Biography of the author: Liu Guangwei, Director of Research Center for Shiology, Renmin University of China; founder of the SHIOLOGY discipline system; President of Beijing Shiology Research Institute; Director-General of World Shiology Forum; Director of Expert Committee of Chinese Catering Brand Cluster.
Research fields: shiance issues, holistic management of shiance issues, shiology science system construction.
Abstract: The character "shi" in Chinese has a dual meaning including the verb "eat", as well as the noun "food". Thus, a new word "shi" which comes from Chinese character is created. And a formula is used to explain "shi": shi=eat+food. "Shiance" is a new term meaning the phenomena and activities of human food acquisition and utilization. Why "food is the paramount necessity of the people" but not "farming"? Because farming focuses on food while shiance focuses on eaters. Agronomy is a knowledge system established from the perspective of food production, while shiology is a knowledge system established from the perspective of eaters' needs. The content of agronomy is food domestication in the past 10000 years, and the content of shiology is the survival and health of human individuals, the harmonious coexistence of groups and the sustainable development of populations for 5.5 million years. Agronomy represents a partial understanding of shiance, and shiology is the whole cognition of shiance. Shiology is a larger knowledge system covering all human shiance issues, and it is a global public product to solve human shiance issues. In modern society, the separation of cognition between food acquisition and utilization has led to a lot of serious social issues, which have drawn great attention from the academic community. Shiology is short for "shiance science". This paper discusses the basic contents of building an independent shiology knowledge system, introduces the basic scientific system of shiology (3-13-36) with its definition, task and structure, and explains the important significance of building it.
Key words: food; eater; shiance; shiology; shiance issues; knowledge system
The integrity of shiance issues
The wholeness of the shiance issue refers to the interconnectedness of its various parts. The shiance issues are the main contradictions of human survival, development and sustainability, which have not been reduced by the progress of civilization and are more complicated than ever before. The shiance issues cannot be comprehensively and thoroughly solved by the existing relevant disciplines because many issues are generated in the environment of modern culture, science and technology. As the Chinese proverb goes, "food is the paramount necessity of the people", why not say "farming is the paramount necessity of the people"? Because farming is food oriented, while shiance takes the eaters as the center. Farming is conceptualized from the perspective of food production, while shiance is conceptualized from the perspective of the eaters' needs. Farming is about food domestication in the past 10 000 years, yet shiance regards the survival and health of eaters in about 5.5 million years as its content. How many issues do humans have with "shi"? It cannot be clarifed from the perspective of "farming" or "food". All the issues can only be found from the perspective of shiance. The shiance issues are not only linked to 2.7 billion tons of grain, but also to the health and longevity of 8 billion people, world peace and the sustainable development of mankind.
Starting with a few basic concepts
Grain is defined as a general term for edible cereals, beans and tubers in the Modern Chinese Dictionary. It is the core type of food for human survival, but not the whole content of food. The core aspect of grain security is its quantity, which is the basic bottom line for human survival.
Food is defined by the Modern Chinese Dictionary as edible substances. Human food is divided into four groups, namely plants, animals, microorganisms and minerals. In the last 200 years, synthetic foods have been introduced into the human food chain, becoming the ffth category of food. Food includes grain, food products, vegetables, fruits, meat and eggs, drinks, oral drugs and other substances. The primary function of food is to satisfy hunger, while some foods also have medicinal properties. People refer to foods that only have the function of treating illnesses as oral medicine. Food product is defined as processed food for sale according to the Modern Chinese Dictionary. The safety problem of food products is a quality problem. There are very few quality and safety problems found in natural foods. Often, food safety problems are manmade, and people tend to create problems with left hands and solve them with right hands, like a game of cat and mouse. Over time, safety problems of food product become increasingly diffcult to solve.Farming, defined by the Modern Chinese Dictionary as all kinds of work in agricultural production, is the phenomenon and activities of human planting and breeding.
Farming is the artifcial control of animal and plant reproduction, also known as domestication. The objects of farming domestication are mainly plants and animals with the functions of food. Farming has a history of over 10 000 years and is the major component of agricultural civilization.Agriculture is defined in the Modern Chinese Dictionary as the production of growing crops and raising livestock.
Agriculture refers to the social system composed of corporate entities and individuals engaged in planting and breeding. In China's national economic life, agriculture also includes forestry, animal husbandry, fishing and rural sideline production. In recent decades, the connotation and extension of agriculture have been continuously changing.
Shiance is not included in the Modern Chinese Dictionary. In ancient Chinese, there is a word "shiance", which is rarely used and mostly refers to eating and drinking. In this article, the word "shiance" is used to express the phenomena and activities of human food acquisition and utilization. Shiance encompasses not only the eating, drinking, survival and health of the eaters, but also the planting, breeding, cooking and fermentation of food, as well as the law, economy, administration, education and so on to maintain shiance order. Shiance is paramount for human survival and an important content of human civilization. Throughout human history, shiance has preceded and laid the foundation for civilization itself. Shiance industry, a rare phrase which is occasionally used in society, refers to the social system composed of corporate entities and individuals engaged in food acquisition and utilization. Shiance industry is a broad concept that includes agriculture, food processing industry, catering industry, beverage industry and other food related industries. The "sixth industry" is actually "shiance industry" (Imamura, 2010). The theory of the "division of three industries" leads to the name "sixth industry," which does not accurately refect the characteristics of the object and is therefore inaccurate. It is a historical necessity to replace the concept of the "sixth industry" with the concept of "shiance industry". The shiance industry is not new but an old and long-established industry, and the frst industry of human beings. In ancient times, there was only shiance industry. Today, the concept of shiance industry is brought back and reactivated, which is closer to objective reality and conducive to problem solving. No matter how developed the human society has become, the principle of "shiance industry should take priority over other industries". Only by adhering to the principle of shiance industry first, can the society be harmonious and the people be healthy.
