Research On The Reform Of Silkworm Seeds In Jiangsu And Zhejiang Provinces (1898-1937)

Silkworm breeding is one of the most important subsidiary businesses,with a long history,for the farmers in Jiangsu and Zhejiang province and has a very outstanding status in the country.There are five elements in silkworm breeding,with the silkworm seeds ranking the first.The reform of silkworm seeds was not only the superficial characteristics and a shop window of the modern agricultural scientific progressing in the period of late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,but the needs of Chinese products entering and competing in the international markets,and the result of cultural exchange and co-operation as well.It refracted the change of people's view of value and social psychology and its rise and proceeding provide us with a new visual angle to study the government's economic policy of late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,and opened up a new field for studying how the modern agricultural science and technology coming to the countryside and bring about the great changes.With the help of the theories from the subjects such as history,politics,economy, sociology,using the methods of document study and sample analysis,the dissertation tried to make an approach into the silkworm seeds reforming,on which,the government concentrated it's efforts and got fairly good results,and produced great effect on the economic development and villager's lives of this area,thus to show how the modern agricultural science and technology was brought in and spread to the countryside,in the end recognized and accepted by the people there.The author also wanted to show,in the integrate of modern agricultural science and technology with the farmers,what people from different quarters of the society want,what they did, how it turn to be,and what obstruction and difficult position they met and how to face and overcome them.The dissertation contains six parts.In the Introduction,the author gives a brief account of why he choose the research project,the present research situation,the main contents of the research and the-basic methods and historical materials he used.Chapter One,the silkworm breeding business and the native seeds producing and running,introduced the background and the necessity of the reform.It said that, as a traditional industry with superiority,silkworm breeding and silk weaving industry developed fast after the opening to the foreign countries in modern times,with foreign trade expanding and the needs growing greatly.The industry not only made important contributions to the economic prosperity of Jiangsu and Zhejiang province,but also left profound influence to the cultural development of the people there.While the Chinese traditional agricultural science walked slowly with difficulty, the western agricultural science and technology developed with each passing day. Restricted by the shortcoming of the native seeds,along with the silk reel technology lacking,on the base of Chinese traditional agricultural technology,the Chinese silk products,used to take exclusive control in the international market,met big challenges and took smaller parts in the enlarging global market around the 20^th century,and was fought back step by step in the contest with the Japanese silk.The Chinese silk,having splendid history of more than five thousand years,faced with a rigorous life-and-death test.Reforming the silkworm seeds is either the important contents of solving the people's living difficulties,or the demands of developing the national industries,bettering the international trade condition and reducing the trade deficit.In the second chapter,from elementary recognize to work together,the author stated that,at the beginning,while most Chinese people,not knowing the world situation,the international market and its change of demands,knew little of the lost of silk benefits and the ways to repartee,the custom official from the U.K,F. Kleinwachter recognized the international market situation,its tendency and the status Chinese silk take,fond out the crux of the problem,he suggested that it was necessary for Chinese people to learn the advanced agricultural technology from abroad and produce reformed silkworm seeds.After the war of 1894,which gave Qing Dynasty a heavy blow,more and more intellectuals,awaked by the national crisis,came to recognize the serious situation Chinese silk trade faced and accepted Kleinwachter's suggestions.Lou Zhengyu and his friends from the Shanghai Sericulture Society invited Japanese technicians to check and get rid of the virus of the silkworm seeds and produced perfect seeds,with the help of modern technology.Lin Qi wrote to the grand coordinator of Zhejiang province suggesting found schools to train qualified personnel for silkworm seeds reforming cause and he sent two young men to Japan to study modern agricultural technology himself.The school and Jiangsu Woman Sericulture School founded later tried to manufacture reformed silkworm seeds,teach the students the modern seeds-producing technology,and give technological support to the new style seeds making farms their graduated students,which lay a solid basis for the silkworm seeds reforming cause in Jiangsu and Zhejiang province.During the periods of Emperor Guangxu and Xuantong,while Japanese government reformed their silkworm seeds vigorously,the government of late Qing Dynasty did little and lost good chances of development.Until the second decades of the 20^thcentury,the intellectuals,businessmen,and government officials knew more about the importance and necessity of learning the western agricultural technology and reforming the silkworm seeds,took part in the reform to a certain extent and formed the all-taking part in situation.Needless to say,schools and the International Committee for the Improvement of sericulture in China acted as the main power in promoting the reform.Though founded some experimental facilities,the government did not plaid more important role because of fund shortage and backward in management.Without doubt,restricted by the domestic agricultural technology,the seeds the farmers used were still purebred ones,and its quality need to be improved,did not be accepted by the uneducated farmers,who were still in the stage of watch-and-wait. The reform didn't have better results for the