What contribution did China's ancient agriculture make to world agriculture?

First, China's ancient agricultural thought

1, the so-called "three talents" theory in agriculture

The word "three talents" was first seen in the Book of Changes: "Yi Yi also writes books, widely prepares them, and is the way of heaven, humanity and authenticity." It can be seen that the theory of "three talents" is about the changes and relationships between heaven, earth and people. It was one of the popular philosophical viewpoints in the Warring States period, and was used in economic life, political activities and military actions. Lu Chunqiu: "Fu Jia, who works for it, has people, places to live and people to raise." This passage makes it clear that the three elements of agricultural production are heaven, earth and people, and puts the human factor in the first place. By the Han Dynasty, heaven, earth and man had evolved into force, earth and time. Chao Cuo said: "Subu was born underground, longer than time and concentrated on strength." The "strength" here, that is, manpower, has the meaning of attaching importance to manual labor, and the meaning of transforming nature is stronger. Agronomists in China inherited the idea of emphasizing the role of manpower in agricultural production. The principle of "three suitability" in agricultural production is another evolution of the theory of "three talents". Its main connotation is that agricultural production must take corresponding measures according to the change of weather and geographical location and the law of agricultural biological growth and development. The principle of "three adaptations" also began to appear in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Ma Yilong, an agronomist in the Ming Dynasty, gave a comprehensive and scientific explanation: "If the weather, geography and physical properties are suitable, but there is no difference, it will get twice the result with half the effort." The application of the theory of "three talents" in China's agricultural production has laid a theoretical foundation for the fine tradition of intensive cultivation, and has had a great influence and role in the development of agricultural production.

2. Distinctive business philosophy.

Some agricultural management ideas that adapted to China's ancient national conditions still have vitality and practical significance today. At the beginning of the Warring States period, Wei Weicheng taught to "do your best", which was the earliest expression of intensive cultivation thought. "Diligence in farmland management will benefit three liters per mu", that is, strengthening labor intensity, implementing intensive cultivation, tapping land potential and increasing yield. In the Han Dynasty, intensive cultivation was pushed to a new height by popularizing the methods of "replacing farmland" and "regional farmland". For example, "the income of one year old is often more than one mu, and the good one is doubled." "The Book of Klang" first described regional fields, and later generations also tried to plant them, especially in the heyday of Ming and Qing Dynasties, with more than 20 places successively. The key technology of regional field is intensive cultivation to ensure good crop growth and high yield.

The idea of "doing what you can" was put forward earlier. Fu Xuan (2 17-278) of the Jin Dynasty put forward: "Don't spend an extra acre, but cultivate its skills." In other words, it advocates increasing agricultural output, not by expanding cultivated land area, but by paying more attention to investing more labor in a certain unit area. Jia Sixie, a post-Wei agronomist, further put forward that "anyone who tills the fields must measure his strength". In other words, to manage the scale of agriculture, we need to measure our own strength, commensurate with material resources and labor. We can neither blindly expand the scale of operation beyond our own strength, nor shrink the scale of operation, so that our own strength can not be fully exerted.

"Give full play to strengths and avoid weaknesses" is also one of the traditional ideas of agricultural management in China. In Historical Records and Biography of Huo Zhi, "... there are thousands of fish in the water and thousands of chapters in the mountains. "AnQian Yi jujube tree; Yanqin thousand trees; Thousands of oranges in Shu, Han and Jiangling; Huaibei and Changshan are south, and there are thousands of trees between the river and the classics; Chen and Xia Qian mu painted; Qi and Lu thousand acres of mulberry horses; A thousand acres of bamboo in Weichuan ... "is a vivid portrayal of Han people developing various agricultural production according to local conditions, making full use of their strengths and avoiding weaknesses, and giving play to their regional advantages." According to the situation at that time, Tang Zhen in the Qing Dynasty made a true description of "Longyou herding sheep, Hebei sericulture, Huainan sericulture, lake reeling and Wuxiang people weaving mats". The viewpoint of giving full play to strengths and avoiding weaknesses has been passed down from generation to generation and has become an important part of agricultural management thought.

"Seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages" is another important part of China's ancient agricultural management thought. "The Biography of Huainanzi Miao Zi": "People's feelings seek small things in harm and big things in profit." The application of the thought of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages in agricultural production is the summary of Ma Yilong's experience of "planting grains for disaster preparedness" in Ming Dynasty. He not only clearly summarized the principle of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages in agricultural production, but also "knew what was appropriate and used it without abandoning it; Know what you are suitable for, avoid what you can't do, and raise it to the height of "infinite strength can cover the sky"

Second, the achievements of farmland water conservancy project construction

1, irrigation canal system engineering

The main task of farmland water conservancy is to open ditches to meet the water demand of crops, and to open ditches to remove excess water from farmland. Therefore, trench engineering is the most common type. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, ditches and streams in farmland played the role of water diversion, water delivery, water distribution, irrigation and drainage. During the Warring States period, countries competed for hegemony. In order to make Qiang Bing rich, water conservancy has been paid attention to, and large-scale canal system construction has risen rapidly. Ximen Bao is the 12th canal of Zhangshui, which was built by Wei in Linzhang, Hebei Province, and it is the earliest large canal system in China. This area has been an important political and economic area for hundreds of years since the Western Han Dynasty. In the third century BC, Shu Shou Li Bing presided over the construction of the world-famous Dujiangyan project, which lasted for more than 2,000 years and has never been abandoned, with increasing benefits. Dujiangyan is a dam-free diversion canal system, which is built on the alluvial fan terrain of Minjiang River. The canal project mainly consists of three parts: fish mouth, treasure bottle mouth and flying sand weir. The whole project has reasonable planning and layout, ingenious design conception, scientific management and application, and economic construction and maintenance. It is a rare and excellent project in ancient irrigation canal system in China. After the completion, the Sichuan Plain will be "waterlogged in drought and waterlogged in rain" ... if there is drought, there will be no drought, and the world will be rich. Guanzhong Zheng Guoqu is the largest canal system project built by Zheng Guo, a water conservancy engineer. This canal is connected to the water mirror in the west and to Luoshui in the east. The total length of the main canal is over 300 Li, and the planned irrigation area is 40,000 hectares. Sima Qian commented on Zheng Guoqu's role in the reunification of Qin, saying: "If the canal is completed, more than 40,000 hectares of salt fields will be irrigated with silt-filled water, and one mu will be harvested. Therefore, Guanzhong is fertile, and there is no bad year. Qin Fuqiang is a vassal. " During the Western Han Dynasty, the irrigation canal system continued to develop, and white canal, six auxiliary canals, Guo Cheng canal, Mengfu canal and Ganoderma lucidum canal were built in Guanzhong area. In today's Hetao area and Hexi Corridor, "all river ditches (water) are used to irrigate fields"; There are also many irrigation projects in Guluntai (now luntai county), Quli (now Korla County), Yixun (now Ruoqiang County), Auto Market, Loulan (now the north bank of Lop Nur) and Yiwu (now near Hami) in Xinjiang. After the Western Han Dynasty, the development of irrigation canal system was basically at a standstill, but it was slightly built in a few places.

2. Beitang Project

Beitang is a water storage project with natural topography and artificial layout. Its function is to store water and irrigate fields. In the literature more than 2000 years ago, it was recorded that ponds were used to irrigate farmland: "The ponds flowed northward to soak rice fields." Shaobei was built in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It is the earliest large-scale dam-building water storage irrigation project. "There are five gates in the north of Shaobei, which breathe streams." The diameter is about 100 Li, and it is more than 300 Li around, and it is irrigated to 40,000 hectares of land in the south of Shouxian County, Anhui Province. Today's Anfengtang is its remnant. In the Han Dynasty, it was very common to build Beitang. After the Eastern Han Dynasty, the development of Beitang water conservancy accelerated. Beitang water conservancy is suitable to be built in hilly areas. Starting from the Huaihe River Basin, Runan and Hanzhong areas are also quite developed. From the Taobeichi model of the Eastern Han Dynasty unearthed in Yunnan and Sichuan, we can see that pond culture at that time was for comprehensive utilization. There is a calculation of pond irrigation area in Huai Nan Zi's Xun Lin: "Ten hectares of pond can irrigate forty hectares." Small and medium-sized ponds are suitable for farmers with small-scale peasant economy, and they are especially suitable for construction because they store water and resist drought in rainy season in southern China. Wang Zhen's "Agricultural Books, Atlas of Agricultural Tools and Irrigation Gate" in Yuan Dynasty said: "Only the south is good at water conservancy, and the temple is everywhere. It is difficult to count what the people have done for themselves. " In the Ming Dynasty, there were tens of thousands of ponds in Jiangxi alone. In short, the role of ancient ponds in agricultural production cannot be underestimated.

