Researches On Shanxi Famine In Ming Dynasty

The research on famine in Ming Dynasty is a major historical issue in recent years' Ming Studies, among the research, regional famine research is the one that is comparatively less concerned in scholarship. Using the synthesis research methods of history, sociology, catastrophology and geography, etc, this thesis will examine Shanxi famine in Ming Dynasty and try to draw a conclusion of the influence on Shanxi social development due to the famine. There are altogether five parts in this thesis.The first part of this thesis will make a statistics on the natural disasters happened in Shanxi in Ming Dynasty and classify them. The statistics shows that there are 601 natural disasters happened in Shanxi, included meteorological disasters, floods, earthquakes, and agricultural disasters, of which the meteorological disasters caused the most serious famines.Secondly, it will analyze the features of Shanxi famine in time and places, showing that there exists a growing trend of Shanxi famine in frequency, the range of disaster areas and the influence from the early to late Ming Dynasty.Thirdly, the distribution feature of Shanxi famine in time and places will be demonstrated within the scope of natural and social conditions. In the early Ming Dynasty, the famine happened in a low frequency because of the comparatively nice weather and the court' s policies which favored the peasants and correspondingly the economy developed rapidly. But in the mid and late Ming Dynasty, famines became common because of the cold weather , long wars with the Mongols and the huge peasant rebellion as well as the devastated land and forests.Fourthly, it will focus on the governmental famine relief: to relieve the famine, the court and local governments developed many polices and programs such as tax exemptions or reductions; allocating funds for famine relief; distributing porridge, clothes and medicine; praying for relief and mobilizing nongovernmental contribution and so on. But all those measures seemed to do little about the famine, in turn, great loss remained.Lastly, the thesis will make a comment on the social influence of Shanxi famine. Years of famines and wars caused great loss of population, destroyed the natural environments as well as social stability. In the late Ming Dynasty, the state was beginning a complicated economic slide and it directly hindered the economy of Shanxi from well developing in the early Qing Dynasty.]]...