212 Early Agriculture
Therefore, each site was used for appropriate production and ‘to fish where water is
rich, to forest where mountain is dominant, to raise livestock where forage is abun-
dant, to plant crops where land is arable’, and to guide year-round activities with 24
solar subseasons in order to synchronize these activities with the climate. Such timely
and well arranged multi-component activities resulted in enormous economic ben-
efits. (Institute of the History of Natural Sciences, 1985).
Among the Chinese classics, Qi Min Yao Shu (Essential Farming Skills of the
People of Qi), written by Jia Sixie some 1400 years ago, is the best preserved and
most comprehensive. Jia Sixie’s attitude towards writing Qi Min Yao Shu was very
serious. According to his own account, he gathered a large amount of data from
classic and contemporary writings, collected many proverbs and folksongs, made
inquiries from experts and drew from personal experience. The book embraces
farming, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production and fishery in an area
comprising today’s southeastern Shanxi, central–south Hebei, part of Henan,
north of the Huanghe (Yellow) River, and Shandong. Consisting of 110,000
words, the book covered a wide range of knowledge of agriculture including
detailed description of rotation and intercropping systems, as well as a wealth of
useful knowledge on the improvement of soil fertility and soil and water conserva-
tion. In accordance with the characteristics of crops, he distinguished those that
could be rotted from those that could not. He also provided a set of rotation meth-
ods and pointed out that plants of the bean family were the best forerunner crops
for improving soil fertility. He remarked that ‘For spiked millet, it is best to sow in
soils following mung bean or lesser bean, or to sow panicled millet or sesame in soil
following hemp, and least successful to sow in soil that has been planted to turnip.’
The Chinese labouring people have rich experience in breeding varieties of crops/
vegetables for a fixed cultivation system. The term ‘garden-style cultivation’ or
‘gardenization’ is sometimes used to describe this multi-component system. The
Qi Min Yao Shu mentioned that mallow (Malva verticillata, called kui in ancient
China) can be sown three times and that chives were harvested not more than five
times a year, indicating that the vegetation was sown and harvested continually on
one piece of land. Sowing coriander and scallion or lesser beans among melon-
vines and growing coriander and green onion together suggests that interplanting
was practised in the cultivation of vegetables at that time (Fan Chuyu, 1984).
Qi Min Yao Shu also provides, in its ‘Miscellany’, notes on growing a large
variety of vegetables: near the cities and towns, more melons, fruits and eggplants
should be grown, as what is not consumed by the family can easily be sold. If there
are 10mu (1mu equals 1/15ha or roughly 1/6 acre) of land, pick out the five that
are most fertile. Use 2.5mu to grow green onion and the other half to sow sundry
vegetables like gourds, radish, mallow, lettuce, turnip, white pea, lesser bean and
eggplant in the second, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth month, respectively (Dong
Kaichen, 1984). The chapter Zhong Sang Zhe (Mulberry Cultivation) in Qi Min Yao
Shu described the experience of intercropping mulberry with bean and other crops.
The seedlings of mulberry tree were first grown in a nursery 5 feet apart and then
replanted 10bu apart (approximately 7–8m). If beans and appropriate crops are