Jia Sixie

Nothing is known of Jia Sixie beyond the line at the head of his book naming him as author and as former governor of Gaoyang under the Later (Northern) Wei; no dynastic history has a biography of him. From the places and practices the book describes, scholars infer that he lived mostly in present-day Shandong, and some make him a native of Yidu, though this is uncertain. His Essential Techniques for the Common People (Qimin yaoshu), in ten chapters and ninety-two sections, draws on earlier farming manuals, classics and histories to describe the growing of grain, vegetables and fruit in the middle and lower Yellow River valley, along with animal husbandry, brewing and pickling. It is usually dated to the 530s or 540s, at the end of the Northern Wei or early in the Eastern Wei. A Song preface quoted in the Wenxian tongkao records that in 1020 the court had it printed with another farming almanac and issued to officials charged with promoting agriculture.