A Study On Natural Disaster And Famine Relief Policies During The Early Ming Dynasty

Content: The paper has made a comprehensive analysis of the general situation of natural disaster during the early Ming dynasty. After analyzing their features and effects on social economy, motivation of people, and popular life, the author believes that the features are as follows, frequency, different patterns, regional characteristics and concurrence in different areas. Moreover, natural disaster had profound negative effects on human survival and social development. At the same time, the paper treats the famine relief policies in the early Ming dynasty. The author holds that the government has been playing a vital role in the disaster prevention and famine relief. And the governmental relief system dominates the whole famine relief practices. Although a lot of disadvantages appear in the practice of governmental relief, it's still worthy to be appreciated. It placates the people suffering from the natural disaster to some degree, helps to maintain the society order and consolidates the Ming dynasty's reign, based on which the government walks towards the prosperity in the mid and late term In addition, the popular relief behaviors deserve more attentions, which have been seldom discussed by the scholars of this field so far. The author argues that in fact from the Zheng Tong period on, the popular relief begins to act as a rising role due to various factors.