Research On Social Strategies For Dealing With Famine In Northeast China From1912to1931

This dissertation researches on northeast famine of the Republic of China(1912-1931) based on the local documents collected in this region. It draws lessonsfrom research theory and methods of regional history and systematically collects thereference materials from the aspect of social sciences. By using the knowledge andmethods of historical geology, science of disaster and environics, it studies thenatural attribute of famine, counts up temporal-spatial distributions of famine in thisregion, and analyzes the features of it. Furthermore, it analyzes the social attribute offamine by using the knowledge and methods of history, sociology and economics. Itlays emphasis on analyzing social coping measures including government relief, folkrelief, storage and sorcery. A conclusion is also drawn on the impact of famine in thisregion. The main content is as the following:Chapter One is investigates the causes of famine which include natural andsocial factors. Natural factors include climate, river system, mountains, geology, etc.Social factors mainly include human destruction of natural environment,deforestation, political corruption, frequent wars and heavy taxation, which broughtto hardship and greatly reduced the social ability to resist famine.Chapter Two is historical investigation on famine in northeast China of theRepublic period. It introduces famine in this region which mainly focuses on themost frequently happened ones: floods, droughts, hail storms and plagues. It studiesthe temporal-spatial distributions and features of famine in northeast China in theRepublic period. From temporal aspect, famine happened frequently and occurredalmost every year; From spatial aspect, famine struck a large range of area; From theaspect of the types of famine, there were many different kinds of famine and manyof them happened in the same place and at the same time and made serious badeffect. Chapter Three is relief measures of the natural calamity. The government set upinstitutions for relieving affairs to carry out relief measures; the main measures were:urgent relief, allocating food and money, setting up porridge factory, etc; offeringloans, reducing taxation to support production; prohibiting food shipping andlowering grain price to regulate and control market; establishing asylum to shelterrefugees. To certain extent, the government relief measures helped a lot. Politicalcorruption weakened the government ability in relief. Furthermore, frequent warsmade the government careless about relief and the relief measures were alwaysfollowing the traditional ones without any innovations, so it helped little.Chapter Four is social relief for natural calamity in northeast China in theRepublic Period. The major social relief groups were from social charities,businessmen, monks, Taoists and personal acts. Social relief was a support for theweak government and gradually took the responsibility of this task.Chapter Five is storage and efficiency in case of famine in northeast China ofthe Republic Period. Storage was a major measure to cope with famine. Because ofthe limited capability in setting up state storage, the government encouraged granaryfrom different areas. Perfect regulations were formulated from different aspects. Butin practice, there were a lot of problems which destroyed granary and weakened itsimportance in relief.Chapter Six explains how to use sorcery to relieve calamity in northeast Chinaof the Republic Period. Sorcery was a passive thought in ancient period to relievefamine and has been followed suit for several generations. Using sorcery to relievefamine was very popular in northeast China of the Republic Period because ofpolitical corruption, frequent wars, deep-rooted traditional thoughts and lesseducated people. Sorcery not only delayed the best time for relieving famine but alsowasted a great amount of human, material and financial resources and the refugeessuffered much more.Chapter Seven illustrates the consequences and influence of famine in northeastChina of the Republic Period. Famine caused a lot of people to die and migrate; it also made social production stopped and had great influence on people’s livelihood;furthermore, it fastened the deterioration of the ecological environment and led todisorder of the society and intensification of the class conflicts.Famine of the Republic of China happened in more recent times and it an offerhistorical lessons and reference for reducing disaster, taking precautions against itand providing disaster relief. Moreover, it provides theoretical evidence for thepredictability and pertinence of investing in northeast China, which if of practicalsignificance.