Farming in Ancient China
Most people who lived in ancient China were farmers. They raised animals like pigs, chickens, and cows. They grew grain, just like people in Egypt and in Mesopotamia. But the people of China grew a kind of grain that the Egyptians and Mesopotamians couldn’t grow—rice.
Rice will only grow where the ground is very wet for most of the year. The ground in Egypt and Mesopotamia was too dry for rice. But near the Yellow River in China, whole fields stayed wet for months and months. Rice could grow there.
Chin was seven years old. He lived in ancient China with his father, a rice farmer, his mother, his grandfather, and his little sister.
One spring morning, Chin woke up before sunrise. The room where he slept with the rest of his family was still dark. But Chin was too excited to go back to sleep. This morning, he would go with his father to work in the rice fields for the very first time! He hoped that it wouldn’t rain. But he couldn’t see out past the stiff paper that covered the windows.
Chin got up and tiptoed out of the room, past where his parents, his grandfather, and his little sister lay sleeping on their pallets on the floor. He opened the door as quietly as he could. From his front steps, he could hear the roar of the Yellow River. The river was fuller than usual because of the spring rains, and it was so noisy that the people in Chin’s little village could hear it a mile away.
Chin looked up. The sky was just beginning to turn a beautiful clear pink. A spring breeze was blowing. It was going to be a beautiful day! He could hear the pigs rooting and grunting behind the house, and the chickens scratching around the edges of their pen. Chin fed the three pigs and the four chickens every morning. He decided that he would feed them right away, before his father got up. Then all his chores would be finished.
After he fed the animals, Chin washed his hands, combed his hair, and dressed.
He picked up his sleeping mat and put it outside to air. Then he knelt down beside his father’s pallet and whispered, “Father? Are you awake? Are you well this morning? Can I bring you water or food?” Chin did this every morning; it was his duty, as the oldest son, to make sure that his father had everything that he needed.Chin’s father opened his eyes and laughed. “Are you ready to go to work already?” he said.
“Can we go right now?” Chin asked eagerly.
“Wait until I’ve had my rice and tea!” Chin’s father said, getting up.
Chin waited impatiently by the door. His mother was grinding rice into flour; she would make the flour into little sweet cakes for dinner. Chin’s baby sister played on the floor with her favorite rag doll. Finally, Chin’s father finished his breakfast. He led Chin down the hill towards the river, where the rice fields stood.
Weeks ago, the Yellow River had flooded out over the rice fields. It spread water all over the flat land, deeper than Chin was tall. Then the water began to flow away back into the river, leaving soft, fertile mud from the river’s bottom all over the ground. But water still stood ankle-deep all over the rice fields.
“Do you see these tiny rice plants, here in this special bed?” Chin’s father asked. “Today I’ll be moving them out into the field so that they can grow larger. Your job will be to pull weeds out of the field while I plant.”
Chin rolled up the legs of his pants and waded out into the water. The water was ice-cold. At first his feet hurt from the cold. Then they started to go numb. He had to put his hands down into the water to pull weeds. His fingers were stiff with cold. But he kept working. He could see his father, planting rice seedlings up ahead of him. His father never stopped working! Chin was determined to work as hard as his father. The sun rose up higher and higher, and Chin’s back and head grew warm in the sunshine. But his fingers and feet ached with cold.
Finally his father called him back to dry land.
“You’ve worked like a man this morning!” he said. “Let’s go back to the house for our midday meal.”Chin followed his father back up to the house. His back hurt from bending over. His feet were wet and chilly. His hands were covered with cold mud. But he was proud of the work he had done.
Back at the house, his mother had fixed him a special treat—meat to go along with his rice. And his father poured him a cup of hot steaming tea to warm him. Chin huddled beside the clay stove, listening to his grandfather tell about the great floods of long ago. “When I was a boy,” his grandfather said, “the spring rains came down and down and down, day after day, until the Yellow River rose up and overflowed its banks. But it didn’t just flood our fields. Great rushing floods swirled down on our village and swept our houses away. We were left homeless!”
Chin shivered. He hoped that the Yellow River would never flood his home!
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Note to Parent: According to legend, Huang Di ruled around 2690 BC/BCE. Lei Zu is also known as Xiling Ji. The Shang dynasty ruled 1766–1122 BC/BCE.