China Agricultural Historical Heritage Institute

TheChina Agricultural Historical Heritage Research Institute of SouthChina Agricultural University (hereinafter referred to as the"Institute of Agricultural History") is a major researchcenter for the history of science and technology in China. (Websiteof the Agricultural History Institute: https://yjs.scau.edu.cn/)

1.Construction and Research of Agricultural History in South China

In1926, Professor Ding Ying, known as the "Father of Chinese RiceCultivation", discovered wild rice in the suburbs of Guangzhou,which triggered his systematic research on the origin of crops,especially rice cultivation. Related research. They have successivelypublished articles such as "Chinese Crop Primitives" andlaid a solid foundation for the future development of agriculturalhistory research in South China.

InMay 1944, the famous British scholar Dr. Joseph Li visited theAgricultural College of Sun Yat-sen University in the war and paidattention to Liang Jiamian's agricultural history research. WorkingLiang Jiamian germinated the idea of establishinga "collection of Chinese agricultural documents" anddrafted the "Simple".

In1955, the Central Ministry of Agriculture held a symposium calling onthe consolidation of the agricultural heritage of the motherland toserve agricultural production. With the support of Ding Ying, LiangJiamian established the "Special Collection Room for ChineseAgricultural Documentary Heritage" in the South ChinaAgricultural College Library. The establishment of a specialcollection room marked the beginning of the establishment of researchon agricultural history in South China, and promoted the collection,collection and research of agricultural literature. The constructionof materials has rapidly increased from the original 3-5 volumes ofancient books to thousands and tens of thousands of volumes; a numberof research results that have influenced domestic and foreignacademic circles have been published, such as "The Origin andEvolution of Chinese Cultivated Rice Seeds" , Xin Shuzhi andother well-known scholars in the scientific and historical fieldshighly praised it, especially Ding Ying ’s research on the originand evolution of Chinese cultivated rice seeds has had a majorinternational impact.

2.The "Golden Decade" of the development of the laboratory

InApril 1978, the special collection room was developed into a researchroom, which was renamed the Chinese Agricultural Historical HeritageResearch Room. Two years later, it became a research laboratoryapproved by the Ministry of Agriculture. Liang Jiamian, the mainfounder of the Chinese agricultural history discipline, served as thedirector of the room. The famous forest scientist Xu Yanqian and thefamous agronomist Qi Jingwen also served as deputy directors. He hasmade achievements in the fields of history of agricultural scienceand technology, history of agricultural plants, and research onancient agricultural books. He published hundreds of academic workssuch as "The Chronicle of Xu Guangqi" and "TheUnderstanding and Utilization of Nitrogen Fixing Plants in AncientChina", edited by Liang Jiamian "History of ChineseAgricultural Science and Technology" is regarded as a landmarkwork in the field of agricultural history, and has won six majorawards including the National Science and Technology Progress ThirdPrize. This period was the "golden decade" of thedevelopment of the laboratory.

Interms of talent training, the laboratory began to recruit graduatestudents of agricultural history in 1980 and presided over theformulation of the first agricultural history graduate trainingprogram. During this period, the Agricultural History Departmentcreated several domestic peers, namely, the first domestic graduatestudent in agricultural history; the first agricultural historyacademic journal "Agricultural History Research" after theestablishment of the "Cultural Revolution"; the firstdomestic agricultural history was held for the first time.International Conference "International Seminar on"Southern Grasses ".

In1986, Professor Zhou Zhaoji succeeded Liang Jiamian, who was retired,as director of the Agricultural History Department. In thepredicament of brain drain in Guangdong universities, he recruitedtalents and led the agricultural history team to go forward.Published "History of Chinese Plant Physiology" and otherworks, maintaining his own research characteristics and advantages inthe fields of agricultural science and technology history, regionalagricultural history, forestry history, agricultural archaeology andother fields.

3.Discipline construction goes to a higher level

In1998, Ni Genjin succeeded the retired Zhou Zhaoji as director of theAgricultural History Office. After entering the 21st century, theimprovement of the general environment and the continuous efforts ofindoor colleagues have made the agricultural history room more activeand showing a prosperous trend, mainly reflected in the followingfour aspects.

First,the discipline construction has gone further. Not only has thehistory department of the domestic agricultural university beenestablished on the basis of the Agricultural History Office, but alsothe establishment of a self-established second-discipline doctoratein crop history, and the establishment of inter-faculty agriculturalculture and rural tourism , Lingnan Ecological History and otherresearch centers. Second, the research field has expanded and theresults have been continuous. In recent years, the Department ofAgricultural History has undertaken more than 20 national socialscience projects "Integrated Examination and ComprehensiveResearch on the Historical Materials of Lingnan Animal and PlantAgricultural Products", the National Social Science Fund, andmore than 20 scientific research projects of the Ministry , Publishedmore than 20 works such as "Annotation of Disaster ReliefMateria Medica" and published more than 300 papers, which notonly consolidated the original research position, but also opened upnew fields such as agricultural ecology history, rural socialhistory, water conservancy social history, agricultural science andtechnology exchange history and other new fields . Third, academicexchanges have become more frequent. The 10th International AcademicConference on Agricultural History in East Asia and the “Symposiumon Biological History and Agricultural History” have been held fornearly 10 international and domestic academic conferences. The degreeof academic internationalization has been greatly strengthened.Fourth, the construction of materials is more complete. After severaldecades of construction, the special collection library of theAgricultural History Room now has 80,000 collections of books. It iswell-known at home and abroad for its rich collection of ancientagricultural books. It is the world's richest collection of ancientagricultural books.

InMay 2016, with the approval of the school leaders, the AgriculturalHistory Office was renamed "Chinese Agricultural HistoricalHeritage Research Institute", Ni Genjin was appointed asDirector, Wang Fuchang, and Zhao Yanping as Deputy Directors."Guangdong Province Key Books Protection Unit".