How Did Technology Help Create China’s Historically Large Population?

slate.com

This article really shows its Quora origins. The author doesn't mention Chinese irrigation(!), the introduction of Champa rice to that country, the dry and sandy Mediterranean soil (versus the wet, heavy northern soils), the spread of lentil and bean cultivation in medieval Europe...

I know Northern European farmland could not utilized well until the development of the heavy plow which better dealt with the wet heavy soil, but how is that relevant to the article?

Also the lentil and bean cultivation of medieval Europe is not something I have ever heard about. What is the significance of that? Do they give better yields than wheat somehow?

They greatly improved the European diet.

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