Chapter 10 Section 3 Stealing the Heaven and the Earth: Adapting and Renovating to Environmental Conditions
From the overall analysis of agriculture, agricultural technical measures can be divided into two parts: one is to adapt to and improve the environmental conditions for the growth of agricultural organisms, and the other is to improve the production capacity of agricultural organisms themselves.my country's agricultural intensive cultivation technology system includes technical measures in these two aspects.In this section, we first talk about the first aspect of the measures.
There is a saying in "Shang Shu · Shun Dian", which is called "Food is the only time", which means that the key to solving the problem of people's food is to grasp the season and develop production.The rulers of all dynasties have always regarded "respecting the people's time" as the first task of governance.Although there are many differences among the schools of thought in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, there is a rare unanimity in advocating "don't lose the right time", "don't violate the farming season", and "make the people use the time".
Why is "time" so important?This is because agriculture is economic reproduction based on natural reproduction, which is greatly affected by the natural climate, showing obvious seasonality and urgent timeliness.This feature is more prominent in ancient Chinese agriculture.The ancient Chinese farmers and agronomists have a strong sense of farming time, which is rare in the world.They believe that to engage in agricultural production, one must first know the time and follow the weather. "Lv's Spring and Autumn Annals" puts forward the proposition that "the way of all farmers is thick (housing)" and takes the main grain crops at that time as examples to explain in detail the "time" and "first time" and "time" of crops. The different production effects of "Laoshi" point out that "Garley of Time" has more seeds, high rice yield, good quality, sweet taste, and can withstand hunger and health, which is far better than "Crop of Lost Time".The "Book of Fansheng" in the Western Han Dynasty talked about the principles of dryland cultivation with "interest (trend) time" as the first, and Ma Yilong's "Nongshuo" in the Ming Dynasty explained the theory of "three talents" with "knowing the time as the most important", and so on.As a product of the concept of farming time, a unique Chinese style of agricultural books has been formed, which is characterized by arranging farming and other activities according to monthly astrology, phenology, and solar terms.It not only occupies a considerable proportion in Chinese agricultural books and agricultural literature, but also is the earliest one, such as "Xia Xiaozheng".In other genres of agricultural books, they also often contain rich content that is related to time and events similar to monthly orders.
The reason why the awareness of farming season in ancient China is particularly strong is related to the particularity of natural conditions and the formation of the tradition of intensive farming.
The Yellow River Basin is one of the origins of Chinese civilization and the first cradle of Chinese agronomy.It is located in the northern temperate zone, with four distinct seasons, most of the crops are annual, and most of the trees are deciduous trees. The germination, growth, flowering, and fruiting of crops are consistent with the annual rhythm of the climate.Under the condition that people are still unable to change the natural climate, the program of agricultural activities must depend on the timing of climate change.Spring plowing, summer cultivation, autumn harvest, and winter storage have long been common knowledge.The Yellow River Basin is dry and windy in spring, so it is necessary to plow the fields and rush to plant and sow seeds during the short period of suitable farming after the spring thaw. In the book "Guanzi", it is often said that "spring events are on the 25th day". The key link.Generally, the autumn when crops mature is often rainy and prone to waterlogging, so harvesting has to be done quickly; winter wheat is harvested in summer when the high temperature is ripening, and there are heavy rains from time to time, which is even more "longkou grabbing food".Therefore, the ancients said that "the harvest is like a bandit's harvest".The growth and activity patterns of animals in the Yellow River Basin are also deeply restricted by seasonal changes.For example, livestock and poultry have not been domesticated for a long time in ancient times, and they still retain some habits formed in the wild age. They usually estrus and mate in spring.Large livestock are combined with grazing and captive breeding. Generally, they go out for grazing after the spring equinox and return after the autumn equinox, forming a system that also adapts to the prosperity and decline of pastures in nature.
