Jia Sixie's Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People collected agricultural experience alongside animal husbandry, brewing, and food processing. Its discussions of seasons, land, and techniques reflect agricultural knowledge in northern China. Ancient farming books addressed far more than sowing crops in fields.
Historical background
The Qimin Yaoshu, translated as the "Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People", is the most completely preserved of the ancient Chinese agricultural texts. It was written by the Northern Wei Dynasty official Jia Sixie, a native of Shouguang, Shandong province, which is a major agricultural producing region. The book is believed to have been completed in the second year of Wu Ding of Eastern Wei, 544 CE, while another account gives the completion between 533 and 544 CE.
The text of the book is divided into ten volumes and 92 chapters, and records 1500-year-old Chinese agronomy, horticulture, afforestation, sericulture, animal husbandry, veterinary medicine, breeding, brewing, cooking, storage, as well as remedies for barren land. The book quoted nearly 200 ancient sources including the Yiwu Zhi. Important agricultural books such as Fàn Shèngzhī shū and Sì mín yuè lìng from the Han and Jin Dynasties respectively are now lost, so future generations can only understand the operation of agriculture at the time from this book.
Since the publication of the book, historical Chinese governments have long attached great importance to it. Since the book spread overseas it has also often been considered a classic text to study changes in species. When Charles Darwin was researching the theory of evolution he made reference, in his book On The Origin of Species, to an "Encyclopedia of Ancient China". The book he referenced was in fact Qímín yàoshù. The book's name "Qímín yàoshù" can be explained as "techniques by which common people make their livelihood", but can also be explained as "techniques to harness the people's livelihood".
Jia Sixie (fl. 530–544) was an agronomist during the Northern Wei Dynasty. He is the author of one of the earliest and historically most influential agricultural treatises, the Qimin Yaoshu (often translated as “Essential Techniques for the Common People”). The text was notably one of the most systematically organized treatises on farming and animal husbandry, which was commonly copied and referred to by scholars from throughout the Tang dynasty until the Qing.
There are very little direct references of Jia in his agricultural treatise, as the only mention of him is a ten character long sentence that refers to him as the Governor of the prefecture of Gaoyang. There are still ongoing academic discussions surrounding where Jia was stationed as governor, as there were two Gaoyang prefectures located within the territory of Northern Wei; one in modern-day Hebei province, and one in Yidu district.
Farming method improvements
Farming in China has always been very labor-intensive. However, throughout its history, various methods have been developed or imported that enabled greater farming production and efficiency. They also utilized the seed drill to help improve on row farming.
During the Spring and Autumn period (722–481 BC), two revolutionary improvements in farming technology took place. One was the use of cast iron tools and beasts of burden to pull plows, and the other was the large-scale harnessing of rivers and development of water conservation projects. The engineer Sunshu Ao of the 6th century BC and Ximen Bao of the 5th century BC are two of the oldest hydraulic engineers from China, and their works were focused on improving irrigation systems. These developments were widely spread during the ensuing Warring States period (403–221 BC), culminating in the enormous Du Jiang Yan Irrigation System engineered by Li Bing by 256 BC for the State of Qin in ancient Sichuan.
For agricultural purposes the Chinese had invented the hydraulic-powered trip hammer by the 1st century BC, during the ancient Han dynasty (202 BC-220 AD). Although it found other purposes, its main function was to pound, decorticate, and polish grain that otherwise would have been done manually. The Chinese also innovated the square-pallet chain pump by the 1st century AD, powered by a waterwheel or oxen pulling on a system of mechanical wheels. Although the chain pump found use in public works of providing water for urban and palatial pipe systems, it was used largely to lift water from a lower to higher elevation in filling irrigation canals and channels for farmland.