As an adult, Jia Sixie began to embark on a career. I used to be a magistrate in Levin County (now Linzi, Shandong Province), so I have been to many places such as Shandong, Henan and Hebei. Wherever he went, he attached great importance to agricultural production, carefully investigated and studied local agricultural production technology, humbly consulted some old farmers with rich practical experience, and accumulated a lot of agricultural production knowledge.
After middle age, he returned to his hometown and began to engage in agricultural production and grazing activities such as raising sheep and growing crops. In the process of managing agriculture and animal husbandry, he also has personal experience in agricultural production. When encountering problems, he often goes to various places to consult experienced farmers.
On one occasion, more than 200 sheep raised in Jia Sixie starved to death in less than a year because of insufficient feed. Afterwards, he thought, next time I plant 20 acres of soybeans in advance, I should prepare enough feed. In this way, he raised another flock of sheep. But after a while, more sheep died. What is the reason? Sheep with less feed will die. Just then, Jia Sixie was told that there was a sheep expert hundreds of miles away, and maybe he could help him. Jia Sixie immediately found the old shepherd and asked him for advice. The old shepherd found the cause of death of the sheep after carefully asking about Jia Sixie's sheep raising. Originally, Jia Sixie casually threw the feed in the sheepfold, and the sheep stepped on it to pee. Although the sheep can't talk, they refuse to eat this feed, so they starve to death. Jia Sixie lived in the old shepherd's house for many days, carefully observed the old shepherd's sheepfold, and learned a rich set of sheep raising experience from the old shepherd. After I went back, I followed these methods of raising sheep, and the effect was really good.
Later, Jia Sixie visited Henan, Hebei, Shaanxi, Shandong and many other places. Everywhere, Jia Sixie humbly asked the local experienced farmers to learn from their valuable production experience accumulated over the years. For example, cattle and sheep should first step on thatched land, and the thatched land will die after turning over in July; Mature, solid-colored spikes are usually the preferred seed type. Cut them and hang them high until the next spring, and the crops will grow well. Different geographical locations and different climatic environments require different crop varieties. For example, when planting millet in a mountainous area with heavy wind and frost, you must choose a variety with thick stems; When planting millet in warm and humid lowlands, you have to choose varieties with vigorous growth and high yield. Jia Sixie has gradually mastered a lot of rich production experience in exploration and practice.
Why is Jia Sixie so interested in agricultural production experience? Because he realized that agricultural production is closely related to people's production and life, whether the country can be strong depends almost on whether the monarch attaches importance to agricultural production. To develop agricultural production, we must rely on improving the scientific and technological level of government officials and farmers. He personally carried out agricultural production activities, summed up the experience at that time and studied the achievements of predecessors. During the period from the third year of Yongxi in the Northern Wei Dynasty (534) to the second year of Wuding in the Eastern Wei Dynasty (544), he analyzed and summarized the agricultural technical data accumulated in many ancient books, consulted the rich experience gained by the old farmers and his own personal experience, and wrote a masterpiece of agricultural science and technology, Qi Yao Min Shu.
Qi Yao Min Shu is a masterpiece, because it is divided into 10 volume, ***92 articles, 1 10000 words; Among them, the text is about 70 thousand words and the notes are about 40 thousand words. In addition, there are "preface" and "miscellaneous words" in front of the book. In the Preface, Jia Sixie extensively excerpted examples of wise monarchs, wise prime ministers and people of insight attaching importance to agricultural production and thus enriching Qiang Bing. Qi Yaomin's Book is rich in content and covers a wide range, including various crops, fiber crops, oil crops, dye crops, spice crops, green manure crops, feed crops and other field crops, as well as aquatic plants, vegetables, melons and fruits, practical wood and so on, and even agricultural and sideline products such as raising pigs and chickens, making sauce and vinegar are described in detail. It can be said that The Book of Qi Yao Min is the earliest agricultural encyclopedia in China, which provides us with extremely real and detailed historical materials for studying ancient agricultural production in China.
