num_pages: 320
description: A multidisciplinary environmental history of early Chinas political systems featuring newly available Chinese archaeological dataThis book is a multidisciplinary study of the ecology of Chinas early political systems up to the fall of the first empire in 207 BCE. Brian Lander traces the formation of lowland North Chinas agricultural systems and the transformation of its plains from diverse forestland and steppes to farmland. He argues that the growth of states in ancient China and elsewhere was based on their ability to exploit the labor and resources of those who harnessed photosynthetic energy from domesticated plants and animals. Focusing on the state of Qin Lander amalgamates abundant new scientific archaeological and excavated documentary sources to argue that the human domination of the central Yellow River region and the rest of the planet was made possible by the development of complex political structures that managed and expanded agroecosystems.
language: English
title: The King's Harvest: A Political Ecology of China from the First Farmers to the First Empire
publisher: Yale University Press