Books on Agriculture and Agronomy (nongjia lei 農家類)

Books on Agriculture and Agronomy (nongjia lei 農家類) is a subcategory in traditional Chinese bibliographies and part of the category of Masters and Philosophers (zibu 子部).

The so-called agriculturalists were a philosophical school during the Warring States period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE). The tradition of teachings on agriculture probably goes back to a ministerial office for agriculture. Adherents of the school wandered around and instructed, according to the book Mengzi 孟子, the peasant how to sow grains, till the fields and to raise mulberry trees. Their primary purpose was, according to Confucius, to nourish the people. Only a few names of persons belonging to the tradition of agriculturalists are known, like Xu Xing 許行 from Chu 楚. He stressed that the worthy man must work the fields together with ordinary people. For his egalitarian standpoint, he was vehemently criticised by Mengzi. The Confucians countered that an advanced society must have a division of labour. Many books from the Zhou 周 (11th cent.-221 BCE) and the Han 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) periods include information about agriculture, and it is not justified to speak of a philosophical school from the Han period on. Their writings were still collected but then had a purely scientific and practical purpose. Agricultural treatises were, furthermore, granted a vital section among the "masters and philosophers", probably because of the importance agriculture played in the economy of traditional China.

There is a vast treasury of books related to the field of agriculture. Yet the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 includes just less than a dozen of them. Other books on agricultural matters are found in other sections, for instance, books on plants and animals (sub-category pulu lei 譜錄類, Material Culture and Nature Studies) or treatises on field allotment and taxation, or medicine concerning medical herbs and diet. The compilers of the Siku quanshu selected ten books to be included in this section. The most important of these are the "classics" Qimin yaoshu 齊民要術, Nongsang jiyao 農桑輯要, Nongshu 農書 and Nongzheng quanshu 農政全書.

The compilation office Sikuguan 四庫館 argued that older collections were "tossing about in various directions" (zhanzhuan pangqian 輾轉旁牽) and went from the core business of ploughing to veterinary medicine, from draught animals to horses, birds, and crabs, and hence to collectables like fragrances and coins. Beginning with the five grains, they proceeded to horticulture, bamboos and flowers. Sericulture was the starting point for books on tea, wine, sugarcane, and cooking. Prognostication of weather led them to other books on divination, and wild edible herbs used for disaster relief were the entrance to the vast realm of medical books. In this way, older bibliographies on agricultural books went beyond the basics. The compilation office, therefore, decided to retain in the section on agriculture just books of the farming business itself (wei cun ben ye 惟存本業). They even decided to leave out books on tea. Even if the cultivation of tea shrubs was a discipline of farming (related to agriculture like longtuan fengbing zhi zhi 龍團鳳餅之制 "the production of dragon balls and phoenix cakes" or yinshi yuwan zhi hua 銀匙玉碗之華 "[like] the splendour of silver spoons and jade bowls"), tea cultivation was "neither ploughing nor weaving", i.e., the core activities of the farmer. The Siku quanshu itself therefore includes but ten texts, while the descriptive catalogue Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 四庫全書總目提要 adds the explanations of more 9 "existing" books (cunmu 存目).

China's oldest surviving book catalogue, the Hanshu yiwen zhi 漢書藝文志, lists nine agricultural texts. The postface to the section says that these texts reflected the duties of the ancient Zhou-period offices of Nong-Ji 農稷, the Sacred Husbandman Shen Nong 神農, and the Lord of Millet Hou Ji 后稷. The functionaries in these offices "spread the hundred types of grains" and urged the people to plough and cultivate mulberry trees (for silk production), with the aim to produce sufficient food and clothing (bo baigu, quan geng-sang, yi zu yi-shi 播百穀，勸耕桑，以足衣食). Food and commodities (shi huo 食貨) were, therefore, the two foremost objects of government (ba zheng 八政). Out of these two needs, policy-related writings produced the literary type of "treatise on food and commodities" (Shihuo zhi 食貨志). Of the nine texts listed in the Hanshu bibliography, only fragments survive, of which Fan Shengzhi (shu) 氾勝之(書) is the most important.

