The environmental history of China examines changes in the natural ecological landscape (environment) throughout Chinese history and the interactive relationship between successive generations of Chinese people and their environment. The degree to which China transformed and utilized nature was almost unmatched in the pre-modern world; the extent of environmental change was likely greater than that caused by any other country in the world, with the basic principle being the development of nature for human use.

The overall trend of the ecological environment in Chinese history has been one of continuous deterioration, with the pace of change accelerating over time. The most dramatic changes involved the disappearance of large areas of forest, followed by the reduction and desertification of grasslands, and the shrinkage or complete disappearance of freshwater lakes. As China's population grew, over 3,000 years of reclamation activities increased cultivated land area but caused extensive deforestation, leading to expanded desert areas and reduced lake surfaces, resulting in severe ecological degradation. The Chinese cleared forests and native vegetation, turning hillsides into terraces and valleys into farmland, built dikes and dams, redirected rivers, relocated lakes, and destroyed wildlife habitats for economic development. After such development and transformation, by the Qing dynasty, little "natural" untouched land remained. In the 20th century, the rise of industrialization and consumer culture accelerated changes in the natural environment.

From the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods onward, early Chinese governments protected dwindling forest resources, sometimes to monopolize them. From the Tang to the early Qing, China was the most ecologically resilient and resource-rich country on Earth, and the most ecologically diverse polity. During the Tang, forested land gradually became privatized; by the Song, timber shortages emerged in parts of the lower Yangtze and western regions, leading people to begin afforestation. In the past 300 years, China has faced a forest crisis. From the 18th century, severe timber shortages occurred in many regions, including Lingnan; people focused on cultivating fast-growing tree species, sometimes selling immature trees for profit. Artificial afforestation gradually replaced most of the natural forests in southern China over the past millennium. Ancient China originally had many lakes, but later silted up and disappeared from the surface; the surface area of surviving lakes also shrank significantly compared to before.

From the mid-Ming onward, due to rapid population growth, the total environmental pressure exerted by the Chinese increased rapidly. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, as population surged, land resource shortages led to widespread reckless reclamation and deforestation, continuously reducing forest and lake areas and causing soil erosion. This ecological degradation led to increased floods and droughts in later historical periods. The most severe period of ecological deterioration in China was during the mid-Qing Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns (1736–1820), when grain yields per mu also declined. The growth of the agricultural population transformed most ecological landscapes into farmland, reducing opportunities to gather wild resources. Agricultural ecosystems are often far simpler than wild ones, generally relying on a few species and thus more vulnerable to droughts, pests, and other disasters. Wherever intensive agriculture advanced, wild animals such as elephants retreated.

Prehistory

Before the development of agriculture, people hunted for a living or gathered food from forests, grasslands, or wetlands, with minimal impact on the environment. Hunter-gatherers may have used fire to clear underbrush in forests to allow new grass to grow, attracting deer herds for easier hunting, but the forests themselves remained. About 10,000 years ago, with the expansion of agriculture, forests began to give way to farmland. In the early Neolithic, people cultivated millet while also fishing, hunting, and gathering wild plants. Agriculture emerged almost simultaneously in northern and southern China: annual wild rice in the south and two types of millet in the north. Between 8,000 and 7,000 years ago, millet cultivation originated in the semi-arid savanna of the Wei River valley on the Loess Plateau. Before agricultural production, the area's original vegetation consisted of forests and grasslands, with about 30% forest cover. The loose, soft nature of loess soil on the Loess Plateau made it easiest to cultivate with primitive tools in early agriculture, so the Loess Plateau became the main region for early human agricultural development. In central and southern China, rice grew along riverbanks, ponds, or in freshwater marshes; wild rice was especially abundant around Dongting Lake, gathered by Neolithic people. By 5000 BCE, rice cultivation was widespread in the Yangtze River basin, Taiwan, and southern China, and settled agricultural communities became widespread and established in central and southern China.

