中国栽培植物起源与发展简论

A Brief Discussion on the Origin and Development of the Cultivated Plants in China(Abs.)

采集是植物栽培化的开始栽培植物的起源是从古代原始人群采集野生植物开始的,此事看起来平常,却在农业起源上具有重要意义。1929年以来,我国考古学家在北京周口店旧石器遗址发现朴子(Celtisbungeana)以后,1976——1977年又在河北武安磁山新石器遗址发现朴子炭化籽粒,它是我们所知道的最早的采集证据之一。在古代原始社会采集野生植物是取得食物的一种较原始的手段。不难推断,由本能的采集逐渐发展成为带思维的采集,这就是选择的开始。

China is situated in the eastern part of Asian Continent, with a vast territory, and the Huanghe River (Yellow River) and the Changjiang River (Yantze River) running through it. The Chinese climate is warm, soil is fertile, and Plant resources are abundant. Under such a natural environment condition, the ancient Chinese People had collected, selected and bred multitudinous cultivars of cereal, vegetable, oil--bearing, fibre, and beverage crops and fruit tree. These were recorded in a large number of ancient Chinese literature, such as Xia Xiao Zheng (describing phenological observations of every month of a year), inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Ying Dynasty (c 16th--11th century B. C.), The Book of Songs, Er Ya, Shang Shu, The Book of Rites, The Book of Materia Medica as well as the agricultural literature through the ages. Through textual research, it was found that the originally Planted cultivars in China mainly include millet, glutinous millet, rice, wheat, barley, sorghum, cabbage, leaf mustard, onion, garlic, chive, scallion, wild ricestem, soybean, tea--oil tree, rape, hemp, ramie, tea, peach, plum, apricot, orange and tangerine, loquat, date, persimmon, red bayberry, cherry, pear, apple, chestnut, litchi, longyan, lotus root, Malva sp, plum blossom, orchid, Chinese herbaceous peony, chrysanthemum, bamboo, Chinese flowering crabapple, etc. And we have expounded and proved brieflv these by the places of their origins, palaeoagricultural remains, historical records, diversification of plant variation and the distribution of wild species (see The Developmental History of the Cultivars of China). The archaeological data show that the agricultural cultivation and selection in China had already begun from the late Palaeolithic Period, i.e. the Mesolithic Period (corresponding to the Fu Xi and Shen Nong Period of the ancient times of China). The remains of five Cereals (rice, two kinds of millet, wheat and bean), fruits and vegetables, dating back to 4,000--9,000 years ago and recorded in the palaeoagricultural literature, are now shown through the unearthed carbonized seeds of agricultural plant which were preserved at the sites of Neolithic Age in China. The wild species having affinity with major cultivated plants are now widely distributed in the vast area in China, and they are of ancestral genera as proved by analyses. All of these is of great significance in demonstrating the origin and development history of Chinese cultivated plants. Because of the differentiation in geographical climate and the adaptive Evolution, various kinds of cultivar are planted in tropical, subtropical, temperate and frigid zones in the vast area in China. Among them, some major cultivated plants had developed into two different directions for some 10,000--odd years of development. The Huanghe River Valley, i.e. the Loess Plateau, is the principal part for producing millet, glutinous millet, wheat, sorghum, hemp and bean, while the Changjiang River Valley, i.e. the Jianghan Plain, is the main part for growing thermophiles and hydrophiles, such as rice, rape, orange and tangerine. Furthermore, the culture of the Two River Valley in China with agriculture as its principal part, has been formed due to the continuous interchange of agricultural culture between Huanghe River and Changjiang River. So, it is believed that China is one of the greatest origins and variation centres of the world as far as the cultivated plants are concerned. And this centre with its new implication is different from the previous one.