Nongzheng Quan,shu
《农政全书》
Nongzheng Quanshu (also Comprehensive Treatise on Agricultural Admin-istration) ,was written by Xu Guangqi (1562～1633) in the late Ming Dynasty.Born in the Songjiang area in Jiangsu Province ( now in Shanghai) where agriculture was very advanced, he was devoted to the agricultural development all his life.During the three-year period of mourning for his deceased father, he con-ducted in his hometown massive agricultural and ploughing experiments, and then went to Tianjing for similar experiments several times, the consequence of which was the completion of the agricultural encyclopedia. He died in his tenure of office,and it was his friend who helped publish the book in the 12th year of the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, i.e.in 1639.The book is divid-ed into 60 volumes, including the agriculture-oriented thought, land policy, water conservancy, farm tools, arboriculture, sericulture, animal husbandry,relief poliaes and the like. Besides summarizing his experiences of succeeding in growing crops and cot-ton, he went into details about water conservanolt and relief policies. He studied the lean years in the Chinese history, even delving into the concrete situations of the ill locust plagues which ever happened in China. The most effective way of putting an end to the lean years, he believed, was to establish the water conservancy projects on a large scale. In the Northwest, as he instantiated his point, instead of delivering grain from Southeast with great efforts, people should learn to reclaim the wasteland and establish the water conservancy projects on a large scale, turning Northwest into a major grain yielding area. A great num-ber of reference books written before or at the time were recorded h Non,gzheng Quanshu ,and the understandings and perspectives of the author presented.It was a great agricultural work of special importance in the Ming Dynasty.
《农政全书》由晚明徐光启( 1562~1633)著。徐光启生于农业发达的江苏松江地区，他一生热爱农业，在为父亲丁忧的三年间，在家乡进行了较大规模的农业耕种试验，后又几次赴天津进行农业试验，写出这部农业百科全书。他死在任上，是朋友帮助将这部书于崇祯十二年( 1639)刊行的。全书60卷，分农本、田制、水利、农器、树艺、蚕桑、牧养、荒政等门，除总结自己种植粮食作物和棉花的成功经验外，还对水利和荒政以较大篇幅进行了研究。他研究了中国历代的荒年，甚至仔细研究了111次蝗灾的具体情况。他认为要彻底消灭荒年就要大兴水利，比如在大西北，与其耗费运力从东南运送粮食，不如开垦西北荒地，大兴水利，把大西北建成产粮基地。书中辑录了大量前代和当时的文献，也提出作者的心得和见解，是明代重要的农业科学巨著。