In this section, we will discuss the basic situation of natural resources in Chaoshan area, focusing on how these resources were used in various historical periods and what impact they had on the formation of Chaoshan culture.
Utilization of animal and plant resources
Due to the climate change and the deepening of development, the animal and plant resources in this area have also changed. Different times are different. The geological and archaeological data and literature records in this area provide us with evidence of this change.
The region is located at the northern tip of the tropics and is rich in plant resources. According to a long-term investigation by biologist Wu Xiuren, 24 1976 species belonging to 24 1 family have been identified in this area, which is far more than the number of species and genera obtained by sporopollen analysis of typical profiles in Hanjiang Delta. After Holocene, although the area was also affected by climate fluctuation, it basically showed tropical natural landscape. Evergreen monsoon broad-leaved forest is widely distributed with many layers in the forest. The upper trees like warm trees, such as Cinnamomum camphora, Quercus acutissima and Liquidambar formosana, while the lower trees like banyan and elm. Below the trees are bushes, such as Du Ying and mountain alum. , with palm, bamboo, tree fern and other large herbs with tropical elements. Lianas crisscross the forest, and there are many parasitic plants, saprophytes and ferns, which are highly closed. The swamp lowlands in the delta are covered with small trees, shrubs and sedges. Along the coast of Sharon, there are drought-resistant bare bushes and all kinds of thatch. There are evergreen mangroves on the salt flats of bays and estuaries.
The plant resources in this area have long been used by human beings for food, clothing, housing and transportation and making tools.
In the early Holocene, the utilization of plant food resources began to transition from gathering economy to cultivation economy. According to the research of archaeologists and anthropologists on the ethnic minorities in the south and southwest of China, the earliest plants used for food and cultivation in this area are sweet potatoes and potatoes. As for rice and other dry crops, so far we have not found their traces in archaeological sites in this area before the Western Zhou Dynasty. The large-capacity large-mouth statue excavated in the waterfront cultural sites in this area may be used to store food. The groove grinder unearthed from the Houshan site in Puning may also be used to grind grain. But we are still not sure whether the grain came from gathering or planting at that time, because milling is a technical basis of gathering economy. Or, as archaeologists have pointed out, "plants can grow in tropical areas that are hot and rainy all the year round, and people can get food directly from nature at any time, so there is no urgent need to cultivate grains." Therefore, the development of grain agriculture in those places is relatively slow and late. (Yan Wenming: The Origin of Rice Agriculture in China) No grain has been found in the cultural sites from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Han and Jin Dynasties discovered and excavated in this area. This is because the discovery of grains in archaeological sites is often accidental; The "float" technology has never been used in archaeological excavations in this area, and it is even more difficult to find food. However, there is no doubt about the development of rice farming in this area since the Han and Jin Dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty, rice cultivation became the main food source for residents in this area, which has been seen in the literature (Han Yu: Sacrificing the Great Lakes). With the population growth in this area, the rice planting area is expanding. After the Ming Dynasty, sweet potatoes imported from Nanyang played a very important role in alleviating the food shortage in this area.
Some plants are used to weave clothes to resist wind, rain, cold and heat. In the past, the epidermis of wild ramie and pueraria lobata was collected, or there were flexible palm bark leaves and sedges. Later, there were new varieties of cultivated ramie and pueraria lobata cultivated by wild species and new varieties of kapok and pineapple introduced from other places.
Wood has long been used as a building material. The oldest examples are the remains of ancient human settlements excavated in Jieyang centipede mountain and Puning Niubogong mountain. These two relics belong to the floating shore type, and the era is from the middle of Shang Dynasty to the early Western Zhou Dynasty. A column hole with a diameter of 15 ~ 35 cm was cleared from the remains. It can be inferred from these column holes that Fu Bin people use the branches of small trees as the pillars of their living sheds. With the progress of productivity, tall trees are also used. A Jin Dynasty architectural sites were found in Jiudu Village, Xinwei, Jieyang, all of which were huge wooden structures. The four walls are made of wood, with a height of 3 meters and a total of 15 sections, and the roof is made of wood, with a length of 7.5 meters and a total of 5 sections. After wood processing, the section of each section is1.5m square. Giant timber is also used for shipbuilding. The canoe unearthed in Shihu Port, Jinhe County, Jiexi County is10.7m long,1.3m wide outside,1.1.6m wide inside and 0.8m deep, and is made of a whole piece of camphor wood. Until the middle of this century, vegetation is still the main fuel used in production and life in this area.
