A Study On Corruption Problem Of Famine Relief Policies During The Early Ming Dynasty

Content: The paper has made a comprehensive analysis on corruption problem of famine relief policies during Ming dynasty. It points out that (this problem exists in all aspects in the report of famine, the check of famine, the exemption from taxation, the aid to the victims of natural calamity and the settlement of refugees, the storage and water conservancy, and there were many corrupt people such as supervisors, county magistrates, petty officials, interiors, rich people, students of the Imperial College, and the ways of corruption including positive corruption and negative corruption. There were three characters: the outstanding features of negative corruption, corruption exists in all classes, the recessive in the way of corruption. Furthermore, the corruption exerted a serious influence on the effect of famine relief policies, the atmosphere of bureaucratic apparatus, and aggravated the conflict of the whole society. There are three reasons for the corruption problem of famine relief policies: First, the imperfect of famine relief policies itself; Second, the defect of bureaucrat's system; Third, the rapid change of social conduct. Facing to the corruption problem which remained incessant after repeated prohibition, the Government of the early Ming dynasty took a lot of effectual measures to deal with the corruptions: built a more standardize system of selection and examination to the Government officials; added to the extend of inspection to the officers who dealt with famine relief; made laws on the famine relief and punished severely the corrupted government official. That is to say, all the measures reached certain extent in some way, and made the corruption not have a great impact on social economy and the people's life at that time. The Ming dynasty still developed at historical orbit on the "destroy - rebuild - destroy -rebuild".