Huángyán

Huangyan belonged to the Taizhou country of coastal Zhejiang. Raised from a county to a zhou in 1295 under the Yuan, it returned to county status in 1369 under the Ming and remained associated with Taizhou. Its cultivated landscape included the citrus-growing country around Duanjiang and the Yongning River.

Citrus production brought both recognition and burdens. Yuan tribute requirements amounted to more than twenty thousand fruits annually, while official abuses and taxation placed pressure on orchard households. The industry recovered toward the end of the dynasty. During the Wanli reign, a local account described extensive citrus gardens outside the town's southwestern walls, with several hundred households depending on them for food and clothing. Markets for Huangyan's fruit developed during the Yuan and Ming periods. Orchards, court demands and commercial exchange thus connected the county's farmers with institutions and consumers well beyond the river plain.