Chapter 548: Nothing Compares to Planting Grain

"As early as when the Confucian scholars were using the past to denigrate the present, we already discussed that the ways of the world gradually change, and the present always surpasses the past. Youchao Shi built dwellings in the trees, Suiren Shi drilled wood to make fire, Fuxi Shi knotted ropes to make nets and snares for hunting and fishing. In the era of those ancient sage kings, people still knew nothing of farming, let alone animal husbandry. Apart from walking upright, eating cooked food, using tools, and having a modicum of shame to cover their nakedness, they were really no different from beasts..."

Having drunk too much the night before, Ye Zijin had thoughtfully prepared a bland millet congee for Heifu and the others. The yellow millet grains in the bowl gave off a faint, refreshing fragrance. Pointing at this foremost of the Five Grains, Heifu said to Zhang Cang:

"In short, people back then could only fish and hunt beasts to stave off hunger, and they were perpetually starving. Over time, after Shennong tasted the hundred herbs, they began to gather wild fruits and vegetables to supplement the lack of meat. Yet this was still unreliable, sometimes available and sometimes not. So by the time of Houji, they began planting vegetation nearby so it could be harvested steadily every year. This was the beginning of agriculture!"

Food is the paramount necessity of the people, and the quest for a stable and reliable food source became the driving force behind the origin of agriculture. This process certainly lasted thousands, even tens of thousands of years, but to make Zhang Cang understand, Heifu could only follow the historical records and attribute all the credit to Houji.

"Houji learned to plant millet, assessed the suitability of the land, taught the people to sow and reap, and cultivated the Five Grains. When the Five Grains ripened, the people were nourished. Thus millet also came to be called ji, and Houji was revered as the God of Agriculture..."

"As everyone knows, the Five Vegetables all came from wild greens. The celery we eat today is still often wild by the shores of Cloud Dream Marsh. But do you know what the millet we eat today originally came from?"

Although Zhang Cang was learned, he had never personally worked the fields and had no idea. Heifu clapped his hands and had a servant bring up a book. Opening its pages, there was actually a dried plant pressed inside...

"If it were spring or summer, I would certainly drag you out to the fields to identify it. But now it's the depths of winter, the hundred grasses are withered, and you won't find it in the wild. However, a few months ago, when I went to inspect the Agriculturalists' fields, I had someone pick a few stalks. Look, this is the ancestor of millet!"

Zhang Cang fixed his eyes on it. The plant specimen, pressed for a long time between paper pages and now somewhat flattened, had a long, bushy seed head, shaped like a dog's tail...

"Isn't this just the common green foxtail grass on the field ridges?!"

Zhang Cang was shocked. He looked down at the millet congee in his bowl with disbelief. "You mean this millet... came from green foxtail grass?!"

"As expected of someone from a wealthy family, never having suffered through a famine."

Heifu laughed at his reaction. "Go walk among the common folk and ask, and you'll know. If a great famine year comes and the grain is all eaten, sometimes people have to rely on the green foxtail grass in the fields to survive. The taste really is somewhat similar to millet."

Zhang Cang nodded, dazed. He had never wanted for food or clothing since childhood and spent lavishly, but he had also seen famines in Wei. Wei's disaster relief system was as King Hui of Wei told Mencius: 'When there is famine inside the Yellow River bend, move the people to east of the river and transport its grain inside the bend.'

Later, when both the inner and outer Yellow River regions were lost, the Wei people of Daliang, even if starving to death, could only endure it on the spot. In that situation, never mind green foxtail grass—exchanging children to eat, or even grabbing the clay off the ground and stuffing it into one's mouth, were common occurrences...

"At least after Qin destroyed Wei, the Liang region has never seen famine again, nor any cannibalism."

Zhang Cang sighed. Looking down again carefully, he saw that although the seed head of this green foxtail grass was thin and its grains small, it really did somewhat resemble a millet ear. The stalk and leaves were almost identical.

He began to believe it.

Heifu continued shattering Zhang Cang's worldview: The ancestor of rice is barnyard grass, which looks extremely similar to rice plants and also grows around rice paddies. Its seeds are called 'barnyard grains' and are also a backup food for famine relief.

The ancestor of broomcorn millet might be proso millet or wild panic grass. Wheat came from the west, so we won't discuss it, but degenerated wheat will also revert to wild wheat. The ancestor of beans is the wild soybean; its pods are very flat, and the grains inside are as small as needle tips...

In any case, the ancestors of the Five Grains are all common wild grasses of the fields, deeply loathed by farmers tilling the land, who feel compelled to eradicate them as quickly as possible!

Zhang Cang found this strange. "Then how did the Five Grains of today, with their large ears and plump grains, come to be?"

