Chengdu Plain
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| Chengdu Plain | |
|---|---|
| 成都平原 (Chéngdū Píngyuán); Wenjiang and Pidu | |
| HistoricalCannabis last recorded here in 1913 | |
| Geography | |
| Country | China |
| Province/State | Sichuan |
| Sub-provincial city | Chengdu |
| Coordinates | 30.68, 103.86 |
| Landscape | |
| Area | 714 km² |
| Terrain | Irrigated farmland of the Chengdu Plain west and north-west of the city of Chengdu, in the districts of Wenjiang and Pidu; approximately those two districts |
| Growing history | |
| Grown | 1904[2]: 36–1913[1]: 81 |
| Earlier names | Ch'eng-tu Plain; Chengtu Plain; Wen-chiang Hsien; P'i Hsien |
| Documentation | |
| Appellations | 0 |
| Accessions | 0 |
| Conservation | |
| Populations | none documented yet |
The Chengdu Plain (成都平原) is a historical hemp growing area of Sichuan, China, drawn on the districts of Wenjiang and Pidu of the city of Chengdu, the Wen-chiang and P'i Hsien of early 20th-century writers. Alexander Hosie, the British consul-general at Chengdu, wrote in a report published in 1904 that Cannabis sativa, "the true hemp plant", was "grown very extensively within the districts of Wen-chiang and P‘i Hsien".[2]: 36 The plant collector E. H. Wilson wrote in 1913 that "Wén-chiang Hsien is famous for its hemp",[3]: 108 and that the true hemp, called Hou-ma locally, was "abundantly cultivated around Wénchiang Hsien and P’i Hsien".[1]: 81
The crop
In Hosie's account the seed was mixed with powdered rape cake and wood ash and sown in February. By May the plants formed a dense stand of stems 1.8 to 2.4 m (6 to 8 feet) high, and in June they were cut, bundled and steeped for three or four days in shallow pits holding about 60 cm of water. After two or three days drying in the sun the leafy tips had rotted enough to be brushed off by hand. The brown stems were stacked in hollow cones wrapped in matting and bleached white with burning sulphur. Women and children then split each stem with a bamboo knife and pulled the fibre off by hand. A mou of land (about one fifteenth of a hectare) gave 100 to 120 catties of cleaned fibre.[2]: 36 A later crop, said to give a tougher fibre, was grown for the bodies of paint brushes and the cores of Chinese pens.[2]: 37
Wilson calls the same crop a spring crop, sown in February and cut at the end of May and the beginning of June, just as the plants began to flower. The stems grew thickly together to about 2.4 m (8 feet); they were retted in pits of water, dried in the sun, stacked in hollow cones under mats and bleached with burning sulphur before the bark was stripped by hand.[1]: 81 In his general account of the plain's farming he lists hemp (Cannabis sativa), common in certain districts, among the winter crops with wheat, rape, broad beans, peas and barley.[3]: 108
Uses and trade
Hosie found the hemp "in great demand for ropes and cordage and for caulking purposes generally"; every junk on the upper Yangtze carried a supply. It was also made into coarse cloth for grain sacks, and inferior cloth into mourning clothes for the poor. The stripped cores served as tinder, and their ash went into fire-crackers.[2]: 37 Little oil was pressed from the seed, which was mostly fed to cage birds.[2]: 34 For Wilson, Hou-ma was the best fibre of western China for rope and cordage; it was used locally for grain sacks and coarse clothing, and in quantity for these at Paoning Fu.[1]: 81
The two writers disagree on the trade. Hosie did not think that much of this hemp left the province, and he wrote that most of the "hemp" sent down the Yangtze from Sichuan was the fibre of Abutilon.[2]: 37 Wilson wrote that the hemp of Wenjiang was exported largely to other parts of Sichuan and down river,[3]: 108 and that "It is this hemp that is principally exported from Szechuan."[1]: 81
Names
Hosie notes that the fibre plants went by different names in each province: in Sichuan true hemp was "Huo Ma" and Abutilon "T'ung Ma", while in North China they were "Hsiao Ma" and "Ch'ing Ma".[2]: 35 Wilson wrote that the product called Huo-ma "has been wrongly identified by many travellers".[3]: 108 An agricultural encyclopedia lists the Jinguahua (金瓜花) hemp of Pixian, with grey-brown, clearly marked seed coats, among China's noted local varieties.[4]
Appellations
No appellation pages exist for this growing area yet.
Accessions
No accessions documented yet.
Recent news
No news items are recorded for this growing area yet.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Wilson, Ernest Henry (1913). A Naturalist in Western China, with Vasculum, Camera, and Gun. Vol. II. London: Methuen.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Hosie, Alexander (1904). Report by Consul-General Hosie on the Province of Ssu-ch'uan (Report). China No. 5 (1904). London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. Cd. 2247.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Wilson, Ernest Henry (1913). A Naturalist in Western China, with Vasculum, Camera, and Gun. Vol. I. London: Methuen.
- ↑ "大麻种质资源" [Hemp germplasm resources]. 智汇三农 (in 中文). Retrieved 22 October 2026.