Study On Improvement, Production And Utilization Of Soybean In China During The 20th Century

Soybean is the most typical and influential crop originated in China, and is one of the most important sources of protein and vegetable oil in China. A famous Chinese politician Sun Yat-sen once said: "Substituting meat with soybean is an invention of Chinese people. " Soybean has been playing an extremely important role in the prosperity and development of Chinese nation. Soybean is the best crop to make use of the soil and fertilize the soil at the same time. The nitrogen fixation of the nodule bacteria of soybean roots is the most important source of nitrogenous fertilizer in the traditional agriculture of China. Our ancestors invented varieties of soyfoods, such as beancurd, bean sprout, sauce, soy sauce, fermented soya beans, bean curd milt, etc. Soybean can also be used to make medicine, and to feed livestock. During the period of Republic of China, people found that soybean is the raw material of more than 350 kinds of industrial products. In recent years, scientists have been constantly finding its new uses: Substituting diesel oil with soybean oil, which guarantees national energy security and benefits the environmental protection, too; Clothing which is made by soybean protein fiber as new materials is comfortable, good to people's health and degradable; The materials of new biological products such as soybean peptide, soybean isoflavone, soybean saponin, etc. will have broad prospects in medicine, physiology and other fields. It can be foreseen that people will find more new uses of soybean with the development of science and technology..The production and utility of soybean in China in the 20^th century developed most quickly and reached the highest level. In the late 50 years, in particular, its per unit yield increased twice, which exceeded greatly the total increase of traditional agriculture dating back from the Spring and Autumn Period (770- 476 BC) to the end of Qing Dynasty. The 20^th) century is a splendid period of the production and utility of soybean in China.The reason why there are great changes in the production and utility of soybean in China is that systemizing of scientific research and institutionalization are playing essential...