Wang Zhen

Wang Zhen

Wang Zhen (1271-1368), whose name is Boshan, was born in Dongping of Yuan Dynasty. Ancient Chinese agronomist and agricultural machinist. From the first year of Yuanzhen (1295) to the fourth year of Dade (1300), he was the magistrate of Jingde, Xuanzhou (now Jingde, Anhui) and Yongfeng, Xinzhou (now Guangfeng, Jiangxi). In 1298, Wang Zhen made more than 30000 wooden movable type characters and printed 100 Jingde County annals. It was written in about 1300 A.D. in the fourth year of Dade reign of emperor Chengzong of Yuan Dynasty. At the end of nongshu, there was also a book "making movable type printing calligraphy" to record its wood movable type printing technique.

Life of the characters

Wang Zhen's hometown was a gathering place of feudal scholars in the early Yuan Dynasty. As early as the wokuotai era, wanhushi once "started school and raised scholars" in Dongping. At that time, famous scholars such as Li Chang, Wang pan, Xu Shilong and Li Qian successively set up accounts and apprentices in Dongping, and cultivated a number of talents who served the feudal dynasty. The famous ones were Xu Yan, Shen Tu Zhiyuan and Meng Qi. In 1270, Meng Qi served as the Vice Minister of agriculture of xidaoquan in Shandong Province, and participated in the compilation of the book Nongsang Jiyao.

Wang Zhen may be influenced by it and began to contact with agronomy. He quoted a lot of materials from Nongsang Jiyao in Wang Zhen nongshu. There are few historical materials about Wang Zhen's life and activities, and it is recorded in historical books that he worked as Yin of two Ren counties. First, in the first year of Yuanzhen of yuanchengzong (1295), he served as Yin of Jingde County of Xuanzhou (now Jingde County of Anhui Province) for six years; second, in the fourth year of Dade of yuanchengzong (1300), he was transferred to Yin of Yongfeng County of Xinzhou (now Guangfeng County of Jiangxi Province).

working attitude

Wang Zhenke did his duty, was impartial, diligent and pragmatic, and worked for the people. He did many good things for the common people during his tenure in Yinren, Jingde County. According to the records of Jingde County annals, he lived a simple life, and often donated his salary to the local government to set up schools, build bridges, repair roads, give alms to medicine, and teach farmers planting and tree art. At that time, he was highly praised for "benefiting the people". Jingde County is mountainous, and most of the cultivated land is mountainous. There was a drought one year, which made the farmers very anxious. Wang Zhen saw many rivers and streams with water in Jingde County. He remembered that when he came to Jingde County from his hometown Dongping, he saw a kind of water turning rollover on the road, which could lift water into the mountains. Wang Zhen immediately used his brain to draw a pattern, called together carpenters and blacksmiths to make it, and organized farmers to fight against drought. In this way, tens of thousands of mu of rice seedlings in Jingde County were saved.

Inherited the traditional "agriculture based" thought

Wang Zhen inherited the traditional "agriculture based" thought and thought that the first political task of the country from the central government to the local government was to grasp agricultural production. No matter in Jingde or Yongfeng, Wang Zhen has made great achievements in persuading farmers. The method adopted is to stipulate that farmers should plant several mulberry trees every year; to guide the sowing and harvesting methods of hemp, corn, millet and other crops one by one; to draw all kinds of agricultural tools for people to imitate and trial produce. At the same time, Wang Zhen "led by the body first" and "personally held Leizhou and bowed to agriculture and mulberry". During Yin's term of office in Yongfeng County, Wang Zhen's main task was to reward agriculture and education. He often bought mulberry seedlings and cotton seeds to teach farmers to plant and encourage them to grow good crops. People in Jingde and Yongfeng counties respect him very much and never forget him.

Eating is the top priority of the people

Wang Zhen believes that eating is the top priority of the people, so as a local official, he should be familiar with the knowledge of agricultural production, otherwise he will not be able to take the responsibility of persuading farmers. Therefore, he paid attention to farming, observed everywhere, and accumulated rich agricultural knowledge. Every time they arrive, they will spread advanced farming techniques, introduce fine varieties of crops and popularize advanced farm tools. These practices accumulated rich materials for the later writing of the agricultural book.

Continuous improvement of production technology

During the Yuan Dynasty, agricultural production technology was constantly improved, production experience was more abundant, and agricultural production also had greater development. In the process of unifying China, the feudal rulers gradually saw that agricultural production was conducive to feudal exploitation. When Kublai Khan was in power, he began to take some measures to develop agricultural production, such as setting up agricultural officials, establishing a department of agriculture, which was responsible for agriculture, mulberry and water conservancy, and so on, which promoted the compilation of agricultural books to a certain extent. Therefore, in this historical period, there were several agricultural science works.

Wang Zhen's agricultural book was written during the period of Yin in Jingde County, and was not finished until he was transferred to Yongfeng county. In the second year of emperor Renzong's reign in the Yuan Dynasty (1313), Wang Zhen wrote a preface for the book, which was officially printed and released.

Wang Zhen served as Yin (county magistrate) of Jingde County (now Jingde County, Anhui Province) of Xuanzhou for six years in the first year of Yuanzhen (1295) of yuanchengzong. Later, he was transferred to Yin (county magistrate) of Yongfeng county (now Guangfeng County, Jiangxi Province) of Xinzhou in the fourth year of Dade (1300) of yuanchengzong. He did a lot of good things for the common people during his tenure in Yin county.

