The Eastern Jin (317-420) and the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589) saw further social and economic development in areas south of the Yangtze River. For three centuries, the north was troubled by wars, which gravely disrupted the normal social order and production. In contrast, the areas along and south to the Yangtze River were relatively stable. Northerners migrated to the south in large numbers, taking not only an enormous labor force but also advanced production tools and technologies from the north. People from the north and south learned from each other and worked together to develop the south, giving a great impetus to economic growth in the region.

In agriculture, people opened up large areas of wasteland and built irrigation works. Rice was already grown twice a year. Use of cattle and manure in farming was widespread, and the per-unit yield of grain saw a great increase. Some northern crops such as wheat and soybeans began to be cultivated in the south. Tombs in Nanjing dating from the Eastern Jin and the Southern Dynasties have yielded pottery models of granaries which are the best proofs of agricultural development. Increase in grain production enabled the improvement of processing tools. Water conservancy projects included instruments to process grain such as water-powered trip-hammers and water-mills.

In agricultural science, Jia Sixie of the Northern Dynasties emerged as the leading agronomist of the time. His work Important Arts for the People's Welfare was China's first book on agronomy. With 92 chapters in 10 volumes and running to nearly 120,000 characters, the book covers a wide range of topics, recording agricultural production experiences and production methods in farming, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries and side-line occupations from the Western Zhou era and particularly at the time the author lived. To this day, the book remains a valuable source of reference for the study of the history of agricultural science and a rare work in the treasure house of China's ancient knowledge of science.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907), China, as a unified multi-ethnic country, experienced further development, increased exchanges between various ethnic groups, saw the prosperity of its feudal economy and led the world in certain types of technology in the fields of agriculture and handicrafts. Both the Sui and Tang were powerful empires, well known worldwide.

In 581, Yang Jian, known as Emperor Wen, established the Sui Dynasty. To facilitate economic and cultural exchanges between the north and the south, he had the Grand Canal, which runs more than 2,000 kilometers, dug. This ancient economic artery was the world's earliest and longest canal. Taking Luoyang as the center, it began in Yuhang in the south and ended in Zhuo Prefecture in the north, flowing through the five provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Shandong and Hebei. It served as the only water transportation channel for shipping grain from the south to the north as well as north-south trade. The canal played a significant role in economic activities not only during the Sui and Tang dynasties, but in all the dynastic periods that followed.

China had grown into one of the most powerful countries in the world by the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Improvements in farming machinery, including the curved-shaft plow and bucket carriage continued to expand the acreage of arable land and irrigated farmland. The curved-shaft plow was a representative achievement of the renovation of agricultural machinery in the Tang Dynasty. According to historical records, the plow had 11 component parts of both metal and wood. Greatly improved from earlier types of plows, the curved-shaft plow could turn both left and right, and even turn around. It had a multitude of functions, such as crushing and turning over the soil. Easy to operate and energy-saving, it greatly raised productivity and created the necessary conditions for the prosperity of farming during the Tang period. Murals at Dunhuang realistically portray the plow at work. The bucket carriage was a water-powered irrigation tool. Wood or bamboo was used to produce a huge vertical wheel. Its size was determined by the height of the river bank and the flow of the water. Both sides of the wheel had a pillar to support it. The edge of the wheel was fixed with wooden planks on which wooden or bamboo buckets were fastened. The river water pressed against the planks on the wheel, making it revolve. The bamboo or wooden buckets on the planks lifted water from the river and then poured into the canals leading to the fields. This water wheel was a major creation of the Sui-Tang period, as it visibly raised per unit grain yield and promoted economic crop production.

Silk textiles showed a relatively high level of development during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). As early as in the Han Dynasty, Chinese people were already producing woolen fabrics of long warp and segmented weft on jacquard looms. When this technique was applied to silk weaving, the result was a type of silk called kesi (silk fabric with large, stand-out jacquard patterns). Kesi took plain-colored silk thread in the warp and colored ones in the weft. According to designs placed underneath the warp frame, weft was woven where blanks had been left out in the pattern. The weft thread did not go through the entire piece of fabric, which could produce extremely complicated patterns. During the Song Dynasty, people combined this technique with the art of painting to create vivid images on superbly elegant works with moving effects of the painting brush and halo colors.

Cotton planting and weaving technology were extensively adopted and improved during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Huang Daopo was well known as a female textile specialist of the time. In improving cotton weaving machinery, she converted the traditional spinning wheel into a new three-spindle cotton spinning frame which brought about a marked rise in the production of cotton yarn. Cotton textile craft of the Yuan Dynasty thus took a great leap forward.

In both quantity and variety, silk fabrics turned out during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) surpassed those of the Tang-Song period. Objects that have been preserved to this day indicate that silk textiles of this period had extensive topics for their patterns and show livelier and brighter colors. Artisans of the Ming period improved the jacquard loom for silk weaving. According to Exploitation of the Works of Nature by Song Yingxing, the jacquard loom of the Ming Dynasty was normally more than five meters long and operated by two people working together. One weaver sat or stood on an elevated jacquard frame to lift the warp according to the pattern design while the other moved the shuttles at the bottom of the loom. A bolt of fabric took two people working in concerted efforts and careful operation. This type of tall jacquard loom was in use until the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In recent years, such looms have been exhibited to demonstrate China's ancient civilization in many Chinese exhibitions abroad.

Some important works combining the achievements of the previous dynasties in science and technology were printed during the Ming Dynasty.

The eighteen-volume Exploitation of the Works of Nature was written by Song Yingxing of the late Yuan and early Qing period. The book covered almost all the important production technologies and processes in agriculture and handicrafts. Under the influence of early capitalism, it dealt in great length with the production techniques of the handicrafts industry, which was rarely seen in other books, thus giving it a very high scientific value. The more than 200 drawings, mostly describing production processes, are equally important. The book has been referred to as the world's first encyclopedia of agricultural and handicraft production. Soon after it was published, it was translated into several languages including German, Japanese, English and French and caught the attention of people in various countries.

Complete Treaties on Agriculture was written by Xu Guangqi (1562-1633). An avid reader from childhood, he gained extensive knowledge of a wide range of topics, and made in-depth studies of mathematics, astronomy, the calendar, geography, water conservancy and firearms making. But Xu's greatest achievement was in agricultural science. He devoted almost his entire lifetime to the study of agricultural science, and eventually brought out the gigantic work quoted above. The book, half a million characters long, is divided into 60 volumes. It records in detail farming, agricultural techniques, soil, water conservation, application of fertilizers, selection of seeds and grafting of fruit trees, thus summarizing and preserving many agricultural production experiences and techniques of the ancient Chinese people.