Nongzheng Quanshu (also Comprehensive Treatise on Agricultural Admin-istration) ,was written by Xu Guangqi (1562～1633) in the late Ming Dynasty.Born in the Songjiang area in Jiangsu Province ( now in Shanghai) where agriculture was very advanced, he was devoted to the agricultural development all his life.During the three-year period of mourning for his deceased father, he con-ducted in his hometown massive agricultural and ploughing experiments, and then went to Tianjing for similar experiments several times, the consequence of which was the completion of the agricultural encyclopedia. He died in his tenure of office,and it was his friend who helped publish the book in the 12th year of the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, i.e.in 1639.The book is divid-ed into 60 volumes, including the agriculture-oriented thought, land policy, water conservancy, farm tools, arboriculture, sericulture, animal husbandry,relief poliaes and the like. Besides summarizing his experiences of succeeding in growing crops and cot-ton, he went into details about water conservanolt and relief policies. He studied the lean years in the Chinese history, even delving into the concrete situations of the ill locust plagues which ever happened in China. The most effective way of putting an end to the lean years, he believed, was to establish the water conservancy projects on a large scale. In the Northwest, as he instantiated his point, instead of delivering grain from Southeast with great efforts, people should learn to reclaim the wasteland and establish the water conservancy projects on a large scale, turning Northwest into a major grain yielding area. A great num-ber of reference books written before or at the time were recorded h Non,gzheng Quanshu ,and the understandings and perspectives of the author presented.It was a great agricultural work of special importance in the Ming Dynasty.