Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (6.1988/1991)

192

WANG XING-GUANG AND WANG LIN

Fig. 2. Terraced field in South China, 1989. Photo
by Wang Qing-hua. □ Terrassenfeld in Siidchina,
1989.

Fig. 1. Terraced field in Yunnan Province, P.R.C.
1989. Photo by Wang Qing-hua. □ Terrassenfeld
in der Provinz Jiinnan, Volksrepublik China, 1989.

Fig. 3. Pottery field model, Eastern Han Dynasty,
found in Pengshan County, Sichuan Province (af-
ter Guo 1979 Fig. 15). □ Feld-Modell aus Ton,
Ostliche Han Dynastie, gefunden im Bezirk Peng-
shan, Provinz Szetschwan.



land (Li 1985). Considering the character
” on tortoise shells or bones, we think Li’s
inference that terraced fields appeared in the
Neolithic Age is reasonable even though they
were not as normal and typical as the terraced
fields in later ages. The exact period of their
origin should be decided after further re-
search.2
II. Development of Terraced Fields
Terraced fields were greatly developed in the
western Zhou Dynasty (1100-770 BC). It was
recorded in Shi Jing-Xiao Ya that “Crops
grow luxuriantly in the fields on slopes ” (SJ
Vol. 5). This indicated that fields on slopes, or
terraced fields, were managed so well that
crops grew well (Liang 1983).
Terraced fields had also been developed
greatly in the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220
AD). The Fan Shen Zhi Shu described how