With the development of intensive farming technology and the development of diversified farming, farming time has continuously acquired new meanings.For example, after the popularization of cattle farming and the formation of "plowing, harrowing, and plowing" on dry land and the cultivation technology of drought prevention and moisture conservation, plowing can be separated from sowing, and there is more room for choice in sowing time, and it is easier to grasp the best timing of sowing and plowing. In detail, various factors such as soil and crops need to be considered.For example, "The Book of Fansheng" puts forward that "there is no period for planting crops, but the time depends on the location".The "Qi Min Yao Shu" of the Northern Wei Dynasty formulated the "upper time", "middle time" and "lower time" for sowing various crops.Fertilization should be "timely", and drainage and irrigation should also be "timely".How to make full use of the seasons available for crop growth and the "leisure" time outside of busy farming, and skillfully arrange various production activities according to the timing of nature, has become a very high skill.Chen Yan of the Southern Song Dynasty said in "Agricultural Book Six Kinds of Yi": "There are different narratives about planting. If you can know the time and don't go against the sequence, you will be born one after another, and you will be able to make use of each other. There is no time for planting. There is no empty month to harvest, one-year-old capital, continuous succession." He believes that agricultural production is "stealing heaven and earth at the right time." meaning.The authors of some local agricultural books in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (mostly landlords) had detailed arrangements for what to do when the farm was busy, what to do when the farm was slack, what to do on a sunny day, and what to do on a rainy day in their farming timetable.
So, how did the ancient Chinese people master the farming time?
This has a development process.The seasonal changes of climate were not based on the observation of astronomical phenomena at first, but on the information disclosed by natural organisms and abiotic responses to climate change (such as the prosperity and decline of vegetation, the appearance of birds and beasts, the condensation and disappearance of frost, etc.) To grasp it, as the basis for engaging in agricultural activities, this is phenology.Among some ethnic minorities in China who maintain more or less primitive agricultural components, they retain the habit of using phenology as the main indicator of agricultural time, and some even formed a phenological timing system—the phenological calendar.The ancient times in the Central Plains of our country should also have experienced such a stage.According to legend, the Shaohao family in the Yellow Emperor's era "named officials with birds": Xuanniao's Division Fen (spring equinox, autumn equinox), Zhao Bo's Division Zhi (summer solstice, winter solstice), Qingniao Division Qi (Lichun, Lixia), Danniao Division Close (beginning of autumn, beginning of winter).Xuanniao is a swallow, which generally comes and goes from the vernal equinox to the autumnal equinox. Zhao Bo is a shrike, which usually comes from the summer solstice and goes to the winter solstice. The beginning of autumn comes and the beginning of winter goes.The officials in charge of points, Zhi, opening, and closing are named after them respectively, which shows that in ancient times, there was indeed the experience of using the coming and going of migratory birds as a sign of seasons.The character "Nian" in oracle bone inscriptions is the image of a person carrying grain, while the character "He" represents a millet plant with drooping ears of grain. Therefore, "Shuowen" says that "the ripening of grain is the year".This is exactly the same as the ancient Tibetans "take the maturity of wheat as the beginning of the year" ("Old Tang Book Tubo Biography"), and the Li people "use the ripeness of yams to account for the astronomical age" ("Taiping Huanyu Ji"), both of which are indicators of phenology. Traces left by the times.Although the time of phenology can accurately reflect the actual change of the climate, it often has no fixed year and no fixed day in the "month". The same phenological phenomenon appears at different times in different years in different regions. Sloppy and unstable.So people turned to the observation of astronomical phenomena.It is said that the era of the Yellow Emperor has begun to "calendar the sun, moon and stars" ("Records of the Historian: The Book of the Five Emperors").At that time, astronomical surveying activities were very common, and its lingering charm extended to three generations. Gu Yanwu had a saying that "everyone knows astronomy for more than three generations".People have found through long-term observations that the different orientations of some stars in the sky are consistent with the seasonal changes in climate, such as the Big Dipper constellation, "the bucket handle is eastward, and the world is spring; the bucket handle is south, the world is summer; the bucket handle is south, and the world is summer; To the west, the world is autumn, and the handle is north, the world is winter" ("鹖[he] Guanzi"), just like a natural big clock.Some researches have found that in ancient my country, a kind of "fire calendar" was practiced, that is, the "big fire (ie, Antares) fainted" was the beginning of the year, and the seasons and farming hours were determined according to the different positions of the "big fire" in space.However, sidereal time is suitable for a long period of time (such as year, season), and sometimes some difficulties will be encountered in observation; the sign of time in a short period of time is the obvious change of the moon phase.As a result, a yin-yang calendar combining the synodic month and the return year was gradually formed.The so-called synodic month is based on the cycle of the moon as a month, and the so-called tropical year is based on the earth's revolution around the sun once as a year.However, the return year, the synodic month and the day are not multiples of an integer, and twelve synodic months are about 11 days less than a return year, so it is necessary to have a large and small month and intercalation to coordinate.Also, the synodic month is convenient for timing, but it is difficult to reflect the change of climate.So people tried to divide a solar year into several smaller periods, one is to reflect climate changes in more detail, and the other is also to meet the needs of intercalation.The result of the exploration was finally determined to be the twenty-four solar terms.The twenty-four solar terms are gradually formed based on the actual measurement of the sundial in Tugui.The points, arrival, opening, and closing that appeared no later than the Spring and Autumn Period are its eight base points, and every two points are divided into three sections evenly, named after the corresponding meteorological and phenological phenomena.The systematic records of the twenty-four solar terms first appeared in "Zhoubi Suanjing" and "Huainanzi".It accurately reflects the relationship between the sun and the earth formed by the earth's revolution, and is very consistent with the climate change of the Yellow River Basin in a year of cold, warm, dry and wet. It is easier to grasp the agricultural season than the months based on the moon's waxing and waning.It is a major creation of the time-pointing method of Chinese agronomy, and it has played a guiding role in agricultural production so far.
