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The Taihu Lake region is an important area where China’s rice agriculture originated and where early Chinese civilisation formed. Knowing how this ecologically sensitive area’s Neolithic residents adapted to environmental changes and utilised natural resources is key to understanding the origins of their agricultural practices and civilisation. Focusing on food resources, we systematically organised data from archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological research, human bone stable isotopic analyses, and fatty acid and proteome residue analyses on the Taihu Lake area’s Neolithic findings to explore the interrelationships between subsistence, the environment, and society through qualitative and quantitative analysis supported by paleoenvironmental and archaeological evidence. The results showed that during the Neolithic era (7.0–4.3 ka BP), under a suitable climate with stable freshwater wetland environments, 38 varieties of edible animals and plants were available to humans in the Taihu Lake area. Despite agriculture being an important food source, rice cultivation and husbandry developed at different paces. Paddy rice cultivation began in wetlands and had always dominated the subsistence economy, as although gathering was universal and diverse, it produced a relatively low volume of food. In contrast, husbandry did not provide sufficient meat throughout the 2000 years of the Majiabang and Songze Cultures. Thus, fishing for freshwater organisms and hunting for wild mammals were the main meat sources before the domestication of pigs became the primary source of meat during the Liangzhu Cultural period. With the available wetland ecological resources and paddy rice farming (the sole crop), the Taihu Lake area transformed into an agricultural society in which rice cultivation dominated the Songze Culture’s subsistence economy, which was also the first to exhibit social complexity. Then, finally, early civilisation developed in the Liangzhu Cultural period. This study contributes to understanding the unique evolutionary path of early Chinese civilisation and has important implications on sustainable resource utilisation for constructing ecological civilisations in present-day societies.

Aiming at the current isolated, static protection method of traditional villages, a comprehensive evaluation system for the living protection of traditional villages has been constructed based on the land use function integration concept in “Production–Living–Ecology” (PLE). By combining the “horizontal” PLE coupling coordination analysis with the “vertical” correlation analysis of the elements at each layer, the comprehensive evaluation and quantitative analysis of six traditional villages of different types and grades in the Taihu Lake area are carried out to quantitatively reflect the interactive relationship and integration mechanism of PLE in traditional villages. The results show that: (1) The PLE development of traditional villages is a dynamic process. Even if the villages are close in the PLE score, they may be in different stages of PLE development and coupling coordination type. (2) The “living” function has the highest correlation with the coupling coordination degree of PLE, and it acts as the engine and bridge of benign interaction between the PLE. (3) Even if the national traditional villages have a favorable ecology background, they may not get high scores, or even fail in the PLE score. (4) Among the sub-indicators, the natural environmental characteristics, the ecological vitality of political organizations, and the level of human settlement facilities show a significant linear correlation with the PLE score. Additionally, the ecological vitality of political organizations is the strongest. It can be therefore concluded that a positive policy organization is an important guarantee for realizing the PLE integration of traditional villages.