The continuous development and utilization of plant resources, especially the domestication and introduction of cultivated crops, means the change of the relationship between residents and community ecological environment in this area. In order to reclaim land and plant some crops, it is necessary to remove other plants that originally grew on this land to ensure soil fertility and nutrient utilization. The most useful means to achieve this goal is to use fire. Like many ethnic minorities living in tropical areas in southern China, the indigenous people in this area may have adopted the system of "slash and burn" in the development of primitive agriculture. They use fire to burn trees, shrubs and weeds as ash fertilizer and plant crops. When the fertility of this land is exhausted, let it lie fallow and reclaim another land in the same way.
As a result, the nature of vegetation in this area has changed: on the reclaimed land, artificial vegetation has replaced the original vegetation; However, the vegetation in the abandoned land gradually grows and forms secondary vegetation. The construction industry since the Han and Jin Dynasties and the shipbuilding industry since the Song Dynasty have cut down all the giant trees left after slash and burn. The booming ceramic industry and edible salt industry since the Tang and Song Dynasties have consumed a lot of vegetation as fuel. Up to now, the original vegetation in this area has almost completely disappeared. In the mountainous hills, there are secondary shrub slopes, artificially cultivated tea gardens and timber forests, and the forest age is relatively young. The plains and terraces are all artificially cultivated fruit forests, cash crops and food crops. Due to reclamation in recent decades, mangroves on coastal mudflats have disappeared, while artificially cultivated windbreaks stand tall and straight on coastal sand ridges.
For this region, the utilization of animal resources is also an important factor that cannot be ignored in the cultural evolution.
According to teacher Wu Xiuren's investigation, there are more than 20 species of domestic animals and wild animals, nearly 20 species of frogs, snakes, turtles and soft-shelled turtles, 4 species of shellfish 137 species, and 44 species of birds. Ancient animal resources should be richer than contemporary ones. The climate was warmer before the Song Dynasty, and there were typical tropical animal resources in this area. In the mountains, there are blue-black wild elephants and small red teeth. In the river, there are bay crocodiles with serrated hooked tails and long-beaked cows. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the records of tiger disasters are still common in local chronicles. In 1950s and 1960s, animals such as foxes, raccoons, jackals, badgers, muntjac and wild boar were preserved on the secondary hillside in this area, and rare animals such as South China tigers, clouded leopards and water deer also appeared. Frogs and snakes can be seen at any time in the farmland of the plain valley; Seagulls and migratory birds left in the countryside are foraging in droves in shallow mudflats. Due to the change of ecological environment and long-term artificial hunting, at present, the wild animals in this area have basically lost their living conditions and are extremely rare. There are more and more kinds of economic animals cultivated artificially.
In the early and middle Neolithic period (1 10,000 ~ 4,000 years ago), abundant animal resources undoubtedly provided a wide food pedigree for the aborigines in this area. Especially after summer, plant food began to dry up due to seasonal reasons, and animals became the main source of their food. In the archaeological sites of this period that have been excavated in this area, animal bones such as cattle, deer and pigs, various fish bones, turtle shells and a large number of shells have been unearthed. In the middle of Neolithic Age (about 6000 years ago), it seems that the residents in this area already had animal husbandry, as evidenced by a large number of cattle bones and pig bones unearthed from Chen Qiao site in Chaoan. However, we can't decide whether these livestock are domesticated by local animal resources or imported from other places.
