Longping Rice Museum: Exhibition of Chinese Rice History and Culture

"Fragrance of Rice for Ten Thousand Years - Exhibition of Chinese Rice History and Culture" tells not only the story of the natural growth of crops but also an epic of the Chinese nation's relentless pioneering, cultivation, growth, and progress. China is the earliest country in the world to cultivate rice, and the earliest artificially cultivated rice was found in Hunan, at the Yuchanyan site in Daoxian County, Yongzhou, known as the "source of all grains and the origin of pottery." The earliest rice fields and irrigation ditches in China were also discovered at the Chengtoushan site in Lixian County, Hunan. The animated design of the "Peiwenzhai Gengzhi Tu" (a third-class cultural relic) originally housed in the Palace Museum vividly recreates 23 different labor scenes from land preparation, seed soaking to storage, accompanied by a seven-character poem inscribed by Emperor Kangxi. For example: "In times of peace, there are no signs, and smoke from village kitchens floats." By the Ming and Qing dynasties, the agricultural economy of the Taihu Lake area shifted to silk and cotton spinning, gradually being replaced by the two lakes region, which became the national commodity grain base. After the Ming Dynasty, rice farming in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, centered on the Jianghan Plain and Dongting Lake Plain, became the largest rice farming center in the country. The chapter "The Way of Rice" explains the profound influence of rice farming on various ethnic cultures from the perspective of rice customs. The scene also uses models to recreate the ceremony of the emperor personally plowing the fields depicted in the "Yongzheng Emperor Worshipping the First Farmer Scroll." Many cultural elements in China are related to rice farming culture. For example, "The people are precious, the state comes next, and the ruler is light." "She" refers to the earth god, and "Ji" refers to the grain god. Emperor Shun was said to have plowed and birds weeded in Lishan, and both Shennong and Houji were practitioners of farming culture.