Crops, Climate, and Empire: How Ancient Farmers Sustained the Han Dynasty

May 22, 2025 | Source: Anthropology.net

In the heart of ancient China’s political machinery, where emperors ruled from Chang’an and armies marched from loess plains, a quieter but no less crucial revolution was taking place in the soil. Beneath the feet of palace courtiers and farmers alike, changes in agricultural practice were unfolding that would sustain one of the most enduring empires in Chinese history: the Han Dynasty.

Recent research1 led by Jingwen Liao and colleagues from Leiden University and Fudan University used stable isotope analysis to trace the long-term evolution of farming strategies in the Guanzhong Basin—a region that not only served as the Han capital’s granary, but also as a climate archive written in millet.