Besides hunting and animal husbandry, many fish, shrimp and shellfish in rivers and swamps are more accessible foods. According to the population at that time, the aquatic resources in this area were almost inexhaustible. It was after the late Neolithic Age (about 3000 years ago) that farming became the main socio-economic category in this area, and aquatic products still occupied a very important position in the diet of residents in this area. Because of the rich aquatic resources, aquaculture in this area has been developing slowly until after the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Residents in this area like to eat game and seafood. Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, there have been many records. Although Han Yu's poem "On Southern Diet" was not necessarily written in Chaozhou, among the guests, horseshoe crabs, oysters, puffer fish, octopus, Jiang Yaozhu, frog clams, snakes, etc. were full of foul smell, which also reflected the style of Chaozhou banquet at that time. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Peng Yannian lived in seclusion in Pukou Village, Jieyang, and wrote five poems about Pukou Village. The fourth poem wrote: "Pukou village has a good life, and it is easy to cook a meal." Su Fei is a treasure of water, and the mud is slippery. Shrimp that is sleepy in the afternoon can be eaten, and you can also eat it when you wake up. There is no charge all year round, and poverty is enough. " It can be seen that the hipsters in the Northern Song Dynasty like to cook with fish, shrimp and shellfish. The shrimp mentioned in the poem is also called raw shrimp. Eating fish, shrimp and shellfish raw has a very long tradition in this area and is still very popular today. For outsiders, this is simply a wild and unusual custom. When foreign officials compile Chaozhou local chronicles, they will always increase this difference. The custom chapter of Chaozhou Fuzhi, which was compiled in the 40th year of Qing Qianlong (1775), records that: "Eat more and get more sea people, so oysters, raw fish and raw shrimp are delicious. However, it is still a tradition to cook fish without removing blood and eat frogs to lick their skins ... " Eating fish and shrimp raw is probably a particularly strange example of local eating customs. However, the richness of animal resources, especially aquatic resources, and the long-term use of these resources as food by residents in this area have indeed caused the distinctive characteristics of local food culture.
Development and utilization of soil resources and water resources
The development and utilization of soil resources and water resources in this area are expanding with the development of history and the evolution of culture. On the other hand, the development and utilization of soil resources and water resources have great influence on the historical development and cultural evolution.
The total soil area in this area is 1 1786300 mu, accounting for 75.96% of the national territory. The parent rock of the soil in this area is mostly granite. Under the hot and humid climate conditions in this area, the weathering process of parent rock is strongly leached, silicate is decomposed and leached, and iron and aluminum oxides are obviously accumulated, forming red weathering crust. The soil layer is developed on the red weathering crust.
There are various types of soil in this area. The main soil types are latosol and latosol distributed in mountainous hills, sedimentary soil distributed in delta plain and alluvial aeolian sand in coastal areas. The high temperature and rainy climate in this area makes the plants in mountainous and hilly areas grow thick and vigorous. Under the condition of natural vegetation, latosol and latosol surface organic matter accumulate, the content can exceed 4%, and the fertility is high. The primary sedimentary soil in plain area contains organic matter 1.5% ~ 2.5% due to different soil qualities, and its fertility is moderately low. The sand by the sea has poor water and fertilizer conservation ability.
The development and utilization of soil resources in this area has a long history. In this historical process, the interaction of human factors and climate factors makes the fertility of various soils have different changes.
In the Neolithic Age, farming activities first began in the low hills on both sides of the small valley. The lateritic red soil layer covered on these low hills is deep and plants grow vigorously, which often gives people the impression that the land is fertile, but ignores the nature that the fertility of the upper soil is easily destroyed. Especially in the case of slash-and-burn cultivation, after the natural vegetation is cleared, the bacteria stimulated by high temperature and humid climate conditions lead to the rapid decomposition of organic matter in the soil. The fertility of the land declined quickly, and the crop harvest decreased, so people had to give up cultivated land and reclaim it. Although secondary vegetation will restore soil fertility to a certain extent, the farming methods adopted in early agricultural development have destroyed soil fertility. At present, the organic matter of lateritic red soil in this area is generally around 2%, and the total nitrogen content is generally less than 0. 1%. The lack of available phosphorus and potassium is mainly the result of artificial reclamation. In an agricultural society, the fertility of land has a great influence on the population density of a region. Because of the warm and humid climate in this area, the fertility of red soil is easy to decline, and it is quite difficult to maintain life by planting crops. The population of this area could not grow rapidly before North Korea, Japan and South Korea developed the Sanjiang Plain.
