ORIGIN OF TRACTION PLOW— BISHOP 545 



This possibility is further strengthened by the fact that the varieties 

 of wheat grown in Central Asia and even in China are identical with 

 those of the Near East.^^ Wheat {T. vulgare and perhaps also T. 

 compadum) had reached China by the middle of the second millennium 

 B, C, as is shown by nearly contemporary inscriptions. The same 

 seems also to have been true of barley (probably H. distichum). These 

 cereals were not, however, accompanied by the traction plow, although 

 the Chinese of that day employed both horses and bullocks to draw 

 wheeled vehicles. The usual agricultural implements used by the 

 peasantry of the Chinese Bronze Age ®* were various forms of the foot- 

 plow, used by men worldng in pairs. So typical was this practice, 

 indeed, that the ideograph meaning "a pair" (of any sort) was formed 

 of two lei — implements of the foot-plow class — depicted side by side. 

 Further, the pictograph representing a single lei became the deter- 

 minative or "signific" of a large class of characters having to do with 

 agriculture. It seems likely, in the light both of numerous existing 

 survivals and of certain statements in the ancient Chinese texts, that 

 human traction also was once widely employed in Eastern Asia. 



There is no mention of the ox-drawn plow in China during the 

 earlier historical period. This might be taken merely for negative 

 evidence were it not that we find the definite statement that it was 

 introduced "about the middle of the Epoch of the Warring States" 

 (403-255 B. C.) — that is to say, sometime in the latter half of the 

 fourth century before our era.^^ 



Tliis dating is significant. For it was precisely then that the feudal 

 state of Ch'in ^^ — corresponding roughly to the present northwestern 

 province of Shensi — annexed the eastern termini of both the two 

 great land-routes linking China with the Occident." Of these, one 

 was, of course, that traversing Central Asia; while the other connected 

 western China, by way of Burma, with the valley of the Ganges. 

 Now Ch'in was noted not only for her devotion to war but also for 

 her encouragement of agriculture and her receptivity toward new 

 ideas. She, more than any other Chinese state of that day, would 

 have been likely to welcome and adopt the traction plow. 



By which of the two routes just mentioned Imowledge of the plow 

 made its way to China, we cannot say. Possibly it may have spread 



«3 Vavilov, N. I., Gcographische Genzentren unserer Kulturpflanzen, Zeitschr. fiir induktive Abstain- 

 mungs- und Vererbungslehro, suppl. I, p. 352 and map on p. 353, Leipzig, 1928. 



For a discussion of Vavilov's views, see AVatkins, A. E., The origin of cultivated plants, Antiquity, vol. 7, 

 pp. 73-80, 1933. 



«< The Chinese Bronze Age lasted from the former half of the second millenium until the latter part of the 

 first before our era. 



<i' For this citation I am indebted to Dr. A. W. Hummel. 



«« Ch'in was the state destined about a century later to establish the first centralized and bureaucratic 

 Chinese empire; from its name comes ours of "China." 



<" The sea-route to the Far East only came into use around or perhaps very shortly before our era, when 

 Western ships began to appear in southern Chinese waters. 



