The Changing Landscape in Rural South Fujian 213
any kind could be achieved there; whence it appeared to me that
this country is the most populous one in the whole world.^22The exhaustion of arable land in Fujian was reβlected in the stagnancy of
the cultivated acreage as shown by the following βigures:^23
AD 1391 AD 1502
(Unit: qing)AD 1542146,259.69 135,259.92 135,475.331No new lands were brought under cultivation, even in the following
centuries, as shown below:
Usable Land of Quanzhou Prefecture^24
(Unit: qing)Subprefecture AD 1562 AD 1582 AD 1752
Jinjiang 4,252.30 5,733.19 3,979.93
Nan’an 3,609.91 3,615.85 3,047.45
Tong’an 2,596.72 2,24.34 2431.68
Hue’an 2,469.55 2,476.74 2,482.72
Anchi 1,401.65 1,12.96 1,420.05
Total 14,330.13 15,863.08 13,361.83Note: Table includes all types of cultivated land, ponds, dams and land used for other
purposes.
Usable Land of Zhangzhou Prefecture^25
(Unit: qing)
Year Area
1512 12,380.13
1552 12,114.61- Fr Martin de Rada, “Narrative of the Mission to Fukien, June–October, 1575”, in
C.R. Boxer, South China in the Sixteenth Century (reproduced from the Hakluyt
Society; Nendeln: Kraus Reprint Ltd., 1967), p. 248. - Wei Qingyuan, Mingtai huangce zhidu, p. 250.
- Quanzhou fuzhi (1870 ed.), 20:21a, 35b, 47b, 57a; 21: 6b, 7a, 21b, 35b, 47b, 57a.
- Zhangzhou fuzhi (1877 ed.), 14: 22b, 23, and 15: 12b.
(cont’d overleaf)