3. Tangpu polder system in Taihu Lake basin

During the Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties, water conservancy construction spread all over the country, especially the large-scale construction of Tangpu polder in Taihu Lake Basin. In ancient times, working people in Taihu Lake area borrowed soil from shallow marshes or rivers, lakes and beaches to build dikes and reclaim land, and ditches and streams were bound to appear where they borrowed soil from dikes. In order to solve the problem of water accumulation, the banks and ditches were expanded and gradually turned into ponds. When the horizontal pond and vertical pond are closely connected, and gates are set to control irrigation and drainage, it has evolved into a chessboard pond-pond Wei system. In the Song Dynasty, Fan Zhongyan described in "Ten Things in Answering Chen's Handwriting" (1043): "The old polder fields in the south of the Yangtze River are dozens of miles each, like a big city with a canal in the middle and a gate outside. If it is dry, it will open the gate to attract the benefits of the river, and if it is dry, it will close the gate to avoid the harm of the river. Drought and flood are not as good as agriculture. " Tangpuwei District in Taihu Lake area was formed after the middle of Tang Dynasty. In the Five Dynasties, Wu Yue-guo used the army, forced conscripts to repair river banks, strengthened the management and maintenance system, set up the official position of "supervising water and farming ambassador", and combined water control with farmland management. These measures have played a good role in the development and consolidation of Tangpu polder. At the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, Tangpu polder in Taihu Lake Basin was abandoned and died, and it began to be restored in the middle period. During the Southern Song Dynasty, it was very prosperous, and many projects such as dredging Gangpu and setting gates around the fields were done.

4. seawall project

Since the Han and Tang Dynasties, people in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian coastal areas began to build river and sea dikes to prevent tidal disasters. Seawalls play an important role in the economic development of the southeast coastal areas of China. The seawall has developed from local to linear, from earth pool to stone pool, and the level of building technology has been continuously improved. During the Five Dynasties in wuyue and Qian Liu, ponds were built outside Houchaomen and Tongjiangmen to prevent moisture. The "stone stacking method" used is based on wooden fences, which are filled with bricks and stones. After the sand is raised and silted, it becomes an earth-rock pool far stronger than the earth pool. It can be said that this is the transition from the earth pool to the stone pool. A technical transformation of the stone pond in the Northern Song Dynasty was to adopt the "slope-mound method", that is, the seawall is of the slope stone step type, and the stability of the seawall is better than that of the wall vertical seawall, and the slope stone step also plays a role in stilling the force. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, seawall projects were paid more attention, and the investment in manpower, material resources and technological progress exceeded other historical periods.

5. Well irrigation

This is a type of engineering that uses groundwater. The origin of China Well is very early. According to archaeological data, wells were unearthed at Longshan cultural site more than 4,000 years ago. There is insufficient surface water in many places in the north, and attention is paid to the development of well irrigation. Since the Warring States period, well irrigation has been quite popular in the north, and successive governments have also advocated open caisson. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, well irrigation areas were formed in Guanzhong, Hebei and Henan plains of Shaanxi Province in the lower reaches of Fenshui River. Fang Chengguan said in the Cotton Map: "To grow cotton, you must dig wells, and one well can irrigate 40 acres of land." Karez is a unique irrigation form in Xinjiang, which uses the melted snow on Tianshan Mountain, Altai Mountain and Kunlun Mountain for undercurrent or diving, and penetrates into the gravel layer through the foothills. Karez existed in the Western Han Dynasty. According to the local characteristics of less rainfall, hot climate and strong wind and sand, people dig rows of vertical wells where underground water flows, with horizontal canals (culverts) below them, and then send water to farmland through open channels (irrigation canals). In this way, water can go underground and evaporation can be reduced. In the Qing Dynasty, Lin Zexu was vigorously popularized in Turpan, which played a great role in the agricultural development of Turpan, which was hot and dry.

Third, agricultural production tools.

