Study On Natural Disasters In Northern Shaanxi During Song And Jin Dynasties

During the Song and Jin Dynasties,natural disasters occurred frequently in northern Shaanxi.The number of natural disasters that occurred during the 275-year period was 117 times.Among them,drought disasters accounted for about one-half of the total number of disasters.In terms of geographical distribution,they were mainly concentrated on the Fu-Yan Lu area.On the whole,disasters were mainly concentrated in the early and middle periods of the song dynasty,and the later period showed a significant downward trend.Throughout the Song and Jin dynasties,the history of northern Shaanxi can be said to be the history of war as the main line.The war has laid a deep imprint on the political,economic and social cultures of northern Shaanxi in this period.In other words,the disasters in the region have occurred are inextricable links with the war.There are many factors leading to frequent natural disasters in northern Shaanxi.It is more prone for The Northern Shaanxi region to occur disasters due to its unique geographical environment and climatic changes.Also the demand for combat readiness and the destructive power of the war itself,the army’s large number of military land and building forts,the changes in production methods,and the inclusion of borders and other issues break the ecological balance in northern Shaanxi again,which lays the foundation of another new round of disaster conditions.The Song and Jin dynasties already have quite a series of mature disaster relief mechanisms.Among them,the central government plays a leading role in the disaster relief process.However,it mainly relies on the execution of local officials at all levels in the actual implementation process.Local bureaucrats’ actual actions are directly related to the effectiveness of disaster relief.there are phenomena such as false reports of disasters,delayed inspections,corruption resulting in substantial discounts for disaster relief.Therefore,some drawbacks are inevitable during the disaster relief process.In addition,local bureaucrats are often in a passive state during the disaster relief process because they always use the orders issued by the central government as their guideline.As a whole,the measures taken by the Song Dynasty for rescuing desertification are the same as those faced by other dynasties.The solution is generally closely linked with the economy.However,the disaster relief is actually a good breakthrough for examining whether the state administrative agencies are operating normally.In the Song and Jin dynasties,although the government’s disaster relief agencies continued to improve and continue to integrate themselves into the legal framework of the official regulations,they always encountered considerable administrative and economic difficulties in their implementation.In the end of the Song and Jin Dynasties,the imperial government did not set up a special agency to deal with natural disasters.However,the measures adopted in the disaster relief process were more flexible than those of the beginning of Song,and gradually took into account the problems of the region,the ecological environment,and special disasters,which mobilized all sectors to actively participate in disaster relief.