{"id":10286,"date":"2026-10-14T18:29:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T18:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/?p=10286"},"modified":"2026-10-14T18:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T18:36:21","slug":"songs-about-buildings-and-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/2026\/10\/songs-about-buildings-and-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs about buildings and food"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like me, you may have to teach about the economy and ecology of Late Imperial China. It is hard to make that lively. Poetry would help. Students love poetry. Thankfully, you don’t have to go looking for poems on the environment, Mark Elvin has found some for you.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

If you want something on irrigation (pg. 438)<\/p>\n

Forth comes the Yellow River, out from its Dragon Gates,
\nAnd endless, endless, are the miles it flows with furious waves!
\nNow – to train its traveling surges not to overspill their course,
\nThe current of the waters must be weakened near their source.
\nOnce split apart in branch streams along the upper reaches,
\nThe distributaries that lie downstream will then spread out in peace.<\/p>\n

\u2026.
\nIn the lands of the north, and the central plains,
\nOfficials will govern the adits and the drains.
\nFor the pattern of conduits they’ll lay down the rules,
\nSo the land’s watered as water runs through!
\n\u2026..
\nWe’ll use water’s own requirements to fix the varying depths,
\nAnd follow the topography for the straight parts and the bends.
\nAnd when ten years have run their course, we shall proclaim the fruits:
\nHow all along the River there are multiple branch loops,
\nSuch that the terrain there has been turned to fertile acres,
\nAnd every last locality has abundant ears of grain.
\nThe supplies of tax rice sent to Court, and cargoes, too, of millet,
\nWill have cut the costs of shipping grain down close to nonexistent.
\nSo dense a channel network will make riding horses difficult,
\nAnd malfeasance won’t be simple for brigands or for miscreants. pg<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Elvin points out, you could hardly get a more grandiose vision of a megaproject today.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, things can go wrong. I suppose a description of people trying to survive a flood on the Yellow river would fit better, but he has a good one on the breach of a sea-wall in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Pg 172<\/p>\n

Some of the people used ropes, to tie themselves together,
\nHoping this way to support each other, or give each other help.
\nHow were they to know that, together, they’d be swept away and drowned?
\nSome of them sought to escape, boring holes in the rooves of their houses,
\nBut their bodies, along with their reed-thatched shacks, were borne off
\nand tossed about.<\/p>\n

Some clutched at beams and rafters, and let themselves go where these
\nwent,
\nBut the wind pounded and battered them, and scattered them east and west.
\nSome clambered to the tops of trees, where they floated for a time,
\nBut snakes climbed up to the treetops, driven, too, by fear of dying.
\nMen, scared the snakes would bite their hands, of themselves released their
\nhold.
\nMen and snakes have gone, together, into the other world
\nThe downpour ceased at dawn, but the storm did not let up
\nThe people who had not been drowned congratulated each other
\nThen they saw a sand bank far away, among the rolling waves,
\nWhere a thousand others called for help that their lives, too, might be saved.
\nThe tide came in, then, with a swirl, and half of them went down.
\nWith the second swirl the bank submerged and every one was drowned..<\/p>\n

Their faces, two days later on, were still easy to recognize. Like mounds or hillocks, the washed-up corpses stacked themselves in piles.
\nBy the third day, or the fourth, the skin and flesh were soggy-rotten,
\nOne could smell the stench some thirty miles. It made one want to vomit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You may also want to talk about the amount of labor that went into production, and Elvin. Mr. High-level equilibrium trap, has a nice section from Mr Shen’s Manual for Farmers.pg. 212<\/p>\n

Opening up the ridges for wheat: It is best for the fields [ where rice has just
\nbeen grown] to be dry. If they are soggy, it is necessary to open them up [by
\nturning over the soil], and to wait until the backs of the ridges have dried
\nout before putting in the seeds. If the time for doing this has almost passed,
\nthen steep the seeds [in water, and perhaps nutrients] in advance, so they
\nproduce sprouts, and it is possible to wait until the ridges have dried out. It
\nis impermissible to stamp down a firm area that is still surrounded by damp
\nareas, as the colza and wheat will not be able to grow stalks, and are bound
\nto wither when spring comes, or, even if they do not die, will not flourish for
\nlong.
\nWhen one is planting wheat, the covered reservoir [for liquid manure]
\nmust be full, and the distribution of the seeds must be uniform. This work
\nmust not be skimped; but one tells the women and the young serving-lads to
\ntake life easily. For wheat, one waters it [with liquid manure] once at the
\ntime of planting, and once again in the spring. If one puts on too much
\nfertilizer, there will, on the contrary, be no harvest …. If one sows the wheat
\nseeds in advance in the first ten days of the eighth moon, one waits until
\nwinter to prepare the fields to which to transplant them. Each transplanting
\nclump contains five to six stalks. One applies liquid manure to them twice,
\nas is the standard practice, and also banks them up with cattle manure,
\ncovering this over [with mud] shoveled out of the [adjacent small] ditch,
\nafter which the stalks are strong and the wheat heavy, yielding a doubled
\nharvest.
\nColza should be given twice as much liquid manure as wheat, and
\nperhaps also household garbage or cattle manure. One digs mud from the
\nadjacent ditch and once again applies liquid manure to force the blossoms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And of course, then you will want to talk about nightsoil.<\/p>\n

