ABSTRACT
New archaeological and other scientific findings made since the 1950s suggest an alternative theory—that the southeastern part of the semiarid Loess Plateau in North China is the cradle of China's agriculture and civilization, and that ancient Chinese agriculture was predominantly dryland farming during the first four millenia of its history. The technique of transplanting seedlings from the nursery to the field, a method used in China, was developed to accommodate the shorter growing season in North China and maximize the utilization of land. Between the eighth and twelfth centuries, profound technological development revolutionized China's agriculture and by the thirteenth century gave China what one economic historian described as "probably the most sophisticated agriculture in the world." Increased food production in traditional China was associated with population growth rather than with increased surplus for investment and industrialization, as was the case in Western Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
