Ethnobotany is the study of the links that human beings, as individuals or societies, have maintained and maintain with plants. China is a country with more than 50 different national minorities, with very different traditional cultures, languages, food habits, etc. Chinese ethnobotany could thus be the juxtaposition of the different ethnobotanies of all the ethnic groups living in China. On the other hand, one generally understands “Han” when one says “Chinese.” This term, which is the name of the second dynasty after unification of the empire (206 BCE–AD 220) is also the name of the main ethnic group in China, with about 96% of the population. It is the ethnobotany of the Han Chinese that we are going to present here.
With 3,692,000 square miles, China is about the same size as the United States. Its relief can be roughly compared to stairs going down from the western plateaux to the plains of the east and the south. Its climate is under the double influence of a huge continental...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anderson, E. N. The Food of China. New York: Yale University Press, 1988.
Berlin, Brent. Ethnobiological Classification. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992.
Bickford, Mary, S. ed. Bones of Jade, Soul on Ice – The Flowering Plum in Chinese Art. New Haven, Conneticut: Yale University Art Gallery, 1985.
Bray, Francesca. Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 6.2. Agriculture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Bretschneider, Emil. Botanicon Sinicum. Journal of the North‐China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, New Series 16.2 (1881): 1–467 (Facsimile edition, Nendeln, Liechenstein: Kraus Reprint Ltd, 1967, Vol. 1–2).
Hu, Shiu‐ying. Food Plants of China. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2005.
Goody, Jack. The Culture of Flowers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Li, Hui‐Lin. The Garden Flowers of China. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1959.
Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 6:1. Botany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. 7 vols. London: Lund Humphries and the Ronald Press Company, 1955–1958.
Sivin, Nathan. Li Shih‐chen. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Ed. Charles G. Gillispie. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973. 390–8.
Zhu, Jianping and Lin Songbiao. [Investigation on folk medicine and health care of She ethnic group in Zhejiang province] Zhonghua yishi zazhi. Vol. 32, no. 4 (Oct. 2002). 195–9.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Métailié, G. (2008). Ethnobotany in China. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_8577
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_8577
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-4559-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4425-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law