Socio-economy of Dongting Lake

Dongting Lake Plain covers an area of about 50,000 square kilometers, including Mishi Town, Songzi County, Gongan County and Jiangnan part of Shishou City in Jingzhou District, Hubei Province, Yueyanglou District, Yunxi District, Junshan District, Yueyang County, Huarong County, Xiangyin County, Linxiang City, Guluo City and Quyuan Administrative District in Yueyang City, Hunan Province, and Wuling District, Dingcheng District, Hanshou County and Taoyuan County in Changde City. Wangcheng District, Furong District, Tianxin District, Yuelu District, Kaifu District, Yuhua District, Changsha County, Ningxiang County, Tianyuan District, Lusong District, Hetang District and Shifeng District of Zhuzhou City, and some areas of yuhu district and Yuetang District of Xiangtan City. Dongting Lake is the "Mother Lake" in Hunan Province. Dongting Lake is one of the most dynamic growth plates for sustainable development in Hunan Province, and it is also an important base for water conservancy security, food security and ecological security in Hunan Province. It will become the most important demonstration area of modern agriculture in Hunan Province and even the whole country, the experimental area of economic support in the hinterland of the city and the exploration area of coordinated development of rivers and lakes in China.

Dongting Lake is the "Mother Lake" in Hunan and the birthplace of Chinese traditional agriculture. Dongting Lake area has become the earliest birthplace of rice farming in China because of its good natural environment and rich biological resources of water and soil. The site of carbonized rice was found in the Neolithic cultural site of Pengtoushan, Lixian County. According to the carbon 14 test, these rice remains date back 9000 ~ 8000 years, which is earlier than the Hemudu site in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province 1000 ~ 2000. According to sporopollen analysis, the biological characteristics of rice in Pengtou Mountain are very close to those of modern rice, indicating that the rice unearthed in Pengtou Mountain belongs to cultivated rice. 1993, another Neolithic rice composition was found in the lower part of Chengtoushan ancient city wall site not far from Pengtoushan site, about 7000 years ago. When excavating the ancient city wall, archaeologists found that there was a huge trench in the early Neolithic period, about 2000 years before the city wall was built. Seeds such as rice, rice, beans, vegetables and lotus seeds 10 and the remains of more than 20 kinds of animals such as pigs, cattle, deer, elephants, fish and snails were unearthed in the trench mud. In addition, hand-woven bamboo mats, reed mat fragments and rice fields dating back about 6500 years have been found. This is the oldest ancient paddy field entity discovered in the world so far. In the surface soil of ancient paddy fields, a large number of silicon protons of rice and rice plants were found through detection and analysis. Ditches, ponds, dams and primitive water conservancy facilities have also been found around the rice fields. The above shows that as early as 8000 ~ 7000 years ago, ancestors began to settle agriculture in Dongting Lake with fixed settlements, creating an early human civilization with rice agriculture as the main body. China is the earliest country to cultivate rice in the world, and Dongting Lake area is the earliest birthplace of artificially cultivated rice in the world.

It is precisely because of the unique agricultural production conditions in Dongting Lake area that the water and soil here have nurtured the descendants of several generations of China in the historical period. In addition to the indigenous population, Dongting Lake area is also the inflow place of immigrants in past dynasties. Since the pre-Qin period, Ba people moved eastward and Mi people settled in the lake area. The Chu people moved south, managed Huxiang and became granaries. In later dynasties, as long as there was war in the north, a large number of refugees moved south. After the Yongjia Rebellion, "more than 100,000 people flowed into Jingzhou", and the lake area became one of the areas with the largest number of overseas Chinese counties. South yiyang county and South Hedong counties are set up in the north and northwest of Dongting Lake, and Songzi county is now an overseas Chinese county. Although the newly established counties are not overseas Chinese counties, they are also related to the resettlement of refugees, such as Xiangyin County, Yaoshan County, Yaoshan County, Zhonghua County, Yushan County, Xiang Bin County and Luozhou County. After the Anshi Rebellion, people in the north fled one after another, and the flow to Hunan reached a climax. "Deng, dressed in Beijing, threw herself into Jiang Xiang. Therefore, Beijing and Nanjing are ten times more righteous than the original. " For example, Du Fu, a great poet, lived in the lake area during this period and finally died on a boat in Xiangjiang River. By the Ming Dynasty, people attached great importance to farming, and the number of immigrants increased greatly, but the nature changed somewhat, mainly economic immigrants, and refugees began to decrease. There is a saying that Jiangxi fills in Huguang. During the Kanggan period in Qing Dynasty, a large number of dikes were built in the lake area, and the population of the lake area increased sharply. Except for some provinces, most of the immigrants in the lake area are from this province, and they are called "fellow villagers" by the indigenous people in the lake area, which means the upper reaches of Hunan's water resources. Dongting Lake can become an important destination for immigrants from different dynasties in history, which shows that this area is rich in natural conditions and has a large population carrying capacity. In other words, it can solve the livelihood problem of a large number of population expansion.

Dongting Lake is a famous land of plenty, the most important commodity grain and oil base and aquaculture base in Hunan Province and even the whole country. Both Sima Qian and Ban Gu described their social and economic life with "rice in soup and fish" and "no daughter's home, no hunger". Dongting Lake area, criss-crossing rivers, dotted with lakes and extremely rich in aquatic resources, has become one of the most ideal areas in the period of agricultural civilization, and rice soup fish has also become synonymous with the land of fish and rice in different periods. Dongting Lake has given mankind rich and generous returns. Besides feeding the people in this area, it has gradually become the largest grain exporter in China since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. During the Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, with the climax of land reclamation in Dongting Lake area, the cultivated land area in Hunan Province increased sharply, and the grain output gradually caught up with and surpassed that in Hubei. In Hunan, "only the valley of the province is transported, not the rice from other provinces". The new folk proverb "Hunan is ripe, the world is sufficient" spread to the emperor, and then replaced "Hunan is ripe, the world is sufficient". Hunan Province became the most important commodity grain production base, and Dongting Lake became a famous granary. This important strategic position of Hunan Province lasted until the establishment of People's Republic of China (PRC). According to the statistical data of 1998, the total grain output of Dongting Lake area is 7,242,500 tons, accounting for 25.7438+0% of Hunan Province. Cotton 143 10000 tons, accounting for 74.34%; 593,400 tons of aquatic products, accounting for 50.81%; Ramie 3 1.8 million tons, accounting for 79.5%; 483,400 tons of oil, accounting for 40.03%.

At the same time, reeds are spread all over Huzhou, covering an area of 60,000 hectares, and 90% of them are used for papermaking. There are 47 navigable rivers/kloc-0, with a navigable mileage of 3,276 kilometers, and 75 navigable rivers all year round, of which the main waterway 16 is 996 kilometers. In addition, Chenglingji was changed to a foreign trade port on 1980, with a designed throughput of 2 million tons.