The word culture comes from the Latin verb "colere", which means to cultivate and cultivate the land. It can be seen that land and culture have deep roots and can be called "the same root". In the 2 1 century, when land desertification, soil erosion, soil salinization, engineering desertification, wetland retreat, land pollution, biodiversity reduction and the contradiction between man and land are becoming increasingly acute, it is of great value to explore the cultural origin of farmland protection and find out the cultural deficiency of farmland protection from the perspective of teleological rationality or instrumental rationality. China's culture is extensive and profound, and it has a profound cultural soil in the protection of agricultural land.

(A) respect for the original ecological culture of the land

1. Land culture at the wedding

Weddings, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, are considered as great gifts in life ceremonies. China's original wedding form began at the end of primitive society, from engagement in Fuxi era, to "welcoming guests in the hall" in Xia and Shang dynasties, and then to the complete "Six Rites" in Zhou Dynasty, which gradually evolved and laid the foundation for the traditional wedding in China. Once upon a time, at the wedding, the bride and groom all had a procedure: one worshiped heaven and earth and the other worshipped Gaotang. Putting the worship of heaven and earth in front of the worship hall shows that people attach importance to and cherish the land, which shows that our ancestors have a strong tradition of respecting the land.

2. The land temple culture in folk customs

According to the research of Feng Xianliang (2004) and others, in the eyes of traditional China people, heaven and earth have supreme sacredness. There is a saying in Lu Yu, Volume 4 of Guoyu: Yi, Jiao, Zu, Zong and Bao are all saints. In addition, with the country's god of mountains and rivers, those who make meritorious deeds are stronger than the people; The person who creates virtue by former philosophers, so it is also a clear quality; On the third day, the people paid tribute to it; And the five elements of soil, so reproduction also; Kyushu is famous for its mountains and rivers, so it also uses money. No, not at the ceremony. In fact, the concept of "heaven" probably existed in the Xia Dynasty. In the book Mozi, I talked about heaven as a god many times. As for "God" or "Emperor", it appeared many times in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, indicating that these titles representing supreme status also existed in the Yin and Shang Dynasties. However, after the Zhou Dynasty, the use of words such as "Heaven", "God" and "Heaven Emperor" became more and more confusing. As for the "land", there is such an explanation in the chapter "Ming Shi and Di Shi": "The land is also the bottom, and the bottom downloads everything"; He added that "the earth spits out everything". These words actually reflect people's worship of the land where everything grows, and naturally attribute the quality of crop harvest to the rewards and punishments of "land" for human beings.

The belief in the land temple stems from the worship of the land. The primitive worship of land gods is the worship of the natural attributes of land and its influence on social life. "Social Sacrifice" is the manifestation of land worship in China since ancient times, and emperors of past dynasties still fixed sacrifices to society according to the time of spring prayers and autumn newspapers. The Book of Rites says: "Society is the way of God and earth. The land carries everything, and the sky hangs down. Taking the wealth of the land and taking the law of heaven is to respect heaven and love the land. " It can be seen that the worship of society comes from its cultivation of all things, that is, it thinks that the phenomena on the land are cultivated by the land and praises the virtue of the land carrying all things. "Nurturing the Earth" is to imagine the Earth as a mother, and use the mother's thinking of bearing children to simulate the earth's breeding of grain. "Society" has gradually developed into an administrative unit and gradually lost its original meaning, but the land temple has never been divorced from its original connotation.

After historical changes, the buildings of land temples have been hit to a certain extent, but the custom of worshipping land temples has not decreased, especially in rural areas, and many similar land temples have sprung up from fields, streets and houses. In ancient times, villagers deified and worshipped the land out of the psychology of attaching importance to and cherishing the land, hoping to get special care from the land god through worship, so as to get a bumper harvest and have plenty of food and clothing, thus forming traditional folk activities related to the land temple, such as welcoming the Spring Festival, offering sacrifices to the land god and offering sacrifices to the land woman. Today, in the vast land of China, there are still various traditions of offering sacrifices to the land gods. The diversity of land worship activities of all ethnic groups shows people's attention to land and farming, their fear of natural disasters and their desire for a happy life.

