What Forty Square Meters of Land Yields

I rent a small vegetable plot of about forty square meters in Sijiqing Town at the foot of Fragrant Hills in Beijing, for four thousand yuan a year. In Beijing, where every inch of land is precious, this rent is not too high and roughly equals what we spend on vegetables in a year. I have grown vegetables in Beijing for four years now, and my technique grows more skillful. The vegetables from the forty-square-meter plot feed seven or eight people; the three of us in our family cannot possibly eat it all, so from time to time we give some away to relatives, friends, and neighbors.

This year, besides vegetables, I also grew some cherry tomatoes. Lately I pick a big bag of them every day, still more than we can eat. In fact, as experience grows, every year we find the plot could be planned better next year. Next year I plan to reduce the area devoted to each vegetable and expand into legumes and melons/fruits. Next spring I intend to plant broad beans, peas, soybeans, mung beans, and peanuts, plus one or two watermelons and small sweet melons. Planned this way, the plot will be used even better. I even want to plant a peach tree and an apple tree, but since the landlord may not allow it, I have not yet made up my mind.

With good planning, the fruit and vegetables from forty square meters are enough for our family's daily needs. Renting land to grow vegetables in Beijing is certainly not cost-effective, but it yields not only vegetables and melons but also brings us much joy, letting us unconsciously slow our pace of life; that value far exceeds the produce itself.

I am a farmer's son and grew up working the land, so agriculture is no stranger to me. In my experience, to feed a family of three, one mu and one-third of a mu is plenty; the grain, vegetables, and melons from it may be more than we can eat. With proper planning, the vegetables, fruits, melons, beans, and staples from one mu and a third would be remarkably varied.

Having long dealt with the land, I feel especially grounded. Sociologists like to divide society into types, but to me, from ancient times to today, there are only two social models: the foraging-hunting society and the farming-pastoral society. As living creatures, the most important thing to us is food; with food we can survive. Our distant ancestors obtained food by gathering and hunting, but since humans domesticated plants and animals and developed farming, we have obtained food mainly through agriculture and animal husbandry.

My bottom line is survival, and that is easy to meet. Leaving aside the few mu of farmland I stand to inherit back home, even without it, renting an acre or two in the countryside costs little. In the last resort, I could still find a remote spot and, with a hoe, clear land and sow seeds; that too would feed my family. So I do not feel life is a pressure-filled thing, and there is nothing worth our anxiety.

My way of thinking resembles that of indigenous peoples in primitive tribes. Some anthropologists go to primitive tribes for fieldwork; at first they are astonished by the natives' way of thinking, and the natives are astonished by theirs too. To the natives, as long as there is food, friends, and family, life is good and there is nothing to grieve over. Scholars of civilized society envy this state of mind but cannot be as at ease as the natives; the scholars still have academic ambitions and a whole modern worldview underpinning them, and their fieldwork is also the completion of a research task. They must write reports to account to the institutions or individuals funding them. To the natives, these suited-and-booted civilized people, ever further from agriculture, are asking for trouble.

I have chosen a way of life between that of modern people and that of primitive natives. Primitive life has its benefits, and modern life has its. Primitive life relaxes the spirit, while modern life frees people from heavy physical toil. I believe that if a person can withdraw from competition in modern society, grow naturally rather than chase the rapid growth most modern people pursue, and at the same time embrace an idyllic life, his happiness index will undoubtedly be high.

I think as I think, and so I act; thus most of the time I am happy. I teach my child the same. I myself am not a quick-success person, and I do not demand that my child be quick; he may spend his whole life honing the work he loves. In the slow process of maturing, I hope he is as leisurely and carefree as possible, with broad interests and a rich life. As long as one has modest material demands, all the above goals are easy to achieve.

Career, like the vegetable plot, need not be huge; enough to meet one's needs is sufficient. If the plot is too large, the vegetables cannot be eaten and much effort is wasted; a career made too large has the same problem. Most of the time, our troubles come not from getting too little but from wanting too much.