What China's agricultural civilization has contributed to the world

In ancient times, China was far ahead of the rest of the world in terms of agricultural technology and economic system. In terms of cultural diffusion, not only did it have a profound impact on the neighboring countries in Asia, but also the European countries absorbed a lot of material and spiritual civilization achievements from the ancient Chinese civilization.

In terms of agricultural biological varieties, China's earliest domesticated and bred rice varieties were introduced to Korea and Vietnam 3,000 years ago, and to Japan about 2,000 years ago. Soybean, one of the major crops commonly cultivated in the world today, was first domesticated in China and spread around the world. According to the literature, the good breed of pigs bred in China was introduced to the Qin Dynasty (Roman Empire) in the Han Dynasty and to England in the 18th century. Many of today's important pig breeds have Chinese pig ancestry. Silk-reeling technology was introduced to Vietnam more than 2,000 years ago, to Korea and Japan around the 3rd century A.D., to Greece in the 6th century, and to Italy around the 10th century, and these areas later developed into important silk-producing areas. Fruit trees such as citrus, loquats, apricots, plums, plums, peaches, lychees and longans, as well as vegetables such as cabbages, mustard greens and radishes, were first cultivated in China, and then disseminated to the rest of the world through various channels in different eras. Here we would like to mention Chinese tea in particular. China is the origin of tea, according to "Huayang Guo Zhi - Ba Zhi", Ba "garden has fragrant, fragrant tea", Ba people as a tribute to the King of Shang. "Ming" is tea, indicating that as early as the Shang Dynasty, the ethnic minorities in the southwest region had already planted tea. Today tea is one of the most important beverages in the world. Japan, Russia, India, Sri Lanka, Britain and France have all introduced tea plants from China.

A whole set of traditional agricultural tools invented by China in ancient times were almost completely absorbed by neighboring countries and played a great role in the development of ancient agriculture in these regions. Crop sowing with ox-drawn columbine, plowshare used to turn the soil on the plow wall of the grass, the water special turning carts and grain processing water mill and several large agricultural tools, and later spread to Europe, which uses some of the principles and techniques even influenced the later invention of agricultural machinery. The invention of the hand-cranked windmill for raising and de-harvesting grain, the water pestle and water mill, the water-driven blower (a cast-iron device for blowing wind in water rows), the wind-powered waterwheel, and the artificial greenhouse cultivation technology were invented more than 1,000 years earlier than those of European countries. In addition, many field management techniques and measures were introduced to the rest of the world. The accumulation and application of organic fertilizers, green manure, transplanting of crops, especially rice, grafting in horticulture, and many other food processing and preparation techniques constitute a complete system of traditional agricultural technology, which has played a pioneering and inspirational role in the long history of civilization. As Darwin said in his book On the Origin of Species: "The systematic application of the principle of selection has been practiced only for the last seventy years, but in an ancient Chinese encyclopedia the principle of selection has been clearly stated". Of course, what is written here is the splendor of our ancestors.