The grasp of farming time in Chinese agronomy does not rely solely on one method, but uses multiple methods comprehensively to form a time-pointing system.For example, "Shangshu·Yao Dian" uses the appearance of the four stars of bird, fire, virtual, and pleo at dusk as the symbols of the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and also records the dynamic changes of birds and beasts in the four seasons. "Xia Xiaozheng" and "Book of Rites·Yueling", which was written later but retained a lot of ancient content, both listed the monthly astrology [chan], weather, and phenology as a way of arranging farming and other things. The basis of the activity, the latter actually contains most of the content of the twenty-four solar terms.This became a tradition of the monthly order of agricultural books.The formation of the twenty-four solar terms does not exclude other time-referring means.At the same time as it was formed, people sorted out the seventy-two pentads used in conjunction with it on the basis of the accumulation of ancient phenology knowledge.In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, people were still trying to make predictions about the ultra-long-term climate change law and the agricultural abundance and failures it caused based on the long-term astronomical observations and the 12-year cycle of the Supiter (Jupiter) in different starry regions. .Twenty-four solar terms, as the main time-pointing means of traditional Chinese agronomy, complete its tasks in coordination with other means.Wang Zhen of the Yuan Dynasty said in his "Nong Shu": "The changes of the twenty-eight mansions and the week, the meeting of the sun and the moon on the twelve celestial days, the passage of the twenty-four qi, and the changes of the seventy-two seasons are like a cycle of cycles, like a wheel turning, Take the festival of farming and mulberry, and use it to account for it." For this purpose, he made the "Picture of Telling the Time, Knowing the Palm and Lively", which summarized the stars, solar terms, and phenology in one picture, and fixed the months according to the twenty-four solar terms. Schedule monthly farm chores.He also pointed out that the map uses "the air in the north, the south, and the sky as the standard", and it should be used flexibly in light of the specific conditions of each place, and it should not be "sticky pillars".This is a summary of the time-referencing system of Chinese agronomy.
People cannot change the macroclimate in nature, but they can use the special terrain microclimate in nature, and then create some kind of artificial microclimate according to the needs of human beings.The people of our country have long used topographical microclimate and created artificial microclimate in horticulture and flower cultivation, thus partly breaking through the limitations of nature's seasons and regions, and producing various "untimely things" that are made by heaven and earth. .
As early as the time of Qin Shihuang, people had succeeded in planting melons in winter in the warm place of Lishan Valley.Before the Tang Dynasty, people in Dongting and Dongting Mountains of Taihu Lake in Suzhou used the local lake microclimate to grow citrus, becoming the northernmost citrus producing area along the eastern coast of my country.The government of the Tang Dynasty used the nearby hot spring water to cultivate early-maturing melons and fruits.Wang Jian's "Gong Ci" said: "There are 100 high-rise buildings with wine mantles, and flowers in front of the Yangliu Temple in front of the palace. The royal garden is divided into warm soup and water, and melons have been in in mid-February."
