Recherches sur l'introduction de la patate douce

Résumé En Fr

Long long ago, "Chinese sweet potato" (Dioscorea esculenta (Lour.) Burk.) was generally called "sweet potato". It was only a mistake that as early as the first century A. D. or prior to this, sweet potato was utilized and cultivated by Chinese and it was recorded in the famous then contemporary literature named "Chronology of Rare Things" (yi wu zhi) authored by Yang Fu. According to the verification of some literatures, the "sweet potato" (Ipomoea batatas) is entirely different from the "sweet potato" described in the above mentioned literature, even though its emerald covers a good portion of the earth and is as vital as the other cereals to men. It is not a very long time since ."Fanshu" (Ipomoea batatas) was introduced into our country. Though the information concerning the date and channel of introduction is neither very exact nor in detail, yet after a preliminary investigation the authors at the present time prefer to believe that the earliest date of introducing should be the eighth year of Wanli of the Ming Dynasty, i.e., 1582 A.D., or probably a little earlier. There were at least three channels of introduction, the first was from Vietnam to Dianbai County of Guandong Province ; the second was from Vietnam to Dongguan County of Guandong Province, and the third was from the Philippines to Changle County of Fujian province. Among these three channels, excepting that during the twenty-first year of Wanli (1593 A.D.), the last one of which more records could be found was better known by most people while the first and the second ones were little known due to the limited systemic evidences available. As 1980 is the four-hundredth anniversary of the introduction of sweet potato into our country, the present paper is written to fill the gap in plant introduction history and to serve as a token of commemoration.

Beaucoup de gens font l'erreur de penser que la patate douce (fan shu), — généralement désignée par le terme de gan shu - est utilisée et cultivée par les Chinois depuis le premier siècle après J.-C., et même depuis plus longtemps, on en trouve d'ailleurs mention dans des documents anciens tels le Yi wu zhi de Yang Fu. Ainsi que le prouvent les documents anciens, cette plante maintenant aussi importante que les "cinq céréales", aujourd'hui cultivée partout et connue sous le nom de fan shu, est bien différente de gan shu dont parle Yi wu zhi. L'introduction de fan shu (Ipomea batatas) en Chine est très récente, mais nous ne pouvons la situer de manière précise tant au plan historique que géographique. Cet article, après une première approche, propose comme date d'introduction 1582, sous les Ming (peut- être avant) et au moins trois possibilités d'itinéraire : - du Vietnam au district de Dianbai au Guangdong ; - du Vietnam au district de Dongguan au Fujian ; - des Philippines au district de Changle au Fujian, parmi lesquelles la théorie selon laquelle la patate douce a été introduite au Fujian en 1593 est la plus répandue ; les autres sont moins connues et en fait il n'existe pas d'étude systématique. Cet article vise donc à compléter ce manque à l'occasion du quatre centième anniversaire de l'introduction delà patate douce.