guang, Wang; Lin, Wang: On the ancient terraced fields in China
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49003#0205
ON THE ANCIENT TERRACED FIELDS
IN CHINA
By
Wang Xing-guang and Wang Lin
China is a mountainous country for two
thirds of her area. Here the ancient Chinese
created the terraced fields and their special
form of tillage to deal with the harsh envi-
ronment they had to face. The terraced fields
have made a great contribution to the devel-
opment of agriculture in China, and also had
such an active effect on agriculture in Asia
that they were praised as one of the great
wonders in the world (Fig. 1, Fig. 2) (Wang
1977, Ma 1983).
I. The Origin of the Terraced Fields
Terraced fields are step-like horizontal fields
built on slopes according to the isohypse.
There is an ancient Chinese pictographic
character “S” among the ancient scripts on
tortoise shells or bones found in Yin Ruins1
(“ffl” means fields; “ill” means mountains)
(Luo 1912), which makes it almost certain
that fields had been built on mountains.
There are also several other characters on tor-
toise shells or bones meaning fields. They
were written like “eq” or “ |^| ” or “ SR ”•
Fields built on slopes must be made either at
the same level, at different horizontal planes,
or step-like. Although we cannot be abso-
lutely certain that “S ” means terraced fields,
it must have a close relationship with terraced
fields. Characters are a record of objective ex-
istence and this existence must go far ahead of
the existence of its record, namely the charac-
ters from ancient times. Prof. Guo Mo-ruo
thought about their origin that soil was dug
to build adobe walls around the regular
square fields. Then ditches were left around
the fields forming systems combined with ir-
rigation and transportation (Guo 1979). The
objective proof of its existence came by ar-
chaeological evidences. From 1939 to 1941,
Prof. Wu Jin-ding found about thirty ruins
dating from the Neolithic Age to the Nanz-
hao Age (649-902 AD) on the west bank of
Lake Erhai, Yunnan Province, the southern
mountainous land crossed by river-valleys
(Fig. 4). The ruins lie on ramps or hills. Wu
reported that “There are step-like terraces on
ramps or hills where ever the ancestors lived.
The edges of the terraces can be seen clearly
from several miles away or on summits of
mountains, but not from close at hand. They
have been proved to be the ruins of houses or
fields” (Wu 1942). In the Baiyun Rums, there
are seven red clay terraces overlapping each-
other which were built most probably by hu-
man beings. There is also a right-angled low-
lying piece of field. Its form and its western
and eastern dikes indicated clear vestiges of
man-made projects. It proved to be an an-
cient man made pool (Wu 1942). Such terrace-
like red clay irrigable fields were thought by
Prof. Li Gen-pan to be ancient terraced fields
or at least the embryo of terraced fields.
Prof. Li also pointed out that the ancestors in
Yunnan most probably created terraced fields
through long term tillage on mountainous
IN CHINA
By
Wang Xing-guang and Wang Lin
China is a mountainous country for two
thirds of her area. Here the ancient Chinese
created the terraced fields and their special
form of tillage to deal with the harsh envi-
ronment they had to face. The terraced fields
have made a great contribution to the devel-
opment of agriculture in China, and also had
such an active effect on agriculture in Asia
that they were praised as one of the great
wonders in the world (Fig. 1, Fig. 2) (Wang
1977, Ma 1983).
I. The Origin of the Terraced Fields
Terraced fields are step-like horizontal fields
built on slopes according to the isohypse.
There is an ancient Chinese pictographic
character “S” among the ancient scripts on
tortoise shells or bones found in Yin Ruins1
(“ffl” means fields; “ill” means mountains)
(Luo 1912), which makes it almost certain
that fields had been built on mountains.
There are also several other characters on tor-
toise shells or bones meaning fields. They
were written like “eq” or “ |^| ” or “ SR ”•
Fields built on slopes must be made either at
the same level, at different horizontal planes,
or step-like. Although we cannot be abso-
lutely certain that “S ” means terraced fields,
it must have a close relationship with terraced
fields. Characters are a record of objective ex-
istence and this existence must go far ahead of
the existence of its record, namely the charac-
ters from ancient times. Prof. Guo Mo-ruo
thought about their origin that soil was dug
to build adobe walls around the regular
square fields. Then ditches were left around
the fields forming systems combined with ir-
rigation and transportation (Guo 1979). The
objective proof of its existence came by ar-
chaeological evidences. From 1939 to 1941,
Prof. Wu Jin-ding found about thirty ruins
dating from the Neolithic Age to the Nanz-
hao Age (649-902 AD) on the west bank of
Lake Erhai, Yunnan Province, the southern
mountainous land crossed by river-valleys
(Fig. 4). The ruins lie on ramps or hills. Wu
reported that “There are step-like terraces on
ramps or hills where ever the ancestors lived.
The edges of the terraces can be seen clearly
from several miles away or on summits of
mountains, but not from close at hand. They
have been proved to be the ruins of houses or
fields” (Wu 1942). In the Baiyun Rums, there
are seven red clay terraces overlapping each-
other which were built most probably by hu-
man beings. There is also a right-angled low-
lying piece of field. Its form and its western
and eastern dikes indicated clear vestiges of
man-made projects. It proved to be an an-
cient man made pool (Wu 1942). Such terrace-
like red clay irrigable fields were thought by
Prof. Li Gen-pan to be ancient terraced fields
or at least the embryo of terraced fields.
Prof. Li also pointed out that the ancestors in
Yunnan most probably created terraced fields
through long term tillage on mountainous