CHAPTER TWO SACRED LANDSCAPE IN SOUTHERN SONG AND YUAN JIZHOU The geographical focus of this book is on a part of Jiangxi province, one of the provinces of south-central China. In the north the Yangzi River forms its boundary; towards the south, east, and west, the province is hemmed in by mountain ranges. From these surrounding mountains several rivers spring forth that ow towards the Yangzi River in the north and drain in Lake Poyang 鄱陽, now the largest freshwater lake in China. Lake Poyang functions as an important over ow basin for the Yangzi River, and changes considerably in size during the course of the year depending on the levels of the river. The Gan, one of the largest tributary rivers of the Yangzi River and the province’s central river system, served as its most important transport system. It origi- nates in the south of the province and ] ows northwards for over 751 kilometres (see Map 2). Jiangxi’s lower mountains and hills as well as its river basins provide fertile arable land (over 65% of the province), much of which is given to paddy \ elds. The area’s sub-tropical climate and abundant surface water, combined with almost a full year’s growing season make the area ideal for rice cultivation, and most places annually produce two crops of rice. Other crops include tea, sugarcane, sweet potato, citrus fruit and \ brous plants (ramie and cotton). The mountains and hills were originally covered with evergreen and broad-leaf vegetation, when timber and pine resin were important products of the region, but more recently erosion has caused serious problems and the timber production has sharply declined. Because of the fertility of the land, the mild climate, and the con- venient transportation routes, Jiangxi became an economic and cultural centre during the Song dynasty, producing powerful merchants, in u- ential statesmen and famous scholars. In Song dynasty Jiangxi, roughly the same amount of land was already cultivated as during the Ming and Qing dynasties.1 Jiangxi’s tea, silk, paper, mandarin oranges and \ sh were distributed along the rivers of the realm, as was Jiangxi’s pottery, 1 Xu Huailin, Jiangxi shigao (Nanchang: Jiangxi gaoxiao chubanshe, 1998), 263. 22 chapter two which included the ne porcelain from the kilns of Jizhou at Yonghe 永和 near Luling.2 The population of Jiangxi increased signi cantly during the course of the Song, and Jiangxi produced 5,400 jinshi degree holders during the Northern and Southern Song dynasties.3 During the Yuan dynasty, Jiangxi was established as a provincial branch-secretariat, which supervised 13 circuits, subdivided into pre- fectures and counties. The area continued to prosper, with a newly developing cotton industry, silver mining, and a technically and artisti- cally advanced production of porcelain in Jingdezhen 景德鎮. (By this time, Jizhou’s kilns at Yonghe had begun to fall into disuse.) At the end of the Yuan dynasty, repeated rebellions led to heavy ghting and plundering soldiers in icted great damage throughout Jiangxi. The devastation was to some extent offset, one might argue, by the bene t of close ties between Jiangxi’s scholarly elite and the founder of the Ming dynasty. During the \ rst decades of the Ming dynasty, Jiangxi, and in particular the prefecture by then known as Ji’an, enjoyed a favoured status in the eyes of the Ming founder, Zhu Yuanzhang, and rebuilding took place throughout the province. During the course of the Ming, Jiangxi continued to produce a rice surplus, and much of the rice consumed in the rapidly developing Jiangnan region came from Jiangxi and neighbouring Hubei and Hunan. The region of Jizhou The region of Ji that forms the focus of this book is located in south- western Jiangxi and has the advantage of combining wooded mountains with a central fertile plain on both sides of the Gan. The counties connected by the Gan are referred to as the Ji-Tai 吉泰 Basin, histori- cally producing a vast surplus of rice. Jizhou was founded as a separate administrative unit in 590 during the Sui dynasty (581–618). It was named after Jishui 吉水, a central town along the Gan, and included the territory of Luling, which had a history dating back to the Qin 2 Xu, Jiangxi shigao, 299–300. For a study of Yonghe and its kilns, see Gao Liren, Jizhou Yonghe yao (Shanghai: Wenhui chubanshe, 2000). For a recent study of Jingdezhen and the pottery it sent around the world, see Robert Finlay, ‘The Pilgrim Art: The Culture of Porcelain in World History’, Journal of World History 9.2 (1998): 141–187. 3 While in the rst decade of the twelfth century, Jiangxi’s population formed less than ten percent of China’s total population, in the early thirteenth century, Jiangxi accounted for 17.5% of the country’s total. See Xu, Jiangxi shigao, 294..