The development of soil resources in plain areas depends largely on the utilization of water resources. The rainy climate and Hanjiang River bring abundant surface water resources to this area. However, the precipitation in this area is concentrated from April to September, and the river water level is closely related to the rainfall, and the runoff changes greatly within one year. In the summer flood season, the runoff is large, and there is no difference between cattle and horses on both sides of the strait. In winter and dry season, the river bed may dry up. This feature makes the utilization of water resources more difficult, especially at the stage when the production level is still very low and people have not mastered the water conservancy engineering technology well. If the surface water is not effectively controlled, it will be difficult to solve the irrigation problem after land development. In fact, the soil resources in the plain area will not be really developed until after the Tang and Song Dynasties.
The development of plain sedimentary soil in this area began in the middle and upper reaches of Rongjiang Lianjiang and the upper part of Hanjiang Delta. The riverbed in these areas is low. In early years, the river flooded, forming natural dikes on both sides of the river, which is not easy to flood in flood season, convenient for water diversion in dry season, and relatively guaranteed for land development and crop planting and harvesting. By the Northern Song Dynasty, the settled population in these areas had increased enough. The growth of the settled population provides labor for the further development of the plain area. After the Southern Song Dynasty, a large number of immigrants gradually entered the Han, Rong and Lianjiang plains, and successively built seawalls and dikes, and set up culverts to divert water and drain water. In this way, floods and salty tides are kept out of the dike, controlled and utilized through culverts, and the land in the plain can be developed on a large scale. After long-term paddy-upland rotation, soil improvement and fertilization, low-fertility sedimentary soil has matured into high-yield paddy soil with coordinated water, fertilizer, gas and heat properties.
Since the Song Dynasty, the grain production level in this area has been close to that in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. After the Ming and Qing dynasties, the grain output of Han, Rong and Lianjiang in the original area was second to none in the country. With abundant grain output, it is possible to feed the dense population and promote the development of other industries in this area, such as ceramics, textiles, transportation and commerce, thus triggering a series of changes in the economic model, social structure and even settlement landscape in this area. It can be said that the land development and the improvement of soil fertility in the plain area have greatly promoted the cultural evolution in this area.
Utilization of mineral resources and development of technology
Mineral resources in Chaoshan area always coexist with rock selection. Except for a few gneiss, amphibole, timely fine sandstone and yellow coarse sandstone, the proportion of acid igneous rocks such as volcanic rocks, rhyolite and granite in this area is about 90%, and the minerals associated with igneous rocks are mainly tin, tungsten, silver, lead, copper, iron and other colored basins and kaolin, with huge reserves.
In the development of this area, most of these mineral resources have been utilized.
Like all the progress of human civilization, the history and culture of this area began with knocking on a few small stones. Rock is a commonly used mineral. In the early history, those stone minerals with simple structure, high hardness and easy to form thin slices, such as flint, siliceous hornblende and siliceous rocks, were first used to make tools. At the Xiangshan Archaeological Site in South Australia more than 8,000 years ago, archaeologists excavated dozens of small stone tools made of flint and seasonal sandstone. The primitive inhabitants of this area made these small scrapers with local stones, and cut fish and shellfish obtained on the beach for food. The production and use of stone tools continued into the historical period. Even after the smelting technology of copper, tin and iron was mastered by people, stone tools were not completely abandoned. Bronzes and stone tools were found in Eastern Zhou tombs in Jieyang in midsummer. About 2000 years ago, iron tools, grindstones and residual stone tools were unearthed at Guishan Han Dynasty site in Chenghai.
Kaolin is also one of the commonly used mineral resources. Kaolin has been used to make ceramic objects since Xiangshan site, and it is still the case until modern times.