Eater is the subject of shiance. The Modern Chinese Dictionary does not include the term "eater" and it is necessary to establish this concept in the study of shiance. In this article, "eater" is defned as an individual person having eating needs. "Eater" is the concept to recognize individuals and humans from perspectives of eating, individual survival and health, as well as group harmony and continuity. As a dimension of human nature, eaters are the core of shiance researches. From the eater' point of view, the mainly problem is survival, health and longevity.
Shiance industry professionals refer to people whose occupation is shiance, including those engaged in food production, processing, storage and transportation, as well as in shiance law, administration and education. The shiance industry professionals are also eaters themselves, and their mission is to ensure the quantity, quality and variety of food supply for eaters. Shiance industry professionals form a large group, and now more than 50% of human productivity is devoted to meeting the eating needs. In China, before the agricultural civilization, everyone was a shiance industry professional. Even today, shiance industry professionals are still the largest industrial group of mankind. The interests of shiance industry professionals and eaters are closely linked. In modern society, only the interests of the shiance industry professionals are safeguarded, can the interests of the majority of eaters be protected, and the eating needs of other industries professionals be ensured.
The connotation and extension of the above concepts show that food is broader than grain, food products are broader than processed foods, shiance is broader than farming, and eaters are broader than shiance industry professionals. The relationships among these fve groups of concepts are belonging rather than parallel. Clarifying relationships in these fve groups of concepts is a prerequisite for the study of shiance and shiance-related issues.
Establishment of concepts of shiance and shiance issues In reality, the problem of food acquisition and the eater's health is inseparably linked. For example, insuffcient food quantity can lead to hunger, while poor food quality can lead to diarrhea. Food acquisition is essential for the survival and health of eaters, and maintaining their well-being requires food acquisition. Actually, the problems of food acquisition and the eaters' health are both within a larger "cauldron". This "cauldron" is a big whole, a big system, an objective existence that has been lasting for more than 5.5 million years. However, it has not been discovered before, so there was no concept to describe it, and no name for it.
The proper naming of the "cauldron" is the frst step towards recognizing it. Using concepts such as food, food product, eating, farming, agriculture, nutrition and health is not appropriate as they are narrow and do not fully capture the essence of this complex entity. Therefore, a new concept is needed. The ancient Chinese concept, shi-related affairs are proposed to express this "cauldron". There is no direct English term equivalent for shi-related affairs, the new English word "shiance" combining "shi" and the English suffix "-ance" is suggested. With the concept of shiance, all human activities and phenomena related to food can be fully expressed, enabling us to understand, analyze and study it. The establishment of the concept of shiance is a significant milestone in human understanding of the objective world.
Shiance issues refer to all the contradictions and difficulties that arise during the acquisition and utilization of food. These issues represent the fundamental, sustainable challenges of human survival. Out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations, 12 are related to shiance issues (United Nations, 2015/2022). Among the five major issues of environment, population, resources, poverty and peace faced by mankind today, the main contents of population and poverty are shiance issues, while the parts of environment, resources and peace belong to shiance issues. The three main paradigms of human civilization, namely farming civilization, nomadic civilization, and hunting and fishing civilization, are all named after shiance. Civilization is born out of the response to shiance issues, and the ability to address shiance issues is crucial for the continuation of civilization. However, the importance of the relationship between shiance and civilization has often been underestimated.
Shiance issues are not only a local problem, but also a global problem including problems of food acquisition, eater's health, etc. The shiance issues are a big system. The "big grain" issue is a food issue, and the "big food" issue is a shiance issue. Therefore, it can be concluded that food issues are broader than grain issues, food issues are broader than issues of food products, and the shiance issues are broader than food issues. The shiance issues are equal to the issues of food, eaters and eating behavior.
Food is often referred to as the "paramount necessity" for people, but how significant is this "paramount necessity"? Globally, "shiance issues" not only involve 2.7 billion tons of grain, but also impact the survival and health of 8 billion people. In terms of health management, shiance issues mainly relate to causing and treating illnesses. The primary strategy of health management is "prevention first," and dietary management is an important aspect of this approach. Health management has two stages: pre-disease management and post-disease management. While medicine mainly focuses on post-disease management, shiology is a knowledge system that emphasizes pre-disease management. Food nourishment and therapeutic diets are also essential in the postdisease management stage. A reasonable diet is the foundation of survival and health. Satiety depends on the quantity of food, while eating well is a matter of quality and type of food, and eating healthily is a matter of the method of eating. Shiology affects a person's health throughout their life, while medicine can only intervene during illness. In addition to providing energy and satiety, food also has a complex relationship with causing and treating diseases and managing health, which is often overlooked. Health management is not just about medical treatment, a systematic knowledge system of shiology is also necessary.
In general, people are more likely to spot problems when they are in a higher position. By taking a global perspective, local issues can be identified. Agricultural issues can be identified from the shiance perspective, and issues related to agriculture can be identified from the shiance industry perspective. Moving from "grain issues" to "food issues," and then to "shiance issues" represents a progression from a partial understanding to a holistic understanding.
Dispersibility of shiance cognition
Based on the above analysis, it can be concluded that shiance is a whole and shiance issues are also a whole. However, human cognition of shiance and shiance issues has not yet formed a complete knowledge system. The human cognition of shiance can be analyzed from the perspective of time and space. From the perspective of time, human cognition of shiance has never stopped. Its prominent feature is quantification. Shiance cognition is an important force to promote the progress of human civilization. From the perspective of space, shiance knowledge is essential for the survival of human beings in different regions, but is often fragmented due to differences in cultural background and geographic conditions. Therefore, shiance knowledge is an important component of different ethnic cultures.
Since the industrial era, people have divided the contents of shiance cognition into different disciplines, and established the knowledge system of agriculture, food science and nutrition in the modern scientific system, which has greatly advanced the progress of shiance cognition in this field. This has led to the revelation of more objective laws of shiance, and has contributed greatly to solving the shiance issues of human beings, particularly the sharp increase in food demand caused by the rapid population growth in modern times.
