Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology, Chinese Institute of Social Science, Beijing Cultural Relics, No. 2, p. 63-70, 1999

        Asian-centered rice-planting culture has wide distribution and long history, with different hypotheses concerning its origin – Assam, Yunnan, East Asian Crescent and middle and lower Yangtze River. Archaeologically, China has the earliest rice site with a rich culture, tracing both to the middle and lower Yangtze River. Its powerful influence on surrounding areas is well evinced by Korean and Japanese finds, but scholars are split over the route of its spread east, with hypotheses involving North, East and South China. The author suggests an almost contemporaneous East China spread to Korea and Japan. Apart from rice plant remains, the discovery of Japanese and south Korean moated settlements, pile-structures, stepped stone adzes, wood si (farm tool) and painted black pottery indicate close cultural ties with China via the sea.

        Rice agriculture centered in Asia has wide distribution, a long tradition and important effects on economic and cultural growth. Archaeological evidence shows China has the oldest rice remains and richest rice culture. The origin of rice culture and its spread attracts various academic fields, with diverse conclusions.

        The present article discusses the special status of rice agriculture in Asian history by concentrating on its origin and spread to northeast Asia, the author making a few points based on his understanding.

A. THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF RICE CULTIVATION
B. NORTHEAST ASIAN PREHISTORIC RICE AND ITS ROUTE OF SPREAD
CONCLUSIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY

        Cultivated rice origin has been a hot topic for more than ten years, with the following different conclusions drawn from agriculture, ethnography and archaeology:

1.    Assam-Yunnan origin

        The theory that cultivated rice originated in Assam and Yunnan is mostly agriculturally based. Assam, a northeast state of India resembling Yunnan, is on the Himalayan subtropical plateau. Both Xia (O. sativa) and Keng (O. japonica) are grown, with Xia concentrated below 1750 m, Keng above 2000 m and both Xia and Keng midway. In addition to Xia and Keng, an undifferentiated Xia-Keng variety and wild rice⁽¹⁾ are widely distributed, but lack archaeological proof. Rice from Yunnan’s Binchuan Baiyangcun, Yuanmou Dadunzi and Jianchuan Haimenkou sites are ca. 3000 year-old or quite recent. Historic growth here is also late, diminishing any major role in the origin of cultivated rice. Added Neolithic rice remains from the lower Yangtze Basin and coexisting Xia and Keng from Hemudu and Loujiajiao sites in Zhejiang also weaken an Assam or Yunnan origin. In harmony with archaeological finds on the origin of cultivated rice, agricultural scientists finally negated Assam and Yunnan as a rice mutation centre in favour of the lower Yangtze Basin⁽²⁾.

        The search for the origin of agriculture and its growth based on Zhaoye forest (named for its bright sunlit leaves) and its culture is ethnographically based⁽³⁾. Zhaoye forest is broadleaf evergreen, including liang (chestnut-leaf oak), chu (evergreen oak), kao (mangrove), ke (a hardwood), zhang (camphor), etc., growing at 1500-2500 m on Assam’s south Himalayan hills to Yungui Plateau, and along the south Yangtze shore to Korea and south Japan. Zhaoye culture centres on Yunnan’s "East Asian Crescent", reaching Assam in the west and Hunan in the east. Its unique cultural traits include the three stages of gathering/cultivation, field burning and rice paddy. Some Japanese scholars suggest the "Zhaoye forest road" traces Japanese cultural origin, but Zhaoye forest is a doubtful agricultural birthplace, the so-called "East Asian Crescent" lacks archaeological support⁽⁴⁾ and middle and lower Yangtze marshes are better suited to early rice cultivation. The large Zhaoye forest yields tubers and other root crops based on slash-and-burn agriculture and needs clearance only possible with metal tools. Furthermore, Yungui Plateau minorities lived quite primitively until the 1940’s due to environmental and historical restrictions, their area far less developed than the Yangtze Basin for the origin of cultivated rice and advanced agriculture.

