Tigers, rice, silk, and silt

by Marks, Robert

"Challenging the conventional wisdom conveyed by Western environmental historians about China, this book examines the relationships between economic and environmental changes in the southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi (a region historically known as Lingnan, "South of the Mountains") in imperial China, focusing on the period from 1400 to 1850, but also providing substantial background from 2 CE on. Robert Marks discusses the impact of population growth on land use patterns, the agroecology of the region, and deforestation; the commercialization of agriculture and its implications for ecological change; the impact of climatic change on agriculture; and the ways in which the human population responded to environmental challenges."--Jacket.