Utilization of human excrement in pre-modern China,its theoretical interpretations and ecological significance

The use of human excrement as fertilizer is a characteristic of traditional Chinese agriculture..The application of excrement from urban residents in agriculture since the Song Dynasty has ensured the cleanliness and hygiene of ancientChinesecities.As early as the Ming Dynasty,the Chinese people defined the principle of fertilizing fields with human excrement from the perspective of materialcirculation.The concept Peri-URban ecosystems(PURE)provides inspiration forurban-rural symbiosis regarding circulareconomy.The use of human excrement in fertilization is a major attribute differentiating the Chinese traditional agriculture from the agriculture in other regions around the world.Despite the fact that the exact record showing that human excrement was used as fertilizer in China emerged in the Western Han Dynasty(B.C.202-A.D.8),such records did not become prevalent until the Southern Song Dynasty(A.D.1127-1279).In the Ming and Qing eras(A.D.1368-1912),human excrement was even considered"top-class fertilizerand servedas themost essential fertilizerin farmland fertilization.The importance of human excrement in the Ming and Qing was mainly reflected by farmers'purchase of human excrement from urban areas.As fertilization practices became increasingly popular during the period,men of letters built a localized theoretical system centering on human excrement.Although the use of human excrement had both positive and negative impacts on public health and the ecological environment,the positive overshadowed the negativeas a whole.Today,it is worth pondering on how the utilization of human excrement as an agricultural resource can be improved so that a material cycle system can be rebuilt to re-connect the urban and rural areas.

Theorizing the Gendered Patriarchy of the Huaxia:Constancy(jing)/Expedience(quan)and Continuity(yin)/Change(bian)—From Male/Female Distinction to Inner/Outer Distinction in the Context of the Order of Family and State

The gender-based patriarchy of the Huaxia people,consisting of family and state order,inner/outer distinction and gender-based hierarchy,took shape in the period of radical transformation when the Zhou dynasty replaced the Shang dynasty and reached maturity in the Han dynasty,which had been established in the wake of the radical transformation conducted by the Zhou and Qin dynasties.On the basis of the principles of male/female distinction and the integration of family and state,Western Zhou aristocrats abolished the state structure the inner and outer governance systems(nei/waifuzhi内外服制),carried on in part the main patrilineage and surname exogamy of the Shang dynasty,and established the Huaxia patriarchal system.During the Qin and Han dynasties,the patriarchal system evolved into family and state isomorphism characterized by power-sharing between the royal house and its officials and by a two-pronged kinship system in which the male line was inner and the female line was outer.The system thus evolved into the Huaxia gender-based patriarchy,which covered spatial spheres,division of responsibilities,the kinship system,values and ethics,and codes of daily interaction and conduct.The distinction between the inner and the outer was not only a core value of the gender-based patriarchy but also its operational strategy.It also engendered such inter-related sub-systems as human functions,ethics and gender and such philosophical systems as the unity of heaven and man and the cosmic binaries of yin-yang(阴阳)and qian-kun(乾坤).The constancy(经jing)/Expedience(权quan)and Continuity(因yin)/Change(变bian)of the gender-based patriarchy,the jing/quan at the heart of the basic system and governance strategy within its constraints jointly ensured the stability and dynamism of the gender-based patriarchy of the Huaxia people.