Chinese Agricultural Historical Heritage Institute

Submissiontime: 11:03:10, May 17, 2020

The Institute of Chinese Agricultural History and Heritage of (herein after referred to as "Chinese Agricultural History Institute") of South China Agricultural University is an important research centerin the history of science and technology in China, whose origin can be traced back to the research on agricultural history of National Sun Yat-sen University since the 1920s.

(website of Chinsese Agricultural History Institute:https://yjs.scau.edu.cn/)

1、Establishment of the agricultural history research in South China 

    In 1926, Professor Ding Ying, known as the "father of Chinese rice science", discovered wild rice in the suburb of Guangzhou in, which led to hissystematic research on the origin of crops, especially rice, andinfluenced later studies such as Liang Jiamian and Wang Xingrui.Theysuccessively published "Chinese crop primordia" and otherarticles, laying a solid foundation for the future development ofagricultural history research in South China.

    In May 1944, Dr. Joseph Needham, a famous British scholar, visited the Agricultural College of Sun Yat-sen University during the war andpaid close attention to Liang Jiamian's agricultural historyresearch, which greatly encouraged the agricultural history researchin South China, which was in its infancy. Liang Jiamian, who was incharge of the books work of the Agricultural College of Sun Yat senUniversity, conceived the idea of establishing the "ChinaAgricultural Literature Collection" and drafted the "generalprinciples".

    In 1955,the central Ministry of Agriculture held a symposium, calling forsorting out the agricultural heritage of the motherland to serveagricultural production.With the support of Ding Ying, Liang Jiamianestablished "special collection room of Chinese agriculturalliterature heritage" in the library of South China AgriculturalCollege.The establishment of the special collection room marks thebeginning of the establishment of agricultural history research inSouth China, and promotes the collection, collection and research ofagricultural documents.Data construction has increased rapidly fromthe first 3-5 volumes of ancient books to 1000 volumes and 10000volumes; a number of research achievements that have had an impact onacademic circles at home and abroad have been published successively,such as the origin and evolution of Chinese cultivated rice, whichhas been highly praised by famous scholars in the scientific andhistorical circles such as Zhu Kezhen and Xin Shuqi, especially DingYing's research on the origin and evolution of Chinesecultivated rice in the worldHas a significant impact.

2、"Goldendecade" for the development of the research lab 

    In April 1978, the special collection office was developed into a research office, renamed China agricultural historical heritage research office, and became a Research Office approved by the Ministry of agriculture two years later. Liang Jiamian, the mainfounder of Chinese agricultural history, served as the officedirector, Xu Yanqian, a famous forester, and Qi Jingwen, a famousagronomist, served as the deputy director, and a group of experts andscholars with expertise successively served as or concurrently servedas researchers, such as Huang Changxian. They have made achievementsin the history of agricultural science and technology, the history ofagricultural plants, the study of ancient agricultural books andother fields in China, and published Xu Guangqi's Chronicle, China. In ancient times, there were hundreds of academic works, such asthe understanding and utilization of nitrogen fixing plants. Thehistorical manuscript of Chinese agricultural science and technology,edited by Liang Jiamian, was hailed as a landmark work in the fieldof agricultural history, and won six awards, including the thirdprize of national science and technology progress.This period is the"golden decade" for the development of the research lab.

    In terms of personnel training, the research office began to recruit agricultural history postgraduates in 1980 and presided over the formulation of the first agricultural history postgraduates trainingprogram. During this period, the Agricultural History Office createdseveral domestic peers first, that is, the first graduate student ofagricultural history in China; the first academic journal ofagricultural history after the "Cultural Revolution" wasfounded, agricultural history research; the first internationalconference of agricultural history in China, the "Southernvegetation" international academic seminar, was held for thefirst time.

    In 1986, Professor Zhou Zhaoji took over the post of Liang Jiamian, theretired director of the agricultural history office. Under the dilemma of the brain drain in Guangdong universities, he recruitedtalents and led the agricultural history team to march forward difficultly. He published works such as the history of Chinese plantphysiology on high-level journals such as China social science, andkept his research in the fields of agricultural science andtechnology history, regional agricultural history, forestry history, Agricultural Archaeology, etc. Research characteristics and advantages.

3、Discipline construction to a higher level 

    In 1998, Ni Genjin succeeded Zhou Zhaoji, who retired from rongtui, asdirector of the agricultural history office. After entering the 21stcentury, the improvement of the general environment and thecontinuous efforts of the indoor colleagues make the agriculturalhistory office more active and prosperous, mainly in the following four aspects.

    First, the discipline construction has stepped up to a higher level. It notonly established the only history department of AgriculturalUniversity in China on the basis of the Agricultural History Office,but also established the independent secondary discipline doctorpoint of crop history. At the same time, it has established theresearch centers of agricultural culture and rural tourism, Lingnanecological history, etc. across departments. In recent years, theagricultural history discipline has undertaken more than 20 majornational social science projects, such as "integrated researchand comprehensive research of Lingnan animal and plant agriculturalhistorical data", National Social Science Foundation, provincialand ministerial scientific research projects, published more than 20works, such as "notes on saving wasteland" and more than300 papers, not only consolidating the original research position,but also opening up agriculture Ecological history, rural socialhistory, water conservancy social history, agricultural science andtechnology exchange history and other new fields. Third, academicexchanges have become more frequent. Nearly 10 international anddomestic academic conferences have been held, including the 10th EastAsian International Symposium on agricultural history and theSymposium on biological history and agricultural history. The degreeof academic internationalization has been greatly enhanced. Fourth, the construction of materials is more complete. After decades ofconstruction, the special collection library of agricultural historyoffice now has 80000 books. It is famous for its rich collection ofancient agricultural books at home and abroad, and is the mostabundant collection of ancient agricultural books in the world.

    In May 2016, with the approval of the school leaders, the AgriculturalHistory Office was renamed as "China agricultural historicalheritage research institute", with Ni Genjin as the director,Wang Fuchang and Zhao Yanping as the deputy directors. In June of thesame year, the special collection of Agricultural History Office wasrated as "key protection unit of ancient books in GuangdongProvince".

Author&Source: Collegeof Humanities and Law