Chapter 1: Basic Principles of Farming
Fan Sheng-chih (1st century B.C.E.)
The basic principles of farming are: choose the right time, break up the soil, see to its fertility and moisture, hoe early, and harvest early.
With the choice of appropriate time and favorable conditions of the soil, a harvest of ten piculs per sixth-acre 1 is obtainable even from very poor land.
In springtime, after thawing, the breath of the earth 2 comes through, so the soil breaks up for the first time. With the summer solstice, the weather begins to become hot and the yin breath strengthens, so the soil breaks up again. Ninety days after the summer solstice, the duration of the day equals to that of the night, and the breath of heaven harmonizes with that of the earth. To plow in these proper seasons, one operation is worth five. Such conditions are denoted as “fecund moisture”; therein lies the benefit of appropriate timing.
In the spring, when the breath of the earth comes through, hard heavy lands and black soils may be plowed first. Then harrow to level down the clods, and let the grasses sprout. After the sprouting of the grasses, plow again. Then plow again after a drizzle. Always break up any clod, and wait for the proper time to sow. This is what is denoted by “making the heavy soils light.”
In the springtime, watch for the coming through of the breath of the earth: sharpen a wooden stake one foot and two inches long, bury one foot of it below and let the remaining two inches appear above the ground level. After “Setting of Spring,”3 the clods begin to disintegrate, hence the soil will heap up and cover the top of the stake, then old stumps of the previous year can be lightly pulled out. This is the proper time to plow.
Twenty days later, the mellow breath of the earth is gone and the soil hardens. One plowing in proper time is worth four, but four plowings will not be equal to one after the mellow breath is gone.
Light soils are to be plowed when apricot trees come in blossom.4 Plow again when the blossoms fade, and roll down5 every time after plowing. After the grasses sprout, plow and roll down again when it rains and the soil is moist. With soils which are too light, drive cattle over them to tread them down. The soils will then become hard. This is what is denoted by “to make the light soils heavier.”
In the spring, when the breath of the earth has not come through, the soil will be lumpy when plowed, it will be unable to retain moisture, and thus will not support the growth of crop plants for the whole year to come unless heavily manured.
Never plow too early. Wait till the grasses sprout. Plow only when the time for sowing comes and it rains, so that the seeds and the soil will be in good contact; seedlings alone grow well, while sprouted weeds now rot beneath the clods and a good field results. This is what “one plowing worth five” means.
If a field is plowed too early, the clods will be hard, and seedlings will come out of the same crevices with weeds. No hoeing can be done and a bad field will result.
If one plows in the autumn when it does not rain, the breath of the earth is cut off and the soil will be hard and cloddy. This is called “bacony field.” If one plows in a severe winter, the yin breath of the earth is broached and the soil will be dry and parched. This is called “jerked 6 field.” Both bacony and jerked fields are damaged.
If a field gives a poor crop in the second year, fallow it for one year.
Fields intended for wheat should always be plowed in the fifth month. Plow again in the sixth month. Don’t plow in the seventh month, but diligently harrow it level and wait for sowing. One plowing in the fifth month is worth three; one in the sixth month, two; but five in the seventh is not worth one.
Upon every pause of snowfall, roll down so as to catch any snow on the ground surface and stop its drifting away by wind. Roll down the later snowfalls in the same way. The moisture of the soil is thus secured for the spring to come, insects will be killed by the freezing of the soil water, and good crops for the harvest will thus be warranted.
Translated by Shih Sheng-Han
This selection shows that even something so seemingly mundane as a treatise on farming might be written in an expressive, almost lyrical fashion. The original text, an agricultural treatise of the first century B.C.E., was lost long ago, but portions of it were preserved in Essential Arts for the Common People (Ch’ i min yao shu), a comprehensive and authoritative handbook completed about 535 by Chia Ssu-hsieh, who was a government official in Shantung. Fan Sheng-chih’s Book is the earliest Chinese book of individual authorship devoted wholly to agriculture to which we still have access.
1. The approximate equivalents of measures used in Fan’s book are as follows:
Length
one ts’un (inch) = 22 millimeters
one ch’ih (foot) = ten ts’un = 22 centimeters
one chang (decafoot) = ten ch’ih = one hundred ts’un = 2.2 meters
Volume
one sheng (pint) = 167 millimeters
one tou (peck) = ten sheng = 1.67 liters
one tan (picul) = one hu = ten tou = one hundred sheng = 16.7 liters
Area
one mou (sixth-acre) = 5.078 ars [one ar = one hundred square meters]
Weight
one chin (catty) = 177.8 grams
one tan (picul) = 120 chin = 21.336 kilograms
This is basically a decimal system already in use in China over two thousand years ago.
2. “Breath of the earth” or “yin breath” means the complex conditions of low temperature and high humidity of the soil and the reverse conditions of the air. “Breath of heaven,” on the other hand, indicates warm and dry conditions prevailing under sunshine (yang).
3. The first of the twenty-four subseasons of a year.
4. About the time of the first ten days in April.
5. This calls for pulling a weighted roller across the field.
6. From the verb “to jerk” (to cut meat into long strips and dry in the sun or cure by exposing to smoke).