Agriculture·Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties Agricultural Science·The emergence of classic works on northern dry farming

Agriculture·Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties Agricultural Science·The emergence of classic agricultural works on northern dry farming

The number and types of agricultural books in this period have increased compared with the Warring States Period. Not only are comprehensive agricultural books Books, and there are monographs or special articles on animal husbandry, sericulture, gardening, tree planting, fish farming, etc. But most of them have been lost. The most important agricultural books that have been preserved (including lost collections) are "The Book of Si Sheng", "The Monthly Order of the Four People" and "The Essentials of Qi Min".

Si Shengzhi was born in the late Western Han Dynasty and served as Yilang to Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty. He once guided agricultural production in the Guanzhong area and made outstanding achievements. His agricultural books were considered by scholars at that time and later generations to be the best agricultural works in the Han Dynasty. However, the original book has been lost, and only fragments have been preserved from other ancient books. The collection contains only more than 3,500 words, but the content is rich and profound. It puts forward the general principles of farming and cultivation in northern dry farming: "Following the time, harmonizing the soil, maintaining manure, hoeing early, and harvesting early." The agricultural technology recorded in the book "Si" is based on the promotion of cattle farming. It developed the "deep farming and hard farming" of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period into a new system of farming and milling with animal power, and abandoned the form of the land-acre structure. , and regarded fertilization and irrigation, which were not mentioned in the chapters of "Lu Shi Chun Qiu·Ren Di", as one of the basic elements of farming and cultivation, and also had a more in-depth and detailed grasp of tillage, sowing, fertilization, management, and harvesting periods. The chapters of "Ren Di" only have a general introduction to farming and cultivation. In addition to the general introduction, the "Si" book also contains separate chapters on the cultivation of various crops, with particularly detailed records of wheat farming technology. The technical focus of the chapters of "Ren Di" is to solve the problem of waterlogging and alkali cleaning, while the technical focus of the "Si" book is to solve the problem of drought resistance and moisture conservation. The chapters of "Ren Di" pay attention to the adaptation and transformation of the agricultural environment, but apart from establishing the optimal crop group structure, there are no other measures to improve the production capacity of agricultural organisms. The "Si" book not only pays attention to creating a good environment for crop growth, but also pays attention to creating a good environment for crop growth. A series of biotechnological measures such as seed selection, seed treatment and intercropping were also proposed. In addition, the "Si" book also records the method of cultivating a small area of ??land with thin tubes and intensive use of water and fertilizer to achieve high yields. All these show that the book "Si" is significantly improved compared to the chapters of "Ren Di", reflecting that the dry farming technology in northern my country and ancient Chinese agronomy reached a new stage in the Han Dynasty.

The "Four People's Monthly Order" written by Cui Shi, a famous political commentator in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, only has a lost edition. This is a production and management manual for landlords and farms in the Yellow River Basin. It can be regarded as a representative work among farmers' monthly orders, but it lacks content on agricultural theory.

The most systematic and wonderful summary of the agricultural production in the Yellow River Basin since the Han Dynasty is the sixth century AD "Qi Min Yao Shu", which is inscribed "Later Wei (i.e. Northern Wei) Gaoyang (in today's Written by Jia Sixie, the governor of central Hebei Province." Jia Sixie was probably from Shandong, and almost nothing is known about his life. The author summarizes the research attitude and methods of "Qimin Yaoshu" in sixteen words: "Collect the scriptures, romances and ballads, inquire about the experienced ones, and test the practices." That is, extensively collect relevant information from historical documents and peasant proverbs, Ask old farmers and experienced intellectuals for advice, and use your own practices (observations and experiments) to verify the experiences and conclusions of previous and present people. The scope of "Qi Min Yao Shu" has been incomparably expanded compared to previous agricultural books. Its content includes the planting of various grains, oils, fibers, dyes, feeds, vegetables, fruit trees, and forest trees, animal production such as sericulture, animal husbandry, and fish farming, the processing of agricultural and sideline products, and cooking. The book mainly focuses on agricultural production technology in the Yellow River Basin, and the last chapter (Volume 10) records more than 100 tropical and subtropical plants with practical value, which is one of the earliest southern flora in my country. The agricultural science and technology contained in "Qi Min Yao Shu" are much more innovative and developed than previous agricultural books. For example, the concepts of plowing, mowing, and hoeing in the book "Si" were developed into a complete dryland farming technology system of "ploughing - harrowing - raking - pressing - hoeing" in "Essential Techniques for Qi Min". Another example is crop rotation, planting green manure, selecting and breeding improved seeds, as well as intensive cultivation of gardens, cutting and grafting of forest trees, raising and breeding of livestock, processing of agricultural and sideline products, and utilization of microorganisms, etc. Although the previous literature has also mentioned it sporadically and briefly, "Essential Art of Qi Min" made a systematic summary of it for the first time. Agricultural production technical measures can be divided into two categories: improving the agricultural environment and improving the production capacity of agricultural organisms. The agricultural science and technology of the Pre-Qin Dynasty focused on the former, but this situation changed after the Han Dynasty. There are two general texts at the beginning of the text of "Qi Min Yao Shu". One is "Farming", which talks about measures to improve the agricultural environment centered on soil cultivation, and the other is "Harvest", which talks about breeding and seed treatment. measures to improve crop production capacity. "Qi Min Yao Shu" places the two in an equally important position, and implements this spirit into the following sub-paragraphs, which shows that people have a deeper and deeper understanding of the element of agricultural organisms in agricultural ecosystems. , also reflects that the technical system of intensive farming of northern dry farmers has become more complete and mature. "Qimin Yaoshu" talks about agricultural technology and does not specifically talk about theory, but it is full of traditional agricultural theories and agricultural thoughts. Therefore, it is also a classic work of traditional agricultural science in my country. In short, "Qi Min Yao Shu" is my country's earliest and most complete agricultural book, occupying a lofty position in the history of agriculture in China and the world. After more than a thousand years, the development of dryland technology in northern China has never exceeded the direction and scope pointed out by it. Many of the techniques and principles recorded in it still retain their vitality today.