The Alter of Land and Grain
During my third week here I was working in a CAU garden, harvesting potatoes with my host, Dr. Zhou. Having recently completed an introductory soil science course I asked “what types of soil does China have?” I was expecting an answer using a recognized soil classification system (terms like mollisol or entisol). What I got was “here we have yellow soil, in the north we have black soil, and in the south we have red soil.” I was slightly confused by the lack of a more technical description, but I chalked it up to her misunderstanding my question.
Eventually, however, I came across a site in Beijing called the ‘Alter of Land and Grain.’ This ceremonial alter is dedicated to the ‘Land and Grain’ a term that refers to the sovereignty of the nation and rule of the emperor. Rooting the wealth and success of the nation in the agriculture and ultimately the soil. And includes a stylized map of Chinese soils using a color-based description, just as Dr. Zhou used weeks before! Not only was she using a formal soil classification system. She was using a system that is 4000 years older than the one we use in the US.
Chinese soil history is begins in the (possibly mythical) Xia dynasty. The legend of ‘Yu the Greats attempt to stop the floods’ describes the establishment of Chinese civilization, as well as the first Chinese soil descriptions. Yu the great is tasked with quelling the raging floods that plague ancient China and constructs large levies and dams to control the waters. He pacifies the rivers, which marks the beginning of the Chinese nation.
“ Soils of the Nine Provinces were classified into nine groups as pale rang, black fen, red chi-fen, mud tu ni, blue li, yellow rang, white fen, lu, and zhi according to their colors like black, white, red, yellow, and blue” (source).
Having the first story of Chinese civilization focus on agriculture, irrigation, and related concepts shows how important these ideas are to the development of Chinese society.
Traditional description of soils are incredibly valuable sources of knowledge. By grace of having thousands of years to learn about and understand the land, the details and experiences of using said land gets baked into the language and transferred from generation to generation. This cultural knowledge of land management is an incredibly important resource when approaching development programs, especially when interacting with indigenous communities. The intimate association people and cultures have to the land they farm should not be ignored. Consider the difference in land management by native Americans to European settlers. When the settlers took over, massive amounts of erosion, loss of biodiversity, and other problems from land management began. Indigenous agricultural practices were able to preserve the land while providing for the community.
Back to Chinese agriculture. In the book ‘Shou Shi Tong Kao,’ soil management is described as “finding a harmonization between the earth and the environment.” Hou Guang-jiong, a father of modern Chinese soil science described soil management as “a blending of weather conditions, land, man (cultivation), and material (crop).”
Finally, the Chinese character for soil even shows a strong and intimate understanding towards the interactions between the soil and the plant, as shown in the graphic below.
These historic, cultural, and even linguistic characteristics as well as the general philosophy of respect to the land shows to me that traditional Chinese culture holds soil as a foundational component of civilization and holds the health of soil as a key pursuit of Chinese society. I believe this is summarized best by this paraphrased quote from the Guwen Guanzhi, an anthology of essays from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods of Chinese history.
Land is the basis for administration, while the soil is the basis for people to prosper.
I assumed Dr. Zhou describing the soil by color was a misunderstanding of my question, or a lack of knowledge about soil classification. I could not have been further from the truth! Through my mistake, I learned an incredibly valuable lesson about both cultural and historic understanding of natural resources, as well as making assumptions about differences in cultural understandings and viewpoints of our world. A lesson I am grateful to have learned.
