Jia Sixie, author of China's first agricultural encyclopedia, was one of the leading agronomists (农学家) in Chinese history. In the late years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, he wrote Qimin Yaoshu, the     1     (early) and most complete agricultural encyclopedia still in existence in China.

Jia Sixie was born in Yidu County in Shandong Province. During his childhood, Jia's family wasn't wealthy, but had     2     rich collection of books. This provided the young Jia with an opportunity: to read ancient Chinese literature     3     (wide) on agriculture. He completed Qimin Yaoshu during the wars,     4     he saw the sufferings of the poor farmers.     5     he firmly believed was that the development of agriculture could help those farmers out.

The book, which has 92 chapters in 10 volumes and nearly 120,000 characters,     6     (cover) a wide range of topics and records on production experiences and methods. It includes advice on farming, fishery and sideline occupations. In the book, he emphasized the importance of seed breeding in order to cultivate better     7     (variety).

Qimin Yaoshu was first distributed mainly among common people. In the late Tang Dynasty, the book was introduced to Japan. So far, the book     8     (translate) into several languages. Qimin Yaoshu is considered     9     an important summary of farming knowledge. At present, it is still studied by Chinese farmers and students     10     (major) in agriculture.