The demographic changes in ancient China were deeply influenced by the establishment of dynasties, the division of the world, and wars. A war means that there are countless people dying, such as the three kingdoms at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the princes competed, the original population of the Western Han Ping Emperor reached 59.59 million, but the Three Kingdoms Wei and Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties wars continued to fight, so that the population of the Central Plains once fell below 25 million, the Tang and Song Dynasties appeared, only to rise again.
According to official historical records, during the Southern Song Dynasty, the total population of the Song and Jin dynasties exceeded 70 million (according to the population of the Southern Song Dynasty contained in the "Tongkao" hukou 2, the number of jin people contained in the "History of Jin"); and the Qing Dynasty was an important stage for the Chinese to achieve the breakthrough of 100 million, Qianlong 6 years, the registered population has exceeded 100 million, Qianlong 59 years, the number of registered people exceeded 300 million.
We all know that the production and living standards in ancient times were relatively low, and modern times are not the same, the people want to live, they must be able to eat enough, we live in the era of abundance, I am afraid it is difficult to imagine that in ancient times, even vinegar was once a luxury, and fine rice noodles were only eaten by the nobility. Therefore, if the emperors of successive dynasties wanted to increase their population, they first had to solve the problem of food and clothing.
But this is not an easy thing, we see some of the common crops in film and television dramas and life, many of which are imported from abroad, such as the background of corn fields when watching Song Dynasty TV dramas, which is contrary to history, because corn was not introduced to China until the Ming Dynasty. And the ordinary crop we want to talk about today, like corn, belongs to the whole grain, it is sweet potato.
Many people must have eaten sweet potatoes when they were young, it is not difficult to grow, and when it comes to the harvest season, there is always a big pile in the houses of people in the countryside. During the famine years, sweet potatoes, like locust flowers, could feed many people. So, who brought the sweet potato vine back? This man's name was Chen Zhenlong, a native of Changle, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, who lived during the Ming Dynasty and was originally just a reader.
Chen Zhenlong originally wanted to take the gongming and Guangzong Yaozu, but after taking the exam several times, he felt bored and gave up this road. Soon Chen Zhenlong was influenced by the villagers, and had the idea of traveling to the sea, and there were many people in his hometown who went to sea to do business, and Chen Zhenlong also followed the caravan to travel away from home and went to Luzon (now the Philippines) to learn to do business. But before the business could be done, Chen Zhenlong was attracted to other things.
It turned out that luzon was planted with sweet potatoes everywhere, and according to the locals, this crop was drought-tolerant, high yield, and had low requirements for the planting environment, and could be eaten raw or cooked after maturity, which was quite full. Chen Zhenlong tried to find that this was indeed the case, and he couldn't help but have the idea of bringing this plant back to his hometown, where the land was poor and the agricultural yield was not good, if he had it, how good it would be!
So Chen Zhenlong bought potato seeds and learned how to grow them. In the twenty-first year of myōshin's reign (1593), he thought of a good way to evade the Spanish inspection: he woven sweet potato vines into baskets and boarded a ship to return home. After returning to his hometown in Fuzhou, Chen Zhenlong quickly planted this precious vine and was indeed successful. In that year, when Fuzhou was in a famine, Chen Zhenlong wrote to the Inspector of Fujian, informing him of the matter of bringing back the foreigners' "Zhu Potato" and saying that this thing would be of great benefit to disaster relief.
The inspector sent someone to investigate and found that he was telling the truth, and he couldn't help but be overjoyed. Since then, this small sweet potato has been promoted and planted, and after the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, the emperor has more fully encouraged people to grow sweet potatoes. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, sweet potatoes have been widely spread throughout the country. Chen Zhenlong's original risky act benefited the people of the world and the prosperity of Kangqian, and the rapid population growth during the Qianlong period was closely related to the introduction of sweet potatoes and the improvement of the national crop structure.