Section 2 The Oriental Mindset and Four Millennia of Agriculture

1. “The people come first, She Ji next, and the ruler last.”

This famous quote by Mencius embodies the people-oriented mentality of the East. Here the Chinese word “She Ji” means the state. “She”originally meant the god of the land, and “Ji” the god of crops, since it denotes millet, then the most important grain of the five food crops. The god of land and the god of crops were the most important in the primitive worship of Chinese people, whose lives were dependent on farming. Therefore, the term “She Ji” demonstrates that China, as a country and a society, was founded on the basis of agriculture in ancient times. According to a monograph on the handicraft art of the pre-Qin period from The Rites of Zhou, usually a She Ji altar was set up on the right side of the royal palace. Here “She” stands for a secure living space and “Ji” stands for a stable source of food – the two words represent what is fundamental and essential for a country and its people to exist and live on, which explains why “She Ji” later extended its meaning to refer to a state or country.

“The people come first, She Ji next, and the ruler last.” This significant concept in Confucian thought was put forward more than 2,000 years ago by the Confucian sage Mencius (372-289 BC, philosopher, thinker, and educator of the mid Warring States Period). Mencius considered that rulers must prioritize the people’s interest, because only when the people of a state felt satisfied could there be a stable state and society, one in which monarchs could strengthen the interests of their ruling group. This kind of people-oriented mentality of ancient Chinese philosophers not only showed the courage to directly face society and the general public, but also presented a way of statecraft suited to the times. Mencius’ people-oriented mindset exerted great influence on rulers of later generations. The sage once said: “Vassal lords have three treasures: land, people, and affairs of government.”(3)He considered the common people to play a particularly important role in the actual ruling of a country. Therefore, in terms of economy, rulers should enrich and benefit the people; in terms of politics, they should take a lenient and benevolent approach toward the people; and in terms of thought, they should influence people through education. Up to a point, generations of rulers in ancient China did not have commanding control over social morality despite having supreme ruling power, because under the influence of the people-oriented mindset initiated by Mencius, the will of the rulers had to be constrained and checked by the will of the people within a moral framework.

Imperial Advisors: Legally Empowered Critics of China’s Ancient Monarchs

In ancient China, certain officials served as advisors in the imperial government, their chief duty being to admonish the ruler directly for any negligence or faults and get him to rectify them. The imperial advisor system was designed as a check on the emperor. From the Zhou Dynasty and the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, different dynasties all attached great importance to the appointment of imperial advisors, but the Tang Dynasty had the most complete system of imperial advisors. The most notable example of this is the story of the famous advisor Wei Zheng admonishing the Tang Emperor Taizong (r. 626 to 649).

Once, at the suggestion of Feng Deyi, an official in charge of reports and letters to the Emperor, Emperor Taizong decided that all able-bodied males over the age of 18 who had not previously performed military service must join the army. However Wei Zheng did not agree. According to the practice of those times, orders of the Emperor could not take effect without the signature of the head advisor; so Emperor Taizong asked Wei Zheng, “Why did you disagree?” Wei answered, “As imperial advisor, it is my duty to point out to Your Majesty that to do this contravenes the principle of ruling the country well and bringing stability to the people. In the year when our dynasty was founded, the rule was established that ‘males who join the army at 20 shall be exempt from military obligations at 60.’How can we change this arbitrarily?” Irritated and angry, Emperor Taizong yelled at Wei Zheng, “You are just too stubborn and self-opinionated!” Wei Zheng did not yield an inch, but said in all sincerity and earnestness, “Your Majesty, if we drain the water now, for sure we will have a great catch of fish immediately, but there will be no fish at all next year; if we burn the woods now, for sure we will bag loads of animals, but there will be no beasts at all next year. The same applies in governing a state; if all able-bodied males above 18 are compelled into the army, who can we levy tax on and who will perform corvée from now on?”On hearing this, Emperor Taizong woke up to his mistake and withdrew his order.

Today, China’s ruling party’s principle of “serving the people” can be traced back to the same origin as the ancient mindset of putting people first, a principle that is deep-rooted in history and based on public opinion. The Communist Party was founded in the public interest, and it should always put people first. Realizing people’s wishes, meeting their demands, and safeguarding their rights and interests are the starting point and the final goal of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and also the greatest source of legitimacy for CPC rule.

