The Practice And Ideas Of Lin Zexu's Relieving Famine Policy

The Relieving Famine Policy was defined as the measures to relieve famine in Chinese history,and it was beneficial to the stability of the society and the reproduction.As a primary agriculural country,China was not so strong as to take precautions against natural calamities and endure them during thousands of years of the natural economy. Preventing,fighting,relieving and reducing the disaster was of vital importance to the national economy and the people's livehood and the development of our nations. Now,although the famine in our country is reduced to the minimum under the leadship of the party,It still has practical significance to study the relieving famine policy of past ages. Lin Zexu(1785-1851)was a " patriot" "national hero" and "a man opening eyes to the world ",his contrbution was so great that it can never be defined. As a famous minister who took effective measures to solve the famine problem in Qing Dynasty,he was neglected in the historic circles in the past. Today,it has not only certain historic significance ,but also certain practical significance to study Lin Zexu's relieving famine policy . For this reason,this thesis tries to do tentative research on it from varions angles,such as the history of thought ,of relieving famine,of famine and the society.Lin Zexu entered the political stage through imperial examinations and was appointed as a governor of a province . Relieving famine policy was the important part of his achievements in his official career,which embodied his specific ideas and experience . The four aspects of it are as follows:Firstly,he asserted that officials should be concerned not only over the national economy,but also over the people's livehood. That is to say ,they should show solicitude for the people and help them to survive. On one hand ,he suggested to reduce the taxes and postphone the imposition and follow the example of " Dan Zou " rule. Fie also encouraged the rich to provide relief for the people in the severely afflicted areas to relieve the urgent famine problem. On the other hand ,he took some positive measures to set up a garner to store enough grain for charity,to improve agricultural technology and to reclaim the wasteland in the area near the southern border. All these measures helped to cure the famine problem,to reassure the people,to keep the country stable and to continue the social reproduction.Secondly,he suggested to build irrigation works against the floods and make some innovation in the works.This clearly showed the characteristic of Lin Zexu's ideas that the government should attach great importance to the water conservancy and the innovation. He stressed that water conservancy was essential to the agriculture for agriculture production can be ensured and famine problem can beprevented and solved only when the irritation works were well built. So wherever he came to be the governor,he always actively encourage people to build irrigation works and dredge the rivers. Meanwhile,he suggested to reform various corrupt practices in the water conservancy projects. For example,he put forward some tentative plans to change the river transportation to sea transportation and to change the course of the rivers towards the north.Tirdly,Lin Zexu laid stress on employing men according to their ability,and training competent personnel.In order to carry out the tedious work smoothly,Lin Zexu tried to find out some ways during years of his work and gradually gained some experience on how to choose the right people for the right job,how to train personnel and how to judge the person and assign him the right jobs ,which did work. He not only emphasize making the best possible use of people.but also fully encouraged people in all walks of life,such as the peasants ,the rice dealers and scholars-officials ect.along the bank to take an active part in this work so as to make up for the insufficent relief provided by the government. At the same time ,he paid great attention to dredging waterways,training the competent officials who regarded the relieving...