According to Huang Zhonghuai's (2005) research, in the North China Plain, the earth temple, as a village god, has a close relationship with the village. 19 At the end of the 20th century, Ming Enpu, a missionary of the American congregational church, observed the temples in rural areas of North China and found that "although many temples are needed, there are two most likely to be built, one is to worship the land god and the other is to worship the god of war". The land temple that Ming Enpu said is the land temple, and the God of War temple refers to the Guandi temple. Relatively speaking, there are more land temples than Guandi temples, and basically every village has land temples. For example, in An Su County, according to the county annals, the land god of the county "exists in every village, and the land is the right god of the community". In Yangyuan County, the land temple is also "found in every village, but not as many as five, attached to the big temple". In addition, in some parts of North China, Wudao Temple also has the function of a land temple. According to the Records of Laoting County in Guangxu of Qing Dynasty, "If the five saints are worshipped in the north, they will be the earth, mountain gods, Miao gods, dragon kings and XiShen. Or reduced to three saints, or increased to seven saints and nine saints, which is different from the south. " From the example of Laoting County, we can find that the land god is also among the five saints, so Wudao Temple also has the function of a land temple.

(B) the "harmony between man and nature" agricultural land protection culture

The idea of harmony between man and nature originated from Confucius and Mencius. Confucius regarded heaven as the supreme master of the universe. Mencius believes that heaven and man are interlinked, and the fundamental virtue of heaven is contained in human nature. Of course, the so-called "heaven" of Confucius and Mencius is mainly in the moral sense, but it also has a natural meaning (The Analects of Confucius and Yang Huo: "What can heaven say?" When you are at four o'clock, everything is born. What is the sky saying? "(Ye et al, 1999). It can be seen that Confucianism in China first put forward the concept of the unity of man and nature, aiming at giving universal significance to the basic moral principles of human society.

In fact, in the realistic relationship between man and nature, most philosophers in ancient China advocated the harmony between man and nature as the goal. Among them, the most representative and influential is the idea of "harmony between man and nature" put forward in Zhouyi. The Book of Changes holds that people are transformed from yin and yang, so people have both rigid and soft temperament. People should consciously carry forward their own nature. Masculinity requires people to "strive for self-improvement", that is, to give full play to their positive creative spirit; Femininity requires people to "carry things with kindness", that is, to accept everything with a broad mind. In the practice of nature, "self-improvement" means actively transforming nature and participating in its evolution; While "emphasizing morality and carrying things" requires that the activities of transforming nature should not go beyond the boundaries of nature, and at the same time realize the harmonious interest of nature itself (Cohesion Biography: "The scope of heaven and earth is not too much", "Lotte know life, so I don't worry"). Only in this way can we achieve the state of "harmony with heaven and earth, harmony with the sun and the moon, harmony with the four seasons and their successive seasons" (Ye et al., 1999).

The essence of the thought of "harmony between man and nature" is the harmony between man and nature, which is an inseparable whole. From the perspective of cultural philosophy, the tense relationship between man and nature in the contemporary world stems from the separation of the relationship between man and nature. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, the idea of harmony between man and nature was constantly transformed, and by the time of Confucianism in the Song Dynasty, a philosophical system covering cosmology, nature, outlook on life and epistemology had been formed. The theory of harmony between man and nature holds that man is a product of nature, a part of nature, not the master of nature. Man can "establish heaven and earth" with his cultural creation as the main body, but this so-called main body is a moral main body with the purpose of realizing the harmony and unity between man and nature, not an intellectual main body with the purpose of controlling and conquering nature, nor is it centered on "self" and takes nature as "non-self" and other value main bodies (Meng Peiyuan, 2004). Farmland provides site conditions and living resources for human survival and development, and more importantly, it endows people with inherent virtues and sacred missions. It requires people to realize the highest value of life in practice-"harmony with heaven and earth and its virtue", rather than satisfying the ever-expanding material desires, let alone occupying cultivated land resources indefinitely. Human beings multiply on agricultural land, and human society develops on agricultural land. Human beings must deeply understand the survival crisis caused by the loss of farmland, wake up from the dream of "man can conquer nature" and re-examine the value and attitude of farmland according to the idea of "harmony between man and nature"

(C) Farmland management and protection culture according to local conditions

Influenced by the geological structure caused by the revolution and rotation of the earth, the spatial distribution and characteristics of various land forms are obviously regional under the comprehensive effects of climate, landform, soil, rock, hydrology and human activities. It can almost be said that no two pieces of land in the world have exactly the same characteristics. Since ancient times, China has paid special attention to "Xiangtu's suitability", that is, crop species and cultivation methods are selected according to the suitability and restriction of land for various crops. In this way, on the one hand, it can improve the productivity of land, on the other hand, it can also play a role in protecting cultivated land.