Greenhouse cultivation first appeared in the court of Han Dynasty. "Hanshu" says that the government's "Taiguan Garden" in the Western Han Dynasty was "covered with a roof [wuwu]" on the vegetable garden, "burning fire day and night", and planting "onions and leeks" in winter.This is the earliest recorded greenhouse in the world, more than 1,000 years earlier than the greenhouses in Western Europe.Similarly, there is the "Four Seasons House" in the time of Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty, which was used to breed "Lingruijia poultry, abundant flowers and special trees" that were not produced in the Yellow River Basin.Vegetables cultivated in greenhouses in the Han Dynasty may have spread to the common people, and some wealthy people can also eat "mallow and leeks".The scale of growing vegetables in greenhouses in the Tang Dynasty was not small, and sometimes "Si Nong" would supply 2,000 vehicles of winter vegetables.In the street market of Bianliang (now Kaifeng, Henan), the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, chives, lettuce, and orchid sprouts were sold everywhere in December.The cultivation of early leeks by wind barriers, storage of leeks in greenhouses, and cultivation of vegetable seedlings in cold beds recorded in Wang Zhen's "Nong Shu" also belong to the scope of using artificial microclimate.This technology is extended to flower cultivation, so-called "Tang Hua Shu".Macheng, a suburb of Lin'an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province) in the Southern Song Dynasty, was rich in various flowers.All the flowers that bloom early are called Tanghua.The method is: decorate the secret room with paper, dig the ground as a ridge, weave bamboo on the ridge, place the flowered bamboo on it, and irrigate it with oxtail sulfur; May bloom.No wonder people at that time praised this method as "侔 [mou] making good fortune and communicating with immortals".
In ancient agricultural production, natural disasters caused by abnormal climate, such as flood, drought, frost, hail, wind, etc., were generally difficult to resist, but people still came up with various ways to avoid disasters.One of them is to temporarily and locally change the microclimate of farmland.For example, fruit trees are afraid of frost during the blooming period. People know in practice that late frost generally occurs on the night of "rainy and sunny (high humidity) and cold north wind (low temperature)". "Dung" is ignited, let it smolder and produce smoke, and the smoke can protect fruit trees from frost.This method has been recorded in "Qi Min Yao Shu".In the Qing Dynasty, guns were also used in Pingliang to disperse the hail and protect the field seedlings.
Land is one of the basic elements of agricultural production.The importance of land to agriculture is self-evident.As mentioned above, ancient Chinese agronomy regarded the land as the source of all things and the source of wealth. Therefore, "making the most of the land" has become one of the basic requirements of agricultural production.In the process of dealing with land for a long time, people have accumulated rich knowledge about land and soil, and gradually formed a scientific system.my country's traditional soil science contains two very distinctive and interrelated theories, namely the theory of soil suitability and the theory of soil veins.
The concept of suitable soil or suitable place appeared quite early.According to legend, Qi, the ancestor of the Zhou family, once said that "the land is suitable, and those who are suitable for the grain are able to grow crops" ("Historical Records Zhou Benji").Many ancient books in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods talked about soil suitableness. responsibilities.The concept of soil suitable includes different levels of content. "Zhou Li Da Situ": "Using the method suitable for the soil, distinguish the names and objects of the twelve soils, know the benefits and disadvantages of the houses, and the people, the birds and beasts (animal husbandry), and the grass and trees (agriculture and forestry) , to take care of the soil (Zheng’s Note: born on the spot, let the people do what they can); distinguish between ten and two kinds of soil and know its species, so as to teach how to harvest.” The ancients divided the zodiac cycle into 12 times, each time Each has its own field.Therefore, "twelve soils" do not refer to 12 kinds of soils, but to different soils in 12 regions.The first meaning of soil suitable is to attach importance to the regional nature of agriculture and arrange production and life according to regional characteristics.In the same area, the production of agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and fishery should be arranged in an all-round way according to different land types (such as mountains, forests, rivers, hills, tombs, plains [xixi], the so-called "five places" in ancient times). Appropriate second meaning.According to different soil types, arranging different crops is its third meaning.The concept of soil suitable has been inherited and developed in later generations of agriculture, and its content has been continuously deepened.As far as planting according to the soil is concerned, not only the selection of crops, but also the time of sowing, the depth and method of tillage, the type and method of fertilization, etc., must consider the soil suitable.
