Song Dynasty Rice Cultivation

Timeline

1. c. -7000–-2000Middle and lower Yangtze · Yangtze River basinArchaeological sites show that lower and middle Yangtze peoples domesticated wild rice and developed paddy farming, forming the basis of a southern rice civilization parallel to the millet agriculture of the Yellow River basin.
2. c. 1012–1030Huainan and Liangzhe · JianghuaiThe Northern Song government introduced early-ripening drought-tolerant rice from Champa (in present-day south-central Vietnam); the Jianghuai Circuit transit commissioner promoted it in Huainan and Liangzhe, and with calendar-based farming guidance it enabled two crops a year or rice-wheat rotation, significantly raising per-mu yields.
3. 1031–1040Suzhou–Xiuzhou paddy-field area · JiangnanPaddy fields, ponds, and linked dikes around Taihu Lake formed a dense rice-growing area; farmers interplanted japonica and Champa rice, with surplus grain shipped by canal to Bianjing; local gazetteers and the Song Shu's Food and Money chapter record expanding rice acreage and a stable tax base in this period.
4. c. 1127–1300Lin'an Prefecture and the Fujian coast · JiangnanAfter the Southern Song established its capital in Jiangnan, rice techniques became further refined; Chen Fu's Nong Shu systematically summarized seedling raising, fertilizing, and water management; rice varieties and farming knowledge spread via the maritime Silk Road, providing an important model for East and Southeast Asian rice systems.