However, there are some problems in the knowledge system formed by these disciplines. First, they mainly focus on food production and are relatively weak in food utilization. Second, agronomy, food science and nutrition belong to different upper science categories, and there are numerous gaps between each of them. In other words, the cognition of shiance in modern scientifc system is fragmented, and does not fully cover the problems of human shiance. In modern society, the separation of cognition between food acquisition and utilization has led to a lot of serious social issues, which have drawn great attention from the academic community.
In the Japanese education community, there is a growing awareness of shiance as a whole. Many colleges and universities are beginning to recognize the importance of a comprehensive approach to shiance. For instance, Miyagi University has merged the departments of farm economics, food economics and environmental systems into the department of food industry. Similarly, the Toyo University combines subjects related to food, nutrition and health to form the department of food and environmental sciences. From the issues faced by mankind and the planet in the 21st century, Tokyo University of Agriculture has set up the food and agriculture museum based on the connection of food, environment, health and resources. Starting from the two elements of "food" and "agriculture", which are indispensable for human life, Yonggok University combines a series of elements of "production", "cultivation", "harvest", "processing" and "circulation" to put forward the theory of "food cycle". Ritsumeikan University has established the "college of gastronomy management", which points out that the "gastronomy arts & sciences" consists of three felds: A, studying food management related to food organization, business management, policy and other issues; B, learning the world's food culture of from the perspectives of various cultures, history and geography; and C, a comprehensive learning system in the field of food technology, which considers food ingredients, internal intake function and safe and delicious eating. From the changes in the setting of divisions and disciplines in the above six universities, it can be seen that everyone is constantly "broadening" the original feld according to the objective needs, and no university is narrowing the original field. This practice of "broadening" the scope of "food" is an active exploration of the overall cognition of shiance issues.
In the 21st century, it is humanity's historical responsibility to comprehensively and thoroughly solve shiance issues, rather than leaving them for future generations to address. Finding a solution to these issues is a major topic for global shiance experts and scholars, who must develop an overall solution that not only addresses current problems, but also takes into account future ones. The food system, which encompasses the integrity of food production, processing, storage, consumption and other links, is a part of the shiance system but smaller in scope. It is a concept that reflects objective existence, but it does not include a knowledge system.
How should we deal with such huge shiance issues? Do humans have the wisdom and ability to comprehensively and thoroughly solve shiance issues? It can be analyzed from two aspects: frst, from a theoretical perspective, only comprehensive understanding of shiance issues can lead to a comprehensive solution. Therefore, it's needed to construct a comprehensive knowledge system for understanding shiance issues, and get rid of the passive situation of partial cognition, which is a prerequisite for a comprehensive and thorough solution to shiance issues; second, from a practical perspective, only by discovering the consensus of human shiance issues can humans unite their efforts towards solving them. "Everyone needs food, and need it every day, food is for longevity, food is for heirs, food comes from the same origin" are the five consensuses of the global villagers, forming a huge force and becoming the driving force to correct improper shiance behaviors.The knowledge system of overall understanding of shiance issues and the consensus of 8 billion global villagers on food issues are the two keys to comprehensively and thoroughly solve the shiance issues of humanity.
Constructing Knowledge System of the Overall Cognition of Shiance
SShiance cognition refers to human's subjective reflection of shiance object. Shiance cognition system is a theoretical tool to solve shiance issues. Without shiance cognition, there is no solution to the solving of shiance issues. Human's cognition of shiance determines the ability to solve shiance issues. With a history of 7 000 years of civilization and brilliant history of science and technology, human beings have climbed one scientific peak after another. However, why humans, as mammals, have not yet lived as long as mammals should live? As a link in the food chain, why should human beings aggravate the interference with the ecology, so as to threaten their own survival and racial continuity? Why are 800 million people in the world still hungry, and why has no world order been established that takes care of everyone's food interests? The fundamental reason is that there is no comprehensive and integrated cognition of shiance, and there is no complete cognitive system. It hinders the overall grasp of objective shiance and restricts the ability to solve the shiance issues thoroughly.
How to understand human shiance more comprehensively and accurately? How to correctly understand the important value of shiance in the course of human civilization evolution? How to better play and use the great power of human shiance consensus? How to better solve many shiance issues faced by human beings? It is not enough to rely only on the traditional cognition system. In order to deal with the objective shiance as a whole, it is necessary to establish a whole knowledge system of cognition shiance. As mentioned above, the cognitive shiance knowledge system can be thought as a "big cauldron lid." What is the name of the big cauldron lid? Since it is a knowledge system of cognition of "shiance", it is named "shiology".
Shiology, taking shiance as the research object, carries out the overall study of human shiance issues, so as to establish the knowledge system. Shiology is a whole knowledge system with new contents, aiming at dealing with shiance issues and revealing the formation rules of shiance issues. The value of constructing the scientifc system of shiology is great. It is a golden key to solve the shiance issues of mankind today and in the future. It is also a global public product to solve the shiance issues of mankind (Ni, 2020).
Science is defined in the Modern Chinese Dictionary as a system of knowledge about a particular subject that reflects the objective rules of nature, society, thinking, etc. In short, science is the knowledge system that reveals objective rules in which there are three requirements: A, revealing objective laws; B, subjecting; and C, forming a knowledge system. Shiology meets the three requirements of science. Firstly, shiology is aimed at revealing objective laws in shiance; secondly, shiology is an independent discipline that studies different felds related to shiance; fnally, shiology establishes a comprehensive knowledge system to address shiance issues.
Definition of shiology
In order to accurately establish the definition of shiology, based on logic, the connotation and extension of this knowledge system can be more accurately determined by analyzing the four dimensions of relation, function, essence and occurrence (Li, 2011).
From the essence point of view, shiology is a knowledge system to reveal the objective law of human shiance. Shiology is a rigorous logical knowledge system composed of a series of concepts and judgments of human cognition of shiance.
From the perspective of survival, shiology is a knowledge system which studies the contents of shiance and fnding the law of shiance.From the functional point of view, shiology is a knowledge system that studies and solves human shiance issues. Understanding the issues is the premise of solving the issues, the purpose of understanding the issues is to solve the issues. Shiology is a knowledge system aimed at solving shiance issues in the process of understanding shiance issues. Solving the shiance issues of human is the only reason for the existence of shiology.