2. “Man and nature in harmony” – an understanding of circular economy and sustainable agriculture

China has thousands of years of history as an agricultural civilization and, in the lengthy process of agricultural production and practice, its laboring people long ago explored and established their farming system and agricultural culture with Chinese characteristics. Outstanding among these are the concept of “man and nature in harmony” and the concept of circulation of material and energy in traditional agricultural production. The sustainable development of China’s traditional agriculture was closely connected with the cultural gene of “man and nature in harmony.” This ideology has been the spiritual core and essence of the Chinese nation in its 5,000 years of history. Therefore, it is not only an idea, but also a way of existence and development that people pursue.

The core of “man and nature in harmony” lies in the peaceful coexistence of man and nature, which advocates the convergence and integration of heaven, earth, man and things. Under the influence of traditional Chinese philosophy, Chinese farmers have their own plain but unique knowledge on ecology, and the circulation of matters and energy. They see everything in the universe as cyclical and in constant movement; the emergence, growth, and death of all things demonstrate this circular process; various objects and their movements are just part of this cycle; such movement is the universal mechanism and pattern of nature and society. One of the most important reasons for the prospering and persistence of China’s thousand-year agricultural civilization is the influence of such a concept of cycle ecology. This is embodied not only in the management of agricultural production, but also in farmers’ day-to-day laboring.

The Chinese ancestors realized very early on that they needed to connect the major cycles of the universe with the minor cycles of agricultural production and activities, so as to synchronize their seasonal arrangements with the cycles of nature and the universe. They valued all creatures and the ingenious combination of their diversified genes, and emphasized the recycling of matter and energy. Specifically speaking, first, they thought agricultural activities should follow the laws of life, which is to say human agricultural activities should be integrated into the cycle of life. Second, with their knowledge and observations of nature’s climate and seasonal patterns, they saw the cycle of agricultural activities as embodying the changing of the seasons and that it should truly reflect and follow those changes. Third, in the age of primitive agriculture, farmers already started leaving some land fallow, switching cultivation to different patches of land to realize the cyclic use of land; they also cultivated one patch of land for several years and then left it to recover fertility. This concept of rotational farming was an important way for the land to recuperate and build productiveness. Fourth, China’s traditional agriculture emphasized recycling materials and energy, and paid attention to the integration of all farming sub-industries to protect the ecological quality of the soil. For thousands of years, the productivity of soil did not decline, but instead increased in fertility, thanks to the practice of putting human waste, crop waste and stalks, and sludge back on the land to fertilize and improve the soil. In the winter, farmers grew green manure for plowing into the land to increase its organic content. The recycling of waste resources to realize new production was a major feature of China’s traditional agriculture.

Today in China, this circular concept of taking from the land and giving back to the land is still applied in agricultural production. Tonghai County in Yunnan Province is famous for producing high-mountain vegetables, and its vegetables are very popular in China and abroad. People who have been to Tonghai County are, of course, drawn by its beautiful scenery, but they are more fascinated by the knowledge of environmentalism, ecologism, and cyclic agriculture possessed by the industrious local people, and their willingness to put this knowledge into practice. In this county, the arable land of individual households is not large in area, but the plots are all managed and arranged in a regular manner with water pipes running under cement banks between fields. The vegetables grown in the fields line up like military ranks. People plant as carefully as they embroider and this meticulous attention has given rise to the name “embroidery farmland.” At the end of each patch of land there is a soaking pond, where all waste vegetable leaves and roots are left to ferment into organic fertilizer and maintain a kind of “green production”of local vegetables. This small-scale family production model, a system combining traditional and modern techniques and social service, is surely another upgrading of China’s traditional agriculture and a practical interpretation of China’s agricultural civilization.

“Man and Nature in Harmony” in Farmers of Forty Centuries

More than a century ago, in 1909, Franklin H. King, then chief of the Division of Soil Management in the USDA Bureau of Soils and professor of University of Wisconsin, together with his wife, traveled across oceans to China, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula. He examined the ancient farming systems of the three Asian countries, recorded and reflected on the whole trip, and wrote the book Farmers of Forty Centuries, which triggered a great response in Western society and initiated reflections on Western agricultural development models as well as interest in Eastern agricultural development.

