How did Xu Guangqi compile the Encyclopedia of Agricultural Administration?
Xu Guangqi, a teenager, realized that "chapters, sentences, topics, rhymes and books are all wonderful". In the nine years of Wanli (158 1), a scholar took the world as his responsibility. However, due to family reasons, after he became a scholar, he began to take classes in rural private schools. After failing many exams, he went to Shao 30 and Zhou Xun to teach.
In the 25th year of Wanli (1597), 35-year-old Xu Guangqi went to Beijing from Guangxi to take the exam. It didn't work this time, but Jiao Hong, the examiner, started from the first volume and won the first prize. After another seven years, that is, thirty-two years of Wanli (1604), I was admitted to the Jinshi, and thus entered the official career. This year, he is 43 years old.
Xu Guangqi was named Jishi Shu, imperial academy, after he was a scholar. During this period, he made many achievements in national military and economic policies. The northern Jin Dynasty (late Qing Dynasty) attacked the Ming Dynasty, and Xu Guangqi was ordered to select soldiers for training. Eunuch Wei Zhongxian once quoted Xu Guangqi's words, but he was not confused, which caused dissatisfaction among eunuchs. He was illegally idle and returned to his hometown of Shanghai. In the first year of Chongzhen (1628), Yan Dang was dismissed, and Xu Guangqi was reinstated, and then a banquet was held as an official. The following year, he was promoted to assistant minister Zuo; In three years, I was promoted to the history of the Ministry of Rites; In June of five years (1632), he joined the cabinet, served as the minister of rites and the university student of Dongge, and participated in confidential work; In November, add Prince Taibao. In the sixth year of Chongzhen (1633), in August, Jia Taizi Taibao, a college student in Wenyuange, and a minister of rites died on November 7 of the same year.
As the most famous scientist in the late Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi made great achievements in astronomy, calendar, mathematics, agriculture, water conservancy, military and other aspects, especially his "The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", which had a great influence on the development of agricultural science and technology in China and even the world.
Living in the poor and weak late Ming Dynasty, floods, droughts and insect disasters continued year after year, which made Xu Guangqi, who had always dreamed of "rich Qiang Bing", pay great attention to national affairs and agricultural production. He was saddened by the situation that "since the Tang and Song Dynasties, the state did not set up agricultural officials, and officials ignored agricultural administration, scholars did not talk about agriculture, and the people did not specialize in agriculture", and strongly advocated the development of agricultural production. He praised the "agriculture-oriented" thought of Li Kui and Shang Yang in the Warring States Period, and advocated that "rich countries must rely on their own industries (agriculture) and powerful countries must rely on their own troops". He not only repeatedly suggested reclaiming wasteland and building water conservancy projects, but also bought hundreds of acres of wasteland in Tianjin from 41 to 46 years of Wanli (1613 ~1618), reclaimed it as a farm, engaged in agricultural experiments and studied how to grow rice in northern China. Yan Dang acted arbitrarily, and when he returned to his hometown in Shanghai to "have nothing to do", he devoted himself to writing "The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration". This work began in the fifth year of the apocalypse (1625), but it has not been finalized. After Xu Guangqi's death, the first draft of "The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" was jointly compiled by Jiangnan celebrities Chen Zilong, Xie Tingzhen, Zhang Mi and others, and was completed in the twelfth year of Chongzhen (1639), and named as "The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration".
The Encyclopedia of Agricultural Administration is divided into 60 volumes with about 700,000 words. In terms of length, this book is seven times that of Qi Shu in the Northern Wei Dynasty and six times that of Wang Zhennong Shu by Zhen. The book is divided into 12 chapters: agricultural books (introduction of historical allusions, miscellaneous theories about emphasizing agriculture) and four series (introduction of ore fields, regional fields, land use, etc.). ), farming (research on management, reclamation, timing, weather forecast) and water conservancy (introduction to water conservancy, irrigation, hydraulic utilization and Taixi water law in northwest and southeast regions). Silkworm rearing (introducing mulberry planting and silkworm rearing), silkworm rearing (introducing the planting and processing of cotton, hemp and pueraria lobata), planting (introducing the cultivation techniques of bamboo and medicinal plants), animal husbandry (talking about the breeding methods of poultry, livestock, fish and bees), manufacturing (introducing some common sense in food processing and daily life) and famine relief (talking about how to prevent and save famine). Most of the materials in the book are collected from more than 220 ancient and modern documents, and the words written by myself are only about 60 thousand words. Therefore, Xu's "Encyclopedia of Agricultural Administration", "hundred schools of thought, express your opinions", was highly praised by people at that time, saying that "when people asked or quoted Mr. Yi's original words, it was amazing". Therefore, The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration is a masterpiece of agricultural science, which integrates the experience of predecessors and the practical achievements of personal research.