From the perspective of relationship, shiology is a science that studies the relationship and rules between people and food (Liu, 2014). Shiology not only studies the microscopic process of energy conversion between human body and food, but also studies the macroscopic process of harmonious coexistence between human behavior and food ecology, including individual shiance healthy relationship, group shiance harmonious relationship and shiance symbiotic relationship.
From the perspective of occurrence, shiology is a knowledge system that studies the occurrence, development and law of human shiance behavior. Shiology is a knowledge system that studies the causal relationship between human shiance behavior and shiance issue. Shiology is a knowledge system that studies and inherits human's correct shiance behaviors, corrects improper shiance behaviors and maintains sustainable development.
The defining of shiology clarifies the nature of science, as well as the direction, contents and tasks of scientific researches. As for the English translation of "shiology", since there is no corresponding word in the existing English concepts, a new English word "eatology" was constructed in 2013, which is a combination of English word "eat" and English suffxes "-ology". It is used to translate Chinese "shi xue" and has been publicly used many times. With the deepening of the study of "shiology", "eating science" as the subdiscipline of "shiology" appeares. In order to comprehensively solve the translation problem, a new word "shiology" is used, which is a combination of the Chinese pinyin "shi" (the Chinese word for food) and English suffixes -ology, and the original word eatology is used to translate "chi xue" ("eating science").
The Modern Chinese Dictionary defines agronomy as the study of agricultural production, including crop cultivation, breeding, soil, meteorology, fertilizer, agricultural pests and diseases. Agronomy is the study of agriculture. Agronomy is the artificial control of animal and plant reproduction and theknowledge system of animal and plant domestication. Agronomy is a partial cognition of shiance and shiology is a whole cognition of shiance. Due to different expressions and content ranges of agriculture in national economy of different countries, the connotation and extension of the definition of agronomy are also different.
Tasks of shiology
The scientific question of shiology is "how to construct the relationship between shiance and civilization"? It includes three aspects: the relationship between shiance and individual, between shiance and group, and between shiance and population. The basic task of shiology is to solve the shiance issues. Specifcally, it is to solve the problem of insufficient life span of human beings, the problem of social conflict and the problem of ecological confict of shiance, that is to prolong individual lifespan, optimize social order and maintain the continuation of population.
The frst basic task of shiology is to extend the life span of individual human beings, that is to say, to extend the healthy life span of everyone, so that "shiology is the study for the public, and is the study for the people." The relationship between eating and individual health has three aspects, namely, food quantity, food quality and eating methods. The frst aspect is to ensure the quantity of food available. According to the statistics of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the latest forecast of the total global grain production in 2022 was 2.764 billion tons (FAO, 2022), which was 345.5 kg per capita based on the global population of 8 billion. However, 821 million people are still hungry due to serious problems such as the gap between the rich and poor, food waste, food diverted for other purposes, imbalance and inadequacy. The second aspect is to ensure the quality of food. The quality of food in modern food production is threatened by pollution and excessive chemical addition. Food faces these two threats at every stage of its production, processing and transportation. The third aspect is the correct eating methods. To eat healthily, it is not enough to rely only on the quantity and quality of food, but also need to have the correct methods to eat. Satiety is a matter of quantity of food, eating well is a matter of quality and type of food, and eating healthy is a matter of eating methods. Eating can both cause diseases and cure diseases. The core content of eating methods is to respect the differences of each individual, to meet your own unique gastrointestinal and physical needs, to pay attention to the three stages, namely before, during and after meals to achieve an overall management, shiology not only instructs humans to reach the average life span of mammals, but also to reach the maximum life span of mammals by correct eating methods.
The second basic task of shiology is to optimize the social order. Shiance order is the organization and continuity of human shiance, which is the basis of the whole order of human society. To build a harmonious and just world shiance order is the basis for the harmony of human society. The distribution of food resources is the origin of human social order. Food shortage and uneven possession of food resources are the main factors of human social conficts. From the point of view of Chinese history, the peasant revolts of all dynasties were caused by shiance. With the development of human science and economy, transportation and trade, the formation of the world shiance order is accelerating. It is needed to actively study and control this system, break out of the limitation of the world shiance order formed by the board of directors of several business groups, and establish a world shiance order that takes care of the interests of 8 billion people (Guterres, 2022), so that the production and distribution of food can be more balanced, to reduce various conflicts caused by food resources. So that everyone can eat enough, eat well and live a healthy life and a harmonious shiance order will promote the progress of the overall order of human society.
The third basic task of shiology is to maintain the continuation of the population. A total of 107.6 billion people has lived on the Earth for 5.5 million years, with the global population reaching 8 billion in November 2022. When the world population reaches tens of billions, it will be unmatched at any other time in history, and human demand for food will reach an unprecedented height. The sharp increase of food demand will hit the ceiling of maternal food productivity, and the food resource scarcity will be shown up quickly, the conflict between human shiance and ecology will be increasingly intensified. When food resources are out of balance with human food demands, human culture and civilization will be under great threat. This is an important factor threatening the sustainable development of mankind. It is not coal, electricity, oil, natural gas and other resources that threaten the sustainable development of mankind as these resources are living resources, not surviving resources. Twelve out of 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are related to shiance issues. It can be said that the sustainable development of mankind cannot be realized unless the shiance issues are effectively solved.
Structure of shiology
To construct the structure of a knowledge system, three elements of eaters' health, food acquisition and shiance order are selected to form the basic structure of shiology. This structure can cover all shiance issues and can lead the network of shiance cognition system. In order to accurately express the relationship and function among the above three factors, as well as to facilitate memory, a triangle of eaters' health, food acquisition and shiance order is formed, named the "shiology triangle" (Fig. 1).
The "eaters' health" in Fig. 1 is determined from the perspective of people, from the needs of people and from the health of people. The process of food entering the mouth to absorpting, utilizing and discharging is only ten meters long in the human body. Although it is very short, it has very rich connotations, including body composition, energy release, information transmission and waste discharge. This contains infnite secrets, including survival, health, longevity three aspects, which is the embodiment of food utilization effciency.
