| The year of 1875-1908, with China in the reign of emperor GuangXu, was the eve of the collapse of the feudal rule and also a period in which radical changes took place in China. In the wars lanched against China by France, Japan and the Eight-power Allied Forces, imperial force made its way into China step by step and China was transforming itself into a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society. With national crises being severe and the feudal rule of Qing Dynasty approaching the end of its days, such events of great historic significance took place in China as the Westernization Movement, the Reform Movement, theYihetuan Movement and the Revolution of 1911. But at the same time, some startling catastrophes, rare in history record, hit China hard. They were the severe famine in 1877-1878, tragic beyond compare in human history, the earthquake of 8 magnitude on the Richter scale in Gansu, the flooding of the Yellow river for 9 years running during 1882-1890, the nation-wide flood in 1889, the flood hitting Shunzhi successively in the end of 19th century, the nation-wide famine caused by waterlogging during the Reform Movement of 1898, and the crop-failure caused by drought during the Yihetuan Movement. Faced with such severe catastrophes, how did the feudal government in an impasse deal with the situation? What were the results? How did the non-governmental communities react? What effects did these catastrophes have on the society? What did the social strata of that time think of the situation?A sound comprehension of these problems will not only help study further the history of China of GuangXu's time, but also help today's sending relief to the catastrophe-stricken areas. Therefore, in this sense, it is of great historic and practical significance.A correct analysis and evaluation of these problems has to involve the macroscopic cognition of those catastrophes that took place those years. This thesis bases itself on a mountain of file data and the related research achievements of the modern time, adopts the methods of statistical analysis and comparison, studies the catastrophes from the aspects such as the type, the frequency, the distribution in space and time, and the destruction intensity, and draws the conclution that such catastrophes as flood, earthquake, drought, pestilence, windstorm and freezing coldness all together made the years of GuangXu's reign, the hardest hit period by catastrophes in history.It's true that people suffered a lot in the severe catastrophes, but at the same time, these catastrophes posed a great threat to the feudal rule. Therefore, for the sake of its own interest and security, the government followed its predecessors and took measures to deal with these catastrophes. The thesis covers briefly the famine system formed during the early and middle years of Qing Dynasty, and then focuses on the measures that GuangXu's government took to deal with the catastrophes and their effects as well. It can be seen that although the system was still working, as far as the effects are concerned, the seemingly complete and effective system was actually out of control, given the facts that water conservancy facilities were out of repair, that the granary system was on the wane,that corrupt practice was common in relief work and that famine became more severe after the catastrophes. The following reasons helped explain this out-of-control. First, the centralized feudal political system was on the wane, which made the government unable to organize large-scale effective campaigns to take precaution againat catastrophes, and to relieve the stricken areas. Second, the state finance determined the effects of these campaigns. As a matter of fact,with the invasion and plunder of foreign capitalism and imperialism, the state finance of GuangXu government was actually in deficiency, and the conventional expenditure aimed at taking precautions against catastrophes had been cut down, which in turn led to much likelihood of catastrophes and serious consequences. Thirdly, official corruption in GuangXu government was extremely serious, and the money and grain spared for relief was thus seized by force, which undoubtedly affected the efforts made to deal with the catastrophes. With all these factors mingled GuangXu government's famine system was actually titular.Just as a coin has two sides, the failure of the state famine system provided opportunities for the development of modern relief system. This relief system was organized by non-governmental communities to raise fund and send direct relief to the people of the stricken areas. This system, by nature non-governmental, was substantially different from the traditional relief practice, with some inheritance from tradition, but surpassing it. The rising of the modern relief system was the result of the interaction of multiple social factors. First, the failure of the state famine system left some space for the development of the non-governmental communities. Second, the traditional charity activity was inherited, typical of those charity organizations. Third, the network of South charitians and the south-eastern economic association laid an organic and economic foundation for the rising and development of the modern relief system. Fourth, the relief activities organized by the western missionaries stimulated those Chinese who did some charitable work to take a stand against the westerners. Fifth, some enterprises and entrepreneurs characteristic of capitalism got themselves involved, and finally, the modern media arose