During the Western Zhou Dynasty, people attached great importance to the protection of mountains, rivers, birds and animals. The "Yizhou Tree Blossom" stipulates that it is forbidden to cut down forests in the mountains in spring and fish in the river in summer. "Book of Rites Today of this month" also records that it is forbidden to kill larvae and birds. During the Warring States period, the state had formal laws to restrict deforestation and protect natural resources. At that time, Qi Guoxing was reburied, and Qi Huangong realized that the country would be unprepared after the trees were cut down, so he issued an order: "Those who have too many coffins will be slaughtered." During the Warring States period, there was also a legal provision that "those who abandon ashes in Taoism will be ashamed", that is, they carved marks on their faces with a knife and then painted them with ink to let everyone know and blame them.
Qin Law put forward stricter requirements for the protection of the natural environment. The Land Law stipulates that from February in spring to July in summer, it is forbidden to cut down trees in the mountains, block the Linmen waterway and trap birds and animals. ...
The rulers after the Western Han Dynasty also attached great importance to environmental protection. Emperor Wendi of the Western Han Dynasty once wrote a letter urging people to plant trees, and Emperor Jingdi also wrote a letter urging farmers to plant trees. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, people also invented the earliest sanitation machinery-garbage trucks and sprinklers, and set up sanitary toilets (that is, public toilets) in cities. At that time, there was also a high awareness of the dangers of spitting. Legend has it that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao gave Xian Di a beautiful spittoon and asked him to "spit in the jar".
In the Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng, Kyoto, began to set up the management organization of urban environmental sanitation-Street Department, which was responsible for cleaning urban streets and diverting accumulated water. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were "street sweepers" in the capital city of Hangzhou every day. In the Ming dynasty, the city was equipped with full-time cleaners. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it was clearly stipulated that "more village soldiers should be set up, more big villages should be set up, and fewer small villages should be set up, and households should be managed to sweep streets and canals during the day to avoid poisoning and injury".
From the most basic prohibition of deforestation to consciously persuading farmers to plant trees, it can be seen that the ancients had a deep understanding of the relationship between the natural environment and human survival and attached importance to environmental protection.