The Four Stages in the Origin of Rice Agriculture1

Abstract

: In recent years, due to the widespread application of flotation, a large number of plant remains related to the origin of rice agriculture have been found in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Through the study of these new findings, it has been discovered that the origin of rice agriculture was a long and gradual process lasting for thousands of years. This process can be divided into four stages: the stage of gestation took place around 10,000 years ago — human society was still in the hunting and gathering phase, but archaeological evidence of human-used or even cultivated Oryza plants from that time has been discovered; the early stage of transition took place around 9000 – 7000 years ago — archaeological evidence of rice farming from that time has been found, such as villages, domesticated rice, farming tools, etc., but subsistence then was still mainly based on hunting and gathering, whereas rice farming and pig breeding, which fall into the agricultural production category, were only auxiliary production activities; the late stage of transition took place around 7000 – 5000 years ago, when the proportion of subsistence attained by hunting and gathering gradually declined while the proportion of rice farming increased day by day; and the stage of completion took place about 5000 years ago, when hunting and gathering was replaced by rice agriculture in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River successively.