Soil Yi Theory is based on a deep understanding of different soils, different land types and their relationship with animals and plants.China has made a detailed classification of soil in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods."Shangshu·Yugong", called "the earliest book on soil science in the world" by Joseph Needham, divides the soil in Kyushu into ten types according to the color and texture of the soil. For example, the fertile and loose native loess on the Loess Plateau is called yellow soil; The saline-alkali-containing substances are mostly white, so they are called white soil; the fertile and loose soil rich in humus in the hilly area of Shandong Peninsula is called black grave; the firm soil is called Lu [lu furnace]; 〕; The lower wet soil is called smearing mud, etc. According to the research of recent people, its description is generally in line with the distribution of soil in my country. "Guanzi Diyuan" divides the Kyushu soil into three grades and 18 categories according to the level of fertility, with five types in each category, a total of 90 types.The knowledge of soil classification in ancient China far exceeds that of contemporary Western Europe.It is particularly worth noting that ancient Chinese agronomy did not classify soils in isolation, but paid great attention to the interdependence of different soils, land types, and different animals and plants. "Yu Gong" not only discusses the soil types and terrains of Kyushu, but also lists the vegetation and products of Kyushu. "Diyuan" further lists the crop varieties, fruits, vegetation, fish and livestock that are suitable for growing in various soils.It revealed for the first time the characteristics of vertical distribution of plants according to the height of the terrain, and pointed out that "every way of grass and soil has its own grain, and whether it is high or low, each has grass." "Zhou Li Da Situ" also records the "law of soil society" for distinguishing different animals and plants growing on five types of land (mountain forest, river, hill, tomb, and original scorpion).It may be said that Chinese traditional soil science is essentially a kind of soil ecology.
In the external environment where crops grow, the climate is difficult for people to control and change, but the soil can be changed to a large extent, and the terrain can also be changed to a certain extent.Therefore, the ancient people of our country always focused their efforts on improving agricultural environmental conditions on the land.As the crystallization of this practice and to provide a theoretical basis for it is the theory of soil veins. There is such a record in "Mandarin Zhouyu": In ancient times, Dashi followed the seasons to observe the soil dynamics. Every year at the beginning of spring, when Fangsu (auspicious star of agriculture) hangs in the sky in the morning, the sun and the moon meet in the sky where the "camp room" is located. , the air pulse of the earth begins to pulse, and spring plowing will begin at this time.Summarize the characteristics of temperature, humidity, water, nutrients and gas flow in soil as a general concept of "earth atmosphere" or "earth atmosphere", and regard soil as a living organism with air veins.This can be regarded as a summary of the experience since the Western Zhou Dynasty by the people of the Warring States Period.Soil veins, in a certain sense, can be understood as soil fertility, or the foundation of soil fertility.This kind of soil vein theory was inherited and developed by later generations of agronomists, and combined it with the soil suitable theory.For example, Chen Yan said: "The air veins of the soil are of different types, fertile and fertile [que], the beauty and evil are different, and each has its own appropriate treatment." Said: "The soil is also the veins of the land." ("Nong Shuo") This does not contradict what we say now that "fertility is the essence of the soil".
Since the soil has air veins, and the air veins can be ups and downs, which can be damaged or benefited, then the fertility of the soil is not fixed, but can be changed under the influence of manpower. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals Ren Di": "The land can make fat and thorns (barren)." The above quotes "Zhou Li Da Situ" to distinguish between twelve soils and twelve soils. "Li Zhu" explained: "Soil is also soil. If everything is self-generated, it is called soil; if it is plowed by people and trees are cultivated, it is called soil." In the terms of modern soil science, soil is natural soil. is cultivated soil.At that time, people have realized that through human agricultural activities, the natural soil can be changed to suit human needs.This should be a remarkable discovery in the history of soil science. "Zhou Li Cao Ren" also talks about "the method of soil transformation", which refers to making the land fertile and suitable for agricultural needs.What is the specific method? "Zhou Li" talks about it rather vaguely, but Wang Chong of the Eastern Han Dynasty answered this question. "Lunheng·Frankness": "It is the nature of the land to be fertile and fertile. Those who are fertile and fertile are beautiful in nature, and the trees and crops are luxuriant; those who are thick and thin are evil in nature. Deep plowing and fine hoeing, thick and thick manure soil, encourage people's achievements , to help the soil, and its crops are similar to those that are fertile." Here, the level of crop yield is a comprehensive index to measure soil fertility. It not only affirms that soil fertility can be changed by manpower, but also clearly points out that "deep plowing and intensive cultivation Hoeing and adding manure thickly" are the conditions for transforming barren soil into fertile soil.Continue to develop on this basis, and give birth to the famous theory of "the soil is always young and strong".Chen Yan of the Southern Song Dynasty criticized the view that "the land will be consumed if it is cultivated for a long time". He pointed out that some people say that the field will be exhausted after three to five years of planting, the soil will be poor, and the vegetation will not grow. This is wrong; if you can often add new fertile With the application of fertilizers to the soil, the field will become more and more fertile, and the soil will always maintain a "new and strong" state.This is in stark contrast to the ancient western theory of diminishing fertility, and is one of the most brilliant ideas of traditional Chinese agronomy.Chen Yan also pointed out: "Although the soil is not suitable, how can it be treated? If it is treated properly, everything can be achieved." ("Nongshu · The Appropriateness of Manure and Soil") This is what modern soil science said, "There is nothing bad. soil, only poor farming methods" are unanimous.