Agricultural production tools have been called "farm tools", "farm tools" and "farm tools" since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The earliest raw materials for making farm tools were stones, bones, mussels and horns. Bronze farm tools appeared in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, including shovels, shovels, axes, forks, shovels, shovels, sickles and plows. This is a great progress in the history of agricultural tools in China. The invention of iron smelting and casting technology in China started at the latest in the Spring and Autumn Period. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, three technologies of pig iron smelting and casting, steelmaking and pig iron softening appeared one after another, which made iron a weapon with a broader prospect and accelerated the historical process of iron farm tools replacing wood, stone and bronze farm tools. The use of iron farm tools is a turning point in agricultural production, which can clear a large area of forest, turn it into cultivated land and pasture, and make it possible to cultivate a large area. Even a series of changes have taken place in agricultural production relations, land farming system and crop cultivation technology. Agricultural tools in ancient China can be divided into the following categories according to their functions:

1, high-efficiency water equipment and machines.

Water diversion irrigation, the most important thing is to try to lead water from low to high. In this regard, there were many ingenious inventions in ancient China. The familiar waterwheel is also called "rollover", "dragon bone vehicle" and "water centipede". Appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. At first, it was only used to water gardens, and later it was widely used by farmers in paddy fields. For nearly two thousand years, it has been playing a huge role in production. Subway cars can still be seen in many places now, which has a history of more than 1000 years. This is a big wheel with many bamboo or wooden tubes tied around it and placed by the water. Part of the wheel is not in the water, the water current excites the wheel, and the pipes on the wheel pump the water to the fields on the shore in turn. The water tipper, ox tipper, donkey tipper and high-speed tipper recorded in Wang Zhennong's book in Yuan Dynasty have complex structure and high efficiency, all of which are changed from tipper and tipper. A high-speed rotating car can lead water to a height of more than ten feet. In order to lead water to a long distance, the invention of connecting cylinder and bracket was invented. Connecting barrels is made by removing knots from thick bamboo poles and connecting them one by one. The bottom is made of wood and stone, which can cross the ravine and lead water to far places. The design of the frame groove is basically the same as that of the connecting pipe, except that the wooden groove is used for water diversion. This kind of apparatus, as Wang Zhen said, "can moisten thousands of hectares, can fly hundreds of feet, can stand in all places, and can dive into caves. There is no salvation in the world and there is rain on the ground. " It embodies the originality, efficiency and practicality of China's ancient inventions in this field.

2. Agricultural tools for leveling the land

Before the plow was widely used, it was the main farming tool. It is similar to shovels and shovels still used in modern times, and some are called shovels. Since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, animal-drawn plows have been gradually popularized in some areas of China. The model of wooden ox plough unearthed in Mozuizi, Gansu Province in the late Western Han Dynasty shows that the plough in the Han Dynasty has basically been finalized. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the coupled plow of "two oxen and three people plowing" was popularized in Zhao State, which was composed of plow shaft, plow tip (plow handle), plow bottom (plow bed), plow scales, plow arrows and other parts. Plough wall (also known as plow mirror or plow bowl) was widely used in Han Dynasty. The plough in Han Dynasty is a straight-axis long-axis plough, which is not flexible enough to turn when plowing, and it is laborious and inefficient. After continuous improvement, a new Qu Yuan plough was created in the Tang Dynasty, also known as "Jiangdong plough". At that time, its components, dimensions and functions were described in detail in Jing Lei by Lu Guimeng. This plow consists of an iron plow, a plow wall and a wooden plow bottom. , plow arrow, plow shaft, plow tip, plow evaluation, plow structure,

Eleven parts, such as plow boards. The whole plow is quite complete and advanced, which is a typical example of the development of plow in China to a relatively mature stage. China plow is also called frame plow, because the plow body is composed of bed, column, handle, shaft and other parts, and it is frame-shaped. Compared with Mediterranean hook plow, Germanic square plow, Russian anti-plow, Indian plow, Malay plow, etc. Its advantages are that the plow body can swing during operation, which is flexible, easy to adjust the tillage depth and width, light and flexible, conducive to rotation, and suitable for small-area farming. In addition, the curved plow wall can not only break the soil better, but also ridge and punch holes, which is beneficial to field operation and management. Treadmill and plow were invented in Song Dynasty, and several kinds of human plows were also invented in Ming Dynasty, but they were not widely used. Besides plows, there are shovels and shovels. After ploughing, the farmland must be broken and leveled. The first-class farm tools were hoes (spines), and later there were tarts, plows (hoes), rakes, trolleys and so on. There are images of rakes and spears in the murals of Wei and Jin tombs found in Jiayuguan City, Gansu Province. Pottery paddy field plows and harrows unearthed from the Western Jin Tomb in Lian County, Guangdong Province are all pulled by cows. Paddy fields used for paddy field operations were also widely used in the south during the Wei and Jin Dynasties.

