ABSTRACTS

Lu Shuyuan

Eco-philosophy: A World View Helpful for Harmonious Coexistence between Man and Nature

As the ecological crisis caused by the rapid development of modern society forces the original natural science oriented ecology to focus on human behaviors, the ecological research sphere has been unprecedentedly broadened to swiftly cover almost all aspects of the human society, in the process of which emerges a world view which helps to facilitate the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and that world view is eco-philosophy. Eco-philosophy exemplified at different levels like ontology, epistemology, axiology, and so on is a world view that embraces life and environment, human and nature, society and universe, mind and material, and is also a new form of civilization after the modern industrial society. The natural ecology, social ecology, and spiritual ecology are three organically connected layers in the ecological system on the Earth.

The Views and Methods of Studying Ecological Literature and Art: An Interview with Professor Lu ShuyuanLu Shuyuan ＆ Zhang Yaling

Professor Lu Shuyuan is the founder of both ecological literature and art studies and spiritual ecology studies. He has long been engaged in the interdisciplinary research of literature and art Since his academic focus on ecological criticism and ecological culture in the late 1980s, he has published more than twenty books. With his efforts to apply the ecological principles to the studies of literature and art as well as traditional culture, he frames the natural ecology, social ecology, and spiritual ecology into an interrelated organic whole so as to lay a theoretical foundation for a poetic living style. In this interview, Professor Lu reviews his academic career and shares his views and methods of studying ecological literature and art. He maintains that the literary activities of human beings can be regarded as a system and so is the research of literary theories. It is by no means enough to merely investigate these systems in the framework of human society. The scope of literary studies should be extended to the whole “Earth Ecology” which includes nature. As to humanities, he believes that the premise of research should be the free will and natural temperament of man, and temperament precedes knowledge while views outweigh methods.

The Yunnan Case of Regional Eco-civilization Construction: A Perspective of Environmental PoliticsHuan Qingzhi

The core implication of Yunan Provinces strategy to strive for the position of pacesetter in the national eco-civilization construction is to achieve a higher level or more balanced development in economy, society and culture without sacrificing the current relatively high quality of ecological environment, or to achieve a green development. As the analyses of local examples have shown, the implementation of this strategy appears as a comprehensive process “led by thought”,“guided by CPC and government” and “driven by institutional innovation”. Accordingly, Yunnan Province is a typical case in todays China of actively practicing Xi Jinpings thoughts on eco-civilization and strategic plans of the Reports of the 18th and 19th CPC congresses as well as creatively dealing with the various issues or challenges regarding building the eco-civilization systems and mechanisms.

Organic Agriculture：The Hope for Humanitys Sustainable ExistenceSong Lili

Organic agriculture is deemed to guarantee the sustainable future for mankind in that its birth and development are closely related to the ancient traditional agriculture, strongly counteractive against the devastation done by modern industry and agriculture and even firmly supported by eco-philosophy and ethics that are featured with postmodern environmental consciousness. Organic agriculture is not merely about agricultural production, but also about being unified with the land. Being organic means a belief in perpetuity and sustainability, an idea that all beings are a holistic existence, and an attitude that seeks for peace but not conquest and war with nature. Organic agriculture conveys the love to life community in keeping the land and the life healthy, in regaining the impetus of multi-coexistence, and in building a mutually beneficial, cooperative, simple, and beautiful life.

On Chinese Agricultural Philosophy from the Perspective of Favorable Climatic, Geographical and Human ConditionsCao Shanming & Su Jing

Agricultural civilization has a history of more than five thousand years in China, and the agricultural thought has become the foundation of traditional Chinese culture deeply rooted in the mind of every Chinese. The trinity of heaven, earth and man is the fundamental and essential content of traditional Chinese agricultural thought as well as the key logic basis of traditional Chinese philosophy. This paper redefines the philosophical concepts of heaven, earth and man by applying modern technological knowledge and based on the new definitions clarifies the logic relationship of the traditional thought on favorable climatic, geographical and human conditions. In this way it proposes a new mode of universe with three dimensions of heaven, earth and man, establishes the circulating system of “right timing” as the time coordinate and dynamic source of Chinese agricultural philosophy, and makes a philosophical exploration of traditional Chinese agricultural thought from a “proper perspective”.