The transformation of the land environment by ancient Chinese agronomy is comprehensive, and the main measures include tillage, fertilization, drainage and irrigation, improvement of farmland structure and rational cultivation system and so on.The following is a brief introduction.
The theoretical basis of farming to improve the soil is the theory of soil veins and the theory of soil suitability. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals Ren Di": "Where the plowing is generous, the strong one wants softness, and the soft one wants strength; the restless one wants labor, and the tired one wants rest; Those who are slow want to be anxious; those who are wet want to be dry, and those who are dry want to be wet." These are the five pairs of contradictions in soil properties, among which force and softness refer to the hardness and softness of the soil, and quickness and slowness refer to the speed at which soil fertility is released.Dealing with these contradictions requires moderation and prevents bias.The "Book of Fansheng" in the Western Han Dynasty further summarized the above requirements as a general principle of "harmony with the soil". "Harmony" is the ideal state of harmony between nature and social order in the minds of the ancients. "Healing the soil" is to strive for the best state of the soil that is fertile, firm and soft, and moderately dry and humid.For example, firm soil needs to be repeatedly "ploughed and rubbed", which is the so-called "strong soil makes it weak", and soft soil needs to be repeatedly "ploughed (repressed)", and even cattle and sheep are trampled on, so-called "weak soil makes it strong".The soil should be moderately tight and form an aggregate structure.The ancients did not have the concept of aggregate structure, but they knew which soil state was most conducive to crop growth in practical experience. They used the general concept of "and" to express this understanding.The combination of abstract and fuzzy philosophical concepts and concrete and meticulous perceptual experience is one of the characteristics of traditional Chinese agronomy.
To create a good soil environment through farming measures, the dry land farming system in the Yellow River Basin is the most typical.Due to the drought and windy spring in the Yellow River Basin, people have long learned to cover the soil immediately after sowing—"耰" [youyou].In the Spring and Autumn Period, people clearly put forward the technical requirements of "deep cultivation of diseased crops".But the early tillage was just a simple loosening of the soil just before planting, and both tillage and planting were inseparable from sowing.Since the Han and Wei dynasties, with the popularization of ox plows and iron plows, animal-drawn 耱 [mo] and tarts appeared to replace the original hand-operated 耰, and then animal-powered harrows appeared, so that plowing can be repeated before sowing. conduct.Every time plowing, rakes should be used to break up the rubbish, and then the topsoil should be further flattened with a hoe to cut off the capillaries of the soil to avoid water evaporation, so that the soil can form a plow layer structure with good water and fertilizer retention performance.With this set of tools and methods, autumn plowing can be used to store autumn rain to relieve spring drought, so autumn plowing has attracted people's attention.After sowing, it should be suppressed in time. This will not only make the soil close to each other, but also connect the capillaries of the soil to lift up the moisture in the soil (moisture content) to facilitate the emergence of seedlings.Timely and meticulous cultivating should be carried out after emergence.Cultivation or not is one of the important differences between traditional Chinese agriculture and medieval Western European agriculture.As mentioned earlier, people paid great attention to intertillage in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Later, people summed up a set of hoeing early, hoeing small (weeding when the grass is small), hoeing, hoeing not tired of counting (not afraid of too many times) and hoeing according to the moisture content of seedlings. legal technology.A folk proverb says: There is water and fire in a hoe.It can be seen that Chinese farmers have long realized that intertillage can not only resist drought but also increase ground temperature and promote crop growth.Plowing-harrowing-plowing-pressing-hoeing is the main link of the dryland farming technology system in the Yellow River Basin. Thanks to this fine and ingenious farming system, the threat of spring drought in the Yellow River Basin has been alleviated to a considerable extent. .