Step 3 sow farm tools

The most important invention is the rickshaw, which was one of the new agricultural tools vigorously promoted by Zhao Guo, the captain of Sousu during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cui Mang's "Political Theory" said: "The method of ploughing the fields is three cows and one cow, and one person grows them, so all of them are prepared. Planting a hectare a day, three assistants still rely on their benefits. " "Three plows" are three plows. On the mural of the tomb of the late Western Han Dynasty in Pinglu Zaoyuan, Shanxi Province, a man planted a cymbal, and his cymbal was a tripod. Sowing with a hoe, a cow pulls the hoe, a person holds the hoe, the seeds are placed in the hoe, the hoe is connected with the hollow hoe, and the seeds are planted from below by moving and shaking. It can complete three processes of ditching, planting and soil remediation at the same time. Sow three rows at a time with the same row spacing and even planting, which greatly improves the sowing efficiency and quality.

4, intertillage weeding tools

One kind is money, shovel and spear, which are similar in structure and essentially the same farm tool. Ancient documents are often used to annotate each other. Chapter 14 of Shuo Wen Jie Zi: "Money, money, ancient farm tools." This kind of farm tool needs to use wrist force to stick to the ground and shovel to weed and loosen the soil, and can also be used to turn the soil. The other is shovel, shovel and hoe, which have similar structures. They are all agricultural tools that use backward power to sow, weed and loosen soil. They are more advanced than money, shovels and shovels and are still widely used today. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were already iron hoes; The iron hoes used after the Han Dynasty are basically no different from those used in modern times. Weeding is an agricultural tool for weeding and loosening soil in paddy fields. There is a map in Wang Zhen's "Agricultural Books, Atlas of Agricultural Tools, Thousand Men". The book Knowing Zhong Shuo between Song and Yuan Dynasties recorded the hoe for the first time. This is a kind of intertillage weeding and soil-raising farm tool drawn by animal power.

Step 5 harvest farm tools

In the Neolithic age, there were hoes and sickles with stones or mussels used to cut ears of grain and stems. After the appearance of metal, bronze and iron hoes and sickles appeared. For thousands of years, the shapes of pheasants and sickles have not changed much. Before the Song Dynasty, there were harvesting farm tools such as pulling sickle, wormwood, reeling sickle, pushing sickle and hook sickle. Wang Zhen's "Atlas of Agricultural Books and Agricultural Instruments" records that the skimmer composed of wheat bran and wheat straw is an advanced agricultural tool for harvesting wheat. After grain harvesting and threshing, the method of separating chaff from grain by specific gravity and wind power has been used for a long time. Proof can be found in the Book of Songs: "Weinan has a dustpan (skip, star name, one of the twenty-eight nights), so you can't blow it." 1973 the pottery windmill model unearthed from the Han tomb in sijiangou, Jiyuan county, Henan province shows that an effective tool for cleaning seeds and separating chaff has been invented at the latest in the late western Han dynasty. The windmill skillfully combines the experience of rotating blades to generate wind power with the experience of heavy particles and light chaff, which is indeed a novel creation.

Four. Seed selection and breeding achievements

1, crop breeding achievements

China is one of the important origins of cultivated plants in the world. Crops originating in China are millet, millet (millet), rice and buckwheat; Beans include soybeans and edamame; Vegetables include cabbage and radish; Fruit trees include peaches, apricots, plums, pears, oranges and litchi.

When the ancient people domesticated and cultivated wild plants, they needed selectivity, which was the beginning of the emergence of crops. So the history of seed selection is as long as that of agriculture. There are many kinds of crops in China. Today, there are more than 40,000 varieties of rice and 1.5 million varieties of millet. This is created by countless generations of farmers who have widely used the technology of seed selection and survival of the fittest.

2. Livestock and poultry breeding achievements.

There are many kinds of excellent livestock and poultry in China, and the variety resources are rich, which have been paid attention to by other countries in the world at all times and at all times. Horses, cows, sheep, chickens, dogs and tapirs were all raised in China more than 5,000 years ago. China is one of the first countries to raise pigs, chickens, ducks and horses, and it is also the first country to breed mules through hybridization.

3. Contribution of sericulture.

China is the earliest country in the world in sericulture, mulberry planting and silk reeling. More than two thousand years ago, when China silk was introduced to Europe, Europeans knew nothing about how beautiful and light silk was woven.