Between 6000 and 5000 BCE, farmers in the Guanzhong region began burning land for cultivation. People did not continuously farm the same plot but cultivated each area for a few years, then left it fallow for several years before burning and replanting. With abundant land resources, villagers could practice long-term fallowing without needing to fertilize fields. Agricultural practices spread northward with migrating populations, then eastward into the forested Yellow River basin and North China Plain. Although the population was sparse, humans had already reduced animal diversity on the plains. In the forested mountainous areas west of Guanzhong, animal diversity was clearly higher than on the plains. Large fish became increasingly rare, and villagers shifted from using harpoons to more nets. As population grew, people overexploited huntable or gatherable resources, forcing greater reliance on grains. With agricultural development, people learned to cultivate more plants and domesticate more animals. Around 6000 BCE, wild boar in the Yellow and Yangtze River basins were domesticated into domestic pigs. Between 5000 and 3000 BCE, during the Yangshao culture period, people in the central Yellow River basin became heavily dependent on domesticated plants and animals. Increasing reliance on domesticated species such as cattle, sheep, and horses allowed exploitation of previously difficult drylands. Farmers initially cleared land by burning grass and used stone hoes and spades to turn the soil. As agriculture developed on the Loess Plateau, increasing use of fire and tillage led to soil erosion, increasing the sediment load carried by the Yellow River, which in turn raised the riverbed and banks, expanding the flood-prone area of the North China Plain.

Settled agriculture required clearing forests for farmland. Increased food supply from farming led to population growth, necessitating more land clearance. Yangshao people gradually developed methods to clear forests and open farmland. Initially, clearing a plot near the village sufficed, but over time, with technological advances and population pressure, more forests were destroyed. Using stone axes to fell trees was time-consuming and laborious, while burning entire forests was uncontrollable and dangerous. People employed a method of girdling individual trees—stripping a ring of bark from the trunk to block water and nutrients from the roots, allowing the tree to wither naturally. This allowed precise removal of specified numbers of trees. Villagers cleared most forests around settlements for firewood and cultivation, and wetlands also decreased. In the Yangtze River basin and Loess Plateau, two agricultural systems supported growing populations, leaving less pasture for livestock. However, Neolithic farmers never altered the environment on a large scale. By 2000 BCE, there were probably about 1,000 villages in northern China, each generally housing only a few hundred people and occupying small areas, leaving ample space for wild plants and animals.

Shang dynasty

The Shang dynasty controlled vast territory and had a dense population. Its northwestern boundary roughly coincided with the modern 20-inch (50 cm) isohyet. West and north of this rainfall line were grasslands and deserts unsuitable for cultivation. Shang civilization's territory extended from deciduous broadleaf oak forests southward to the mixed deciduous and subtropical forests of the Yangtze River basin. Major crops included two types of millet, rice, and mulberry. They began transforming the North China Plain into farmland, but large forested areas still provided various game. Tigers, elephants, and rhinoceroses lived in the forests. Most of northern China remained dense forest, with only small patches of farmland. Approximately 4–5 million people lived on the North China Plain, with grain yields of about one shi per mu, implying that roughly to of oak forest had been cleared. Cleared land was usually located within forests to facilitate hunting. Around major cities such as Anyang, the surrounding countryside was largely cleared for farmland. Shang people cleared forests tree by tree rather than burning entire tracts, to avoid danger and waste fuel. Oracle bone inscriptions also record forest burning, often related to hunting. Burning could clear native vegetation for farming; fires could drive wild animals from forests for easier capture; and burning could drive away birds and beasts, providing safety for cultivators and protecting crops from trampling.

The Shang established walled cities and entered the Bronze Age. Bronze casting required burning large quantities of wood for mining, smelting, and casting, greatly affecting the surrounding environment. When forests were exhausted, the mines were abandoned; after copper and tin reached the capital's foundries, even more wood was needed for refining. The Shang center was located between the flood-prone plains and the relatively well-drained area near the Taihang Mountains. Capitals frequently relocated because the Shang practiced shifting cultivation; after several years, soil fertility declined and yields dropped. At that time, people lacked good farming tools and could only use ash from burned vegetation as fertilizer. Without plowing with spades or plows, they relied only on the surface layer of fertility. Within a few years, the soil was exhausted, yields declined, and farmers had to migrate to open new fields. This was the long-term fallow system of primitive agriculture. The Shang had vast hunting grounds west and south of Mount Tai. Shang people hunted not only gentle game such as deer, foxes, wolves, and badgers but also large animals such as elephants, tigers, and rhinoceroses. In the densely populated lowlands of Henan, farmland and domestic grazing animals gradually occupied the habitats of large mammals, and human herds gradually replaced native animal populations. The expansion of domestic herds reduced land available for wild animals, leading to the extinction of aurochs and wild horses, and making the region the first in East Asia where large animals permanently disappeared. By the late 2nd millennium BCE, large wild mammals had largely vanished from the North China lowlands and survived only in sparsely populated surrounding mountainous areas.

Zhou dynasty

Western Zhou