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The literary type of agricultural treatises (nongjia lei 農家類) is a sub-category to the literary category of masters and philosophers (zibu 子部) in the collectaneum Siku quanshu 四庫全書. The so-called agriculturalists was a philosophical school during the Warring States period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE). The tradition of teachings on agriculture goes probably back to a ministerial office for agriculture. Adherents of the school wandered around and instructed, according to the book Mengzi 孟子, the peasant how to sow grains, to till the fields and to raise mulberry trees. Their main purpose was, according to Confucius, to nourish the people. Only a few names of persons belonging to the tradition of agriculturalists are known, like Xu Xing 許行 from Chu 楚. He stressed that the worthy man has to work the fields together with the people. For his egalitarian standpoint, he was vehemently criticized by Mengzi. The Confucians countered that there must be division of labour in an advanced society. In fact, a lot of books from the Zhou 周 (11th cent.-221 BCE) and the Han 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) periods include informations about agriculture, and it is by no means justified to speak of a philosophical school from the Han period on. Their writings were still collected, but then had a purely scientific and practical purpose. Agricultural treatises were, furthermore, granted an important section among the "masters and philosophers", probably because of the importance agriculture played in the economy of traditional China.
There are actually a lot of books related to this section but put into other parts of the Siku quanshu, like books on plants and animals, or treatises on field allotment and taxation. The compilers of the Siku quanshu selected 10 books to be included in this section. The most important are the Qimin yaoshu 齊民要術, Nongsang jiyao 農桑輯要, Nongshu 農書 and Nongzheng quanshu 農政全書.
* not included in the imperial collectaneum Siku quanshu 四庫全書
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Chinese literature according to the four-category system
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