《农桑辑要》中凸出的蚕桑科技成就

Sericultural Scientific Achievements Highlighted inNongsang Jiyao

《农桑辑要》是我国现存的第一部包括较完整农业与蚕桑生产技术的官修农书,是宋朝以前农业与蚕桑科技成就的总结性文献,其实用价值极高。《农桑辑要》作为官修农书出版,为元代以来士人重农思想抬头指引了方向,为明、清以来江南蚕桑生产的缓慢发展乃至清代晚期蚕桑丝织的畸形产业现象投下了"火种"。《农桑辑要》虽也有某些不足之处,但瑕不掩瑜,不失为我国古代的一部农业与蚕桑生产技术巨擘。本文遵循"去粗取精,去伪存真"梳理古文献的原则,就现代蚕业科学秉承《农桑辑要》中部分蚕桑科技原理试作解读,祈希展示和凸显我国古代蚕桑科技成就在17世纪以前所处世界文明史上的地位。

Nongsang Jiyao is the first officially edited agricultural book on production technology of Chinese agriculture and sericulture. It is an ancient book summarizing technological achievements of agriculture and sericulture up to Song dynasty and is of high practical value. As an official agriculture book, it had guided the rise of physiocracy among schol- ars in Yuan dynasty, and placed a ＂fire＂ for abnormal development of sericutture and silk industry in southern areas of the Changjiang River in late Qing Dynasty in contrast to slow growth of sericultural production in Ming and Qing dynasties. Although Nongsang Jiyao has certain shortcomings, the defects cannot obscure the virtues. It is still a great works on ancient agricultural and sericultural production technology of China. This paper followed the rule of ＂discarding the dross and keeping the essential, eliminating the false and retaining the true＂ to interpret the scientific principles of sericulture recorded in Nongsang Jiyao which have been inherited by modern sericultural science so as to exhibit and highlight the status of ancient Chinese sericulture scientific and technological achievements in the history of world civilization before the 17th Century.