The process of reclaiming and cultivating wasteland in northern Shanxi in the Qing Dynasty can be divided into three periods, that is, the period of reclaiming and cultivating wasteland in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, the period of recultivating in time of Emperor Qianlon’s reign and the period of cultivation decline after Qianlon’s reign. The cultivated land in the area gathered in the basins of Xinding and Datong while that in the loess upland in northwestern Shanxi and in the highland in northern Shanxi took a relatively low proportion. Special attention should be paid to the limitation of natural environment when we discuss an issue about cultivation in areas with weal ecological environment.

northern Shanxi in the Qing Dynasty; land cultivation; temporal and spatial feature