Tentative Study Of Agricultural Thought In Taoism Agricultural History

Taoism is a native religion of China. Lu Xun once remarked in his essay A Letter to Xu Shoutang, "Taoism is the foundation of Chinese culture". The civilization of agriculture of China has a long history. It is what the Taoist school and Taoism have been rooted in and its thoughts are reflected in the Taoism. What's more, the science and technology of China have also absorbed the ideology from Taoism and achieved substantial progress under the influence of Taoism. In recent decades, researches on Taoism have been attached great importance to, especially to Taoist science and technology history. Jiang Sheng, professor and also the mentor of the author, makes contribution with his book History of Chinese Taoism and Technology. In the Taoism field, while there are abundant studies concerning with chemistry, medicine, health promotion, astronomy, and physics, all of which have produced important achievements, agricultural thoughts in Taoism have seldom been touched upon. Therefore, the author composes this thesis and hopes to consummate the research on the history of Taoism and technology.The thesis first elaborates which part of the history of agriculture belongs to Taoism, justifying the necessity and reasonability for the fact that Taoism embraces agricultural theory. Agriculture was highly valued in early Qin Dynasty. The thinking notions included in Tao Te Jing, such as highlighting living and agriculture, have a great impact on Taoism. The four famous articles from Liishi Chunqiu (the historical writings compiled by Lu Buwei), with Shangnong as a representative, bear deep resemblance of Taoism. The ideology about agricultural management is the treasure of the history of agriculture. This thesis analyzes the agricultural thoughts and indicates its influence on agricultural ideology in Taoism. Huainanzi, a representative book of Huang-lao ideology, is rich contents concerning agricultural theory and agriculture phenology. It directly reflects that Taoism attaches importance on agricultural production. Taoism emerged and developed in the Period of Wei, Jin, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Taiping Scriptures, viewed as the classic of early-Taoism, is the first book concentrating on agricultural activities; the inclusive agricultural theory relates to "three emergences", "a theory of nurturing land", as well as agricultural production and environmental protection, etc. Thereafter, numerous Taoists showed their knowledge and thinking about agriculture in their books. Ge Hong, the famous Taoist in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, advocated the integration of agriculture and Taoism. The records of agriculture-promotion is his book Baopuzi is of high value and worthy of being studied. The Taoism work Liuzi of the Northern Qi Dynasty intentionally selected "agriculture-promotion" as the title, specifying Taoists'high attention on agriculture.Taoism came to maturity and thrived in the Sui, Tang, and the Five Dynasties. "Agriculture management" was chosen as the sub-title in Tung Ling Scriptures, which gave a systematic illustration to the importance of agriculture. The book elaborated that the agriculture served as the foundation of governing the country; the essence of the book lied in the proposing of the "Ploughing Method", which proved that Taoism attached importance to agriculture. Although some of the contents resembled those in Lushi Chunqiu, the book still contained original ideas and opinions. The article of Shihua in Huashu, written by the Taoist Tan Qiao in Five Dynasties, developed the "Three Emergencies" that originated from Taiping Scriptures; it further explored the significance of taking food and clothing as the foundation of living, and also demonstrated the importance of carrying on agricultural production.Taoism completed its process of internalization in the Sui, Tang, and the Five Dynasties, transforming from the external experimentation (wai-tan) to the internal theoretical alchemy (nei-tan). In the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Taoists'work were mainly about nei-tan and ethical theory. There appeared an important figure, that is, Chen Fu, the agriculture scholar of Chuan-chen Dao. His book Nongshu occupied a brilliant position in the history; its significance in the agriculture history is incomparable. Nongshu recorded the agricultural technology of planting paddy rice along the Yangtze River, proposing many valuable agricultural ideas. His theories such as "the soil can be governed and remains productive and fertile" were rather splendid. They recognized participants'subjective powers when people were engaged in agriculture production activities, thus refuting the view that the soil would gradually exhaust. The articles titled as "Twelve Yi" (Twelve Suggestions), laid stress on the cooperation among all the means of production; it was also the first agriculture book that separated farm cattle and raising silkworms in one solo chapter. Changchun Zhenren You Ji(The Journey to the West of Changchuan Zhenren) not only made great contributions to the location geomancy, but also provided substantial document for us to understand the agriculture conditions in the western region.Throughout the history of Taoism, one main characteristic is to use agriculture history to demonstrate Taoism; many Taoists focus on studying agriculture and Taoism, treating it as the means of cultivation. To make a complete discussion, the author of the thesis also analyzes the agricultural thoughts which are scattered in other Taoist books. Through the research, the conclusion can be drawn that Taoism, one of the important schools of thought in China, makes great contributions to agricultural technology; the discovery of agricultural theories in Taoist books is of great significance in perfecting Taoism research and guiding the contemporary agriculture production.