Four Great Agricultural Masters during Song and Yuan Dynasties
4 min readThe agricultural study of Song and Yuan dynasties,a key period for China’s development of agricultural theories and technology, remains an important position in the Chinese history of agriculture. The representative agricultural scientists and specialists of the time were Chen Fu of Southern Song dynasty, and Meng Qi, Wangzhen and Lu Mingshan of Yuan dynasty, who are jointly known as the four great agricultural masters during the two dynasties.
They contributed four masterpieces to Chinese agriculture: Chen Fu’s Treatise on Agriculture, Essentials on Agriculture and Sericulture, Wang Zhen’s Treatise on Agriculture, and Essentials on Agriculture. Sericulture, Clothing and Food. In particular, during Yuan dynasty, though its history was shorter than 100 years, produced three great works on agriculture important in Chinese history of agricultural study.
Chen Fu (living in mid-12th century) was the author of Chen Fu’s Treatise on Agriculture, one of the masterpieces.
The word counts of the whole book, in three volumes, amount to over 10,000 Chinese characters. The first part, the most important, gives a general introduction, the middle part offers techniques on cattle breeding, and the last part gives instructions for sericulture. In the treatise, Chen originated the following major techniques:① Use of the farmland on the basis of local conditions.A planning for utilization of five varieties of farmland was made, classified by topography, including hilly land, low-lying land, slope, vegetable plot, and lake adjacent field.② Comparison of manure fertilizer to medicinal herbs in application. The author believed that the soil properties should be taken into account while applying manure fertilizer in the same wayas the use of herbs, with several innovative measures and inventions on fertilizer sources and application methods.③Land fertility keeping. In his belief, soil fertility varies from place to place, yet the fertility can be kept consistent so long as fertile soil is added to appropriately frequent fertilizer application.④ Rice cropping records. It is China’s first book to record systematically rice farming techniques for the south of the country, marking establishment of China’s traditional rice cropping techniques.
Yuan dynasty had farming specialists working for the department of agriculture, sericulture and water conservancy (Court of Imperial Granaries) directly under the centralized government, Meng Qi being a representative. In the department were Meng Qi, ZhangWenqian, Chang Shiwen, Miao Haoqian and other farming specialists. They together compiled Essentials on Agriculture and Sericulture (1273), the first extant agriculture specific work compiled by the government. The entire work contains 65,000-odd Chinese characters, in seven volumes, with roughly similar structure to another agriculturally focused masterpiece Essentials for the Common People. It is characterized by the following: ① For the first time, the authors wrote about mulberry, cotton and other economic crops as raw materials for clothing in the same breath with grain production.② The authors put forth a brand new theory of natural conditions and customs that paved the ideological way for introduction and plantation of cotton, maize, peanut, sweet potato, tobacco and other crops.③ A series of other new crops, vegetables and fruits were also added, such as ramie, silk cotton, watermellon, carrot, crowndaisy and sugar cane.
Wang Zhen (living in the beginning of 14th century) was a native of Dongping of Shandong province. He wrote Wang Zhen’s Treatise on Agriculture,a great agricultural book in three major parts:a general introduction to farmingand sericulture; manual of planting grains, vegetables, fruits and trees; and illustration of farm implements. The characteristics include:① For the first time the book combined agricultural technology for both north and south China.② The book put emphasis on illustration of farm implements. The book was compiled in 22 volumes, of which farm implements were illustrated in 12 volumes, taking up 4/5 of the whole book in length, with a huge collection of 306 illustrations of implements in 20 categories. As the first encyclopaedia on farm implements, the book was often taken as a model for later similar agricultural works and reference books also with focus on farm implements.③Development and improvement of Chen Fu’s propositions on manure fertilizer application like use of herbs and consistent fertility maintainence.
Lu Mingshan (living in the beginning of the 14th century) was from the Uygur ethnic group, who compiled Essentials on Agriculture, Sericulture, Clothing and Food (1314), with the following features:① As the first agricultural book by an Uygur writer, it gives much information about farming, livestock breeding, food and clothing of the minorities in northwest China, for instance, planting of grapes in the second lunar month, making of buttered tea, sundry facts about cheese in the fifth lunar month, and sales and purchase of breeding sheep in thetwelfth lunar month.② Adoption of a monthly recording system for data of farming, sericulture, food and clothing. ③ Reader friendly, handy and practical, hailed as the best “monthly phonological guide for farmers”.