The "food acquisition" in Fig. 1 is determined from the point of view of the object and the acquisition of food. It's a long chain from the food source to the table, including food wildly acquisition, domestication, processing, circulation and other fields. It's a big industry chain—the shiance industry. Food acquisition is the field to guarantee the quantity and quality of human food, and is the embodiment of food production effciency.
The "shiance order" in Fig. 1 is determined from the perspective of human's shiance behavior and the harmony of human's internal and external relations. Through regulating the shiance behavior to adjust the three contradictions: the first one is to adjust the contradictions and conflicts between food acquisition and the health of the eaters; the second is to mediate the food contradictions and conflicts among people; the third one is to adjust the contradiction and conflict between human shiance and ecology. Regulating shiance behavior involves many fields, such as economy, law, administration, education and custom, whose core is to inherit correct shiance behaviors and correct improper shiance behaviors.
From Fig. 1, it can be seen that the health of the eaters is the core, and both food acquisition and shiance order serve the health of the eaters. The relationship between food acquisition and the health of the eaters is the relationship between means and ends, that is, food acquisition is for the health of the eaters, which is based on the quality and quantity of food supply. Before this, the cognition among the health of the eaters, food acquisition and shiance order was separated and scattered, each holding one's own opinion and doing his own thing. All of them are absolutely correct within their own theoretical system. And when the three are integrated, one can find the embarrassment of "the blind men touching the elephant". One also can fnd many dislocations and blanks of past cognition. At the same time, there will be a "different insight" of the surprise, and one can fnd that many problems in the past are just so.
Basic system of shiology science
In order to fully understand the object of shiance, a knowledge system covering shiance comprehensively should be initially established. The basic system of shiology science is composed of "3-13-36", which is a four-level system consisting of shiology, shiology second-level subjects, shiology third-level subjects and fourth-level subjects. Among them, "3" refers to the three secondary subjects, namely, the science of eaters' health, the science of food acquisition and the science of shiance order, which support the shiology triangle; "13" refers to 13 third-level subjects such as food ecology; and "36" refers to the 36 fourth-level subjects such as food cultivation. This system is the 1.0 version of the basic system of food science, to be further studied after continuous iteration.
The secondary subjects of shiology are composed of three fulcrums of the shiology triangle, namely, eaters' health science, food acquisition science and shiance order science. The third-level subjects are a cognitive system composed of 13 basic shiance ·10·Journal of Northeast Agricultural University (English Edition)paradigms (Fig. 2).
Eaters' health science
The Eaters’ Health Science is a knowledge system that studies the relationship between human survival, food and eating methods. The Eaters’ Health Science is a people-oriented knowledge system covering all the cognitions in the field of food utilization. Food utilization is the core of human shiance. Generally speaking, the ultimate goal of all forms of food acquisition is food utilization, and the efficiency of food utilization is reflected in the health and longevity of the eaters. The essence of the eaters' health science is to study the health and longevity of each person from the aspects of food, eating methods, eating diseases and treating diseases by eating. The ideas of "binary cognition of food", "binary cognition of body", "eating before medical treatment", "three stages of dining", "five aesthetic senses of eating", "six kinds of dining diseases" and "three kinds of dining therapies" in the eaters' health science make this subject have rich connotation. The eaters' health science covers three third-level subjects, namely, eaters' demands science, food composition science and eatology.
The eaters' demands science is a knowledge system which studies the relationship and rules among human body structure, attributes and food. Each individual is not the same, each person's body needs for food are not the same. Every day and every hour, each person's food demands and the way of eating are not the same. The science of eaters' demands studies the differences of individual needs on the basis of the commonness of group needs. There are two fourth-level subjects under the science of eaters' demands, which are eaters' physical conditions science and easters' physiological structure science. The science of eaters' demands is a knowledge system integrating East and West cognitions.
The food composition science is a knowledge system that studies all the internal characteristics and rules of food. Food contains a variety of components that have effects on human body, they should be recognized from multiple dimensions, not just limited to the result of visual cognition.The food composition science includes two subjects, namely, food nature science and food element science. The food composition science is a knowledge system integrating East and West cognitions.
Eatology, also known as food transformation science, is a knowledge system that studies the relationship and rules between eating matters and individual health and longevity. Eatology is a knowledge system that studies the relationship between eatables, eating methods, physical health and longevity of human beings. Eatology is the study of how to eat for health and longevity, and how to feed yourself well. Eatology has the functions of transferring muscle, alleviating hunger and curing diseases, but also has the harm of causing diseases. There are fve subjects under the jurisdiction of eatology, which are eating methodology science, dining aesthetics science, dining diseases science, eating therapeutics with food of imbalanced nature science and eating therapeutics with synthetic food science.
Food acquisition science
The food acquisition science is a knowledge system that covers all cognitions about food acquisition. Food acquisition is a long-time activity that has been accompanied by human survival and development. It has been millions of years since the picking, hunting, fishing and collecting activities of primitive humans. The establishment of food acquisition science; however, is today's story. Food acquisition science studies the objective laws of human behaviors in obtaining food from 5.5 million years of historical space. It is different from agronomy, and has a higher perspective and a wider vision than agronomy. The food acquisition science consists of seven third-level subjects: food ecology science, food direct acquisition science, food domestication science, artifcial food science, food processing science, food circulation science and shiance tools science.
The food ecology science is a knowledge system that studies the relationship between human beings and food sources and its rules. From the perspective of food sources, the food ecology science studies the dependence of human food on the earth ecology, the harm and disturbance of human shiance to the ecology, emphasizes the finiteness of food ecological productivity, which is to maintain the sustainability of food ecology. Food ecology science consists of two subjects, namely, food ecological conservation science and food ecological restoration science. Food ecology science is an interdisciplinary knowledge system.
The food direct acquisition science is a knowledge system that studies various ways and rules to obtain wild food. The paradigm of human dependence on wild food is more than 5.5 million years, and from this perspective, the human stomach is more adapted to wild food. There are four subjects under food direct acquisition science: food picking science, food hunting science, food fishing science and food collecting science. Food direct acquisition science is the synthesis of the inherent knowledge system.
