What were the agricultural technologies in ancient China?

Ancient Chinese agriculture also accumulated rich experience and created superb technology in improving the production capacity of agricultural organisms themselves.

The selection and breeding of good seeds is one of the main means for human beings to change the traits of agricultural organisms (including overcoming unfavorable traits and strengthening favorable traits), so that they can adapt to the natural environment and the needs of human beings. From the "Poetry", people in the Western Zhou Dynasty already have "Jia seed" that is, the concept of good seed, has cultivated different varieties of corn and millet, has been used to ripen early and late and sow early and late to distinguish between different varieties of type. Bai Gui of the Warring States period said, "If you want to grow money, take the lower grain; if you want to grow stone buckets, take the upper seed." (Shi Ji - Cargo Shik Biography) Meaning: if you want to make money, acquire cheap grain; if you want to increase grain production, adopt good seeds. Indicates that people have realized that the use of good seeds is the most economical way to increase production. The traditional method of seed selection in China is to select seeds every year to accumulate good traits and to change seeds frequently to prevent degradation. The "Book of Bom Sheng" has already recorded the selection of strong and large ears of grain and wheat from the field for seed (spike selection method). Qimin yaojutsu also emphasized the purity of seeds, pointing out that mixed seeds had the disadvantages of varying maturity and decreasing rice yield. For this reason, it is necessary to combine seed selection, seed multiplication and anti-hybridization to ensure purity. The method introduced in the book is: the grain tip crops should be selected year after year, select the good spikes of pure color, hang them, plant them individually after the beginning of spring, strengthen the management, play the field in advance, and collect and store them singly, as the second year's seed for the field. This method is similar to the current seed field, the principle and modern mixed seed selection method is consistent, and more than 1300 years earlier than the German breeder Jenbo first used this method to improve rye and wheat in 1867.

In order to maintain and improve the vitality of the seed, but also pay attention to the seed storage to keep dry, to prevent the birth of insects. Before sowing, the general method of water selection to remove the grain, and then sunshine seeds, and sometimes also use drugs to mix the seeds, soak the seeds to promote germination and other methods. These have a lot of records in the ancient books.

Another ancient method of breeding in China is the single-plant selection method, also known as "a spike pass", the Qing Dynasty literature has this record. It is to select a single plant with excellent traits or a single spike, continuous reproduction, so as to cultivate new varieties. Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty used this method to select and breed the famous early-maturing imperial rice, which had been popularized in Jiangsu and Zhejiang as the early rice seed of double-season rice.

China's ancient agriculture in the long-term development of cultivation and accumulation of a large number of crop varieties resources. As early as in the book in the Warring States, "Guanzi - ground staff" chapter, there have been various types of crop varieties and their suitable soil records, the Jin Dynasty, "Guangzhi" and the Northern Wei Dynasty, "Qimin Essentials" on crop varieties of the account, regardless of the number and traits have been a great development. By the Qing Dynasty, only the official large-scale agricultural book "authorized time Tongkao" included in some provinces, cities and counties of rice varieties that amounted to more than 3,000. Rich, distinctive varieties of resources, not only to meet the various needs of human production and life, but also the basis of breeding work, today and tomorrow, agriculture, has an inestimable significance.