雙語科技百科(農業) 第55期:《農政全書》
Nongzheng Quan,shu
Nongzheng Quanshu (also Comprehensive Treatise on Agricultural Admin-istration) ,was written by Xu Guangqi (1562～1633) in the late Ming in the Songjiang area in Jiangsu Province ( now in Shanghai) where agriculture was very advanced, he was devoted to the agricultural development all his ng 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, 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 was a great agricultural work of special importance in the Ming Dynasty.
《農政全書》由晚明徐光啓( 1562~1633)著。徐光啓生於農業發達的江蘇松江地區，他一生熱愛農業，在爲父親丁憂的三年間，在家鄉進行了較大規模的農業耕種試驗，後又幾次赴天津進行農業試驗，寫出這部農業百科全書。他死在任上，是朋友幫助將這部書於崇禎十二年( 1639)刊行的。全書60卷，分農本、田制、水利、農器、樹藝、蠶桑、牧養、荒政等門，除總結自己種植糧食作物和棉花的成功經驗外，還對水利和荒政以較大篇幅進行了研究。他研究了中國曆代的荒年，甚至仔細研究了111次蝗災的具體情況。他認爲要徹底消滅荒年就要大興水利，比如在大西北，與其耗費運力從東南運送糧食，不如開墾西北荒地，大興水利，把大西北建成產糧基地。書中輯錄了大量前代和當時的文獻，也提出作者的心得和見解，是明代重要的農業科學鉅著。
