Qimin Yaoshu

The Qimin Yaoshu, translated as the "Essential Techniques for the Welfare of the People", is the most completely preserved of the ancient Chinese agricultural texts, and was written by the Northern Wei Dynasty official Jia Sixie, a native of Shouguang, Shandong province, which is a major agricultural producing region.

The text of the book is divided into ten volumes and 92 chapters, and records 1500-year-old Chinese agronomy, horticulture, afforestation, sericulture, animal husbandry, veterinary medicine, breeding, brewing, cooking, storage, as well as remedies for barren land.

Important agricultural books such as Fàn Shèngzhī shū (氾勝之書) and Sì mín yuè lìng (四民月令) from the Hàn and Jìn Dynasties are now lost, so future generations can only understand the operation of agriculture at the time from this book.

[5] Since the publication of the book, historical Chinese governments have long attached great importance to it.

When Charles Darwin was researching the theory of evolution he made reference, in his book On The Origin of Species, to an "Encyclopedia of Ancient China".