seeds hadn't tangible advantage than the native seeds and the way of breeding the farmers used was still primitive.In the third chapter,the article made a probe into the reform of silkworm seeds in this area during the time of 1923-1932.In 1923,the technicians produced the hybridized seeds and built up their resistance to disease.With the invention of seeds used in autumn showing importance of science and technology,the farmers got benefits from the scientific development and got more profound understanding of modern science.The directive stations were built in many places,and became the frontier of spreading modern sericulture in the countryside.With the help of the directors,the farmers knew more about the reformed silkworm seeds and came to accepted them.On the one way,the already existing schools kept on growing,on the other way,some new sericulture schools were built and trained more students for the two provinces and made directive contributions to the going of modern science to the countryside.The ever-growing demands from the farmers formed a big market,and the breeding of producer of the reformed seeds made it possible to build more reformed seeds making enterprises.The more output,higher quality and lower price made the reformed seeds more acceptable to the farmers.During this period,the silk enterprisers,local gentlemen and the government made use of their own advantage and contributed to the reform,the silk enterprisers by setting up silkworm seeds farms to manufacture reformed seeds,or founding direct stations to teach the farmers to breed the silkworm with scientific approach and guiding them to use reformed seeds by favorable price,the gentlemen by making use of their prestige to help the setting up of direct stations,to publicize the sericulture science and set models to the farmers in the combination of modern technology with the traditional business,the government turn to be the main force of the reform by executing their obligations.They paid more attentions than late Qing dynasty and the North Ocean Group to the reform,not only set up agricultural administrative institutions,sericulture research and popularizes faculties,but also issued decrees to set the specifications and technical standards of reformed seeds in order to make it clear that how the reformed seeds should be manufactured and sold and who were qualified to do it.They taught the farmers to distinguish the bogus and inferior seeds from the standard ones and punish the unlawful and tricky traders.Though the international market changed unpredictably as before,during 1923 to 1931,the reform cause carried on with the reform farms running well and the reform cause striding forward.The forth chapter,crisis and countermeasures,mainly made a probe into the silkworm seeds reform from the year of 1933 to 1937 under the guide of governing economic thoughts.Since 1931,struck by the global economic crisis,along with the challenge from the artificial silk,natural disaster and unfavorable social situations,the Chinese silk was put in a tight spot.In order to overcome the crisis,revive the countryside;soften the rigid social contradictions,the Nanjing Government carried out the sericulture governing since 1933,aiming at put forward the seeds reform by administrative methods.In Jiangsu and Zhejiang province,the government established sericulture model reform district,set up central permanent directive house in the sericulture prosperous area,tried to persuade or even force the villagers to use the reformed seeds,and assisted by the controlling the silkworm firms.It is the only way they can do it,for the villagers lacking of modern scientific knowledge.But it was necessary for the government to consider the villagers' psychological characters and habits of thinking,and give them benefits at the same time of heightening their culture level,which could make it easier for the farmers to accept the new technology. In stead of working subjectively and taking everything on itself,the government should carry out their obligation to supply good social and political situation and follow the principle of gradual improvement.The agitation of the villagers opposition to banish the local silkworm seeds,which lasted more than twenty days in there counties in Zhejiang province,illustrated the difficulty and complication of rooting the modern agricultural technology in farmers for they knew little about it,showed that it is a systematic project needing co-operation and hard work and a long process to be provided with all kinds of suitable conditions at home and abroad.In the sixth part,the remaining part,the author evaluated the achievement and shortcoming of the reform.With the use of modern science and technology,the quantity and quality of silkworm grew,the assortments of silkworm seeds reduced, farmers got better income,it maid contribution to the development of silk reeling industry and the increase of silk products,though the technical level of the reformed seeds was lack behind the advanced ones in the world.The reform took place in Jiangsu and Zhejiang province ranked first in our country in those days and set a model to other areas.Then the thesis discussed the reform took place of this area after 1937,it said that,while the reform cause grew vigorously,the Japanese imperialist launched a all-round invading war,serieulture industry was bitten heavily,rural economy shrunk,the produce and propaganda were damaged seriously,the reform cause was suspended.In the eight years that followed,the GMD government continued the reform cause by concentrating the remained reform force.Because of chaos,the normal agricultural running and research activities could continue no longer. Not having enough qualified reformed seeds,the farmers had to manufacture the native silkworm seeds with primitive way.Great retrogression was seen in the history of silkworm seed reforming.After the anti-Japanese war won,though the GMD government resumed the governing in silkworm seeds and took some supportive measures,most of the factories were too small to produce enough reformed seeds,as a result of both the longtime chaos caused by war and the breaking down national economy.The reform cause was faced with another life-and-death test.No doubt, there is a long way for modern agricultural science and technology to go down to the village and integrate with farmers there.