Half a millennium later, the catalogue Suishu jingji zhi 隋書經籍志 listed just five agricultural texts. The Fan Shengzhi shu had survived until then, and several others had been written, namely Simin yueling 四人月令 during the very late Eastern Han period, Jinyuan shilu 禁苑實錄 (apparently on imperial parks; lost), Jia Sixie's 賈思勰 Qimin yaoshu, and a book by Yang Jin 楊瑾 commenting on "economic matters" (probably grain storage) during the Spring and Autumn period 春秋 (770-5th cent. BCE), Chunqiu jihi liuchang niyi 春秋濟世六常擬議. Tao Zhugong's 陶朱公 book Yangyufa 養魚法 (fish breeding), Bu Shi's 卜式 Yangyangfa 養羊法 (sheep breeding), Yangzhufa 養豬法 (pig breeding), and Yuezheng chumu caizhong fa 月政畜牧栽種法 (breeding and cultivation methods through the year) had been listed in Liang-period 梁 (502-557) catalogues but were lost in the early 7th century.

The range of agricultural texts became much broader during the Tang period. The bibliographical chapters in the two history books Jiutangshu 舊唐書 (ch. 46-47 Jingji zhi 經籍志) and Xintangshu 新唐書 (ch. 57-60 Yiwen zhi 藝文志) list 20, and 36 texts, respectively. The Jiutangshu catalogue presents the books Fan Shengzhi shu, Simin yueling, Qimin yaoshu, and the Jinyuan shilu from antiquity, as well as the Yangyujing (in this instance ascribed to Fan Li 范蠡). Novelties are Dai Kaizhi's 戴凱之 book on bamboos, Zhupu 竹譜, Gu Xuan's 顧烜 book on coins, Qianpu 錢譜 - where money is seen as a branch of the (agricultural) economy -, Zhuge Ying's 諸葛穎 (536-612) 77-chapters-long book on tree cultivation Zhongzhifa 種植法, an anonymous book on silkworm breeding, Canjing 蠶經, and two books on falconry, namely Yao Xuqi's 堯須跂 (Yao Xuba 堯須跋) Zhijilu 鷙擊錄 in 20 chapters, and the anonymous Yingjing 鷹經. No less than eight texts are dedicated to the "inspection" (xiang 相, of various animals, involving skills to estimate the value of domestic animals according to their physical condition, but also predicting the future (see books on divination). The animals in question are cranes (Xianghejing 相鶴經), horses (Xiangmajing 相馬經, various texts), oxen (Xiangniujing 相牛經), and shells (Xiangbeijing 相貝經). There is also a general book on animal prognostication called Zhaoren benye 兆人本業, the authorship of which is ascribed to the "Celestial Empress" 天后 (Tian Hou, in Xintangshu Wu Hou 武后, i.e. Wu Zetian 武則天). The Southern-Song-period catalogue Zhizhai shulu jieti 直齋書錄解題 criticises the inclusion of divinatory and falconry texts into the section of agriculture.

The bibliographical chapter in the Xintangshu lists a further texts from antiquity, Yin Duwei shu 尹都尉書, and some more books on agricultural works through the year, namely Wangshi sishu lu 王氏四時錄, Sun Simiao's 孫思邈 (581?-682) Qianjin queling 千金月令, Xue Deng's 薛登 (647-719) Sishi ji 四時記, Du Taiqing's 杜臺卿 (fl. 594) Yuzhu baodian 玉燭寶典, Pei Cheng's 裴澄 (fl. 795) Shengyu yueling 乘輿月令, Wei Xinggui's 韋行規 Baosheng yuelu 保生月錄, Han E's 韓鄂 (c. 750) Sishi zuanyao 四時纂要 (surviving in fragments) and Suihua jili 歲華紀麗. The list also includes a painting scroll by Wang Ya 王涯 (764-835) called Yueling tu 月令圖. The Xintangshu bibliography informs the reader about Li Chunfeng's 李淳風 (602-670) commentary Yan qimin yaoshu 演齊民要術 and includes some more texts describing agricultural work in some regions of the empire, namely Jing-Chu suishi ji 荊楚歲時記 in two versions, one written by Du Gongshan 杜公贍 (c. 600), and one (surviving until today) by Song Lin 宗懍 (502-565), as well as Li Chuo's 李綽 (d. 862) Qinzhong suishi ji 秦中歲時記 (in the catalogue Junzhai dushu zhi 郡齋讀書志 called Nianxia suishi ji 輦下歲時記). Two more books have to be mentioned, namely Wang Fangqing's 王方慶 (d. 702) Yuanting caomu shu 園庭草木疏, and Li Yong's 李邕 (674-746) Jinguyuan ji 金谷園記, both dealing with horticulture and parks.

