Cool Footnote # 2: Pertaining to the promiscuity of rice
andrewleonard.substack.com
In the year 1012, the third emperor of the Song dynasty, Zhenzong, having grown increasingly concerned about the intersection of famine and population growth in southern China, ordered 30,000 bushels of the seeds of a particular variety of “early-ripening” rice to be distributed at state expense to peasants across the empire. The rice had many advantages, including drought resistance, but was especially popular because its early maturing qualities meant that it could be sown and reaped twice a year. This state-sponsored rice improvement project was a massive success. According to Francisca Bray, an authority on the history of Chinese agriculture, the new rice “permitted a quantum leap in the productivity of Chinese rice-farming.”
Cool Footnote # 2: Pertaining to the promiscuity of rice
Cool Footnote # 2: Pertaining to the…
Cool Footnote # 2: Pertaining to the promiscuity of rice
In the year 1012, the third emperor of the Song dynasty, Zhenzong, having grown increasingly concerned about the intersection of famine and population growth in southern China, ordered 30,000 bushels of the seeds of a particular variety of “early-ripening” rice to be distributed at state expense to peasants across the empire. The rice had many advantages, including drought resistance, but was especially popular because its early maturing qualities meant that it could be sown and reaped twice a year. This state-sponsored rice improvement project was a massive success. According to Francisca Bray, an authority on the history of Chinese agriculture, the new rice “permitted a quantum leap in the productivity of Chinese rice-farming.”