The food domestication science is a knowledge system that studies the ways and rules of artifcial control of wild edible animals, plants and microorganisms. The paradigm of food acquisition through domestication is about 10 000 years old and is the dominant form of food acquisition for contemporary humans, and domesticated food is the main content of contemporary human food. The food domestication science consists of three subjects: food planting science, food farming science and food culturing science. Food domestication is an inherent knowledge system.
The artificial food science is a knowledge system that studies the artificial ways to produce edible substances that are not found in nature and their rules. This food acquisition paradigm is only 200 years, and artificial foods are outsiders and latecomers to the human food chain. The main method of artificial food is chemical synthesis, and artifcial control of cell reproduction is not yet popular. The artificial food science includes two subjects: food conditioning synthesis science and body-tonifying synthetic food science.
The food processing science is a knowledge system to study the improvement of food utilization value and its rules. The purpose of processing food is to satisfy palatability, health, convenience and so on. People generally use physical and microbial ways to process food, and the physical way can be divided into thermal and non-thermal processing methods. Food processing science includes three subjects: food fragmentation science, food cooking science and food fermentation science. Food processing science is an inherent knowledge system.
The food circulation science is a knowledge system that studies the time and space management of food and its rules. The overall efficiency of food management can be improved by the means of storage, transportation and packaging. Food circulation science includes three subjects: food storage science, food transportation science and food packaging science. Food circulation science is an interdisciplinary knowledge system.
Shiance tools science is a knowledge system to study the use of tools to improve the artificial efficiency of food and its rules, by studying the making and use of tools in food acquisition, production, processing, storage and transportation, including eating and drinking utensils. There are two subjects under shiance tools science, namely, shiance manual tools science and shiance power tools science. Shiance tools science is an interdisciplinary knowledge system.
Shiance order science
The shiance order science is a knowledge system which studies the rational and logics, continuity and rules of human shiance behaviors. At present, there is still a lot of room for optimization of the shiance order of human beings. In terms of individuals, it is necessary to optimize the order of eating and health, while in terms of groups, it is the order of social food resources and public possession, and in terms of population, it is the order of food and ecology. Shiance order is composed of shiance behaviors. How to correct improper shiance behaviors continuously and how to inherit correct shiance behaviors comprehensively is the starting point of constructing shiance order science. Human shiance behaviors should follow the objective law of food maternal system and food transformation system to maintain harmony and continuity. The construction of harmonious order of human shiance should focus on two aspects: restraint and education. The shiance order science includes three third-level subjects: shiance governance science, shiance education and cultivation science and shiance history science.
The shiance governance science is a knowledge system that studies the use of coercive means to regulate human shiance behaviors. By using coercive means to correct human improper shiance behaviors, optimize shiance order, to avoid and reduce the occurrence of shiance issues. The science of shiance governance includes four subjects: shiance economic science, shiance law science, shiance administration science and shiance digital control science. The shiance governance science is an interdisciplinary knowledge system.
The shiance education and cultivation science is a knowledge system which studies the use of soft means to regulate human shiance behaviors. By using education to inherit correct shiance behaviors and correct improper behaviors, to inherit excellent shiance customs and to discard bad shiance customs. The shiance education and cultivation science consists of two subjects: shiance education science and shiance customs science. The shiance education and cultivation science is an interdisciplinary knowledge system.
The shiance history science is a knowledge system that studies human past shiance behaviors and its rules. Drawing on the experience of predecessors in the aspects of food health, food acquisition, food order, etc., to guide the shiance behavior of today's human beings. Shiance history science includes two subjects: wild food history science and domesticated food history science. Shiance history science is an interdisciplinary knowledge system.
There are 36 fourth-level subjects below the 13 third-level subjects of the shiology (Fig. 3). Due to the limited space of this paper, they will not be discussed in detail.
Subject coding of shiology
Shiology is a newly constructed system, the content is huge and complex, among which there are more than one hundred fifth-level subjects. For the convenience of retrieval and searching and more in-depth research, the author has drawn up a shiology subject coding system, which corresponds to the coding system of shiance issues. The shiology coding consists of two English letters and six digits. The two letters are SS, abbreviation of shiology subject. The six digits represent the subject and subject levels, the frst digit is the frst-level subject, which is shiology; the second number is the second level of shiology; the third number is the third-level of shiology; the fourth number is the fourth-level subject; and the fifth and sixth digits are fifth-level subject codes. For example, the frstlevel subject code is shiology [SS100000]; the secondlevel shology subject codes are eaters' health science [SS110000], food acquisition science [SS120000], shiance order science [SS130000]; another example is the subject codes of third-level shiology subjects: eaters' demands science [SS111000], food composition science [SS112000], eatology [SS113000], food ecology science [SS121000], food direct acquisition science [SS122000], food domestication science [SS123000], artificial food science [SS124000], food processing science [SS125000], food circulation science [SS126000], shiance tools science [SS127000], shiance governance science [SS131000], shiance education and cultivation science [SS132000] and food history science [SS133000].
Signifcance of Constructing Shiology Scientifc System
Shiology is a brand-new knowledge system, shiance is closely related to everyone's health and life, and the sustainable development of human society. The establishment of shiology not only has academic value in comprehensively understanding shiance issues, but also has practical value in solving them. It is not only valuable in guiding individual health, but also in guiding the overall direction of humanity.
Looking at the current situation in China, solving food safety problems cannot rely solely on food science, but requires a systematic knowledge system of shiology. Achieving the healthy China strategy cannot rely only on medicine, but also requires a systematic knowledge system of shiology. Achieving the rural revitalization strategy cannot rely solely on agronomy, but also requires a systematic knowledge system of shiology. "Food as the paramount necessity" emphasizes the importance, "food security is a paramount political issue" emphasizes the priority, and "governance with shiology" emphasizes solving thoroughly. To achieve the sustainable development of humanity, a systematic knowledge system of shiology is needed.