As a professional agricultural traveler, Franklin wrote in his book: “Agriculture of East Asian nations could already support their high population density several centuries ago. Since ancient times, they have cultivated leguminous plants and other plants in turn so as to keep the fertility of the soil. Almost every foot of land is made to contribute material for food, fuel or fabric. Everything which can be made edible serves as food for man or domestic animals. Whatever cannot be eaten or worn is used for fuel. The wastes of the body, of fuel and of fabric worn beyond other use are taken back to the field; before doing so they are housed against waste from weather, compounded with intelligence and forethought and patiently labored with through one, three or even six months, to bring them into the most efficient form to serve as manure for the soil or as feed for the crop.[The fact is] that in each of these countries the soils are naturally more than ordinarily deep, inherently fertile and enduring. It seems to be a golden rule with these industrial classes, or if not golden, then an inviolable one, that whenever an extra hour or day of labor can promise even a little larger return then that shall be given, and neither a rainy day nor the hottest sunshine shall be permitted to cancel the obligation or defer its execution. If the experience of sustainable agriculture of the three East Asian countries can be promoted to all human beings, it could not be other than a matter of the highest industrial, educational and social importance to all nations.” Franklin H. King made the following remarks about Chinese farmers: Chinese people are like one link in the whole balanced ecology. There is the cycle of man and of the soil. Born from the soil, men take their food from the soil; their waste goes back to the soil; when they come to the end of their life, they return to the soil. Generation after generation, they repeat the same cycle. Based on this, humans have inhabited this land for 5,000 years and become one part of this cycle. Agriculture is not something opposed to the land, but rather harmonious agriculture. His observation and description about China’s and the East Asian agriculture was true and careful, and should be considered a portrayal of China’s agriculture mentality to the world in modern times. It deepened the world’s understanding on China’s agricultural achievements, and introduced China’s thinking in solving the world’s agricultural issues.

3. “Food is the supreme need of the people” – a belief forged in history

When Chinese people meet up they often use the greeting “have you eaten?” Such a greeting seems somewhat humorous today, but the hidden freight of the words is the importance of eating for the Chinese.

At the end of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), a learned man by the name of Li Yiji said, “A king’s life depends upon the people, while food is the supreme need of the people;”(4)this is the earliest appearance of this statement. If a regime wants to maintain its rule and strengthen the nation, it must put the interests of the people first and provide a happy, healthy, and safe life for them. To achieve that goal, the most important thing is to ensure that they have food and need not worry about clothes or food. In turn, the people too consider having food to eat as the basis of their life.

The concept can be traced back to a long time ago. It shows the close relation between China’s millennia-long civilization and agriculture. This concept, we can say, has become the most fundamental and important core value for Chinese rulers to govern and for ordinary people to run their homes.

Food as the people’s paramount need actually connotes Chinese people’s profound and perhaps ruthless understanding and knowledge of the food issue. Basically, in history, China had food enough. However, there were four glacial epochs that caused a series of famines in China, as follows: from the end of the Shang Dynasty to the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty; from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Western Jin Dynasty (265-317); from the end of the Tang Dynasty to the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127); and from the end of the Ming Dynasty to the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. In the first three of these epochs, China’s population witnessed sharp decreases exceeding 80 percent; during the last one, the situation was slightly better, largely because potatoes, maize, and sweet potatoes had been introduced from the Americas, but even so the population fell by half. Besides, because of incessant wars preceding dynastic change, the production and selling of food became unbalanced. Historical records and local chronicles abound with unbearably sad descriptions like the following: “Barren lands extend over thousands of miles, the wilds are full of corpses of the starved, and people eat each other.” Similar records appear in various historical documents. According to rough statistics, this happened once in Yao and Shun times, once during the Shang Dynasty, three times in the Zhou Dynasty, 15 times during the two Han dynasties, four times in the Three Kingdoms Period, five times during the Western Jin Dynasty, four times during the Southern and Northern Dynasties period (420-589), three times in the Sui Dynasty (581-618), 20 times in the Tang Dynasty, six times in the Five Dynasties period, eight times in the Song Dynasty, once during the Yuan Dynasty, 25 times in the Ming Dynasty, 14 times in the Qing Dynasty, and three times in the Republic of China period (1912-1949).

Having food to eat meets people’s most fundamental need, and is also the cornerstone guaranteeing that the society can function. Therefore, that “food is the supreme need of the people” is an article of faith distilled from multiple cruel historical experiences. History also proves that solving the problem of food in China is no easy matter, and has been the biggest challenge for China’s rulers at any time. From this perspective, food security has always been a top priority in China, and it is also the major duty shouldered by the CPC. Self-sufficiency in food and the building of a moderately prosperous society was the dream of many Chinese generations. Today, this dream has become reality.

4. “Stressing agriculture and repressing commerce” – the basic state policy of the ancient Chinese government

In the 2,000-plus years of China’s feudal society “agriculture first, commerce last” had been the predominant theme of the ruling mindset and traditional economics. From this mindset flowed the political and economic policy of “stressing agriculture and repressing commerce,”which became a fundamental state policy of ancient China. There is plenty of controversy and criticism about this type of thinking. Some believe it guaranteed the stability and development of an agricultural country; others think it impeded the development of China’s commerce; still others even consider it to be one of the important reasons for the appearance in China of the “Needham Question,” which asked why, given China’s earlier successes in technology, it was overtaken by the West.

