中国古代种大葫芦法的成就及指导思想

葫芦是世界上最古老的作物。中国是它的主要起源地之一。它既可食，又可用为水上交通工具、生活器皿、皮具，还可作饲料、制烛、入药、制笙竽、玩具，用途之广是鲜见的。特别是在制陶发明和普及之前，它的盛水贮粮功能更显重要。广大民众需要硕大葫芦为器物用。于是古人在２０００多年前首创特殊的种大葫芦法。《庄子》和《Ｆａｎ胜之书》最早提及和载有此法。历代农者在实践中不断改进，终于形成一套完整的种植技术。至清末至少有２

THE ACHIEVEMENTS AND THE TECHNIQUE OF PLANTING BIG BOTTLE GOURDS IN ANCIENT CHINA

As a crop, the bottle gourd has a history that is the longest in the world.China is one of the origins for the planting of bottle gourds, which can be used as food, transporting tools on water, containers, farm tools and feed crop, and also as the raw material for making candles, medieine, musical instruments (sheng and yu) and toys. It is very unusual for a crop to have so many applications. In the old days before pottery was available and became popular, the bottle gourd was quite important because of its function as a water pot or a food container. People needed big bottle gourds to keep things in. Hence, more than 2,000 years ago, the ancient Chinese had invented a unique technique to grow big bottle gourds.Zhuang Zi (Book of Master Zhuang) and Fan Sheng Zhi Shu (Book of Master Fan Shengzhi) are two ancient works which first mentioned and recorded the technique. Through the continuous improvement and refinement by numerous agronomists and farmers over the years, a complete technique for planting bottle gourds finally took shape. By the end of the Qing Dynasty,at least 23 agricultural treatises had recorded the technique. To summarize the achievements of the technique and to clarify its evolution and its inheritance relationship among these agricultural treatises, theauthor has carried out a comprehensive research and prepared an evolution table and an illustration chart.The author believes that the creation and the wide spread of the technique are due to the following reasons. At first, it was because of the urgent need for the multiple functions of the bottle gourd.Then, based on the ancient Chinese philosophy of seeking what is finite from what is infinite, the traditional concept of intensive cultivation and the practical attitude of continuous refinement, the technique was developed vigorously to such an impressive extent.