        This area has many river systems and marshes with widespread wild rice varieties. It also has the richest and oldest archaeological sites: Hunan’s Lixian Pengtoushan, Jiangsu’s Wuxian Caoxieshan and GaoyouXian Longqiuzhuang and Zhejiang’s 6000-7000 year-old Yuyao Hemudu and Tongxiang Xian Luojiajiao. Despite C14 errors⁽⁵⁾, >10000 year-old carbonized rice remains and phytoliths are in Hunan’s Daoxian Yuzhanyan and Jiangxi’s Wannian Xianrendong and Diaotonghuan sites. Accumulating finds show the oldest distribution south of Huai River and focussed in the middle and lower Yangtze Basin. Partial statistics show 137 ancient rice sites (Table 1), with 44 (32.1%) on the lower Yangtze; 57 (41.6%) on the middle Yangtze; 10 (7.2%) on the upper Yangtze; 9 (6.6%) in Huai Basin; 6 (4.4%) in Yellow Basin; 2 (1.5%) in Bohai Bay; and 9 (6.6%) on the southeast shore. As the Yangtze’s 101 sites (73.7%) prove it is an ancient rice distribution centre with wide historic spread, archaeological evidence favours a Yangtze origin over one in Assam-Yunnan or East Asian Crescent.

        In addition to the above, several hypotheses on Chinese rice origin⁽⁶⁾ are basically analyses from different sciences, but discussions should be archaeologically based. Cultivated rice origin should cover the whole situation and not age alone. While my excavated rice statistics focusses on older middle and lower Yangtze cultivated rice, we must remember cultivation is tied to social activities, with discussion meaningless when ignoring these links.

        The original middle and lower Yangtze rice greatly influenced surrounding areas, Korea and Japan being obvious examples.

        While millet, sorghum and wheat sites are peninsula-wide, the earliest Korean rice is in Bronze Age 2000-3000 year-old Wuwen pottery culture. Northern cereals are mainly non-rice because the only rice sites are P’yongyang Nanjing and Seoul Xinyanli. Most rice sites are south Korean, represented by the Songjuli culture centered in Jinjiang Basin caves, with stone graves, clay burial urns, bronzeware and carbonized Keng remains C¹⁴ dating ca. 2500 years. Carbonized rice and bronze and metal ware in the Gucheng Beiqiu site in Qingshang Nandao occur with 2000 year-old broken Han Dynasty mirrors. Site distribution suggests rice spread south to north, rather than the reverse.

        Japanese agriculture also appeared quite late in the 12000-2300 BC Neolithic Shengwen (Jomon) hunter-gathering and fishing culture. The possibility of 3000-4000 year-old rice cultivation occurs in phytoliths on a late Shengwen potsherd in the Zongshe Nangoushou site, Okayama County, with more remains in Kyushu’s Caidien, Youtien and Banfu sites indicating incipient rice farming and production in 2300-3000 year-old Late Shengwen culture. Advanced farming soon spread from Kyushu to northern Honshu in 1700-2300 year-old Misheng (Yayoi) culture, production speeding with introduced bronze and metal farm tools. Only Keng was cultivated, with stone and wood tools traced to the Yangtze Basin.

        Rice theoretically spread historically east from North, Central or South China, with Central China the most convincing. From a middle and lower Yangtze origin and growth centre, cultivated rice likely spread via sea to Korea and Japan. Rice-marked burnt red clay from the tiny Zhoushan Islands off the Zhejiang coast suggest an east sea route midpoint. The author pioneered support of the Central route⁽⁷⁾, with almost simultaneous rice spread via sea to Korea and Japan⁽⁸⁾. North and South routes are unproven archaeologically and may be ignored as North Chinese yellow soil is too dry for rice and there are few remains; e.g., rice-marked burnt clay from Yangshao Village⁽⁹⁾ are undated. Rather, North China is a millet and sorghum centre, its little rice an unlikely propagation centre. The sole suggestion it spread from Shandong via Liaodong to Korea⁽¹⁰⁾ lacks support, especially when north Korean rice is rare and other cereals used. In addition, ancient seafaring was capable of connecting the middle Yangtze to Korea without a Liaodong detour. The South route lacks support because Okinawa midway has few rice remains, with fishing and hunting its main economy. As northeast Asia has quite late cultivated rice and is near the middle and lower Yangtze, rice likely passed east via the sea, accompanied by balustrade construction, grouped living areas, stone axes and wood ploughs that are alike in Korea, Japan and southeast China.

