Preface by Zhu Qizhen, director of the Institute of farmers' issues, China Agricultural University
At present, the rural value is far from being revealed. Some important rural values can only be recognized by people after they are lost. Once something is lost, it is almost impossible to recover.
This reminds us that we must pay attention to the in-depth excavation of rural value. The new rural construction can't be copied according to the idea of urban construction, let alone change the countryside into a city. The countryside is free. The new rural construction is to build the countryside more like the countryside.
Urban and rural integration is not the homogenization of urban and rural areas, but a clear positioning of urban and rural functions in urban and rural differences, so as to realize the complementary functions between urban and rural areas. With the development of urbanization, the countryside should not only not disappear, but also become more and more beautiful.
Director's point of view
01
Production value: villages and land are inseparable
It is very important that villages have productive value, but it is often ignored. The reason why the countryside exists for a long time is that the countryside is a kind of living form adapted to agricultural production. So far, no living form more suitable for agricultural production has been found. Agricultural production is the main content of rural production, rural is the regional place of agricultural production, which is the basic judgment of the relationship between rural and agricultural production. The value of rural production is shown in two aspects, one is agricultural production, the other is handicraft production. Strictly speaking, there is no sustainable agricultural production without villages. The main reason why farmers live in the countryside is that they are close to the land and easy to take care of it. Some people say that farmers can live in buildings in cities and towns, and then drive one or two miles to cultivate land. Although it's romantic, it's the imagination of people who don't understand agriculture at all. We have done a lot of investigations. Those who have eliminated the countryside have basically weakened agriculture. Even if there is still agriculture, it is also unsustainable agriculture. People tend to only plant and harvest the land, and the land force cannot be maintained. Sustainable agriculture has become irresponsible agriculture. Many people advocate American agriculture. In fact, it took only more than 100 years for American agriculture to use up the land capacity of a very fertile land. The United States reflected on the consequences of industrial agriculture and began to learn from Eastern agriculture. In the early 20th century, Franklin king, director of the national soil administration of the United States, made a special trip to China's agriculture and wrote the book "four thousand year farmer". He believed that Chinese traditional agriculture is a kind of enduring agriculture and advocated that the United States learn from Chinese traditional agriculture. Later, the U.S. learned a lot about agriculture, returning straws to the fields, fallow and rotation, and applying organic fertilizer. But we do not cherish our own agricultural wisdom. Mechanical imitation has been proved to have many disadvantages in agricultural methods. In a word, agriculture cannot go to the peasantry or the countryside. A large number of facts have proved that "no rural agriculture" is not sustainable. Another embodiment of rural production value is rural handicraft industry. Traditional rural handicraft industry can only be preserved in the traditional rural environment. In recent years, many people have studied how to industrialize and industrialize the traditional handicraft industry, such as willow weaving, New Year pictures, kites, etc. in some places, they have realized large-scale production and also exported to earn foreign exchange. This reflects the economic value of rural handicraft industry in one way. But this kind of large-scale production also weakens the cultural connotation of rural handicraft industry. For example, when writing couplets for the new year, farmers used to write them by themselves, and relatives, friends and neighbors came together to think of auspicious words. A pair of couplets embodies people's expectations for future life. This cultural effect is not comparable to buying a pair of couplets in the market. Scholars have noticed the relationship between the countryside and the land. In his book the end of the village, Professor Li Peilin of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences points out that the reason why a village is a village is not only because of its farming, but also because of its cultivated land. Cultivated land is the most basic means of production in villages, which is irreplaceable. But the relationship between villages and cultivated land is far from simple. No matter in any area, villages are built in the nearest place to the cultivated land, no matter whether the scale of villages is large or small. In recent years, due to people's lack of deep understanding of the relationship between villages and cultivated land, there has been a phenomenon in some places where people want to cultivate land instead of villages or villages instead of cultivated land. People have separated agricultural production and farmers' life completely. As a result, rural areas have been tossed, farmers have been harmed and agriculture has been harmed. 02
Life value: consistent with the natural rhythm
Rural life system is based on agricultural activities. Together with the handicraft industry known as "grassroots industry", it is not only an important means of livelihood for farmers, but also an important part of their life activities.
