近些年，由于浮选法的普遍应用，长江中下游地区发现了大量与稻作农业起源研究相关的植物遗存。通过对这些新资料的研究发现，稻作农业起源是一个漫长的渐变过程，历经数千年，期间可划分为四个阶段：距今1万年前后是孕育阶段，人类社会尚处在采集狩猎阶段，但考古发现了人类利用甚至耕种稻属植物的证据；距今9000~7000年是初期阶段，考古发现了稻作农业的证据，如定居村落、栽培稻、农耕工具等，但当时的生业经济依然是以采集狩猎为主，属于农业生产范畴的水稻种植和家猪饲养仅是辅助性的生产活动；距今7000~5000年是转变阶段，采集狩猎在生业经济中的比重日渐降低，而稻作农耕的比重日渐提高；距今5000年前后，长江中下游地区相继完成了由采集狩猎向稻作农业的转变，人类社会进入农业阶段。

In recent years, due to the widespread application of flotation, a large number of plant remains related to the origin of rice agriculture have been found in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Through the study of these new findings, it has been discovered that the origin of rice agriculture was a long and gradual process lasting for thousands of years. This process can be divided into four stages: the stage of gestation took place around 10,000 years ago—human society was still in the hunting and gathering phase, but archaeological evidence of human-used or even cultivated Oryza plants from that time has been discovered; the early stage of transition took place around 9000–7000 years ago—archaeological evidence of rice farming from that time has been found, such as villages, domesticated rice, farming tools, etc., but subsistence then was still mainly based on hunting and gathering, whereas rice farming and pig breeding, which fall into the agricultural production category, were only auxiliary production activities; the late stage of transition took place around 7000–5000 years ago, when the proportion of subsistence attained by hunting and gathering gradually declined while the proportion of rice farming increased day by day; and the stage of completion took place about 5000 years ago, when hunting and gathering was replaced by rice agriculture in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River successively.