Feng ji: an essay about Bees from 10th century China
This week we explore poems, writings of monks, and conversations, as a glimpse into beekeeping knowledge in 10th century China.
Honeybee Histories first looked at beekeeping knowledge in China in an essay last year, called “Feng: the early history of Bees in China”. In that essay we explored the earliest evidence of beekeeping and honey hunting in China, including the development of language to distinguish bees from wasps and other flying insects.
In this week’s essay we move forward to the 10th century CE, looking at the state of knowledge about beekeeping and honeybees by this much later date. Once again, for this I am greatly indebted to David Pattinson who has written at length about the history of honeybees in China, in the Agricultural History journal.