The Song-period catalogue Chongwen zongmu 崇文總目 includes just eight agricultural texts, namely Qimin yaoshu, Wu Zetian's Zaoren benye, Wang Min's 王旼 (1144-1204) Shanju yaoshu 山居要術 (today lost), Jia Daoyuan's 賈道元 "Filial book of agriculture" Danong xiaojing 大農孝經, a book called Nongjia qieyao 農家切要, the book Nongzi 農子, and two books on sericulture, one attributed to Prince Liu An 劉安 (179-122 BCE) from the Former Han period 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE), and one written by Sun Guangxian 孫光憲 (896-968). The bibliographical chapter in Zheng Qiao's 鄭樵 (1104-1162) Tongzhi 通志 also lists no more than 12 texts. Quite outstanding in this list is the ancient, 15-fascicles-long Fanzi jiran 范子計然, as well as the "book of basics [of state and economy]" Benshu 本書 by He Liang 何亮.

The Junzahi dushu zhi includes about a dozen treatises on tea (beginning with Lu Yu's 陸羽 famous Chajing 茶經 from the Tang period), as well as texts on bamboos like Dai Kaizhi's Zhupu and Monk Huisong's 惠崇 (965-1017) Sunpu 筍譜, lychees (Cai Xiang's 蔡襄 Lizhipu 荔支譜 and Lizhi gushi 荔支故事), peonies (Ouyang Xiu's 歐陽修 Mudanpu 牡丹譜, and wine (Zheng Ao's 鄭遨 Xu jiupu 續酒譜 from the Tang period, Wanghuailu 忘懷錄 by Mengxi Zhangren 夢溪丈人 (i.e., Shen Kuo 沈括), and Zhu Hong's 朱肱 Jiujing 酒經). There is also Li Deyu's 李德裕 (787-849) book on valuable plants, Pingquan caomu ji 平泉草木記. According to custom, the Song dynasty updated the imperial edicts concerning seasons, resulting in Jia Changchao's 賈昌朝 (998-1065) Guochao shiling 國朝時令.

Chen Zhensun 陳振孫 (1179-1262), author of the Zhizhai shulu jieti, tried to establish a more consistent arrangement of the section by first listing texts from antiquity, followed by Qin Guan's 秦觀（1049-1100) sericulture book Canshu 蠶書, Zeng Anzhi's 曾安止 (1048-1098) book Hepu 禾譜 on grains, and his son Zeng Zhiqin's 曾之謹 (11th cent.) Nongqipu 農器譜 on agricultural tools. This part is followed by Lou Shou's 樓璹 (1090-1162) illustrated Gengzhitu 耕織圖 on farming and sericulture, books on bamboos, and then more than a dozen texts on various types of flowers. The list then refers to fruit trees like lychees, Chen Zhu's 陳翥 (1009-1061?) Tongpu 桐譜 on the Tung tree and Shen Li's 沈立 (1007-1078) Haitangji 海棠記 on crab apples. The list ends with Wang Zhuo's 王灼 (1105-1160) book on sugarcane, Tangshuangpu 糖霜譜, and two books on crabs.

The history book Songshi 宋史 includes a catalogue (202-209 Yiwen zhi 藝文志) presenting the state of books on agriculture as available in the late 13th century. At the time, not many farming books of antiquity had survived. The listing begins with commentaries on Confucian texts on edicts concerned with agricultural work through the seasons. Xi Han's 嵇含 Nanfang caomu zhuang 南方草木狀 on southern plants marks the beginning of a new section, the books of which are arranged in chronological order. It begins with the Qimin yaoshu, then goes on to books on tea, Jia Dan's 賈躭 Yiniujung 醫牛經 on medical treatment of cattle.

The following table includes selected texts of agricultural matters, arranged according to content. The headlines follow the arrangement of Wang Yuhu 王毓瑚 (1964), Suoyin 分類: Fenlei suoyin 分類索引.