The content of Qi Yao Min Shu and Jia Sixie's contribution can be discussed from the following aspects.
The greatest achievement of Qi Yao Min Shu is that it formed a systematic theory of agricultural science for the first time in China, and made a reasonable classification of agricultural categories characterized by practicality. In this book, Jia Sixie gave a comprehensive and detailed description of all kinds of crops at that time, from the initial land reclamation and various preparations before production to the processing, brewing and utilization after production. For example, classify crops; Analysis of various factors affecting crop growth; What problems should be paid attention to at all stages of crop growth? How to improve the growth conditions of crops? How can we improve the growth ability of crops to adapt to the environment? At the same time, Jia Sixie also discusses the science of planting, forestry and raising all kinds of animals in this book. It should be said that Qi Yao Min Shu is extremely rich in content, extremely rigorous in structure, well-founded in argument and closely integrated with practice. These questions put forward by Jia Sixie are the main aspects to be studied in agricultural science. These research results not only promoted agricultural production at that time, but also have very important reference value today.
Qi Shu Yao Min proposed that the quality of seeds plays an important role in the yield and quality of crops. For example, more than 80 varieties of seeds are recorded in the book, and analyzed and compared according to various characteristics such as maturity, plant height, yield, quality and environmental resistance. At the same time, it explains how to keep the purity of seeds, what preparations are made before sowing and how to do them to ensure that the sown seeds can develop well and grow strong seedlings. More importantly, Jia Sixie saw the dialectical law of the interrelation of various things, and described the role of environment in the survival and growth of organisms, as well as the relationship between biological inheritance and variation. The breeding principles of artificial hybridization, artificial selection and directional cultivation were discussed. This paper expounds the seedling raising methods and young tree tending techniques of cutting, layering and grafting of vegetables, fruit trees and trees. Until now, we still use many of these methods.
Jia Sixie has done a lot of on-the-spot investigation and research, and summed up the climate characteristics of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River where he lives and practices: "Spring is full of wind and drought". In Qi Yao Min Shu, the problem of drought resistance and soil moisture conservation was discussed in detail. In the book, he also standardized the basic farming methods such as ploughing, harrowing and dragging (mo), and skillfully combined them with various technical links, and expounded the truth and significance in theory. In addition, he also proposed to restore and improve soil fertility by rotating crop varieties, and there were also ways of planting green manure plants and interplanting in rotation, and clearly put forward the principle that agricultural production should be adapted to local conditions.
Qi Yaominshu has taken a big step forward in animal breeding technology. There are six articles in the book that record the feeding methods of cattle, horses, chickens, geese and other livestock and poultry. The book also describes the use of animal power, the raising of livestock, and how to correctly match men and women. There are also 48 veterinary prescriptions in the book, covering surgery, infectious diseases, parasitic diseases and other diseases. Measures such as early detection, early prevention, early treatment, paying attention to hygiene and actively cooperating with disease prevention and control are put forward, and some measures are still being adopted today.
The processing, brewing, cooking and storage technology of agricultural products is also one of the contents involved in Qi Yaomin's Book. It can be seen from the production process of wine, vinegar, sauce and syrup recorded in the book that people at that time had a certain understanding and practical experience of the important role played by microorganisms in the process of biological brewing. The vegetable preservation methods recorded in the book are still used in northern China.
The Book of Qi Yaomin also has high practical value, which records many observation data about plant growth and development and related agricultural technologies. For example, the book says that pepper is not cold-resistant, belongs to warm-season crops, and should be wrapped when it overwinters. The most commendable thing is that the book describes the important experience of turning grass, producing manure and preventing frost in the garden during the flowering period of fruit trees. The book says that if the rain clears up and the northwest wind cools down, there must be frost that night. According to this experience, people can make preventive preparations in advance to avoid losses.
