Study On Editing Practice Of The Chinese Ancient Agricultural Books

Ancient agricultural books, the carrier of traditional Chinese agricultural science, are an important part of agricultural science. They have their own history and characteristics in the process of development. In primitive times with no written records, the primitive agricultural production knowledge is handed down by verbal instruction and personal examples. It is not until the Warring States Period that the first agricultural work comes into being. During over 2,000 years from the Warring States Period to the Opium War(1840) in the late Qing Dynasty, ancient Chinese agricultural books are renowned for their great number as well as profound and rich content. This thesis plans to delve deep into the editing purpose, editing styles and editing methods of the ancient agricultural books from the perspective of redactology and summarizes the overall context and characteristics of their editing activities and editing ideas in hope of providing some guidance and reference for the editing of modern agricultural books and agricultural production activities. The research is mainly carried out from the following aspects:(1) Four Stages of the Development of Ancient Agricultural BooksAncient agricultural books, the carrier of traditional Chinese agricultural science, are not only an important part of traditional Chinese agricultural science but also a systematic summary of traditional agricultural science. Therefore, they naturally have their own rules and characteristics of development. Based on them, in the first part of this thesis, the development of ancient Chinese agricultural books are divided into four stages, namely the budding and forming stage (the Pre-Qin Period), the stage of development and increasing maturity (the Qin, Han, Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties), southward popularization stage (the Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties) and the stage of transition from peak to modern agricultural books (the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties).(2)Analysis of the Social and Historical Backgrounds of the Ancient Agricultural Books in Each StageThe social backgrounds under which ancient agricultural books are edited in four different development stages are analyzed in details, because their editing will certainly be restricted by conditions including the politics, economy, agricultural techniques and strategies, culture, and science and technology in the society at that time. Therefore, the development of their editing practices should be viewed in a given historical context. Only in this way can their development, editing level and the role they played in historical development be seen.(3)Editing Practices of Ancient Agricultural Books in Each StageEditing ideas originates from editing practices and guides editing practices to move forward. Therefore, in order to study editing practices, it is inevitable to study the editing ideas contained in editing practices. So in this thesis, redactological knowledge such as the editing purpose, the editing guiding thought, the editing styles, editing methods, material collection, literature reference and writing methods of the ancient agricultural books will inevitably be one of the major research areas.(4)Research on the Compilation of the Representative Agricultural Books in Each StageChinese ancient agricultural books have their own representatives in each stage, which can basically represent the basic characteristics of their editing practices in this stage. They summarize systematically the agricultural development in this stage. Therefore, this thesis will also focus on studying the editing practices of the representative agricultural books in each stage.(5)Summary of the Origin of the Editing Practice in Ancient Agricultural BooksFrom the above systematic examination, it concludes the research priority of this thesis, namely, the origin from which the editing practice developed in ancient agricultural books. Besides, the writer will make analysis based on the data, including the entire development process during which physiocracy concept is regarded as the editing principle, and the development guided by the editing idea of "sancai"(a doctrine of 3 factors:heaven, earth and humanity),as well as the development of the structural system of large-scale comprehensive agricultural books collated with the content such as the literature cited.