and played a part in the relief work. All these factors contributed to the rising of the modern relief system during the reign of Emperor GuangXu. This modem relief system, confronted with reproach and obstruction, developed itself and was accepted because of its notable work in relief and pounded at the traditional state relief system:for one thing, the non-governmental relief system affected the state system, for another, it led to the joint work of governmental and non-governmental relief practice.The frequent catastrophes undoubtedly had great effects on politics, economy and society of that time. The thesis fully develops the following three effects on population change and migration,on economy and on social conflicts.Firstly, these catastrophes led to population change and migration. First, the frequent severe catastrophes caused a mass of life loss, slowed down the population growth rate, and became the major cause of the slow population growth. Second, because of poor relief work, almost each catastrophe led to tremendous numbers of its victims migrating to different places in different ways. The victim migration in GuangXu's time had both the general traits of the conventional victim migration in previous times, and some characteristics of modern social changes in China, and this consisted of one of the important aspects that can help learn about the modern Chinese society. And then, the life loss and population migration caused by these catastrophes not only led to the imbalance in age and gender structures among the population, but also affectd greatly the victims both physically and mentally.Secondly, the frequent severe catastrophes had tremendous effects on the state economy of GuangXu's time. First, the frequent catastrophes led to the increase of state financial expenditure while the financial income declined, which inevitably worsened the state finance. Second, the fact that China was a semi-colonial, semi-feudal agricultural country determined the destruction intensity to the agriculture. The catastrophes led to great material loss, and at the same time destroyed the essentials on which farmers lived and agriculture developed, for these catastrophes destroyed the ecology of the farming land and led to labor inadequacy and farming land lying waste and land price slumped and grain price soared, which worsened the rural production relations and the victims' living conditions. Third, the severe catastrophes affected advesely both the domestic trade and foreign trade. China's export commodities were mainly primary products, which was enormously affected by natural conditions. These catastrophes inevitably led to the drop in volume of export trade while those people who were the major consumers of the import commodities were hit by these catastrophes and their purchasing power declined, which would reduce the volume of import trade and thus led to the trade depression. The grain importation, however, was an exception. There was no doubt that China in GuangXu's time was a major country importing grain, which was the interaction of natural conditions, economical and political influence from home and abroad. We can't neglect the fact that the western invasion caused the abnormal agricultural development in China, nor can we overlook the fact that the international grain traders dumped grain to China, nor can we ignore the pressure from the growing population. But, to be impartial, we can't overlook the effects of these catastrophes for after each catastrophe, GuangXu government imported enormous amount of grain and this could not be neglected.Thirdly, the catastrophes led to continual social conflicts. When catastrophes took place, GuangXu government had to take measures and even employed armed forces to maintain social stabillity, but vainly in most cases due to the poor relief work. Generally speaking, these conflicts induced by catastrophes can be classified as follows:conflicts induced by disagreements on water conservancy facilities, the petition for relief launched by the victims, the victims'primitive fight for grain and food, the victims'refusal to pay levies and taxes, the struggle against the western missionary, the banditry induced by catastrophes, and the armed struggle started by revolutionaries and some organizations. These conflicts, interweaven and non-stop, stired violently the reign of Qing government and speeded up its complete collapse.Faced with the frequent catastrophes, such political groups that had great impact on the society in GuangXu's time as the Uncontaminated Group, the Westernization Group, the Reform Group and the Revolution Group, showed solicitude for the people's livelihood. But as they took different stands, their opinions about famine had something in common and some distinguishing features. As to how to deal with the catastrophes, for instance, the Uncontaminated Group advocated the idea of treating the head when the head aches and treating the foot when the foot hurts, the westernization Group held the opinion of learning from the Westerners, the Reform Group believed in reforming and the Revolution Group thought that the problem should be treated by looking into both its root cause and symptoms. Certainly, they stressed more or less in their opinions about catastrophes that these catastrophes were warning given by the Heaven, which showed that in some sense they did not break away from the traditional comprehension of catastrophes and that they still had their limitations about this problem. |
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