In the middle and late Shang Dynasty, a bronze Ge was unearthed from the Raopingding cultural site in Tai Po. This is the earliest bronze ware in this area, but we can't conclude that this weapon was cast locally. There is a lack of rich copper deposits in this area, but copper reserves still have mining value in the era of small production scale. We believe that once the bronze smelting technology is introduced from the surrounding areas, the indigenous people in this area will begin to use the local copper resources. This period will not be later than the Warring States period. Judging from a large number of bronzes unearthed from the Warring States Tomb in Yunlu, Jieyang, there should have been a bronze smelting workshop in this area at that time.
Tin ore and lead ore were also used very early. Seven tin (or lead) arrows and bronze arrows were unearthed from the Warring States Tomb in Yunlu, Jieyang. This area is rich in tin and lead minerals, and the melting points of these two metals are low, and the temperature requirements for smelting are far less than that for copper smelting, so it should be easier to exploit and utilize. From Song Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, lead and tin mines in this area were mined on a large scale. According to the records of the Song Dynasty, there are Jifeng silver field and three tin ore fields, namely Hengjie, Huanggang and Jintian, which coexist with silver mine and lead mine. In recent years, Chetian, Jieyang and so on. Mining sites in the Song Dynasty were also found in the cultural relics survey. In this area, tin mining has been going on for a long time, and it has continued to the modern times. Long-term use has enabled craftsmen in this area to have a high level in the production technology of tin-lead utensils. The lead and tin products produced in Chaozhou enjoy a high reputation.
The earliest ironware in this area was unearthed at Guishan Han Dynasty site in Chenghai. In this site, iron slag left by ironmaking was also excavated, but no trace of ironmaking was found. From the artifacts unearthed in the tombs after the Jin and Tang Dynasties in this area, it can be seen that iron has been frequently used in daily production and life. The use of local iron ore to smelt iron was not documented until the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, there were dozens of iron furnaces in Jieyang, Raoping and Nan 'ao counties in this area. Jieyang, Tiechang Mountain and other places, smelting sites still exist.
The utilization of minerals and the cultural evolution of this area; The utilization of minerals is of great significance in the cultural evolution of this area.
First, minerals are used to make tools, which promotes the progress of productivity. For a long time, stone tools have been the main tools for indigenous people in this area to change the environment and improve their living conditions. All kinds of stone mineral resources, from small stone tools used to open and scrape shells, to stone axes used to cut trees and dig the ground, from flint, crystal and timely fine sandstone with good texture to slate and coarse sandstone with poor texture, have been utilized. In this process, the civilization of this area has experienced a long period from gathering, hunting to farming. Thanks to the use of metal tools, residents in this area can develop natural resources more fully. Towering native trees were cut down and towering granite was dug up. Later, wooden houses were built, and boats and huge ships were built. The stone bridge crosses the river, the stone tower soars into the sky, and the human landscape replaces the natural landscape.
Secondly, the full development of mineral resources with large reserves and excellent quality has created advantageous industries and high-quality and famous products in this area. The use of porcelain clay is the most obvious example. The Hanjiang river basin is rich in porcelain clay and has a long history of porcelain making. Porcelain production in this area started at the latest in Yifeng period of Tang Gaozong (676-678), and the Tang Dynasty porcelain kiln sites found in the southern and northern suburbs of Chaozhou Prefecture have reached a certain scale. The Northern Song Dynasty was the most developed era of porcelain production in this area. The Dalong kiln at the foot of Bijia Mountain is about 100 meters long. It is estimated that each kiln can burn at least 200,000 pieces of porcelain! After the Northern Song Dynasty, the ceramics industry in this area has been the handicraft industry with the largest number of employees and the largest sales volume, except for a temporary recession during the turbulent period of regime change. In Song Dynasty, Bijiashan kiln porcelain used many techniques, such as carving, picking, printing, applique, stacking flowers and so on. , in a colorful way. Among the products, handicrafts such as Buddha statues, portraits and small animals account for a large proportion. The tradition of making arts and crafts porcelain has been inherited and carried forward by the ceramic masters in this area. Until today, art porcelain is still a famous product in the ceramic industry in this area.