In the study of rice planting history in Song Dynasty, there is a crucial and controversial issue, that is, rice planting system. It is not only related to the estimation of the development level of rice farming in Song Dynasty, but also related to the estimation of agricultural economy, technology and its development level throughout Song Dynasty. Some scholars believe that one of the signs of the agricultural revolution or major changes in the south of the Yangtze River in the Song Dynasty was the widespread cultivation of Zhancheng rice and the popularization of double cropping system [1]. One of the most striking is the development of double-cropping rice [①]. However, these views have been questioned by domestic scholars in recent years. Professor You, who studies the history of rice planting, believes that the increase of grain yield in Song Dynasty is due to the increase of multiple cropping index, but double cropping rice and intercropping rice in Song Dynasty are limited to South China, and the proportion is not large. Fujian is the northern boundary of double-cropping rice [2]. At the same time, he also questioned Zhancheng rice, thinking that its role was exaggerated by historians [3]. Recently, another economic historian, Li Bozhong, started with research methods and completely denied the theory of "agricultural revolution in the south of the Yangtze River in the Song Dynasty" [4].
No one, whether for or against the agricultural revolution in the Song Dynasty, has made a systematic study on the rice field-centered planting system in the Song Dynasty, which makes the advantages and disadvantages somewhat hollow. In view of the special importance of paddy field farming system, especially double cropping rice, in the history of rice cultivation and economy in Song Dynasty, and the current academic controversy, it is necessary to make a systematic study of paddy field farming system in Song Dynasty. This paper will focus on the problem of double-cropping rice in Song Dynasty. Our question is, what about double-cropping rice in Song Dynasty? How popular is it? What is its position in the food supply? What is the relationship between it and Zhancheng rice?
1 Double cropping rice before Song Dynasty
Before answering the above questions, it is necessary for us to understand the situation of double-cropping rice before the Song Dynasty. Double cropping rice means that there are two harvests in the same rice field in one year. The cultivation of double-cropping rice first began in Lingnan area in Qin and Han Dynasties. The Record of Foreign Bodies in Hanshu yangfu records that "Xia Dong's rice is ripe, and farmers will plant it at the age of one" [5]. This is the earliest record of double cropping rice in Lingnan area. The earliest record of double-cropping rice in the Yangtze River valley can be traced back to the Western Jin Dynasty. Zuo Si's Fu on Wudu in the Western Jin Dynasty mentioned: "Rice ripened by national tax", and Wudu is now Suzhou, which proves that there was double-cropping rice in Suzhou in the Western Jin Dynasty (265-3 16). [2] Guo in the Jin Dynasty once recorded a double-cropping rice variety "Gaixia White Rice", which was sown in the first month and harvested in May; When it is harvested, its stems and roots will revive and mature in September. [3] Zhang Zhan's "Health Collection" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty contains: "The rice has been cut and then pumped (germinated), which is called the rice grandson." [4] During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, there were still records in Lingnan that "the rice was ripe at the age of four" and "the soil was hot and rainy, and the rice and millet were all ripe" (old Tang book? Nan Man Biography, Song History? Barbarian 4 "). Yangzhou, located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, also has reports about Taomi and Re-cooked Rice (Tang? Xiang Ruishang ").
It seems that the double cropping rice before Song Dynasty was mainly ratooning rice. The records in Guang Zhi and Health Care Essentials obviously belong to ratooning rice. The glutinous rice in Yangzhou in Tang Dynasty was autogenous rice, and the multiple cropping rice might be ratooning rice. Only the "returning rice" in Wudu Fu is controversial. "Multiple cropping rice" can be understood as the multiple cropping of early rice and late rice planted in the same field, and it can also be understood as the multiple cropping of early rice and late rice planted in different fields within one year. The former belongs to double-cropping rice, and the latter is single-cropping rice. Even double-cropping rice is controversial about ratooning rice and continuous cropping rice. Song people thought that the "multiple-cropping rice" in Wudu Fu was ratooning rice (see later). According to Tang Lishan (Jiangdu, not far from Wudu), you regarded it as continuous cropping rice [6], ([6], page 222), but at that time it was not clear whether it was replanting in the same field or in different places.
In another article, I mentioned that the concepts of early rice and late rice appeared even before the Song Dynasty, but the "early rice" mentioned by the Song people was not really early rice [5], and there was no multiple cropping relationship between early rice and late rice [7]. But this does not rule out that there were real early rice varieties in the Song Dynasty. In the fourth year (10 1 1), Song Zhenzong introduced early-maturing and drought-tolerant zhancheng rice from Fujian. It is estimated by you that Zhancheng, as an early rice, has a growth period of about 100 days to10 days, which can be popularized in Zhejiang, Fujian, Huainan and other places, and is a veritable early rice variety [6]. There was also a famous early-maturing rice variety-Huangsao Rice in Song Dynasty. The whole growth period of yellow rice from planting to harvesting is about 60 ~ 105 days, and it also has strong water resistance [8]. Other early rice varieties include Wheat Competition Field, Guisheng Rice, Jieao Rice (early rice), Sixty Days, Janice Zaobai, Xuanzhou Zaozhan, Axnaubai and Chimang Rice. Some of these varieties mature in June, such as wheat fields [7]; Or June, such as early reincarnation; Some people slander 60 days [8], and some people directly name it "Zao". These varieties have a short growth period and can be regarded as real early rice. The existence of early rice in the real sense laid the foundation for the development of double-cropping rice. There are three forms of double-cropping rice in Song Dynasty: regeneration, intercropping and continuous cropping.