A Study On The Concept Of Pests In Qing Dynasty

In order to prevent and control agricultural pests,people have tried many ways since ancient times.Locusts control has always been one of the key tasks of Chinese officials.Pest control techniques in ancient China could be described as numerous.But the ancient people treated insects as part of the reasonable existence of life and production,and allowed them to move within a certain range,and made sure that the insects were not harmful to crops and daily life.This concept had undergone a major change in the popularity of pesticide technology.In modem times,Chinese have used a lot of insecticides.Insecticide spraying is easy and the result is good,but the negative impact on the human body and the environment is worrying.The human consequences of pesticide abuse,stimulate us to think about the issue of environmental ethics.The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of imperial rule,and the concept of pests in the imperial period was summarized and developed to the highest level.The measures of prevention and cure of locust in the Qing Dynasty were the most perfect in ancient China.There are a lot of records about pests in Factual Record of Qing Dynasty.Locust control books and related local chronicles were also the most abundant.The concept of human beings in the Qing Dynasty had a unique concept of insect pests.The idea was that insects included pests and all things exist in the air.Therefore,pests and all things had equal rights in nature.As a reflection of this concept,the human beings in the Qing Dynasty also advocated killing pests,but above all they reflected on their own.Is was a violation of the will of heaven to reflect on his own rule.The "heaven" has both the meaning of nature and the meaning of fate.The occurrence of pests was the first violation of the "providence".Therefore,they reverenced for nature,feared of the dominator of "providence",and strove to make their own behavior in line with the will of heaven.The concept of insect pests comes from people’s knowledge and production,life practice,in the face of insect pests,different subjects may have different ideas.Through combing the relevant literature records,we can see that the concept of pests in the Qing Dynasty generally comes from three main bodies:First,the concepts of emperors in the Qing Dynasty,from Huangtaiji,to Puyi,including the concepts of the real rulers in the special period like Ci Xi;Second,pest concepts of agronomists,the agricultural book was in the Qing Dynasty,and was a master of all agricultural book that could reflect the agronomists’thoughts on pest control in imperial period;Third,concepts of the basic level.The concepts of emperors and the agronomists had influences to the basic level or not,how to practice in farming and pest capture,these contents would be reflected in the local records.This paper will comb these refer to the local records and notes.The three parts as a whole,can clearly reflect the whole social views on pests in the Qing Dynasty,the last dynasty of the monarchy.The emperors of the Qing Dynasty thought that insects are reasonable existences,vegetation and insects and other biological activities all grew in harmony.They believed that fish roes can changed into locusts,they also believed that heaven and people could interact with each other,the officer who cherished people could keep away from the dislturbance of locusts.After the occurrence of the pests,the people in the Qing Dynasty prayed for the elimination of the scourge,if officials could think for the people,they could bring back the will of heaven.Instead,who do not love the people would have the scourge.The emperors and the officials often needed self-examination,the government,the people and the Emperor should be of one mind,Good-naturedness leaded to propitiousness.And there would be no disasters.But focusing on prayer,give up governance is not desirable.Locusts were not God’s insects,if they did harm to crops,they should be catched.To prevent the occurrence of locusts,They needed to pay attention to prevention,and severely punished the poor implementation of catching locusts with the strength of governance.During the Qing Dynasty,there were many agricultural books about the locusts,those books reflected the agronomists’ very rich pest concepts.Agriculturalists thought that the plague of locusts was a man-made disaster,because the officials were not qualified,or related to extort excessive taxes and levies.The emperor’s behavior was directly related to the plague of locusts.If officials could think for the people,there were no pests appeared.Even if the pests appeared,they would die soon.If local officials infringed people’s profit,there would be a plague of locusts.Agriculturalists advocated catching locusts sincerely,the God would feel for the people abo’ve,people were moved.Agriculturalists advocated consolidating official management to eliminate the scourge,and praying,doing self-examination,applying a policy of benevolence.They had a relatively scientific understanding of the habits and growth patterns of pests.Officials should be able to eliminate the common people’s scruples that locusts could not capture,to promote the capture of locusts,and early prevention,early treatment of small pests.The local records in the the Qing dynasty reflected the concepts and the wills of the basic level.The basic views of the origin of pests of them were that insects were sent by the heaven,God or ghost.Whether disasters or harvests were from the inspiration of the heaven.The movement of heaven had its own laws,people were not able to decide it.The God in charge of the insects was managed by the heaven as a whole by.The God was responsible for insects’ actions and local harvests,so as to achieve the purpose of local management,reward and punishment.The understanding of the origin of locusts had an influence on the governance of locusts.Many people thought that the God sent the locusts out,so they did not dare to violate the God’s will,allowed locusts to survive.Because of the fear of angering the gods,before catching locusts,they would tell the gods that they would not catch locusts deliberately,but they have to catch locusts to live.If a good officer could prayer and catch locusts sincerely,no locust would appear.Official virtue was very important to the governance of local pests,because whether locusts appeared or not was appealed by the people.Who wanted to eliminate the disaster must need introspection.In local records in the the Qing dynasty,there was a lot of knowledge about the name,growth rule and habit of the pests,which was close to the modem science.According to the knowledge,it was more efficient to catch pests.At the same time,they realized that breaking the law of nature would lead to pests.In general,the Qing Dynasty advocated the harmony between man and nature of the pest view,and people can believe that the days of mutual induction,that by natural pest,there will also be pests,imbalance of yin and yang.There is a difference between the emperor,the agronomist and the officials at the basic level in the understanding of the sacrifice,the idea of prayer and whether the pest can be captured.The emperors of the Qing Dynasty set the concepts of pest.The concepts were rich in ideas and distinctive features,including a wonderful practical and rational way of thinking.Whether for the occurrences of pests or pest control,it depended on whether they were practical or not.They payed attention to historical experiences.The concepts of pests reflected in local records were very complex and contradictory.Northern region attaches great importance to the capture of locusts,supplemented by offering sacrifices and prayers.Hunan,Hubei lay equal stress on the capture of locusts and worship and prayer.In southern region,the worship and prayer are more important than the capture of locusts.Since the Qing Dynasty,after 267 years,the governance of the early and late emperors are also different,from the early stage of the positive governance gradually turned to negative governance.In the early stage,the officials and civil believed that the pest could be conquered by the human being,and the latter was more inclined to pray for the help of heaven and God in the form of sacrifice and prayer.People in the Qing Dynasty admitted that all things and insects had rights to exist in nature,and they all grew in harmony.They thought that under the premise of respecting of human nature and complying with the "heaven",the pests could existence.The existence of this pest was not a threat to agricultural production,and human beings should not and should not be able to eliminate pests.Of course,in the event of serious pests,in addition to reflect on their own behavior,human beings should not indulge pest’s infestation.This unique concept of pests may give some enlightenment to today’s pests control.