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250 Among the many Chinese scholars who wrote about plants, Cheng Yaotian 程瑤田 (1725–1814; personal name Yichou 易疇) stands out for his innovative approach.1 Although his primary interest was philological , seeking to understand references to plants in classical literature, his analyses went far beyond the literary realm to include firsthand observations , experiments, and interviews with farmers. Cheng was born in She 歙, Anhui province, passed the imperial juren 舉人 examinations at the provincial level, and served as an official of middle rank in his home province . Particularly well-known for his knowledge of classical literature,2 he belonged to the Qing “evidential research” movement (kaozheng xue 考 證學), which consisted of literati who, in “contrast to their predecessors, stressed exacting research, rigorous analysis, and the collection of impartial evidence drawn from ancient artifacts and historical documents and texts.”3 Cheng compiled and privately published his writings in 1804 as a twenty-volume compendium entitled Tong yi lu 通藝錄. Reflecting the wide-ranging interests of its author the Tong yi lu includes autobiographical and biographical notes, numerous prefaces, philological commentaries , and technical texts on ancient units of measurement, mathematics, burial etiquette, and archaic bronze bells, for which he was especially famous.4 Cheng also included two treatises devoted to plants. One of these, in four parts, is titled Jiugu kao 九穀考 (Research on the nine grains); the other is called Shi cao xiao ji 釋草小記 (Notes on “Explaining Grasses”).5 This latter work refers to a chapter bearing the name Shi cao, “Explaining Grasses,” from the third-century-BCE encyTen The Botany of Cheng Yaotian (1725–1814): Multiple Perspectives on Plants Georges Métailié The Botany of Cheng Yaotian (1725–1814) 251 clopedia Erya, 爾雅. In these two essays Cheng examined plant names with an obscure or ambiguous botanical meaning and proposed his own interpretation. In doing so he demonstrated a hitherto unique methodological approach, which quickly found recognition. Jiao Xun 焦 循 (1763–1820) a contemporary, already quotes Cheng’s “Research on the nine grains” to support his own point of view in the third juan of a manuscript titled Explanations of the Names of Things in the Book of Poetry (Maoshi wu ming shi 毛詩物名釋).6 In a more recent paper by Qi Sihe on the names of grains in the same Book of Poetry, Cheng’s “Research on the nine grains” is considered to be the best among all the previous studies on the subject.7 Cheng’s long text of 164 pages was composed to elucidate the true meaning of the term jiugu 九穀, “nine grains,” mentioned in the first chapter of the Zhouli (Zhou rituals) (c. fifth–third century BCE).8 There had been discrepancies among the early commentaries on the correct identification of the nine plants.9 The Han commentator Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 (127–200) had proposed the following list for these nine grains:10 a glutinous broomcorn millet (shu 黍),11 broomcorn (ji 稷),12 foxtail millet (liang 梁),13 rice (dao 稻),14 hemp (ma 麻),15 soybean (dadou 大豆),16 lesser bean (xiaodou 小豆),17 barley/wheat (mai 麥),18 and wild rice (gu 苽),19 an aquatic plant. This list raised problems due to the fact that various other commentators disagreed on which plants were represented by the names ji 稷 and shu 黍. In order to solve the problem, Cheng Yaotian researched the names quoted by Zheng Xuan. His basic reference was Xu Shen’s 許慎 Shuo wen jie zi 說文解字 (Elucidations of the signs and explications of the graphs), a dictionary compiled in 100 CE and presented to the emperor in 121.20 Cheng compared the definitions from the dictionary to those found in other books, from the most ancient up to Li Shizhen’s 李时珍 (1518–1593) Bencao gangmu 本草綱目 (Classified materia medica) of 1596.21 The content of Cheng’s essay is particularly interesting for the history of agriculture and Chinese society. Its rich nomenclature of varieties of crops and its terminology of parts of plants also makes it a precious source for research in historical ethnobotany. From a methodological point of view, it provides insight into Cheng Yaotian ’s evidential scholarship. To give a sample, I propose to follow his discussion of the last of the nine grains, wild rice (gu 苽).22 First, Cheng quotes the Shuo wen jie zi, which gives two synonymous terms, tiao gu 雕苽 and jiang 蔣. Then he explains that several ancient texts referring to the nine grains did not include this plant, while others, such as Zheng Xuan’s, did. He goes on to describe the plant and men- [18.226.93.209] Project MUSE (2024-04-16 07:00...

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