On March 12, the Opening Meeting ofCollection, Collation and Research of Chinese Ancient Agricultural Books(project approval No.: 21&ZD332),the 2021 Major Project of the National Social Science Fund of China,was held via virtual and reality combination meeting. ProfessorPing Wu, Vice President of Wuhan University, isthe chief expert of this project.

The experts participated in the opening meeting were as followings:

Xiaojian Ni, Professor, Vice President of the Ancient Books Preservation and Conservation Association of China, and former Director of the Capital Library of China,

Ping Qing, Professor, member of the Standing Committee of Huazhong Agricultural University Party Committee and Vice President,

Huanwen Cheng, Professor at the School of Information Management, Sun Yat-sen University,

Ping Ke, Professor at the Business School, Nankai University,

Chuanfu Chen,Senior Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Wuhan University, and Dean of the Graduate School,Wuhan University,

Ruhua Huang, Professor at the School of Information Management, Wuhan University,

andMingjie Li, Professor at the School of Information Management, Wuhan University.

Ping Wu made a report on the project research plan. She pointed out that farming civilization is the root of Chinese nation and the background of Chinese tradition. As the main carrier of the essence of Chinese traditional agriculture, the collection, collation and research of Chinese ancient agricultural books are extremely important to carry forward Chinese traditional culture. However, at present, the level of this work in China is far from the requirements of the national strategy. Therefore, this project would focus on the combing of traditional documents, the application of modern technology and the elucidation of contemporary values, further promote this work, and devote itself to the further inheritance, activation and empowerment of Chinese ancient agricultural books.

The key members of the sub-project reported on the sub-project content, research plan and expected results respectively. They said that the project would fully absorb the research achievements, innovative thinking and methods of ancient agricultural books in various disciplines, summarize the evolution process of ancient agricultural books in China, the evolution law of ancient agriculture and agronomy knowledge, explore the relevant theories and methods of ancient agricultural books collection and collation, explore the path of creative transformation and innovative publicity of ancient agricultural books, build an open and sharing knowledge service platform of ancient agricultural books resources, and theoretically build a disciplinary system of ancient agricultural books philology in China.

After listening to the reports, the participating experts put forward suggestions and opinions on the research focus, innovative ideas, research paths and specific implementation of the project from different viewpoints. All experts agreed that the project has important theoretical significance and academic value, and researchers of the project should focus on highlighting the research focus, reflecting the research depth and condensing the landmark achievements of the project. At the same time, the project should benchmark the international vision and serve the national strategy.

Chuanfu Chenbelieved that Chinese ancient agricultural books are of great significance in the history of world agricultural development. We should put Chinese ancient agricultural books in the background of world history and strive for the academic discourse right of Chinese ancient agricultural books research.

Xiaojian Ni, head of the expert review group, concluded that ancient agricultural books have always been valued by successive governments, which is the cultural heritage and genetic engineering of our country. It is suggested that the project should work hard on precision and practicality, and do a good job of "going out" of ancient agricultural books culture.