Qing Dynasty In Southern Shaanxi Famine Policy In The Implementation

As a region frequently devastated by natural calamity and famine, southern Shan'xi province had experienced serious flood disasters during the Qing Dynasty. For the case of Prefecture Xing'an, I research on how the government reported and surveyed the flood situation during the 21th year of the reign of Guangxu, meanwhile the detailed story of relief work will also be elaborated in this thesis.The efficient cooperation and elastic contract between the prefecture and sub-local-authorities was the most marked character for the official relieving practice. On the contrary, the imperial court was not capable to control the operation of relief directly, and several relieving polices, such as exemption on tax and corvee, actually couldn't take effect in this afflicted region. Furthermore, misrepresentation and false declaration, as well as concealment would be made all the time, even if strict investigations from the higher-up were routine at the disaster period, the officials were used to swindle of the relief fund.Generally speaking, the practice of local governors' relieving famine policy in districts of southern Shannxi was basically channeled by a series of sovereign theories and particular regulatory framework, while the empire's power rarely played a fundamental role in those relief works. These local governors from the backland tended to have wider latitude to adjust the unpractical polices and adopt measures suiting local conditions, since the Forbidden City always failed to effectively control such inaccessible remote areas. Although the relief work was flawed and the local magistrates are sometimes fallible, they both deserve recognition on the whole.