Yangyangfa 養羊法

Yangyangfa 養羊法 "Methods of sheep breeding", also called Bu Shi yangyang fa 卜式養羊法 "Bu Shi's methods of raising sheep", is an agricultural book attributed to a href="../../History/Han/personsbushi.html">Bu Shi 卜式, an entrepreneur of the Former Han period 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE) who regularly submitted cattle and sheep to the imperial army. He was therefore granted the title of court gentleman (lang 郎) and later even rose to the office of Censor-in-chief (yushi dafu 御史大夫).

The imperial bibliography Jingji zhi 經籍志 in the official dynastic history Suishu 隋書 says that the book was still listed in Liang-period 梁 (502-557) catalogues, but was already lost during the early Tang period 唐 (618-907).

It is rather improbable that Bu Shi was the author of the book because it is known that he was illiterate. The text is probably quoted (without indication of a source) in a chapter on the raising of sheep in Jia Sixie's 賈思勰 (fl. 544) agricultural treatise Qimin yaoshu 齊民要術 from the Northern Wei period 北魏 (386-534). These fragments were collected during the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Ma Guohan 馬國翰 (1794-1857) and are to be found in his series Yuhanshanfang jiyi shu 玉函山房輯佚書.