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(Ann)
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cultivate Mongolian lands, this would“spread out the population of
China proper, and provide a greater surplus of grain.”^66
“Grain,”of course, could include wheat, barley, and millet, the primary
grains grown north of the Yangzi, as well as a variety of others. Paddy,
or wet, rice was mainly restricted to areas south of the Yangzi. During
the late imperial period, its intensive cultivation was made possible mainly
by the introduction in the eleventh century of early ripening and drought-
resistant Champa rice from Vietnam. All major crops coming into China
from Southeast Asia or the New World, including maize, peanuts, and
potatoes, effectively increased arable land area because they could be
grown on hillsides, in relatively saline soils, and on other types of“waste-
lands.”^67 Humans and crops interacted to transform all marginal areas into
fields wherever opportunities presented themselves.
In the overall process of Han arablist development, limiting and eth-
nically distinctive interdependencies were also formed between
Han cultivators and their crops, expressed both biologically and cultur-
ally. One example is lactose intolerance, which persists to this day among
75 to 80 percent of Han Chinese and appears to be genetically differenti-
ated by ethnic group. Lactose intolerance is, in other words, a condition
that distinguishes Han Chinese from other groups such as Mongols and
Uighurs, who are predominately lactose tolerant.^68 The Kangxi emperor,
in his 1716 musings, ponders the cultural expression of this condition for
Han residence in pastures beyond the passes. Noting there were many
potential areas of residence that were“not arable”but had“water and
grass,”the emperor speculated that“commoners could pursue a liveli-
hood by emulating Mongol herd-raising.”He decided, however, that the
“average Han”(laobaixing),“being accustomed solely to cultivation,
could not do this.”Shandong relief officials were less delicate, stating
that“there are people who could stand beside a cow and not know how
to milk it... waiting to fall over dead.”^69
The emperor’s conclusion that this incapacity“is due to nothing more
than habit”reflects a comparatively ethnocentric view that is certainly
reasonable for his time and place. However, this view obscures particu-
lar types of Han environmental relations that literally embody greater
intimacy with plants rather than mammals and, so, limit places to which
Han can adapt themselves while preserving their identity. Han, how-
ever, to the alternating gratification and dismay of dynastic officials,
responded not by adapting themselves to grasslands, but by terraform-
ing grasslands intofields abetted by certain adaptable and familiar plant
species.
44 Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain
