Essential Techniques for the Common People
composition: secureauthorship: secure
The most complete agricultural manual to survive from the ancient world sets out crop rotation, soil treatment, fermentation and animal husbandry in ninety-two chapters of tested practice.
- soil moisture conserved by repeated tillage rather than irrigation
- legume rotation used deliberately to restore fertility
- fermentation and food preservation treated as technical processes
- sources distinguished: books, informants, and the author's own trials
Jia Sixie compiled the work from earlier books, from interviews with farmers and from his own trials, and says so. It covers ploughing and soil moisture conservation, seed selection, the rotation of legumes with grains, grafting, sericulture, fish rearing, brewing, and the making of preserved and fermented foods, with quantities and timings. Its account of green manuring and of preserving soil water through repeated shallow tillage reflects a coherent understanding of northern Chinese dryland farming that has no counterpart elsewhere at this date.
Commentary
Readers' notes on this work. No account needed - be scholarly, or at least civil.
Loading commentary…