According to local conditions, the culture of "Suiting Soil" has a long history of more than 2,000 years in China, which has played a very important role in guiding agricultural production and protecting agricultural land resources in past dynasties. The theory of "soil suitability" in The Book of Songs is the earliest exposition on the relationship between agricultural land environment and crop growth in the world. "Daya Sheng Min" said: "Hou Ji's birthday has its own way." Here, "the way to have a relationship" is the way to "stop at the right place". "Daya Gongliu" also records: "Look at its yin and yang, and look at its flowing spring. His army has three orders, and the period is the original. " This is from 1027 BC to 77 BC1. Obviously, the purpose of paying attention to the choice of "Yin and Yang" and "Ji Yuan" in the field is to meet the needs of plant growth. The principles of these choices, from "Today's suitable south acre, or ploughing or ploughing (fertilizing)" in Futian, Xiaoya to "Let's cultivate south acre" and "Let's cultivate south acre" in Liang Yi, Zhou Song, have been concerned by people for a long time.

Table 14- 1 is compiled according to the data of Yu Gong and Li Zhou Xia Guan. Of course, a country can't have only one kind of soil, and it can't just evaluate one grade. This only reflects a preliminary understanding that our ancestors decided to plant land in order to adapt to the natural characteristics of the land. In addition, according to the topography of the land, Li Zhou Di Guan put forward the plant species suitable for planting: "Da Situ ... distinguishes the creatures in five places by the method of soil society"; "a mountain forest ... its plants are suitable for making soap"; "Second, Kawasawa ... its plants should be plastered"; "Three hills ... their factories should be nuclear"; "four words are divided ... its plants are suitable for pods"; Five words: Yuanji ... its plants should be overgrown. According to the annotation of Shi's General Examination, soap is chestnut, ointment refers to lotus, and nuclear substances are plum, pod, pod and reed. "Guanzi" puts forward: "Sang Ma does not plant wild, the grain is not suitable for its land, and the country is poor; Sang Ma is planted in the wild, and the grain is in the right place, making the country rich and strong. "Raise local cultivation to the level of the rich and the poor in the country. In addition, this ancient book also makes a detailed division of the characteristics of soil and groundwater. Some ancient books also classified the terrain in detail, forming a certain land evaluation index system (Xu Mu et al., 1995).

Table 14- 1 China Ancient Soil Suitability Table

(According to Xu Mu et al., 1995)

In terms of soil, Guanzi put forward that "there are ninety things in Kyushu, sometimes in each state, sometimes in things". That is to say, according to its physical properties, fertility and the degree suitable for planting crops, fruits and vegetables, the soil in China is divided into three grades *** 18 species, and each species is divided into five subspecies according to its soil color. The soil distribution in each state is conventional, and crops are planted in a certain order. For the first chestnut soil in the soil, the book describes it like this: "The length of the soil mass is only five millet. The matter of five grains, red or green or white or black or yellow, consists of five chapters. Grain shape, hard but not hard (solid), just but not thin (thin), not muddy wheels, not dirty hands and feet. Its species, heavy and thin, with white and beautiful stems, are suitable. The land of grain, if it is in the mountains, is in the clouds, its yin is in the sun, and it is suitable for tung oak. Its elm tree is its willow tree, its mulberry tree is its mulberry tree, its oak tree is its oak tree, its locust tree is its poplar tree, and there are many trees, all of which are straight and long ... "The description of the underground soil in the first 18 (last) boundary is:" The second smashing, like the five boundaries, is very salty and bitter, and it is worth it. It shows that the suitable crop and soil fertility grade can be determined according to the actual observation of soil properties and the growth and development of various crops on it.

(D) Intensive cultivation of agricultural land protection culture

Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, ancestors in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River have used various techniques to seek farming measures to keep soil moisture and prevent drought. By the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River had successfully solved the problem of moisture conservation and drought prevention, and created various tools such as plows, rakes and hoes, thus forming a set of intensive soil farming measures with moisture conservation and drought prevention as the main content. Nodules were found in soybean roots as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty. "Fan Sheng Zhi Book" once pointed out that "beans have cream", and "cream" is oily or can be interpreted as fertile. During the Northern Wei Dynasty, Qi Shugeng further pointed out: "Mung beans are the best way to cultivate fertile fields, followed by red beans and flax. It is known that it was planted in May and June and plowed and killed in July and August. If it is a spring grain field, ten stones will be collected per mu, which is as beautiful as silkworm dung. " In other words, the best way to fertilize the soil is to plant mung beans first, followed by adzuki beans and sesame seeds. Sowing in May and June, and ploughing in July and August; As a fertilizer for spring grain fields, you can collect ten loads per mu, which is the same as silkworm excrement or decomposed human excrement. "Qi Shu Zhi Kui" also said: "Manure is not available. Mung beans are planted in mid-May and June, and cultivated in July and August. If dung is used as a field, beauty is different from dung, and technology exists. " That is to say, if there is no manure as fertilizer, planting mung beans in May and June every year, and ploughing till green in July and August, its fertilizer effect is the same as applying manure, and it is labor-saving.