In the village, farmers do not have a clear concept of time, but there are strict seasonal constraints, strong self-sufficiency, and the main consumer goods rely on their own production rather than market. Many excellent elements in the traditional rural life style reflect the living wisdom of the working people. With the emergence of urban diseases, people began to think about what is a healthy lifestyle. The rise of organic life boom, the spread of low-carbon and slow life concept and people's pursuit of health all require people to re analyze and understand the value of rural life. Traditional villages are formed according to people's needs and feelings. They are a kind of complex and orderly space. People live in the countryside, can meet many needs, and many needs are irreplaceable. Now the city people like to run to the countryside, because there are living elements or elements that people need in the countryside. In the countryside, food and vegetables are basically self-sufficient, and some simple necessities are produced by themselves. In addition, there is fresh air and slow pace of life. It is good for life and people's health. Rural life style is a low-carbon life style. The so-called high consumption and advanced consumption is a barbaric and ignorant consumption mode, which consumes non renewable resources at the expense of ecology. Farmers' low consumption lifestyle is more in line with the concept of ecological civilization. Many of the farmers' lifestyles, including habits and customs, are originally in line with the ecological concept. For example, local materials, self satisfaction, etc. There's nothing wrong with being self-sufficient. Farmers can't eat all the things they grow, or send them to their neighbors or market to sell. They are both producers and consumers. Some people are keen to turn the farmer, a producer, into a pure consumer. They buy everything they need. They think this will expand domestic demand and stimulate consumption. But I think, besides increasing the market burden, what else is the significance of this approach? This is a big mistake, which leads to a lot of waste, and leads to market tension, and increases the factors of food insecurity.
03
Ecological value: symbiosis of biology and environment
The rural ecosystem is a complete complex ecosystem. Villages exist in the embrace of nature, where there are artificially planted food, vegetables, fruits, as well as countless weeds and wild flowers; there are artificially raised livestock, poultry, and unnamed wild animals. In the countryside, people can have close contact with soil, river water, bright sunshine and diverse terrain. The countryside is a system of symbiosis of biology and environment. Rural life can realize several cycles: one is the cycle of planting and breeding. Because of the breeding industry, almost all the crops planted by farmers can be used, and there is almost no garbage in the countryside. In addition, it is a cycle of production and life. People's domestic garbage is generally returned to the field and effectively used. Circulation is an indispensable link and content for the maintenance and operation of any ecosystem. The circulation of rural ecosystem is an important guarantee for the sustainable survival of rural areas. Agricultural cycle can only be carried out completely in villages, which is also an aspect of understanding the relationship between agriculture and villages. The concept of circulation is the ideological basis of guiding agricultural production. Farmers are engaged in planting and breeding work, and ingenious combination of varieties, which have gone through a long-term selection and adaptation process. Now, many of our rural practices are to treat the garbage according to the urban methods, and the results can be imagined. When a culture is eliminated, it will lead to various social problems. What's more, some practices have caused great problems, but policy makers are still not aware of them. The ecological function of the countryside is also manifested in many aspects. When farmers grow crops and trees, they can purify the air and conserve water and soil. Some scholars have studied that there is a village in a certain place, and the surrounding species, microbial communities, etc. will increase, which is conducive to the existence of biodiversity. Rolston, an American environmental ethicist, believes that in the three environments of city, country and wilderness, country plays an important role in helping people think about cultural and natural issues. The countryside is the environment between the city and the wild nature. In other words, the countryside is the buffer zone between the extremes of culture and nature. No city can be sustained without the support of the countryside. In a sense, the countryside is the nature after being domesticated. The countryside embodies the meeting of human production and natural wilderness, and the control of human to nature. More importantly, "where we control nature by obeying it.". The village lets people view the management and control of nature from another angle, which is the ecological culture of the village.
Rural value labor is glorious
04
Social and cultural values:
Countryside is the carrier of culture
Another important function of the countryside is education, which can also be called education. In rural communities, it's easy to learn to distinguish right from wrong. There are two conditions for the realization of this function: first, every peasant household is open and transparent, and the whole village knows what's going on in one household; second, there is a public space formed spontaneously in the village, which may be under the old locust tree, at the crossroads, in front of the canteen, beside the water well, in front of the stage, etc. We get together to chat and spread information, which is generally the content of Zhang's parents, Li Jiaji. This kind of activity involves a wide range of people, men, women, old and young. In this process, people learn to distinguish right from wrong. The families in the urban buildings are all living behind closed doors. They are not familiar with each other and do not communicate with each other. Therefore, there is no educational function of public opinion. Now some young people have got master's degree and doctor's degree. They don't understand the basic etiquette and politeness. It should be said that they have something to do with the loss of educational function in the countryside.
The village also has the function of cultural inheritance and preservation. Any culture needs a specific environment to exist. The countryside is an important carrier of Chinese traditional culture. Respect for the old and love for the young, and harmony in the neighborhood are not written in books or talked about. They must have a subtle impact on people in an environment. And there should be a group to form social pressure. The whole village studies and condemns those who do well. There are many cultural entities in the countryside, such as ancestral graves, ancestral temples, genealogies, etc., which have a strong role in regulating human behavior. This is also true of the architecture. The upper rooms in the traditional rural houses must be occupied by the elderly. The children can't easily sit in the hall. After the bungalow was turned into a building, the old people soon lost their original status. The so-called "master bedroom" is occupied by young people. Front