Whether one is planting wet-land fields or dry-land fields, supplementary
\nfertilizer is important. Human manure has a beneficial power, and cattle
\nmanure has a long-lasting effect. One should not use one and neglect to use
\nthe other. Making a contract with city residents to purchase their excrement
\nis of fundamental importance. Recently, however, the price of excrement
\nhas become dear. The cost of human labor is high, and fetching it from the
\ncity oneself wastes energy. Thieving is widespread. If it is not possible to rely
\nentirely on such a contract for excrement, then rearing sheep or pigs is a
\nconvenient supplement …. For the food that a sheep eats in a year one
\nobtains a sufficiency of wool and lambs, while the expenditure is merely the
\nprovision of grass [as fodder]. Without any effort one obtains a large quantity
\nof supplementary fertilizer . . .. For sheep though, if one has to hire
\nsomeone to chop the hay, then this can really waste one’s reserves to provide
\nthis person’s rations during the slack season in winter and spring These
\ndays sheep can eat nothing but withered leaves and dry grass Cattle
\nmanure is best applied to dry-land fields, and pig’s manure to wet-land
\nfields . .. . To purchase human excrement one has to go to Hangzhou. It is
\nnot possible to buy full loads [from the privies] along the levees.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Finally, you may want some stuff on Han people moving into \u201cnew\u201d areas. We will do that with a reading from Bello. but Elvin has a nice bit on the joys of cinnabar mining, which also works for environmental degradation\u00a0 pg 248<\/p>\n

Old countrymen, between villages, live alone by the torrents’ banks,
\nWith baling-pans and inlet pipes straining tailings and gathering
\nfragments.
\nBut their toes are rotting away, though the water they stand in’s
\ntransparent;
\nFor all that their eyes are running with tears, even so their pupils are
\ndamaged.
\nThe ripples are everywhere reddened, on account of these activities,
\nAnd what they do stains their jacket sleeves the color of vermilion.
\nIf by chance they happen to obtain the minutest scruple of cinnabar,
\nEven for something next to nothing, they forthwith become giddily
\nfrivolous.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Stoves have been built just recently, and furnaces erected.
\nMilling rollers have been installed; so, too, have pounding pestles.
\nOur red dye, when it is pulverized, “is unalloyed and bright.” (Songs 154)
\nAnd sublimated, ore turns to rain, scattering sweat as it perspires.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and a thing on how weird the Miao are<\/p>\n

With whinnying clangor the gongs are booming,
\nAs bronze drums beat out their repetitive rhythms,
\nThey summon the mediums in pell-mell confusion,
\nTricked out as tigers in odd, motley, mimicry,
\nDangling red aprons are tied round their belts,
\nIn pleats bound on their brows hang blue-green silk tassels,
\nBack-country serfs who leap with forked gestures,
\nMenials from caves who cavort with arms brandished.
\nThey pretend to be generals, play-act ferocity,
\nThen bow to their elders, loose hair in disorder.
\nGirls from the village wear clasps of mixed blossoms,
\nLads from the hills tie their clothes on with straw,
\nFrom masts of bamboo there droop paper pennants.
\nThe clay pots on display contain betel peppers.
\nWith rowdy guffaws they offer a pig’s head,
\nAnd using a rope-hoist they roast roosters’ feathers.
\nPurple clouds of sweet smoke gust denser and denser,
\nThe white raindrops spraying as charmed water’s sprinkled,
\nBut the savages’ babbling is incomprehensible
\nAs they get drunk, and stuffed, for their spirit’s epiphany.
\nI have heard that when teaching the vulgar behavior
\nOne’s model for ritual’s that of the ancients:
\nA magnanimous face, and severe, sober vestments,
\nObeisances courteous, and strict patterned steps.
\nOne’s words given weight by fasting and abstinence,
\nOne spreads out dried meat, and wine, pure and fragrant,
\nShowing utmost respect, with no breath of blasphemy
\nThis it is brings good luck, this of reverence the basis.
\nOfferings otherwise offered delight not the spirits.
\nIf the ritual is lost, they benefit nothing.
\nSo one proffers Hippuris to monarch and ministers,
\nGreets the Farm God with clods, tapping on a clay drum.
\nHow then can one cleanse these barbarians of their sooty moral grime,
\nAnd list them in the Zhou lineage so renowned in ancient rhyme? Pg 239<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Elvin himself is aware of the problems with using poetry as a source (pg 437),but for teaching purposes these work pretty well, I hope<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

  1. Elvin, Mark. The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China<\/em>. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. ↩<\/a><\/p><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Like me, you may have to teach about the economy and ecology of Late Imperial China. It is hard to make that lively. Poetry would help. Students love poetry. Thankfully, you don’t have to go looking for poems on the environment, Mark Elvin has found some for you.1 If you want something on irrigation (pg….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[117,120,153,157,163,286],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-environment","category-qing","category-science-and-technology","category-teaching","category-teaching-selections"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9yoH3-2FU","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10286"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10290,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10286\/revisions\/10290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/froginawell.net\/frog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}