Abstract: The fishery economy of Huguang Province experienced rapid development at the beginning of Ming Dynasty, and formed a structure of fishery production covering Dongting and Jianghan plain lake group,Yangtze River middle reaches and some tributaries such as Hanjiang River and Xiangjiang River. At the same time, trade in fresh fish and fish products formed a pattern of “County to Province to State” based on the preservation time and transportation distance. After the middle period of Ming Dynasty, fishery production and sales ceased to increase or even decreased while the fish market continued to grow.The reasons are the slow development of fishery production and breeding technology and the underdeveloped technology of fish products' preservation and transportation .

Key words: Ming Dynasty, fishery of Huguang region, production and marketing, stratification of market, technology of breeding and preservation