On May 12, the Academic Symposium on Research on Ancient Chinese Agricultural Books was held in Wuhan University. The Symposium was sponsored by the Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences, Wuhan University, and undertaken by the School of Information Management, Wuhan University, and the research group of Collection, Collation and Research of Chinese Ancient Agricultural Books, a Major Project of the National Social Science Fund of China.

This Symposium was co-organized by the Intelligent Computing of Cultural Heritage, Philosophy and Social Sciences Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, the Key Laboratory of Semantic Publishing and Knowledge Service of the National Press and Publication Administration, and was supported by the National Library of China Publishing House, the Editorial Department of Publishing Journal (in Chinese), Hubei Science & Technology Press, and the Editorial Department of Journal of Library and Information Science in Agriculture (in Chinese).

The Symposium received 72 submitted papers, and experts, scholars, postgraduate and doctoral students from 37 well-known universities in China, such as Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 6 publishing houses, such as National Library of China Publishing House and Tianjin Ancient Books Publishing House, and 4 libraries, such as Hubei Provincial Library, gathered together to discuss the significance and value of the research on ancient agricultural books.

In the address session, Falin Zhang, Professor and Associate Dean of the Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences, Wuhan University, expressed warm congratulations on the convening of the Symposium on behalf of Wuhan University, and welcomed the experts and scholars attending the Symposium.

Zhuohua Xie, Professor at the School of Information Management attended the Symposium and delivered a speech. Zhuohua Xie pointed out that the attention paid to agricultural books in the catalogues of bibliographers in the past was low, but the research on ancient agricultural books was promising. The research perspective of ancient agricultural books should be broadened, and the research on ancient agricultural books should be combined with social issues and future development.

Fuping Hui, Professor and Dean of the Institute of Science and Technology History and Meteorological Civilization, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, gave a report on the topic Inheritance and Transcendence: Reflections on the Collation of Ancient Agricultural Books in the New Era. He pointed out that today's collation of ancient agricultural books should pay attention to five aspects as followings:

Firstly, inherit the existing achievements. Fully learn from and absorb the previous experience of collating and annotating ancient agricultural books in agricultural history and historical literature, and pay special attention to the application of agronomy and related natural science knowledge in the process of collating and research.

Secondly, we should revise and modify ancient agricultural books in time. Most of the existing collation achievements of ancient agricultural books were completed before 1970s and 1980s. Now, there is much room for revision, enrichment and improvement in the content and form, such as the introduction of popular books, writings in vernacular Chinese and translated books in foreign languages.

Thirdly, check and fill in gaps. Select the newly discovered and unsorted ancient agricultural books, and collate and annotate them in an organized way.

Fourthly, use digital means. Using computer technology to build knowledge library, and realize the digital protection and utilization of ancient agricultural books, as well as the aggregation and correlation of relevant knowledge information, and promote academic research and knowledge service.

Fifthly, face up to difficulties. The special feature or main difficulty of collating ancient agricultural books lies in the comprehensive application of traditional Chinese philology and agronomy knowledge to restore the original appearance of ancient agricultural books as much as possible with comprehensive, meticulous and accurate scientific proofreading, but such talents are extremely scarce at present.

Subsequently, people made keynote speeches on the relevant research on ancient agricultural books were as followings:

Aolin Liu, Deputy Director of the Distribution Department of the National Library of China Publishing House,

Hongtai Niu, Professor at the Research Institute of Science and Technology Development, Northwest A&F University,

Liu Yang, a librarian at the Institute of Chinese Agricultural Historic Heritage, South China Agricultural University,

Di Zhou, Deputy Director of the Huazhong Agricultural University Library,

Ziyang Weng, Associate Professor at the School of Information Management, Wuhan University, and

Pengyan Mo, Associate Professor at the School of Communication, Zhengzhou Normal University.

Ping Wu, Professor at the School of Information Management, Wuhan University, chief expert of Major Project of the National Social Science Fund of China, made a concluding speech with Why Do We Study Ancient Agricultural Books. She pointed out that ancient agricultural books are an important carrier of the evolution of ancient agricultural civilization, an important channel for the dissemination of ancient agricultural technology, and an indispensable link for the inheritance of agricultural science and technology; Ancient agricultural books are the crystallization of ancient agricultural thoughts, the medium of inheriting ancient agricultural culture, and an important spiritual force to promote the transformation and upgrading of modern agriculture.

The Symposium also had four paralleled sub-forums, namely, Distribution of Versions and Collections of Ancient Agricultural Books, Compilation of Ancient Agricultural Books, Publication and Dissemination of Ancient Agricultural Books, and Evolution and Utilization of Ancient Agricultural Agronomy Knowledge. Experts, scholars, postgraduate and doctoral students attending the Symposium gave special reports and in-depth exchanges on different topics respectively. This Symposium provided an opportunity for experts and scholars to communicate and discuss ancient agricultural culture in depth, and also provided an opportunity for the public to learn more about ancient agricultural books.