Prosperity of Agricultural Book Creation in Ming and Qing Dynasties The Ming and Qing Dynasties were a prosperous and fruitful era for agricultural book creation. There were hundreds of agricultural books in Ming and Qing dynasties, accounting for more than half of the total number of agricultural books in China. These agricultural books are rich in content and various in forms, among which there are many high-level masterpieces. This is a reflection of the continuous development of agricultural production and agricultural technology at that time. Among the large-scale comprehensive agricultural books in this period, the most important ones are the Encyclopedia of Agricultural Administration and the General Examination of Giving Time.

The Book of Agricultural Administration was published in the 12th year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty (1639). The author Xu Guangqi (1562 ~ 1633) was a great scientist in the late Ming dynasty. Although he is an official of the Ministry of Rites and a university student in Dongge, his career is bumpy, focusing on scientific research, and he has in-depth research on astronomy, mathematics and agriculture. He was the first person to introduce western natural science in China. Agronomy is his most diligent and fruitful field. When he was young, he took part in agricultural production while studying and teaching. Later, he conducted extensive agronomy experiments in Shanghai, Tianjin and other places, and collected a large number of previous and contemporary agricultural materials. On this basis, he devoted his life to writing the main book "The Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", which is a masterpiece of more than 500,000 words. The book is divided into twelve items, including agricultural books, field system, farming (focusing on reclamation), water conservancy, agricultural tools, tree art (food, gardening), sericulture, sericulture (kapok, ramie and so on. ), planting (cash crops), animal husbandry, manufacturing (agricultural and sideline products processing), etc. ), and famine relief. Compared with the previous generation of agricultural books, the content is greatly broadened. It discriminatively collected the essence of agricultural books in past dynasties, supplemented the missing links of previous agricultural books such as agricultural reclamation, water conservancy and famine relief, summed up the fresh experience of cotton and sweet potato introduction and cultivation since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and applied the "learning of numbers and images" to agricultural research for the first time. Through the statistical analysis and on-the-spot observation of historical materials, the breeding places of locusts are correctly pointed out, and the book also includes Taixi River, which reflects the scientific and technological achievements of modern western countries.

Timekeeping General Examination was written in seven years (1742), edited by the Qing government.