        China was a world agricultural centre comprising south and north areas. The north yellow loam area centered in the dry Yellow Basin supports mainly drought-resistant millet and sorghum; with wheat imported in Shan and Zhou Dynasties. As the huge warm humid area south of Qinling Mountain and Huai River with many lakes and swamps had most rice cultivation (Fig. 1), ancient crops varied with geography. Historic human environmental change and irrigation shifted some rice planting north, but without replacing local drought-resistant cereals. The middle and lower Yangtze Basin is the rice origin centre, its long farming growth certainly influencing its surroundings. As new archaeological finds and scientific analyses widen our understanding of cultivated rice origin and growth, new questions emerge.

        While wild rice is natural and gathered, and cultivated rice man-made and harvested, both are easily mixed but agriculturally unequal and separate when studying cultivated rice origin. Zhejiang’s Hemudu site has some wild rice⁽¹¹⁾; while Hunan’s Pengtoushan site has it and cultivated rice, their co-existing use hard to exclude⁽¹²⁾, and suggesting wild rice supplementation during incipent cultivation. In earlier cave use before cultivated rice, wild rice was likely gathered. As it is difficult to distiguish wild or cultivated rice phytoliths and pollen in various cultural levels or potsherds, they cannot be used to support cultivated rice origin unless co-analyzed with other site remains.

        While ideal storage and scientific identification (not just morphological) minimizes errors, we must use archaeological evidence; e.g., rice identified by ash-imaging⁽¹³⁾ on Yangshao Village burn marks is on thick clay⁽¹⁴⁾ from a possible kitchen wall⁽¹⁵⁾. But its age is unknown because this site has Yangshao, Miaodiggou (phase 2), Longshan and East Zhou cultures. Some isolated finds in areas not known for rice growing should also be analyzed; e.g., Liaoning’s Dalian Dazuizi site where 3 of 6 house 3 pots had carbonized rice⁽¹⁶⁾ midway between short and long grain, a trait unseen elsewhere⁽¹⁷⁾. As this site on the hilly Bohai coast lacks water for ideal rice growing, further analysis is needed to see if rice was locally cultivated or left there by trading.

        Harvesting, wood and stone-cutting tools and rice paddy are supplementary evidence, with most Japanese Misheng period wood tools traced to the south Yangtze⁽¹⁸⁾. As later metal tools allowed wide forest clearance and faster farm growth, rice production became the economic base in the Chun-Qiu and Zhan-Guo periods⁽¹⁹⁾. Many Japanese Late Shengwen and Misheng paddies are preserved under vocanic ash, while unpreserved or unreported Chinese and Korean paddies may be under sand and gravel flood deposits and need further work. It is our sincere wish that research on the origin of rice cultivation will be fruitful so we can better understand rice farming in economic history.

*LYB, MYB, UYB = lower, middle, upper Yangtze Basin; HRB = Huai River Basin; YRB = Yellow River Basin; BHW = Bohai Bay; SEC = SE Coast. ** S & J = O. sativa & japonica (Xia & Keng in original table) in keeping with Western usage.

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3. Zuozuomu Gaoming, "The Theory of Zhaoye Forest Culture", 1992 (in Japanese)
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8. An Zhimin, "The Remains of Jiyekeli", 1992 (in Japanese)
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10. Yen Wenming, "Significance of Rice Kernel Remains in the Shandong Yangjiaquan Site", East Asian Rice Cultivation
11. Zuoteng Yilang et al., "Analytical Results of Plant Remains from Chinese Jiangsu and Zhejiang excavations", East Asian Rice Cultivation (in Japanese)
12. See (2)
13. See (9)
14. Zuoteng Mingye, "Yangshao Remains from Chinese Excavations, J. Archaeology, No. 47, 1970 (in Japanese)
15. An Zhimin, "Chinese Prehistoric Agriculture", J. Archaeology, No. 4, 1988
16. Wu Qingyun, "Investigation of Carbonized Rice Remains from the Dazuizi Site", East Asian Rice Cultivation.
17. See (2)
18. An Zhimin, "Jiangnan Culture and Ancient Japan", Kaogu, No. 4, 1980
19. Xia Nai, "Archaeological Problems on Yangtze Basin", Kaogu, No. 2, 1960