Specifically, the value of shiology is reflected in eight aspects: firstly, constructing an overall cognitive system of human shiance; secondly, proposing a holistic solution to human shiance issues; thirdly, clarifying the relationship between shiance and all other matters; fourthly, supporting the sustainable development of humanity; fifthly, greatly improving the effciency of human shiance; sixthly, potentially prolonging the lifespan of each person; seventhly, proposing a sustainable industry division method; and eighthly, putting forward the theory of the "shiance industry civilization era" (Bai, 2020).
Constructing the whole cognitive system of human shiance
Before the establishment of the scientific system of shiology, human beings have no overall cognition of shiance, and its state presentes quantification, fragmentation and seperation, which brings many misunderstandings and blind areas. Such quantified, fragmented and seperated cognition is just like the "blind man touching the elephant" in the fable story, the result of cognition is partial rather than the whole. The "3-13-36" shiology system breaks out of the cognitive limitations of related shiance subjects in the modern scientific system, and summarizes the eaters' health. Food acqusition and shiance order into a whole for the first time. At the same time, observing the shaince from a higher perspective, the "3-13-36" system gives an integrated cognition and sorting of human shiance.
Under the guidance of the "3-13-36" overall cognitive system, shiology has woven a big net to catch all the shiance issues, and has found some theoretical and practical errors, filled some blind spots that can not be seen in the past, which will bring a lot of surprises. The establishment of the scientifc system of shiology has made human bid farewell to the cognitive limitation of "blind man feeling the elephant", and the value of the whole cognition is greater than the sum of the partial cognitions. The establishment of independent knowledge system of shiance is the supplement and perfection of modern scientifc system.
Proposing a holistic solution to the human shiance issues
Shiology is not a subject from theory to theory, it is a very grounded theoretical system. It is born to meet the needs of practice, to solve the shiance issues that have plagued mankind for millions of years. The function of shiology is to replace partial cognition with overall cognition. Using the overall cognitive system to deal with shiance issues can achieve twice the results with half the efforts.
Human shiance issues are divided into local problems and overall problems. Over the years, people have tended to solve shiance issues from a local perspective, like a "railway policeman only in charge his own section", and there are often no solutions to the overall shiance issues. The root cause is the lack of an overall governance system, which leads to "treating the symptoms rather than getting to the root of the problem". No overall cognition, no overall vision; no overall vision, no overall thinking; and no overall thinking, no overall governance. The establishment of the scientific system of shiology provides a solid theoretical foundation for the overall, comprehensive, thorough and sustainable management of shiance issues.
Clarifying the relationship between shiance and all other matters
An important contribution of shiology is to clarify the relationship between shiance and other matters. In the current situation, shiance should be put first. If other matters come first, it will threaten the survival and sustainability of mankind. Civilization comes from food. Shiance has a long history, civilization is the later. Shiance should be put in the priority position, every other things should be followed. Food breeds civilization, and food can also destroy civilization. Shiance is the source of the six elements of human civilization, which is a persistent objective rule that cannot be changed. After the rise of industrial civilization, the rapid developments of science and technology have satisfied the desires of human beings, resulting in increasing desires of other matters. Under the operating mechanism of commercial society, people often unconsciously make the decision of "other matters first", and putting shiance behind them. For example, the emergence of fast food is to compress the time of shiance for the sake of other matters, ignoring the needs of the food transformation system. Thus, the health of human body is threatened and harmed. The social conficts, population explosion, environmental damage, inadequate life expectancy and other problems faced by human beings today are the root causes of the "other matters frst" behavior, which will not only reduce the overall operating effciency of the society, but also threaten individual health, group harmony and the sustainability of the population. In the relationship between shiance and other matters, shiology gives a clear answer to the priority of shiance, which is a great contribution of shiology.
Providing support for the sustainable development of mankind
In 2015, the United Nations adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the period of 2015-2030. Among the 17 SDGs, 12 are closely related to shiance. Shiology is not only consistent with the SDGs of the United Nations in the fields involved, but also coincides with the governance methods proposed by the United Nations to "thoroughly manage the social, economic and environmental dimensions of the sustainable development in an integrated manner". The shiance issues are major obstacles threatening the sustainable development of mankind.
There is a basic idea in shiology: "if the shiance issues cannot be solved completely, the sustainable development of mankind cannot be realized". Shiology is concerned with the sustainability of both human populations and the maternal food system. Shiology believes that no matter how advanced the development of science and technology, human beings cannot leave the beautiful home of the earth. A serious study of how humans can live in better harmony with the food system is the way to long-term stability. Shiology, which maintains two sustainable concepts, will help human beings to adjust their previous development ideas, reflect on some of their wrong behaviors, and contribute to the sustainable development of human beings and ecological environment.
Greatly improving the human shiance effciency
Shiance is the main behavior of human survival, and the 7 000 years of civilization is also a history of improving the shiance effciency. But in the past, shiance effciency was often limited to the feld of food production. Shiology clearly points out that shiance effciency is refected in four aspects: food production, food utilization, shiance order and the whole society. Shiance efficiency can be divided into labor efficiency, area efficiency, growth efficiency and utilization efficiency. Among the four effciencies, utilization effciency is the core, food production efficiency serves the utilization efficiency, and the improvement of shiance effciency can promote the overall social operation effciency, and reduce the involution. Among them, the area efficiency and growth efficiency of the production efficiency field have a "ceiling", and now it is close to the limit. Labor efficiency can be greatly improved under the guidance of today's technology, especially digital technology. There is plenty of room to improve the utilization effciency. The overall improvement of shiance efficiency is an important symbol of the progress of human civilization.
Prolonging the life span of each person
The frst of the three major tasks of shiology is to prolong individual life span, which is also an important symbol of human civilization. Satiety is a matter of quantity of food, and eating well is a matter of quality and variety of food. To improve one's health by eating is related to eating methods. In order to achieve this goal, everyone is required to learn to feed themselves well. Eating not only determines survival, it can also cause and cure diseases.