Fertilization is another important measure to create a good soil environment for crop growth.The continuous improvement of my country's agricultural land utilization rate is based on the advancement of soil restoration and fertilization technology.The recovery of soil fertility under the system of abandonment depends entirely on natural processes; under the system of leisure, there are already artificial intervention measures, such as weeding [shanshan] on the fallow land, flooding it with water or burning it to turn it into fertilizer .There are still different opinions on when my country will consciously apply fertilizers, but fertilization is generally valued. It is obviously the Warring States Period when the continuous cropping system began to replace the leisure system.At that time, people demanded that "the fields must be concentrated in fields, and manure (fertilization) must be irrigated" ("Han Feizi"), and "manure fields" have been considered as the daily tasks of "farmers and common people" ("Xunzi").People in the Han Dynasty connected fertilization with soil improvement.After the Song Dynasty, with the development of the multi-cropping system, people had a deeper understanding of the role of fertilization in increasing production and maintaining soil fertility. People believed that "dung fields are better than buying fields" ("Nongsang Collection"), and even "cherish dung like Cherish gold" (Wang Zhen's "Nong Shu"). "Diligent cultivation and more obstruction (fertilization), less planting and more harvest" ("Book of Supplementing Agriculture") has become the basic principle of traditional agriculture.
In order to apply more fertilizers, people tried every means to develop fertilizer sources. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were more than 130 kinds of fertilizers recorded in agricultural books.Some of these fertilizers come from nature.For example, as early as the Warring States period, people cut grass, leaves, etc. and burned them as fertilizer.Later, turf mud, river mud, pond mud, etc. were widely used, and aquatic algae were also collected by people.More come from human waste in agricultural production and life, such as human and animal manure, garbage and dirty water, old pit soil, old wall soil, crop straw, chaff, old leaves, stubble, animal skin, bone and feather etc., can all be used as fertilizer.Cultivated green manure is developed from natural manure.People in the Han Dynasty already knew that it is best to wait for the grass to grow on the ground before plowing, so that the grass will rot in the ground for fertilizer.Under this inspiration, people gradually began to plant green manure consciously.Jin Zhanghua's "Natural History" mentioned that Lingnan people planted tiao (tiao strips) in rice fields in winter, which is the earliest record of artificial green manure.After the emergence of green manure, it was widely planted in the summer slack land, and the crop rotation of grain and fertilizer was implemented, and the scope of fertilization in my country's farmland was greatly expanded.Dry cakes after oil extraction and slag after brewing also belong to the scope of "waste".Chen Yan's "Nong Shu" recorded for the first time that "hemp (mi fan) [shen stretch]" was used as fertilizer, and later this kind of fertilizer also increased to dozens of types.Cake fertilizer became the most high-quality and efficient commercial fertilizer before the introduction of chemical fertilizers.Traditional farmyard manures in my country are mainly organic fertilizers, but inorganic fertilizers such as lime, gypsum, and sulfur also began to be used in the late feudal society.
Fertilizers should be processed through retting to promote their fermentation and maturity to improve fertilizer efficiency, which was called "brewing" in ancient times.Fertilization methods and techniques are also very particular, there are seed fertilizer, base fertilizer and top dressing.How to fertilize to achieve maximum effect with minimum cost?People emphasize the need to look at the right time, soil and materials, and compare fertilization to prescribing the right medicine, which is the so-called "using manure like medicine" (Chen Yan's words).
The combination of land use and land cultivation is a fine tradition of agriculture in our country.In ancient my country, the reason why the land utilization rate continued to increase and the soil fertility lasted for a long time was that fertilization, intensive cultivation and reasonable crop rotation were the most important reasons.