On the Way to All-round Organic AgricultureHu Yuegao

The 21th century is a transforming period between industrial civilization and ecological civilization. Five agricultural problems during industrial civilization period, i.e., food safety, food security, the security of rural society, the security of ecological environment, and the security of international agriculture, result in the disappearance of industrial civilization and appearance of ecological civilization. All-round organic agriculture is a broad way that leads to the era of ecological civilization, with which the rural areas will grow stronger enough to be the foundation of ecological civilization.

Development of Organic Agriculture in Jiangxi Province from 1949 to 2019Huang Guoqin

Since the founding of New China 70 years ago, the development of organic agriculture in Jiangxi Province has experienced three stages: a slow start（1949-1977）, the preliminary development（1978-2000）, and standardized expansion（2000-present）. In the past 70 years, great achievements have been made in Jiangxis development of organic agriculture, such as the establishing of R & D institutions, the building of production bases, the producing of organic agricultural products, the promoting of brand value, the organizing of academic research and the receiving of wide-spread attention. The development of organic agriculture in Jiangxi is facing such noticeable problems as small scale, unsteady foundation, deteriorated ecology, insufficient labor force, unfavorable environment, scanty investment, low efficiency, disorderly management and incomplete system, etc. To solve the above problems and realize the healthy, stable and sustainable development of organic agriculture in Jiangxi in the new era, the following measures should be taken: making plans, raising awareness, increasing knowledge, popularizing technology, expanding scale, optimizing mode, upgrading science and technology, leading by demonstration, improving laws and regulations, and strengthening supervision.

Why Small Farmers Are Engaged in Ecological Agriculture: A Case Study of L Village in West Henan ProvinceHe Huili, Lu Xiaomeng & Song Yun

That small farmers in China have currently been engaged in ecological agriculture has become a conspicuous social phenomenon. The reason can be explored from three aspects, i.e., the root cause, the direct motivation and the external driving force. The root cause is the existing diverse geographical resources and local cultural foundation; the direct motivation is the voluntary response from small holders, especially returning youth who care about health and self-protection as well as demand for new markets; the external driving force comes from intellectuals, entrepreneurs and government. At present, the interaction of these three elements is still in the process of adjustment and adaptation. Only the organic combination of the three elements, especially the appropriate engagement of the external driving force, can guarantee a relatively bright future for the ecology-oriented small farmers.

Ecological Effect of Plant Enzymes for Agriculture in Organic Agricultural Production

Zhang Yue & Wang Xiaofen

In recent years, while environmental pollution and food safety problems have become more and more serious, peoples attention to health and demand for high-quality agricultural products have been unprecedentedly urgent. Organic agriculture has therefore gained developing impetus. The primary task of organic agriculture is to supply organic matter（OM） to soil, and the effective method to do so is to turn the organic waste in the farmland into resources so that the ecological products produced in the process can be returned to soil. Presently three methods are applied on large scale, such as compost, biogas projects and plant enzymes for agriculture. As plant enzymes for agriculture are rich in beneficial microorganisms, nutrients, plant hormones and organic acid, they can be used in the whole process of manufacturing fertilizers and bio-pesticides. Therefore, they are important in having a comprehensive effect on building a healthy soil micro-ecological environment and promoting plant growth.

Turning from the Real to the Fictional：A Study on the Chinese Fictional Environmental History

Zhao Jiuzhou & Ma Doucheng

Most of the existing researches on the environmental history have not paid enough attention to the fictional environmental history, and the range of the environmental history research needs to expand to the unreal level. To carry out the research on the unreal environmental history, we should be aware of the importance of interdisciplinary study. Unreal environmental history research can help the environmental history research go deep into our spiritual level so we can have a better understanding of ourselves and our world. To carry out the research on Unreal Environmental History, we need to try our best to clarify and study the idea, significance and method.

