A Brief History of the Tujia — The Tujia Before the Sui (II)
II. Tujia Economy from Qin to Sui: The Tujia-inhabited areas within Ba, Nan, and Qianzhong commanderies were mountainous and hilly terrain with abundant rainfall, crisscrossing rivers, and rich resources, suitable for crop growth. For generations, the Tujia cleared thorny brush and worked hard to cultivate here, planting rice in fertile flat areas and miscellaneous grains in mountainous and hilly areas.
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II. The Economy of the Tujia from Qin to Sui
The areas inhabited by the Tujia within Ba Commandery, Nan Commandery, and Qianzhong Commandery belonged to mountainous and hilly terrain, with abundant rainfall, crisscrossing rivers, and rich products, suitable for the growth of crops. For a long time, the Tujia cut through thorns and thistles here, worked hard to cultivate, planted rice in fertile and flat places, planted miscellaneous grains in mountainous and hilly areas, and made fishing, hunting, and mountain felling their livelihood, gradually developing these areas. The Tujia had long since begun to cultivate rice. When the "Geographical Treatise" of the Book of Han described the production conditions in the Chu region, it said: "Some practiced slash-and-burn cultivation and water weeding; the people ate fish and rice, and made fishing, hunting, and mountain felling their livelihood; with fruits, melons, and clams, their food was often sufficient." The production conditions of Nan Commandery and Wuling Commandery were similar. Jiangzhou within Ba Commandery (present-day Chongqing area) in the Han dynasty "had rice fields and produced tribute rice." The Tujia living in present-day Youyang, Xiushan, Qianjiang, and other counties would not have been an exception. But the farming methods were very primitive. Ying Shao of the Eastern Han personally witnessed the production process by which people at that time cultivated rice: "They burned grass and sowed rice seeds in the water; the grass and rice grew together, each seven or eight cun tall; then they all cut it down and again let water in to irrigate it; the grass died and only the rice grew. This is what is called slash-and-burn cultivation and water weeding." This kind of slash-and-burn cultivation and water weeding production was still at a stage of extensive farming, and yields were not high. In mountainous and hilly areas, various miscellaneous grains such as millet and beans were mostly planted, and the Three Gorges region also produced oats. "On the places on both banks of the Three Gorges where soil and rock were not separated, oats were all planted. At the turn of spring and summer, yellow covered the valleys, and the local people relied on them for food." In addition, they also relied on fishing, hunting, and mountain felling to supplement the insufficiency of food. Therefore, historical records say, "Food and drink were supplied, and they did not worry about freezing or hunger." This extensive agricultural production, aside from filling their stomachs, produced no surplus. The "Biographies of the Money-makers" in the Records of the Grand Historian records: "The customs of Western Chu were fierce... the land was thin, and there was little accumulation." The "Geographical Treatise" of the Book of Han also says: "Therefore they lived carelessly and had no accumulation... and there were no families with a thousand [coins]." By the Sui dynasty, the border region of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou was still sparsely populated and economically undeveloped, as can be seen from the population conditions at the time. For example, Yuanling Commandery governed the five counties of Yuanling, Daxiang (present-day Yongshun, Baojing), Yanquan, Longbiao, and Chenxi, and had only 4,140 households; Qingjiang Commandery governed the five counties of Yanshui, Bashan (present-day Changyang, Wufeng), Qingjiang (present-day Enshi, Lichuan), Kaiyi (present-day Xianfeng, Laifeng), and Jianshi, and had only 2,650 households. This shows that local agriculture had long stagnated at a relatively primitive and extensive stage, productivity was low, and population had not developed much either.
In addition to agricultural production, the Ba people were also good at weaving "lai cloth." Xu Shen in the Explanation of Script and Elucidation of Characters said: "Jia is the cloth of the Cong Yi of the Nan Commandery Man." "Cong is the tax of the southern Man." Jia is Cong cloth. It is very clear that the Ba people wove lai cloth mainly to pay taxes to the feudal dynasty. In the early Western Han, because the Ba people had merit in attacking the Three Qin, after they were sent back, the Ba chiefs of the seven surnames Luo, Pu, Du, E, Du, Xi, and Gong were exempted from rents and taxes, but other surnames and Ba commoners still had to pay forty Cong coins per person each year. In Wuling Commandery, "each year adults were ordered to submit one bolt of cloth, and minor children two zhang; this was the so-called lai cloth..." What differed from Qin was that they no longer paid lai tax by household, but rather by poll tax, with differences between adults and minors and in amounts. From Qin to Han, the feudal central dynasties ordered the Ba people to pay taxes in lai cloth, which shows that their handicraft weaving was already relatively developed. In the Liu Song of the Southern Dynasties, Liu Yu implemented in the border region of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, and Guizhou that "the strong do not supply official taxes," "for Man people who submit and attach themselves, one household pays several hu of grain, and the rest have no miscellaneous levies," and "the Man have no corvée." Changing the payment of taxes from lai cloth to grain shows that by the Northern and Southern Dynasties, agricultural productivity in the Tujia region had improved somewhat.