From the content, The Encyclopedia of Agricultural Administration includes two aspects: agricultural administrative thought and agricultural technology. He advocated developing agricultural production in the north through reclamation and water conservancy, trying to fundamentally change the situation of transporting grain from the south to the north and get rid of the disadvantages of water transportation. In addition, he proposed that "prevention is the first, preparation is the middle, and relief is the bottom" for disasters, and prevention is the main focus. In terms of agricultural technology, he broke the thought of "only adapting to local conditions" in China's ancient agronomy, and showed that crops that were considered unsuitable for planting in a certain place in the past could be popularized through experiments. In addition, he improved dry farming techniques in the south, popularized sweet potato planting, summarized cultivation experience, summarized the occurrence law of locust plague and the methods of controlling locust plague.
Xu Guangqi's agricultural works include not only The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration, but also professional works such as Shushu in Northern Hebei, Shushu in Sweet Potato and Shushu in Miscellaneous Agriculture. In the thirty-sixth year of Wanli (1608), the lower reaches of the Yangtze River flooded and agriculture failed. Xu Guangqi heard that there were newly introduced sweet potatoes in the southeast coast to satisfy his hunger, and decided to try planting them in Shanghai, but it was difficult to hide them for the winter. In "Sweet Potato Sparse", he put forward several methods of storing sweet potato seeds in the Yangtze River valley for overwintering, and described the method of making wine with sweet potato. The Book of Northern Hebei is devoted to the spread and cultivation of cotton in China. He wrote these books to promote these crops in China. Unfortunately, these monographs have been lost, but fortunately, the basic points in the book are collected in the book Agricultural Administration.
Xu Guangqi is not only an outstanding agronomist, but also an important astronomer, mathematician and strategist. In the 21st year of Wanli (1593), Xu Guangqi, who was giving lectures in Shaozhou, met lazaro Ka Tanjo, which was his first contact with missionaries. In the 31st year of Wanli (1603), Xu Guangqi was baptized in Nanjing and joined Catholicism. At that time, western Jesuits came to China in succession. After a long period of exploration, western missionaries believe that by spreading scientific knowledge, religion can be better publicized. Xu Guangqi, on the other hand, thinks that "the missionary's knowledge is just three, the big one is self-cultivation, the small one is poor in things, and the rest are people who teach witchcraft", and that "his teaching can make up for Confucianism and become a Buddha, and he has a kind of poor knowledge in his leisure time", which is worth learning from Chinese people. Xu Guangqi learned scientific and technological knowledge from missionaries, including astronomy, calendar and mathematics. In the thirty-fourth year of Wanli, Xu Guangqi cooperated with the missionary Matteo Ricci to translate the first six volumes of Euclid's mathematical masterpiece The Elements of Geometry, and also translated the meaning of measurement. He was the first person to translate western scientific works. Forty years of Wanli (16 12), he also translated the Taixi Water Law with the missionary Xiong Sanba, and introduced various western water conservancy machinery and various water conservancy engineering practices. In addition to translating the Elements of Geometry, his achievements in mathematics include studying the reasons why China's mathematics fell behind in the Ming Dynasty and expounding its wide application. As a jurist of astronomical calendar, Xu Guangqi's main achievement is that he presided over the revision of the calendar and compiled the Calendar of Chongzhen. The ancient calendar is used to "give time to the people", and the accuracy of calculation is of great significance. Dali was first implemented in the Ming Dynasty, which is actually a continuation of the calendar in the Yuan Dynasty. As time went on, serious mistakes appeared. In the second year of Chongzhen (1629), the Ministry of Rites called for the establishment of a calendar bureau to supervise the calendar with Xu Guangqi. At that time, both China people such as Li Zhizao and missionaries such as Xiong Sanba and Tang Ruowang were helped. Although the calendar change was not completed due to the rapid collapse of the Ming Dynasty, Xu Guangqi's achievements in astronomical calendar can still be seen in the compilation of Chongzhen Almanac and the various memorials he wrote for the calendar change.
Xu Guangqi, who was poor and weak in the late Ming Dynasty and always took the world as his responsibility, would naturally devote part of his energy to the research of military science and technology. Under the guidance of the thought of "defending the border and defeating the enemy", he wrote a series of national laws and regulations on selecting and training soldiers, such as "Selecting and Training Hundred Characters", "Selecting and Training Rules", "Training Art Rules", "Binding Five Rules", "Naming Rules", "Fire Attack Outline" and "Milling Law", for urgent use by the army.