"It's very simple. Even among green foxtail grass, there are some with larger heads and better taste. The ancients—perhaps it truly was Houji—selected these, planted them, and watered them regularly. Thus one seed yielded ten, ten yielded a hundred, a hundred yielded a thousand, ten thousand, and eventually spread throughout the world, becoming the Five Grains. Their brothers and relatives, however, remained wild grasses."

Heifu smiled. "It's just like how the Agriculturalists recently selected the superior ones from small wild cabbages and grew the large ox-stomach cabbage. This is domestication! The ancients also said: For a plan of one year, nothing is better than planting grain. For a plan of ten years, nothing is better than planting trees. Fruit trees like citrus are also domesticated. Don't think the citrus of Nan Commandery is as sweet as honey—that is the result of selective breeding. How sour wild citrus is, only those of us who have eaten it know..."

Hmm, heredity and variation, natural selection and artificial selection—this middle-school biology knowledge is far too complex and profound for the ancients. For now, it's best not to tell Zhang Cang, and just show him the seed-selection methods every old farmer knows.

This is the history of humanity's agricultural development. While cultivating plants like the Five Grains, people also domesticated many animals. Pigs, cattle, sheep, horses, chickens, and dogs—the Six Domestic Animals—came about this way. Unfortunately, the 'cats' of the Central Plains in this era are still only the native leopard cats, still wild in nature, only good at earnestly catching mice and not yet haughty and pampered. The cats of the Middle East and West Asia have yet to be introduced; it's still too early for them to become true cat masters.

Besides domesticating plants and animals, people gradually also learned to transform the natural environment to make it suitable for agricultural production. Yu the Great controlling the waters is the most typical example. Nowadays, water conservancy projects have become the most fervent pursuit of the Qin dynasty—Dujiangyan, the Zhengguo Canal, the irrigation farming zone at the eastern foot of the Helan Mountains... too many to count.

"At present, even an illiterate country bumpkin farmer knows to dig open the ditches in spring to let the water nourish the fields, to practice intensive and meticulous cultivation, so that the Five Grains may yield a bumper harvest. Rather than loafing about, hoping the fields, unplowed, unweeded, and unfertilized, will yield green foxtail grass and wild rice to stave off hunger..."

After saying all this, Heifu asked, "Now, do you understand how Master Xun's study of Heaven's workings is to be practically applied in agriculture?"

Zhang Cang nodded emphatically. "I understand! These thousands, tens of thousands of years, from the legendary ancient sage kings to the old farmers and gardeners of today—everything they have done has repeatedly verified my master's words!"

"Rather than hold Heaven great and yearn for it, why not treat it as a creature and master it?"

Zhang Cang's eyes blazed. That passage from Xunzi burst from his lips, ringing with conviction!

Rather than blindly exalt Heaven and long for it, how can that compare to treating Heaven as a creature, domesticating and mastering it?

Rather than blindly let natural things grow on their own and hope for their increase, how can that compare to exerting human intelligence to help them multiply?

Rather than blindly hope for favorable seasons and passively await a bumper harvest, how can that compare to coordinating with the seasonal changes to promote a bumper harvest?

Rather than blindly submit to Heaven and praise it, how can that compare to grasping its laws and utilizing it?

"Exactly!"

Heifu clapped in praise. "This is the truth I hope to convey to the Agriculturalists in the new agricultural school the court is establishing! These plain truths of thousands of years have now been cloaked in the names of spirits, gods, and Heaven's will, losing their original face. Now, they must be recognized anew by the world and continue to be passed down in agriculture!"

"Understand nature, utilize nature, transform nature! What Heaven does not give, people must strive for themselves! This is the true essence of agriculture, and the mission that humanity, as the most intelligent of all creatures, carries within!"

"Why do plants grow, and grow larger and larger? Is it because of soil, air, water, or sunlight? Go ponder this question on your own..."

When seeing Zhang Cang off, Heifu did not forget to toss him this little problem, leaving the fat man to continue his agonizing.

When he returned to his room, he finally had a rare moment of leisure and began to play with his eldest son, Polu. Born in the twenty-ninth year of Qin Shi Huang, the boy was now three years old, sturdy and adorable, already able to speak quite a bit. He was currently playing with the 'building blocks' Heifu had someone make for him.

Under Heifu's guidance, he slowly stacked the variously shaped wooden pieces one by one. But the child was peculiar; once the stack reached a certain height, he would suddenly shove the blocks over, then clap his hands and giggle at his father, as if savoring the joy this process brought him.

"You little rascal, you're probably going to tear down quite a few houses in the future." Heifu shook his head helplessly, yet patiently rebuilt the blocks again, accompanying his son through the game over and over. He was extremely patient with children.

Ye Zijin, heavily pregnant, sat gently to the side, watching the father and son. She wore a smile, but when Heifu looked over, he noticed a trace of worry in his wife's eyes. She seemed to want to speak but hesitated, as if she had something to say...

PS: Chapter 2 in the afternoon.

(End of Chapter)