Examined in this article are the agricultural developments made in the Andong and Yae’an areas during the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as the ecological environment of the time, and changes that occurred in terms of local products.
With the Sajok figures coming and going, in the ending days of the Goryeo dynasty and the early days of Joseon, the developments of the Andong area actively began. Around the 16th century, embankments were deployed along the streams, and the technique of transplanting rice seedlings enabled an increase in the size of the population and then led to the formation of agglomerated settlements. In the 16th century slash-and-burn fields were expanded, and such trend continued into the 17th century. The region which witnessed this kind of fields the most was the Gyeongsang-do province, and the Andong and Yae’an areas were the most exemplary cases.
The establishment of slash-and-burn fields had a complex background and complex results. Along with the embankments, these new techniques contributed to the expansion of agricultural lands, from riversides to mountain ridges and to even higher places. Sajok figures created household sceneries with pine trees as landmarks, and in the meantime the nearby areas of the slash-and-burn fields were turned into forest villages. Decrease in forests caused daily and yearly temperature differences to worsen in the Andong and Yae’an areas, and brought harder natural disasters which included flooding, draught, landslides, and discontinuation of water flowers. These variables actually decreased the efficiency in agricultural production.
The agricultural developments of the 16th and 17th centuries caused certain ecological changes, and led to the decrease in number of tigers, leopards, dears, driving them to the verge of extinction. The heat that came from establishing slash-and-burn fields caused normal Insam production to stop and initiated Gasam production instead. These ecological changes also forced the authorities to allow the Andong and Yae’an areas to submit (just like other areas) tributary items in a Bangnab fashion and submit taxes dictated by the Daedong-beob institution in the form of grain and textile. In other words, the changes in the infrastructure(the ecological condition) caused the change in the superstructure(national institutions). The ecological condition of a country was intertwined with the lives of the people and the fate of the dynasty.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the agricultural developments which intended to ensure the humans’ survival and prosperity caused unexpected ecological changes. This should be further examined.