A Study On Famine Policy During The Sixteen States And North Dynasty

China has been a country with multifarious natural disasters from ancient times to now. In Wei-Jin and South-North Dynasties, especially during the period of the Sixteen States and North Dynasty, the multifarious natural disasters frequently occurred. "the density of the disasters was far more than the past" and "the terrible famines broke up successively."(By Deng Yunte, a famous scholar) At present, the academic circles have devoted much attention to the research of the famine history and have made great achievements, but the research of the famines during the Sixteen States and North Dynasty is still weak. So the author has planned to base this article on the related research achievements, and from the perspectives of history , sociology ,historical geography etc., try to proceed a thorough study on the general situation, the characteristics and the causes of the disasters, the ideas about the disasters, the thoughts on famine policy, the measures of famine policy, the features of famine policy and the influence of famine policy during the Sixteen States and North Dynasty. The author holds that the work of the famine policy during the Sixteen States and North Dynasty had particular characteristics of the times, and achieved remarkable success. Some measures have produced profound influences on later ages in providing disaster relief and sending relief to famine, such as catching the locusts to avoid the plague; spreading the medical treatment and medicine knowledge to prevent the diseases; setting up the storehouse system against the famine; initiating the social relief and extending the relief corpus scope and so on.