Shift of farming-pastoral belt in northern China over the last 2000 years

Jingyun Zheng; Piyuan Zhang; Yanyu Tian

doi:10.1117/12.465945

14 July 2003 Shift of farming-pastoral belt in North China over the last 2000 years

Jingyun Zheng, Piyuan Zhang, Yanyu Tian

Proceedings Volume 4890, Ecosystems Dynamics, Ecosystem-Society Interactions, and Remote Sensing Applications for Semi-Arid and Arid Land; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.465945
Event: Third International Asia-Pacific Environmental Remote Sensing Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere, Ocean, Environment, and Space, 2002, Hangzhou, China

Abstract

In this paper, the boundaries of the farming-pastoral belt for 10 stages for the last 2000 years are constructed by using the historical records of land uses, population, production and tax styles in this region extracted from Chinese historical documents, and the shift of farming-pastoral belt was discussed. The results can be summarized as follows: (1) During the last 2000 years, the general trend of this belt shifting was northwestwards, which expresses the effects of human dimensions. The pressure of population growth, development of economics, blending of cultures and development of technology had shown their effects on every epoch. (2) The most north ¨C western extension of the farming-pastoral belt occurred in periods from the mid-2nd century BC to the early 1st century AD (early Western Han Dynasty to early Eastern Han Dynasty), the late 6th century AD to the early 9th century AD (Sui Dynasties to mid-Tang Dynasty) and the mid-10th century to the mid-14th century AD (the period of Song and Yuan Dynasty). They are just coincident with the epoch of warm climate with a relative humidness. When the climate ran to a cold epoch, accompanied by a relative dryness, the belt shifted southeastwards.

Citation Download Citation

Jingyun Zheng, Piyuan Zhang, and Yanyu Tian "Shift of farming-pastoral belt in North China over the last 2000 years", Proc. SPIE 4890, Ecosystems Dynamics, Ecosystem-Society Interactions, and Remote Sensing Applications for Semi-Arid and Arid Land, (14 July 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.465945

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