Journal
WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY
Volume 48, Issue 4, Pages 563-585Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2016.1251850
Keywords
Han China; heaven-human induction idealism; agricultural intensification; Yellow River floods; Three-Kingdoms period Korea
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Han China (206 bc-ad 220) witnessed significant population growth, pronounced technological development, intensified agricultural practices and the construction of large-scale hydraulic engineering projects in the Yellow River. These processes coincided with increased frequency and intensity of major floods along the Yellow River. The interactions between flooding and social-technical developments fundamentally reshaped the politics of the Han and stimulated the formation of so-called heaven-human induction idealism. This Confucian environmental ethic gradually became a powerful orthodoxy that shaped political and economic behaviours and society's perspective on and actions towards utilizing environmental resources and transforming landscapes. Similar processes played out in Three-Kingdoms Korea (ad 300-668). The Korean case exemplifies how, as in China, this idealism was a product of the long-term interplay between state formation and the environment through the development of intensive agriculture.
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