Now our arable land is very tight. The reason for the tension is that the population is large, so there is very little arable land per person on average. At the same time, various constructions, such as building roads, building houses, factories, etc., will occupy a lot of arable land. So much so that the whole society is calling for the protection of arable land. Otherwise, we will run out of food and run into the danger of another famine.
However, ancient times and the present are just the opposite. In ancient times, there were few people and more land, but there was often not enough food to eat, how can this be understood?
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Some people may say that although there were many ancient lands, most of them were wasteland. These wastelands do not produce many crops, so it is useless to plant them, and there is still not enough food to eat.
It may be true that the wasteland does not produce crops. Because there is little dirt in the wasteland, there will be a lot of stone rubble in it, and the roots of the big trees must be intertwined, and it is really not easy to reclaim it.
At the same time, the ancient tools of production were very backward, from the original Stone Age to the Bronze Age, and then to the Iron Age, human beings have experienced thousands of years. For the most part, these means of production were so backward that they could not use such clumsy means of production to reclaim the wasteland. Even if iron tools appeared later, they were actually very clumsy, and their production efficiency was not high. Tao Yuanming once wrote a poem "Rise in the morning to rationalize the absurdity, Wear the moon and hoe the return", and he also wrote the poem "Planting beans under the south mountain, the grass is full of beans and seedlings", which fully shows that due to the backward production tools and backward technology in ancient times, even if it is very hard, there is no way to achieve a good harvest.
Of course, there are pros and cons. Although the ancient wasteland is not easy to clean, it also has advantages, that is, there are many humus, these humus is natural fertilizer, crops planted in it, there will be a harvest. Besides, the ancients were good at slash-and-burn farming, and they often set a fire to burn the mountains and forests. Then, they planted grain on this burned ground. At the same time, the ancients were also good at planting widely and harvesting thinly, and they would sprinkle a lot of seeds in it and let it grow. Management will not be too concerned. In the autumn, you can collect as much as you want. In this way, there will also be some harvest, and there will be no shortage of food.
Some people may also say that the ancient water conservancy construction was not good, the crops lacked irrigation, and they could only rely on the sky to eat. If there is drought, waterlogging or insect infestation, it can affect the harvest of crops. This situation often occurred in ancient times. As a result, there are always very many times when crops fail.
This statement is also very reasonable. The ancient water conservancy facilities were indeed not good, and it was indeed a very important reason for affecting the harvest. At the end of the Warring States period, the reason why the Qin state was able to stand out quickly was that they carried out many large-scale water conservancy constructions, including Dujiangyan and Zhengguoqu. It is precisely this kind of construction that allows the Qin State to have abundant grain and makes an important guarantee for the Qin State's southern expedition and northern war.
However, it is not easy to carry out such a large-scale water conservancy construction, because it requires a lot of manpower and material resources. The ancient rulers may have built the Great Wall and may have built the Appan Palace, but they rarely carried out large-scale water conservancy project construction. Zheng Guoqu is also the result of Korea's desire to deceive the Qin state, consume the manpower and material resources of the Qin state, and inadvertently plant willows. There is also the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which is an important irrigation project. However, when the Sui Dynasty Emperor first built it, it was not used for irrigation, but for sightseeing. It can be seen that the rulers of ancient times really never thought of sincerely building water conservancy projects.
However, although the ancient water conservancy facilities were not very developed, the ancient production technology level was not high, resulting in poor harvests of ancient crops. However, what really made ancient times always short of food was not mainly these reasons. So why?
First, the toss of the rulers.
Ancient rulers, for selfish purposes, never let the common people be at ease to carry out agricultural production. They will always recruit ordinary people to fight wars, to fight with other countries and nations, or to seize territory to fight the world. Even if they don't fight, they will recruit ordinary people to build many large projects for the rulers to play.
Originally, due to the low level of productivity in ancient times, sufficient manpower was needed, and young and strong laborers were needed to engage in agricultural production, so that there would be a good harvest. But when the rulers recruited the young and middle-aged people among the common people to do such a thing, there were fewer crops to plant, and there were fewer lands to be opened, so the harvest was not good.
We only need to look at the ancient "rule of Wenjing" to understand that as long as we give the people some time and let them produce with peace of mind, they can make the crops harvest a good harvest, and there is no shortage of grain.
Second, the exploitation of rulers.
There were indeed many lands in ancient times, but there were not many lands that were really occupied by the common people. Most of the land is in the hands of the landlord. The common people need to rent and cultivate the landlord's land, and a large part of the grain on the land goes to the landlord's hands. And the more it reaches the end of the dynasty, the more serious the situation becomes.
That is to say, in fact, there was no shortage of grain in ancient times. However, due to unfair distribution, most of the grain is in the hands of a small number of people, resulting in a shortage of food for the majority of the people. Du Fu's writing, "Zhumen wine stinks of flesh, and the road has frozen bones," speaks of such a reality.
(References: Book of Han, Old Book of Tang, etc.)