It is worth mentioning that Jia Sixie attaches great importance to the comprehensive analysis of agricultural production, science and technology and economic benefits. At that time, he was able to combine science and technology with agricultural production in his book and describe diversified management methods according to certain theories and scientific principles, which could increase economic benefits and farmers' income.
The Book of Qi Yao Min is an excellent work summarizing the experience of ancient agricultural production in China, and it is an "agricultural encyclopedia" with high scientific value. Agricultural historians praised the book for forming a complete structure system of intensive farming in China for the first time. Economic historians believe that the book is also a guide to the economic management of feudal landlords, providing practical methods and ways to increase economic benefits. Another food historian believes that the book also gives good skills and methods in agricultural products processing, brewing, cooking, fruit and vegetable storage and so on.
Jia Sixie's Book of Qi Yaomin can be highly praised by historians from all walks of life, and its success is inseparable from his earnest and meticulous attitude towards learning. He attaches great importance to absorbing the experience of his predecessors. In The Book of Qi Yao Min, he quoted One Happy and Fifty or sixty kinds of ancient books. Many of these ancient books have been lost, but thanks to Jia Sixie, some of them have been extracted. For example, many agricultural works, such as The Book of Fan Sheng Zhi, The Moon Order for Four People and so on, in the Western Han Dynasty. Although Jia Sixie attached great importance to the experience of his predecessors, he was not superstitious about ancient books. For example, The Book of Fan Sheng Zhi says that millet should be planted sparingly. However, Jia Sixie found through personal practice that if the trees are densely planted, although they grow smaller, the lines are symmetrical and full, and the beige color is whiter, which is better than sparse planting. So in Qi Yao Min Shu, he corrected the statement in Fan Sheng Zhi Shu.
Jia Sixie not only absorbed the essence of books, but also personally participated in agricultural labor, actively learned from the masses, carefully observed and seriously thought, thus obtaining a large number of accurate first-hand information. Therefore, the description of a lot of knowledge in the book is quite accurate, and it is impossible to do this without personal practice.
Jia Sixie's rigorous academic attitude is commendable, which is quite different from the style of pursuing fame and fortune and advocating empty talk at that time. In The Letter of Qi Yao Min, Jia Sixie expressed his political attitude of saving the world and demanding reform. He believes that only by developing agriculture first can the country become rich. He looks down on those dignitaries who eat, drink and be merry all day and don't ask about the sufferings of the people. Jia Sixie is far-sighted. In his view, if the people's basic life cannot be guaranteed, and the people are not adequately fed and clothed, it will certainly cause people's dissatisfaction and it will be difficult for the country to maintain a stable situation.
It is also worth mentioning that Jia Sixie not only pays attention to summing up the production experience of the Han people, but also pays attention to learning and absorbing the advanced production experience of all fraternal peoples. For example, many good methods about animal husbandry in the book were learned from two brothers.
The Book of Qi Yao Min has a far-reaching influence not only at home but also abroad because of its extensive content, rich description and detailed content. For example, as early as the Japanese Kwangtime (889-897), Fujiwara estimated the world and compiled the Japanese Bibliography, including Qi Yao Min Shu. European scholars also translated and published Qi Yao Min's Book in English and German.
In a word, Jia Sixie himself respects labor and the working people. He has a certain foresight and can put the foundation of a rich country on agriculture. This is a very valuable insight. He is also rich in knowledge, familiar with all kinds of knowledge and technology, and puts practice in a very important position, not only relying on daydreaming, but also with the scientific spirit of seeking truth from facts. These excellent qualities have been fully demonstrated in his book Qi Yao Min Shu. The Book of Qi Yaomin embodies the infinite wisdom of the ancient working people in China, and has made great contributions to preserving this valuable experience and promoting the development of ancient agricultural production in China. Jia Sixie's The Book of Qi Yao Min is an immortal agricultural work with high scientific value.