Famine policy and discourses on famine in Ming China, 1368-1644

This study of official Ming Dynasty famine policy and perceptions of official policy is based on the Huangzheng yaolan (Treatise on famine administration), a statecraft work compiled by the scholar-official Yu Ruwei and published in 1589. The treatise contains documents concerned with precautions against famine and relief methods used during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). It is an important source, both institutional and intellectual, for the study of Ming famine. The contents provide concrete information on famine and famine policy as well as a variety of perspectives on famine. In addition, Yu's internal prefaces and selection process provide us with a late sixteenth-century view of Ming famine policy. Yu portrays the early Ming as a time of effective state policy presided over by the heroic founder and his own period as one of serious decline.; An examination of government famine policy supports the contention that from the mid-fifteenth century, the government became less able and less interested in the regulation of rural society. The official regulations contained in the Da Ming huidian (Collected statutes of the great Ming) demonstrate the progression from stricter regulation and higher levels of relief early in the dynasty to less supervision and lower levels of relief in later years. There was a gradual devolution of power and responsibility from the state to the local level.; The interpretation of and reaction to famine and natural disaster by both emperors and officials demonstrates a shifting emphasis which mirrors changes occurring in society. As Ming society increasingly departed from the stable agrarian order which the founder had envisioned and which had dictated the formulation of Ming institutions, the resultant stresses were evident in intellectual trends. Beginning in the late fifteenth century, the Ming court turned inward and edicts issued in response to natural disaster and famine focused increasingly on questions of self-examination and heavenly retribution. At the same time the writings of officials in the field show an increase in statecraft writing with an emphasis on long-term planning, knowledge based on personal experience, and the adjustment of ancient policies.