The mindset of prioritizing agriculture emerged in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and developed between the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods and the Qin and Han dynasties. During the Spring and Autumn Period, various vassal states launched never-ending wars of territorial expansion, in order to loot wealth and force small states into submission. Many politicians of the time believed that an advanced agricultural economy could play a decisive role in winning the wars, and so the concept of agriculture “first” and commerce “last” came into being very quickly. The outstanding manifestation of this thinking was the political reform carried out in the Qin State by Shang Yang (c. 390-338 BC, politician and philosopher of the mid-Warring States Period, and a chief proponent of Legalism). On the one hand, it rewarded farming and military achievements, abolished the well-field system, acknowledged the legitimacy of feudal land ownership and of the buying and selling of land; on the other hand, it stipulated that “those who produce more food and cloth can be exempted from corvée labor and taxes; those who become poor through business or laziness shall be taken as slaves together with their wives and daughters,” and that “heavy taxes shall be levied on those who do not farm and those who pursue profit through business.”(5)

The Qin Dynasty unified China in 221 BC. In order to consolidate its rule, Qin fully implemented rule by law, and officially established laws favoring agriculture and developing agricultural production. “The emperor’s merit lies in him diligently fulfilling his duty, putting agriculture first and commerce last, so the people become wealthy.” The Han Dynasty carried on the same system, and Emperor Liu Bang stipulated that “business people may not wear silk or ride in carriages; they should be made poor and insulted with heavy taxes.”(6)According to the regulations of the Han Dynasty, business people, being lower in status than ordinary farmers, should have separate household registration. Of the “seven types of people recruited to perform military services in the frontier,” four were the children or grandchildren of merchants. The “Writs of Selection” of the Tang Dynasty ruled: “Anyone who personally engages in business or has relatives under the same grandparents doing so is ineligible for a government post.”(7)Furthermore, under the Tang Dynasty, persons engaged in commercial activities were legally forbidden to ride a horse.

Under the Song, commercial activities were not subject to geographical restrictions or time limitations, and so developed very rapidly. The Dynasty was short of financial resources and so implemented a system of government monopoly, which stipulated that, besides salt, liquor and tea, alum, iron, coal, spices, and precious objects were listed as goods that could be bought and sold by the government only. The Yuan Dynasty pursued the Song model of economic legislation, with monopolies on trade in salt, tea, liquor, gold, bronze, and iron so as to guarantee state income. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, while practicing the policy of “agriculture first, commerce last,” the government also stressed the policy of “maritime prohibition,” Zhu Yuanzhang ordered: “People near the coast are forbidden to sneak out to sea secretively,” and “people in the coastal region who trade via the sea will be punished, and so will their neighbors who know the truth but fail to report them.”(8)

In the early Qing Dynasty, in order to suppress forces resistant to its rule, the Qing government adopted the policy of maritime prohibition for the first time, which banned all ships from seafaring on pain of punishment for treason. Later the government repeatedly enforced policies to relocate coastal residents away from the sea. The policy forced coastal inhabitants in Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces to move 50 li (25 km) inland, with immediate execution for anyone crossing the line. In the 56th year of Emperor Kangxi’s reign, the maritime prohibition policy was again enacted to stop trade in the southern coastal provinces and prohibit commercial ships from transporting food to foreign countries, otherwise “both the sailors and the ship owner will be beheaded immediately,” In light of the increasing prosperity of coastal foreign trade, the Qing court put all of its limited foreign trade under the control of the thirteen factories of Canton.

That China’s feudal society followed the policy of “stressing agriculture and repressing commerce” was all to do with its economic basis. Feudal states based themselves on a self-sufficient natural economy, one whose mainstay was agriculture. In ancient times, agriculture was the decisive production department, supplying people’s most fundamental living resources and directly connected with the state’s survival and prosperity. Therefore, rulers of all past dynasties considered agriculture as something of fundamental importance, and took measure after measure to promote, encourage, and organize agricultural production, and also implemented economic policies favoring agricultural development. Through developing agriculture, feudal states could enjoy stable financial revenues guaranteed by farmland-based agricultural tax, and farmers were tied to the land, which was good for social stability. Rulers believed that commerce could not guarantee livelihoods in the same way as cultivating the land did. Even worse, it might actually drain the labor force from the land and generate all sorts of social problems. Therefore, stressing agriculture and repressing commerce, and establishing a country on the basis of agriculture became the traditional governing proposition in China’s feudal society.