Throughout the history of human eating matters, although eating methods have always been in a very important position, there has been a lack of a comprehensive scientific summary of eating methods, and there is no subject specializing in eating methods. There are numerous scientific works written by mankind, but so far, there has not been a comprehensive discussion and summary of eating methods of academic works. The shilogy has made up for this lack. A whole set of subjects related to eating has been set up in the system of shiology, including the cognition of food, human body, eating methods, eating aesthetics, eating disease and eating curing, etc. The principles of "eating brain as the king and brain as the minister","homology of food and medicine (oral medicine)" have been put forward. The shiology has put forward three stages of management, namely "three distinguishes before eating", "seven suggestions during the dining" and "two tests after eating". In response to the universality of human eating matters, the dial eating guide is launched. The spread of these theories and popular guidance can make people master the scientific ways of eating and contribute to the prolongation of human life.
Putting forward the theory of "sustainable industry classifcation"
In today's society, there are dozens of methods to classify industries, among which "three industrial classification methods" is widely used in the 21st century. This theory has played a great role in promoting the development of modernization, but the weakness of this theory is that it creates the problem of unsustainable human development.
From the perspective of human survival needs, the theory of "sustainable industry classification" put forward by shiology, classifes social industries into three categories: essential industry for survival, non-essential industry for survival and industry threatening survival. Industries essential for survival refer to industries necessary for human survival such as food, clothing, housing and medical care. Nonessential industries for survival refer to transportation, information, services, entertainment and other industries necessary for life but not essential for survival. Industries threatening survival refer to the drug industry, the arms industry and some industries formed because of the loss of science and technology, which pose a great danger to human survival. Shiology advocates vigorously developing industries essential for survival, controlling on the non-essential industries for survival, and restraining and eliminating industries threatening survival.
The core value of the "sustainable industry classification" theory is that it can support the sustainable development of human beings. It has very important theoretical and practical values, and provides an effective path to the ideal society of human beings.
Putting forward "shiance industry civilization era" theory
The history of human development has gone through three stages: primitive civilization, agricultural civilization and industrial civilization. Human beings are developing and civilization is continuing. What kind of civilization will the next civilization be? The answer of shiology is that the next stage of human civilization is the "age of industrial civilization". Shiance civilization can also be called food industry civilization. Food industry civilization is the name expressed in the historical era. Throughout the history of human civilization, the shiance issues have been throughout, but have not been completely solved. The era of food industry civilization is a social stage in which the human shiance issues have been comprehensively and thoroughly solved. Food industry civilization is the whole civilization of human beings, the civilization of sustainable development of human beings, the civilization of longevity of human beings, the civilization of leisure time of human beings having plenty of leisure time, the civilization of limited desires of human beings with the idea of doing something and not doing something, and the earth civilization of human beings living in peace on earth.
Human beings have many dreams of an ideal society in the future, from the ideal society of "great harmony under the world" in Asia to the "Utopia" in Europe and the "Utopian socialism" in modern times. The wise men at all times and at home and abroad have made many assumptions about the ideal society in the future, but they have not provided effective ways to realize it. Shiology outlines a clear and implementable road for the realization of human ideal society, which is to give priority to the thorough solving of the human shiance issues, and step into the stage of shiance civilization as a whole, which is the prerequisite for realizing any kind of ideal society for human beings.
Conclusions
Looking at shiance issues from a holistic perspective and examining human social development through the lens of shiance issues, it becomes clear that shiance issues remain the primary contradiction for everyone's survival, health, longevity, as well as for human survival, development and sustainability. Throughout human history, shiance issues have persisted and are not easily resolved. Old problems persist while new ones continue to arise. Currently, 800 million people in the world still suffer from hunger, about 2 billion people suffer from chronic diseases due to improper eating, and billions of people are threatened by food safety issues. Conflicts over food resources continue to arise, and human interference in the ecology is increasing day by day. Therefore, today's social and industrial civilization cannot be considered a true civilization because it is not a civilization of all mankind. A comprehensive solution to hunger and other shiance issues is a fundamental manifestation of the entire human civilization.
Since the founding of the United Nations, there are three agencies set up to deal with global shiance issues, namely the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which show the importance of shiance issues in today's human society. These three organizations have done a lot of work and solved a lot of problems since their establishment. But generally speaking, they are still a "fire brigade". That is, they have not yet developed a comprehensive solution to human shiance issues through several decades of effort. Why is that? The reason is that there is no applicable theoretical tool available to address the most complex and fundamental shiance issues facing humanity today. Moreover, the current knowledge system is no longer adequate to solve these issues.
For hundreds of years, scientists around the world have explored the objective world in various felds, and have reached extreme depth and breadth of cognition. Among them, there are many cases where the whole cognition replaces the partial cognition, which is also an inevitable process of human cognition of the objective world. However, there has been a gap in the modern scientifc system when it comes to a comprehensive understanding of shiance, perhaps because it is considered too common, or because having a full stomach is seen as enough, or because shiance resources are a matter of survival and not easily discussed. It is for these reasons that the shiology system has emerged to fll this gap in overall cognition of shiance.
The shiology is an independent knowledge system constructed in the way of the integration of eastern and western theories to solve the human shiance issues, and does not yet exist in the world. Modern scientifc system has developed from zero to one, from small to large, from weak to strong, and has made great contributions to mankind. However, it is still in the process of development, and there are still deficiencies and shortcomings. The modern scientific system develops in the process of being supplemented and perfected constantly. The construction of shiology is the supplement and perfection of the modern scientifc system.
At present, the structure of modern scientific system is still in a highly differentiated state, the way of shiology construction is scientific integration, in which there are intersection and new establishments. The underlying logic of shiology construction is that "whole cognition replaces partial cognition". The basic point of shiology construction is humancentered, not material-centered. The starting point of shiology construction is problem oriented, not subject oriented. The process of shiology construction is to "build a house" first (constructing of the system) and then "drill a well" (in-depth study). When the "new house" is built, many blank areas will be found and it need to "drill a lot of wells". The connection and conflict between shiology and existing subjects and scientific establishment system need further study. The construction of shiology will drive the next social paradigm change and maintain the sustainable development of mankind.
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