Rational drainage and irrigation of farmland is also very important to improve the soil environment.For example, the ditch system in the pre-Qin period in the Yellow River Basin was to excavate drainage ditches to form long ridges, combined with measures such as drill sowing, reasonable dense planting, thinning and weeding, etc., to establish a crop group structure with neat rows, ventilation and light transmission, which not only changed The waterlogged and alkali-returning soil environment has been eliminated, and a good farmland microclimate has been created.After the Warring States period, farmland irrigation developed.People often use water diversion to flood irrigation and replant rice to wash salt, or take advantage of the high sediment content of northern rivers to irrigate silt and suppress alkali.Both the Zhangshui Twelve Canal and the Zhengguo Canal have been very successful in this regard, making the "eternal repelling of bittern (saline-alkali land)" a fertile field with a yield of one bell per mu.Jia Rang of the Western Han Dynasty once concluded: "If there is a canal for irrigation, the brine will be wet, and the silt will be filled to increase fertilizer. Therefore, we will grow wheat and rice, and the soil will be five times higher than the field ten times." ("Hanshu · During the reform period of Wang Anshi in the Northern Song Dynasty, silt and alkali were released on a large scale in the Yellow River Basin.The water enclosing of Tishan Mountain in the south also includes measures to improve the soil moisture status through proper drainage and irrigation.The water slurry management of paddy fields in the south should not only meet the water needs of each stage of rice growth, but also avoid the disadvantages of insufficient temperature and poor ventilation in paddy fields due to long-term waterlogging.Chen Yan's "Agricultural Book" records that the rice field in the south of the Yangtze River adopts the method of "spinning and spinning". The field that has been plowed must open large and deep ditches in the middle and sides, and drain the water until the surface of the field is cracked. , and then water again.This is done to increase the ground temperature and promote oxidation.Chen Yan said that this is "better than using dung".This method of ditching and roasting fields is still popular in southern Jiangsu, and farmers call it Fengyigou.In order to improve the soil structure of paddy fields, there are other measures such as plowing in winter and drying in winter, rotation of paddy and dry crops, and opening waist ditches on winter paddy fields for drainage.As for the drainage and irrigation management of seedling fields, it is more detailed.
In terms of the comprehensive use of farming, fertilization, irrigation and other technologies, ancient my country also created some special high-yielding cultivation methods.For example, in the Western Han Dynasty, Zhao Guo invented the method of substituting the field, making three ditches and three ridges on a six-foot-wide mu. The seeds were sown in the furrows.At the same time, measures such as coupling plows for ridges and columbine cart drills were adopted, which greatly improved labor productivity.The positions of the ridges and furrows are rotated every year, that is, the used part and the idle part of the cultivated land alternate, hence the name Daitian method.In this way, the arable land can be equalized between work and interest, and both use and support can be taken into account.The Daitian method was implemented in the Guanzhong area where Chang'an, the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, and the Tuntian area of the Northwest Frontier Commandery were implemented, and achieved a significant increase in production.Later, due to the popularization of ox farming and the formation of the plow-harrow-pick-press-hoe farming technology system for drought resistance and moisture conservation, the Yellow River Basin generally no longer needs to adopt the form of furrow planting.
The district field method first seen in "The Book of Fansheng" is to divide the farmland into several wide or square plots, and take measures such as deep plowing, concentrated fertilization, equidistant on-demand, and timely irrigation to achieve high yield and high yield.It does not necessarily require a large area of arable land, and does not necessarily use iron plows for ox farming, but requires a lot of labor. It is more suitable for small farmers who lack ox power and large farm tools and have weak economic strength.According to the "Book of Fansheng", Qutian can reach "a hundred stones per mu".Judging from the materials of previous experiments, including those after liberation, the district field method can indeed resist drought and increase yields, but the yields may not be as high as advertised in the "Book of Fansheng", and it is too labor-intensive to spread on a large scale.However, when encountering cattle epidemic or drought, it can be regarded as a good way to relieve the poor.
In the Qing Dynasty, Gengyinlou also designed a "pro-field method", which selected part of the cultivated land in rotation every year, doubled intensive cultivation, fertilized and watered, which can not only ensure the harvest in drought and flood, but also cultivate the fertility of the soil in turn.
The ancient working people of our country put a lot of effort into transforming low-yield fields.In the saline-alkali land in North China, in addition to the ditches to drain salt, plant rice to wash salt, and release silt to suppress salt, there are also methods such as planting alfalfa, salt-tolerant tree species for salt control, and deep digging of salt nests.There are many cold-soaked fields in the south, and there are methods such as plowing to sun-dry the fields, ditching the fields to bake the fields, fuming the soil to warm the fields, and applying lime, bone ash, and coal ash.
A kind of "sand field" is also created in the arid and barren mountainous area of Gansu.Fertilize the land after plowing, and spread sand and gravel in layers to create a soil environment that keeps heat, water, and salt. This kind of field yields very good harvests, but it takes a lot of labor to build the field and re-pave it, which can be called a miracle in the history of agricultural technology.
Many of the existing cultivated lands in China were not in good condition before, and it was transformed by the people of the past dynasties to become fertile land.Such land is rarely used abroad.This fact shows that the Chinese have a high degree of wisdom and perseverance in the struggle against nature.
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