A Survey Of Zhili Cooperative Reliefs In The Later Years Of Qing Dynasty

The total number of decrees, institutions and policies that the government issued in order to relieve the famine, is called policies related to famine, which of the feudal time reached its peak in the Qing Dynesty. In the early 20th century, the reign of Qing Dynesty declined gradually, and the policies related to the famine, led by government, mainly referred to official reliefs, didn't exist actually. In this background, the cooperative reliefs, mainly between provinces sprang up, which referred to the activities the province held within their economic ability to help other provinces. Zhili cooperative reliefs had the characteristics in the age and the locality, so it is the main content in the paper.To explore its situation in the early 20th century, it's firstly to know its setting about cooperative reliefs. In the state incident of Gengzi, zhili suffered a lot, and it had no effort to help itself, let alone other provinces. But later on, its agriculture, industry and commerce recoveried day by day, which laid the economic foundation for providing other provinces'reliefs. With the developlemt in the economy, the culture and mentality accordingly changed. A group of people shouldering responsibility for the nation, plunged to the cause for cooperative reliefs, and mobilized others to join, which provided social foundation for it. My thesis talks about the cooperative reliefs holding both flood in Jiangnanbei and drought in Gansu. First, it pays attention to the disaster and reliefs provinded by the officers and righteousness people in Jiangnan. Then, it discusses in detail the official and social powers in Zhili cooperative reliefs, and it laid upon the activities initiated by the press of organizations and females to reappear the situation that zhili helps other provinces. At last, by comparing zhili cooperative reliefs in the early 20th ccentury with Jiangnan'reliefs and cooperative reliefs in the end of 19th century, it reveals zhili's characteristics in time and place, that is to say that the trend is diverification, modern and multilayer, respectively in the agent who collect donations, in mechanism, and in the cooperative reliefs'thought.