In the paddy field area in the south, in the Tang Dynasty, a new soil preparation tool-iron ware appeared. ? (that is, four-tooth iron harrow), digging deeper than Niu Geng by hand, can also rake up clods at will, which is very suitable for small farmers who lack cattle and iron deficiency harrow. In the Song Dynasty, in the process of cultivated land, another ploughing was added, which made the soil finer and formed a set of technical measures of "ploughing-harrowing-ploughing", which was another symbol of intensive cultivation of rice production in South China and promoted the development of rice production (Lin Putian, 1996).

(e) Farmland is a valuable historical and cultural heritage.

Since the Neolithic age, people have consciously sown seeds on the land, and people have begun to use the land. Whether it is an agricultural society, an industrial society or a post-industrial society in recent years, human civilization and progress are carried out along the main line of land use. The development of human material civilization is based on land use, from which all human activities are derived. The ancestors cultivated and improved the land by building terraces, preparing land in high and low border, farming in different areas, building ponds, building warping dams, diverting flood and warping irrigation, planting trees and grass in gullies and streams, planting in important places in saline-alkali land and reclaiming low-humidity marshes, etc., so that the land area was continuously expanded, the land quality was continuously improved, and the land productivity was continuously improved.

According to the research of Lin Putian (1996), during the period from 5000 BC to 2000 BC, the clan tribes of Qujialing culture, Qingliangang culture and Liangzhu culture living in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River have turned the grassy swamp into paddy fields and planted rice. In the Xia Dynasty, farmland management developed again. "History of Food Goods in Han Dynasty" said: "The Yuping flood, the establishment of Kyushu and the cultivation of farmland are all different." "The Analects of Confucius Xianwen" said: "Yu Ji bowed his head and won the world." The Analects of Confucius Taibo said: Yu "tried his best to live in a ditch." It shows that Xia people attach great importance to agriculture, and they also know how to ditch water or drain water. In Shang Dynasty, there was the word "heaven" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. Some people think that when Tian Zi appeared, the crops in the fields were mainly cereals. At that time, the object of production was "breaking ground and ploughing the valley" mentioned in "Records of Food Goods in the History of Han Dynasty". Judging from the shape of the field, there are: first, there are buildings and ditches (roads and canals), which shows that the functional technology of the field at that time was quite high; Second, there is a dense square layout, indicating that the degree of land use was quite high at that time; Third, the edge around the word "Tian" indicates the scope of farming and painting, indicating that the land at that time has been valued by people. In Shang dynasty, people created the "area field" farming method to resist natural disasters. The border of "belt field" is lower than the ground, which is not only beneficial to soil water storage and utilization, but also beneficial to water conservation, fertilizer conservation and accelerated soil maturation. This is the further development of field management, and it is also the earliest measure to accelerate soil maturation and establish fertile fields in China's history.

The Zhou Dynasty attached great importance to farmland management. According to Mandarin, before spring ploughing every year, Zhou Wang ordered farmers to repair farm tools. At the beginning of spring ploughing, a grand "Ji Li" ceremony will be held, and Zhou Wang will take up his new job in Lei Ji and plow his native land to show his importance to agricultural production. Then agricultural officials issued a notice asking farmers to plough in spring in time, and sent senior officials to inspect and urge them everywhere. Finally, "Wang Zeda was partial", that is, Zhou led doctors or officials to personally inspect the spring ploughing production in various places. The Zhou Dynasty attached great importance to rice production. In Zhou Li, there is a proverb, "A scarecrow carries crops to the ground." That is to say, there was an official in charge of rice cultivation in the Zhou Dynasty-the rice planter. "Zhou Li" also said: "Store (pond) livestock (storage) water to prevent (dike) from blocking water, swing ditch water (main ditch pumping water), balanced water (big ditch pumping water in Tiantou), water discharge (small ditch in Tanaka is irrigated separately), writing water (drainage in big ditch at Tianwei) and pumping water. He also said: "grow grass and plant it." "This reflects that more than 2,300 years ago, the lowland farming, the construction of drainage system and the selection of rice seeds in the Yellow River basin have reached a considerable scale.

It can be seen that agricultural land is a very precious historical and cultural heritage, which embodies the wisdom and culture of our ancestors. Human beings should respect, appreciate and care for agricultural land.