Agriculturalism

Agriculturalism, also known as the School of Agrarianism, the School of Agronomists, the School of Tillers, and in Chinese as the Nongjia (simplified Chinese: 农家; traditional Chinese: 農家), was an early agrarian Chinese philosophy that advocated peasant utopian communalism and egalitarianism.

The Agriculturalists believed that Chinese society should be modeled around that of the early sage king Shennong, a folk hero who was portrayed in Chinese literature as "working in the fields, along with everyone else, and consulting with everyone else when any decision had to be reached."^[1] They encouraged farming and agriculture and taught farming and cultivation techniques, as they believed that agricultural development was the key to a stable and prosperous society.

Agriculturalism was suppressed during the Qin Dynasty and most original texts are now lost. However, concepts originally associated with Agriculturalism have influenced Confucianism and Legalism, as well as Chinese philosophy as a whole.^[2] Agriculturalism has at times been viewed as the essence of the Chinese identity.^[3]

^ Deutsch, Eliot; Ronald Bontekoei (1999). A companion to world philosophies. Wiley Blackwell. p. 183. ISBN 9780631213277.
^ Cite error: The named reference js was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Gladney, Dru (2004). Dislocating China. University of Chicago Press. p. 300.

[wp-1] Deutsch, Eliot; Ronald Bontekoei (1999). A companion to world philosophies. Wiley Blackwell. p. 183. ISBN 9780631213277.

[js-2] Cite error: The named reference js was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[dg-3] Gladney, Dru (2004). Dislocating China. University of Chicago Press. p. 300.

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