Overview
Key data
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Completed | 1742 (seventh year of Qianlong, Qing) |
| Compilation | Compiled by Ortai and others by imperial order |
| Volumes | Seventy-eight |
| Contents | Eight sections: seasons, soils, seed grains, labours, encouragement, storage, farm surplus, sericulture |
Title and nature
“Granting the seasons” takes its sense from “reverently grant the people the seasons” in the Canon of Yao.
Though named for granting the seasons, the work is a general survey of agricultural government:
it gathers the material of seasons, soils, farming and sericulture into one compilation.
Its eight sections are the seasons, soils, seed grains, labours, encouragement, storage, farm surplus and sericulture.
Its link with the calendar
Its opening section on the seasons carries the material of the seasons, solar terms and seasonal signs,
matching calendrical doctrine to farming.
Its sources are largely from the “Monthly Ordinances” and the “Explanation of the Seasonal Instructions,”
showing how the doctrine of attaching affairs to the seasons was realized in an officially compiled Qing agricultural work.
Value
The Shoushi Tongkao is the great synthesis of officially compiled Qing agricultural works.
For the study of the ancient sense of farming seasons and of the calendar’s application to agriculture it is a principal source.
Compiled and arranged by Chujia Kuang.