China is one of the earliest countries to cultivate rice in the world, and the progress of domestication and cultivation technology of wild rice has a very long history. The rice cultivated in China belongs to Asian cultivated rice, and its ancestor is perennial common wild rice.

In the Song Dynasty, rice cultivation was improved, and Zhancheng rice introduced from Vietnam was gradually popularized.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, double-season rice and triple-season rice could be planted in the south. In the long-term cultivation, many excellent varieties have been cultivated, forming a unique rice cultivation technique in ancient China.

China has a long history of planting rice. According to the archaeological report, dozens of Neolithic sites in China have the remains of carbonized rice or stems and leaves. The remains of carbonized rice unearthed from Hemudu Neolithic Site in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province and Luojiajiao Neolithic Site in Tongxiang are about 7000 years ago.

The historical sites of ancient rice cultivation are concentrated in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang in Taihu Lake area, followed by Hubei Province in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and the rest are scattered in Jiangxi, Fujian, Anhui, Guangdong, Yunnan, Taiwan Province and other provinces.

Remains of the late Neolithic age have also been found in Henan and Shandong provinces in the Yellow River basin. The carbonized rice unearthed can be divided into indica rice and japonica rice, which shows that the differentiation of indica rice and japonica rice has already appeared as early as the primitive agricultural period.

During the Warring States period, due to the application of iron farm tools and plows, intensive cultivation began. At the same time, people have built large-scale water conservancy projects to develop rice, such as Zhangshui Canal in Hebei, Dujiangyan in Sichuan and Zheng Guoqu in Shaanxi.

Rice in China originated from the south, and rice has always been the staple food of people in the Yangtze River basin and its south. After Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the economic center of gravity moved south, and a large number of people in the north moved south, which further promoted the rapid development of rice production in the south. After the Tang and Song Dynasties, some rice-growing areas in the south further developed into national rice supply bases.

paddy field