What was the economy of the southwest Yi region during the Qin and Han Dynasties?

? During the Qin and Han dynasties, the economic development of the "Southwest Yi" area was very unbalanced. From the Qin Dynasty to the Western Han Dynasty, the productivity of Dianchi Lake and some dam areas in central Yunnan, northeastern Yunnan and western Yunnan developed at a high level, while many remote areas and mountainous areas far away from the dam areas were still in the original production state. According to Biography of Southwest Yi in Historical Records, Du Qiong, Yelang and Mimo, who share the same surname as Yunnan, belong to a tribal economic and cultural type of "gathering, farming and gathering cities", which is not much different from the "Yunnan people" with high development level at the same time. At the same time, "Kunming people" and "people" live a nomadic life of "migrating with livestock, not living in their usual places and not growing up", and there is no obvious class division between them. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the productivity level of Yi people in Yunnan was improved to a certain extent, and crop planting began to divert water into the fields to grow rice. During the Wangmang period, Wen Qi, a local official of Zhuti (Zhaotong), organized people to build "Longchi" (a thousand hectares pond) to irrigate rice fields, and then reclaimed more than 2,000 hectares of rice fields around Dianchi Lake, and the technology of planting rice by water diversion gradually became popular.

During this period, the technology of Niu Geng was also introduced into the Yi area, and the original cultivation form of hoeing upland rice gradually changed into animal husbandry and planting agriculture, and the appearance of agricultural production changed greatly. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, handicrafts also developed further. Besides Yuyuan Garden (now Jiangchuan and Chengjiang), Gaolv (now Tonghai and Hexi) and Bengu (now Gejiu and Mengzi) recorded in the Western Han Dynasty, there are also gold and gold mines in Shuangbai (now Shuangbai, Xinping and Yimen), Bonan (now Yongping), Jinning and Buwei (now Baoshan).

With the increase of various mineral exploitation, various handicraft production of metal utensils has also developed. During the Han Dynasty, in order to consolidate the feudal political system of counties and counties, the central dynasty adopted the measures of immigration and reclamation, that is, part of the Han population was moved from the mainland to the Yi inhabited areas for reclamation. These people who go to the Yi people's inhabited areas to farm the land are mainly composed of three parts: first, landlords and businessmen among the Han people in the mainland, who recruit the Han farmers in the southwest Yi people's areas to farm for them, and then hand over the grain, cattle, horses, pigs, sheep and poultry harvested in the wasteland to the county officials for their own officials and local garrison to eat, and then the local officials issue vouchers to collect the corresponding money and grain from the mainland treasury. Second, some extremely poor farmers, who were exploited and oppressed in the mainland and could not make a living, responded to the government's call and should be recruited. Third, criminals who committed crimes in the mainland and were sent into exile by the government.

At the same time, a part of the Han population near the Yi people's inhabited areas, after the establishment of the county, took the initiative to flow into the Yi people's inhabited areas for reclamation. Immigrants entering the Yi area of Yunnan mainly enter from Bolu, and there are generally two routes: one is from Bolu (now Yibin) to the south, passing through Zhuti (now Zhaotong), wei county (now Qujing), Dianchi Lake and Yunnan (now Xiangyun) to Buwei (now eastern Baoshan); The other one also starts from Bodao County, then goes southeast, passes through the Songyu River (now North Panjiang) basin (now western Guizhou), and reaches Galand (now Ping Huang and Fuquan in Guizhou). The scope of these immigrants is mostly concentrated along the traffic lines and Pingba areas in the above areas, as well as around the county and county government residences.