Environmental Issues and Ecological Rehabilitation of the British Military Training Base in Lüneburg Wilderness Nature Reserve in Post-WWII GermanyJiang Shan  &  Jin Hui

As an emerging discipline of history, the military environmental history mainly focuses on how wars brought about great damage to the natural environment of the enemy states and rivals and what serious consequences the damage in turn did to people. Take the British military training base in Lüneburg wilderness nature reserve, for example, wars damaged its unique natural landscapes and diversity of ecological species and caused unmeasurable ecological disasters. Since Germany declared to get back the military training base in 1994, with a series of ecological rehabilitation measures, not only many natural landscapes have been restored there, but also new environmental protection concepts have been applied there, so the whole nature reserve, and even the whole wild area is planned to be turned into an eco-environmental demonstration zone centered on green tourism development, and incorporated with natural landscape and humanistic landscape. In this regard, Germans offer all of us an eco-environmental protection concept that is worth our learning. As far as academic significance is concerned, such studies of military environmental history surely provide studies of military history with many new thoughts, new perspectives, and new methods.

“Self -consciousness of Nature” and the Subjectivity of EcocriticismZeng Yongcheng

According to Engels, man is the self-consciousness of nature. This is the key concept of Marxist humanistic ecological thought on human position in ecology. Only by knowing human position in ecology from the perspective of “self-consciousness of nature” can we fully understand the ecological relationship between man and nature and learn the ecological law of how the world exists and develops. Subjectivity in ecocriticism, while well aware of ecological integration, creativity and aesthetic in a universal scope should also reflect the in-depth implication of the self-consciousness of nature so as to give play to its function of disintegration and restoration in the ecological system and faithfully guard and optimize the physical and spiritual homeland for mankind.

Ecologial Literature: The Spiritual Wishes of Harmonious Existence of Human BeingsGe Guang

Ecological literature is constantly analyzing the degree of harmony in the interaction between human and natural ecology, as well as reflecting, questioning and even criticizing the various disharmonious factors existing in human activities. Ecological literature not only narrates the reason of ecological organic nature from a positive perspective, which is realistic, basic and more reasonable, but also aesthetically experiences the organic and harmonious nature of the ecological relationship between man and nature. It directly urges people to actively analyze, experience and talk about the ecological organic and harmonious relationship. Through presetting the situation of literary experience, it creatively and imaginatively describes the road towards the sustainable future. The writing and narration of literature can trigger peoples profound understanding of nature, ecology/life, and call for “affinity”, which can create love, comfort the soul and expand the vision, and thus will undoubtedly promote the physical and mental integration and movement of organic life. This can not only improve the state of spiritual aspiration, but also have the foundation of “reality”.

Forgotten Paths of Empire: Ecology, Disease and Commerce in the Making of Liberias Plantation EconomyGregg Mitman

This essay follows the journey of a 1926 Harvard expedition to Liberia and also the more recent journey of its remains — nearly six hundred photographs and more than two hours of motion picture footage. My goal is to make visible the forgotten paths of empire that led to widespread economic, environmental, and cultural change in the West African republic of Liberia. In tracing the transnational flows of capital, knowledge, commodities, and microbes associated with the rise of industrial plantations instrumental in advancing American economic and political interests across the globe, I offer a materialist approach to the history of scientific ideas and objects that takes both epistemology and environmental change seriously. The transformation of landscapes on an industrial scale was critical, I argue, in bringing ecological and evolutionary understandings of disease into being. And the photographs and film footage left behind have the potential to acquire new agency and meaning as they bring forth stories from Liberians that reanimate places and give voice to ancestors, who were much more than laboring bodies, reservoirs of biological specimens, or objects of a scientific gaze.