According to the records of Jingde County annals, he lived a very frugal life during his tenure in the county, and never collected people's wealth. Not only that, he also donated part of his salary to run schools, build temples, build bridges, and set up many public undertakings that benefit the people. In addition, he also used medicine to relieve the poor and sick, which was praised by the local people.

Honest county magistrate

Wang Zhen was not only an honest county official, but also an agronomist who advised farmers to develop mulberry and actively develop agricultural production. He thought that as a local official, if he was not familiar with agricultural production and did not understand agricultural knowledge, he would not be able to do his duty of persuading farmers. He not only collected the previous agricultural books, studied them assiduously, but also paid attention to the agricultural operation and agricultural machinery, which laid a solid foundation for him to write agricultural books. He made a merciless attack on those corrupt officials who only knew the fish and meat of the people: these people themselves did not know "farming" and "an Neng advised people.". They often go to the countryside to extort money under the pretext of persuading farmers, which is called "loving the people", and it is really harmful to the people. He also said that these officials only take "extravagance as their business" and never think that every inch of silk and a mouthful of rice they enjoy come from the hands of "Yefu Tianfu". They collect exorbitant taxes and try their best to collect people's fat and cream to fatten themselves. His words and deeds are full of deep sympathy for the poor people.

One of the four agronomists

Wang Zhen is one of the four famous agronomists in ancient China. He is as famous as sishengzhi in Han Dynasty, Jia Sixie in later Wei Dynasty and Xu Guangqi in Ming Dynasty. Wang Zhen nongshu plays an important role in the history of Chinese agronomy. He inherited the previous achievements in agricultural research, summed up the rich experience of agricultural production practice before the Yuan Dynasty, and comprehensively and systematically explained the content and scope of broad agricultural production.

Agricultural books in pre Qin China

Only a few fragments are preserved in the spring and Autumn Annals of the Lu family, and only 3700 words are left in the book of Sisheng in the Han Dynasty, so we can't see its whole picture. Although Qimin Yaoshu in the later Wei Dynasty has the nature of an agricultural complete book, it is not as good as Wang Zhen's agricultural book in its entirety and systematicness. In general, it has only two chapters on "farming" and "harvesting", but no special chapter on manure field and irrigation. As for the "Atlas of agricultural utensils", it is even more absent. Although Chen nongshu in the Southern Song Dynasty has an important development in the theoretical system, it only deals with the rice planting, cattle farming and sericulture in the southern region due to the limitations of the region, and does not have the nature of an agricultural book. Nongsang Jiyao, which was written 40 years earlier than Wang Zhen nongshu, was an agricultural book written by the government in the early Yuan Dynasty. It was mainly based on the information of the agricultural books before the Yuan Dynasty, with less new creation and mainly adapted to the needs of the north.

Wang zhennongshu

sketch

There are two versions of Wang Zhen's nongshu, one is 37 volumes, including 6 volumes of "Nongsang tongjue", "Baigu Pu" and 20 volumes of "nongqi Tupu". One is 22 volumes, including 6 volumes of "Nongsang tongjue", "gupu" 4 volumes and "nongqi Tupu" 12 volumes. The contents of the two books are basically the same, except that the latter combines the millet manual from 11 sets into 4 volumes and the agricultural instrument manual from 20 sets into 12 volumes. The book has about 136000 words and 281 illustrations.

There are four outstanding features in Wang Zhen nongshu

First, it comprehensively and systematically discusses the broad sense of agriculture

The part of "Nong Sang Tong Jue" in Wang Zhen nongshu can be said to be the general theory of agriculture. It comprehensively and systematically discusses the content and scope of agriculture in a broad sense. At the beginning, with the titles of "farming from the origin", "cattle farming from the origin" and "silkworm from the origin", this paper describes the origin of farming and sericulture, connecting the agriculture of Wang Zhen's era with the historical agriculture, and taking the agriculture of Yuan Dynasty as a part of historical agriculture, making it a link between the past and the future. Next, based on the "three talents" theory of "following the time of heaven, suiting the place and depending on the person", this paper comprehensively and systematically discusses all aspects of narrow agriculture. First of all, it discusses the complexity and regularity of the objective environment of agricultural production with two chapters of "timing" and "geographical advantage", and emphasizes the importance of "timing" and "geographical advantage" in agricultural production.

Under the condition of respecting the natural laws of time and land, this paper comprehensively and systematically expounds all aspects of personnel, including cultivation, harrowing, sowing, hoeing, manure soil, irrigation, harvesting, etc., and summarizes various problems in agricultural planting. "Nongsang tongjue" also includes "planting", "animal husbandry", "silkworm reeling" and other special chapters, which expounds the contents of forestry, animal husbandry, sideline, fishery and other aspects of agriculture in a broad sense. It also publicized the feudal government's thought of attaching importance to agriculture and the measures of persuading agriculture with the chapters of "filial piety to the younger brother, strengthening the field", "persuading and helping" and "accumulating". After reading "Nongsang tongjue", it makes people understand the content and scope of agriculture in a broad sense, as well as agriculture

Chinese PinYin : Wang Zhen