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农政全书 A Complete Treatise on Agriculture - Treatise planted seeds of knowledge
November 11, 2012, Sunday
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PUBLISHED in 1639, "Nongzheng Quanshu," or "A Complete Treatise on Agriculture," has gained a global reputation as an outstanding scientific work on agriculture in China.
The 700,000-word book was written by Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), a renowned Chinese scientist and high-ranking official in the late years of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
Shanghai native Xu was also, in the early 1600s, the first Chinese to introduce advanced European scientific knowledge into the country.
Born in today's Songjiang District, Xu came from a relatively poor farming family. His father worked both in agriculture and teaching, and managed to send his son to school.
The young Xu understood the hardships of life very well, so he studied hard and tried his best to excel in school. He passed the county-level civil examination at 19, but subsequently failed to attain higher degrees for a long time.
It was not until he was 43 that Xu eventually passed the imperial civil examination for the degree of "Presented Scholar" - a graduate of the palace examination. Then, he entered the Imperial Academy.
These successes paved the way for Xu to be appointed to senior positions at the imperial court, where he spent most of the second half of his life.
During his career as a scholar-official, Xu wrote a number of important books on agriculture, mathematics, astronomy and calendar reform.
The first he wrote was "A Complete Treatise on Agriculture." It is a monumental work on Chinese agriculture, following in the tradition of famous Chinese agronomist Jia Sixie, who produced his "Qiming Yaoshu" or "Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People" in AD 533, and Wang Zhen, who wrote his "Nong Shu" or "Agricultural Book" in 1313.
Focusing not only on agricultural production, but also various aspects of ancient Chinese farmers' lives, Xu's book has a much wider scope than earlier Chinese farming books. It is seven times longer than Jia Sixie's "Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People."
Xu became interested in agriculture when he was a young boy. Helping his father, Xu often worked in the fields after school. There he learned the practice of bud picking to boost cotton output from an old farmer, then told his father and introduced the technique in their fields. This turned out to be very successful in lifting cotton production.
In 1607, when Xu began a three-year mourning period at home following the death of his father, he spent a lot of time on experiments in the family's fields. In 1622, Xu asked for a long sick leave and again spent much of his time on agricultural experiments.
As a result, Xu accumulated abundant practical experience in farming, greatly enriching the agricultural treatise he had been writing.
In 1628, when Xu was called back to serve in the imperial court, he had almost completed a draft of his work. But in the following years Xu was ordered by the court to work on calendar reforms. "A Complete Treatise on Agriculture" was eventually revised and edited by a group of Xu's students and published in 1639, six years after Xu had died.
In his treatise, Xu's topics include farm management and administration, land reclamation, divination of seasons, hydraulic engineering, the cultivation of cereals, vegetable planting and horticulture.
The work also features new technology in sericulture, cotton growing and cotton field management and the proper use of key grafting techniques.
In his book, Xu also advocated farmers take the initiative in introducing new crops and new products and criticized the then prevalent concept that climate and natural conditions should dictate the form of farming practiced in an area.
Such comprehensiveness ensured Xu's book had a far-reaching influence on agriculture in China over the three centuries that followed.
The 700,000-word book was written by Xu Guangqi (1562-1633), a renowned Chinese scientist and high-ranking official in the late years of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
Shanghai native Xu was also, in the early 1600s, the first Chinese to introduce advanced European scientific knowledge into the country.
Born in today's Songjiang District, Xu came from a relatively poor farming family. His father worked both in agriculture and teaching, and managed to send his son to school.
The young Xu understood the hardships of life very well, so he studied hard and tried his best to excel in school. He passed the county-level civil examination at 19, but subsequently failed to attain higher degrees for a long time.
It was not until he was 43 that Xu eventually passed the imperial civil examination for the degree of "Presented Scholar" - a graduate of the palace examination. Then, he entered the Imperial Academy.
These successes paved the way for Xu to be appointed to senior positions at the imperial court, where he spent most of the second half of his life.
During his career as a scholar-official, Xu wrote a number of important books on agriculture, mathematics, astronomy and calendar reform.
The first he wrote was "A Complete Treatise on Agriculture." It is a monumental work on Chinese agriculture, following in the tradition of famous Chinese agronomist Jia Sixie, who produced his "Qiming Yaoshu" or "Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People" in AD 533, and Wang Zhen, who wrote his "Nong Shu" or "Agricultural Book" in 1313.
Focusing not only on agricultural production, but also various aspects of ancient Chinese farmers' lives, Xu's book has a much wider scope than earlier Chinese farming books. It is seven times longer than Jia Sixie's "Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People."
Xu became interested in agriculture when he was a young boy. Helping his father, Xu often worked in the fields after school. There he learned the practice of bud picking to boost cotton output from an old farmer, then told his father and introduced the technique in their fields. This turned out to be very successful in lifting cotton production.
In 1607, when Xu began a three-year mourning period at home following the death of his father, he spent a lot of time on experiments in the family's fields. In 1622, Xu asked for a long sick leave and again spent much of his time on agricultural experiments.
As a result, Xu accumulated abundant practical experience in farming, greatly enriching the agricultural treatise he had been writing.
In 1628, when Xu was called back to serve in the imperial court, he had almost completed a draft of his work. But in the following years Xu was ordered by the court to work on calendar reforms. "A Complete Treatise on Agriculture" was eventually revised and edited by a group of Xu's students and published in 1639, six years after Xu had died.
In his treatise, Xu's topics include farm management and administration, land reclamation, divination of seasons, hydraulic engineering, the cultivation of cereals, vegetable planting and horticulture.
The work also features new technology in sericulture, cotton growing and cotton field management and the proper use of key grafting techniques.
In his book, Xu also advocated farmers take the initiative in introducing new crops and new products and criticized the then prevalent concept that climate and natural conditions should dictate the form of farming practiced in an area.
Such comprehensiveness ensured Xu's book had a far-reaching influence on agriculture in China over the three centuries that followed.
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