Chapter 56 Section VII Xu Guangqi and "The Complete Book of Agricultural Politics"

Xu Guangqi (1562-1633 A.D.) Zixian, named Xuanhu, was born in Shanghai.He was clever and eager to learn since he was a child. When he was young, he was "exquisite in chapters, sentences, rhythm, and calligraphy", and had great ambitions.He once said: "Wenyi should be the first to get angry, and the best to create reason, so that he can shine through the ages." However, he had many careers [Jian Jian]. In the fifteenth year (AD 1597) at the age of 36, he was elected as a candidate, and in the 32nd year of Wanli (AD 1604) when he was 43 years old, he was a Jinshi and began to enter the official career.

During the frustration of the imperial examination, Xu Guangqi taught in the classroom to make a living while studying hard.Not only dabbled in ancient and modern times, but also contacted missionaries and learned Western learning.In the thirty-first year of Wanli (AD 1603), he was baptized in Nanjing and joined the Catholic Church.During this period, his thinking also changed. He realized that the popular Lu Wang Xinxue was useless in the world, and he embarked on the road of being world-class and practical.Zou Yi said in "Qizhen Yecheng·Xu Wending Biography", "(He) tried to learn the sound rhythm, worked in regular script, and discarded it all, (specialized) studied astronomy, military art, village, salt, and water conservancy strategies. Technological mathematics can be applied to the world." Zhang Pu also said in the preface to "Nongzheng Quanshu": "In the early days of Gongchu (shi Shishi), when he entered the library, he was in charge of the world. Qunshu requires the use of various styles. Poems, calligraphy, and calligraphy are also good. It is said that the carvings and insects are not enough to learn, and the screen is not good. Only use the gods to govern the calendar, the law, the soldiers and the farmers, and the poor heaven and man to point out the fun." So he became a An outstanding scientist who has made important contributions in astronomy, calendar, mathematics, agronomy, artillery manufacturing and machinery.

After entering the official career, Xu Guangqi successively served as a scholar of the Hanlin Academy, a reviewer of the Hanlin Academy, Zhan Shifu, Zhan Shifu, and Henan Provincial Supervision and Censor. He was a teacher, and was later promoted to be the Minister of the Ministry of Rites and the Minister of the Ministry of Rites. In the fifth year of Chongzhen (1632 AD), he entered the cabinet as the Minister of the Ministry of Rites and a scholar of the Dongge University.Later, he was awarded Prince Shaobao, Prince Taibao, and Wenyuange University Bachelor.In his spare time, he has always insisted on scientific research. The compilation of "Nongzheng Quanshu" is one of his major scientific activities.

Xu Guangqi was born in a farming family and has been very concerned about farming since he was a child.His hometown is located on the southeast coast, with frequent floods and windstorms, which made him very concerned about disaster relief and famine relief, and also paid attention to the construction of irrigation and drainage.Later, he set up experimental fields in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and other places to conduct agricultural technology experiments in person.Therefore, he is very familiar with farming and attaches great importance to it. He has written many books on agriculture in his life, including "Sweet Potato Book", "Agricultural Remains Miscellaneous Book", "Draft of Agricultural Book" (also known as "Beigenglu"), " "Cotton Planting Law", etc., and translated "Taixi Water Law" together with missionary Xiong Sanba, and "Nongzheng Quanshu" is his representative work in agronomy.

"Nongzheng Quanshu" is the crystallization of Xu Guangqi's decades of painstaking efforts, and it is also a concluding work that collects the culmination of traditional Chinese agronomy. It was completed around 1525-1528.Although he had compiled it before his death, it was not finalized.The "Nongzheng Quanshu" handed down to the world was published after additions and deletions by later generations. About 30% of the original work was deleted and 20% were added.The book is divided into 60 volumes, with a total of more than 500,000 words, covering aspects of farming, land system, farming, water conservancy, agricultural tools, crop and fruit tree cultivation, sericulture, animal husbandry, food processing, and measures for famine preparation.The book cites a large number of predecessors' works, more than 200 kinds of books are cited, and many comments are added for reference.The content written by Xu Guangqi is about 60,000 words, although it only accounts for 1/8 of the total length of the book, but it is all reliable information obtained by his own experiments and observations, and has a strong scientific nature.

The era in which Xu Guangqi lived was the end of the Ming Dynasty, when the Ming regime was already in crisis.As an important minister, Xu Guangqi tried his best to maintain the Ming regime, and devoted himself to this. The development of agriculture was one of his important propositions.Therefore, he put "agriculture" at the beginning of the book, and "a rich country must rely on its own industry" as the guiding ideology of the whole book.Among them, "Classic and Historical Allusions" cites scriptures to clarify that agriculture is the foundation of a country, "Zhujiazalun" cites the opinions of various schools of thought to demonstrate the importance of agriculture, and collects Feng Yingjing's "National Dynasty Emphasis on Agriculture", using Ming Dynasty emperors Agricultural policies and measures, admonishing the current emperor and officials to attach importance to agricultural production and agricultural producers.

At the same time, Xu Guangqi put forward the idea of ​​developing agricultural production in the north by reclaiming wasteland and developing water conservancy.He also attached great importance to water conservancy, siltation and lake reclamation in the southeast (especially Taihu Lake), as well as planting and promoting cotton production in the southeast.For famine policies such as famine preparation and relief, he put forward the policy of "prevention is the top, preparation is the middle, and relief is the bottom", which focuses on prevention. In terms of agricultural technology, "Nongzheng Quanshu" has made many contributions.In the book, Xu Guangqi described the relationship between crops and climate, and emphasized that through manpower, crops that were considered unsuitable for planting in the past can be promoted. The idea of ​​climate theory in ancient Chinese agronomy.The book also introduces and summarizes the improvement of dry farming technology in the south, the promotion of sweet potato planting, the occurrence of locust plagues and the methods of locust control.