During The Ming And Qing Dynasties Famine Man-eating Phenomenon Research

In china, research on disaster and famine cannibalism is far from enough. The academic field overlooked the investigation and analysis of this phenomenon purposely or unconsciously which made it an extremely sensitive domain with mystery and also invalid to the outside challenges. In fact, disaster and famine cannibalism is not rare in the human history; the modern western anthropologists and archaeologists have inspected and proven the universality of the phenomenon in the development of the human race from their respective domain. Disaster and famine cannibalism not only goes against the human nature as well as ethics, exerting an immeasurable influence on victims and the country. In this condition, disaster and famine cannibalism is a crucial part in researching the history of disaster and famine.Focusing on the local chronicles of Ming and Qing Dynasties and supplemented by the authoritative record of history, archives, corpus, diaries, fiction, inscription, periodicals and so on, this thesis makes an accurate analysis of Ming-Qing disaster and famine cannibalism.Based on the statistics, this paper is going to make a comprehensive as well as detailed description about Ming-Qing disaster and famine cannibalism.Under the guidance of the combination of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis together with the combination of partial analysis and integral analysis, this thesis makes a detailed investigation in Ming-Qing disaster and famine cannibalism from three aspects. The results indicate that:the number of Ming-Qing disaster and famine cannibalism reached1692. According to the time distribution, it is obviously unbalanced. It is more frequent and severe in Ming dynasty than in Qing Dynasty. Judging from the spatial distribution, the differences also exist between the two dynasties. The five provinces in the north accounted for about73.93percent of the total. The peak time of Ming-Qing disaster and famine cannibalism is in the reign of Emperor Chongzhen. In the year1640and1641, counties trapped in disaster and famine cannibalism are over one hundred,237and136respectively, which reached the highest in history.Besides, the paper discusses the special year when disaster and famine cannibalism in large scale happened in Ming and Qing Dynasties, such as the serious drought which occurred in Shanxi and Shanxi provinces of the late years of Chenghua period of Ming Dynasty, the extreme flood in Henan province of the21st year of Emperor Wanli of Ming Dynasty, the serious drought which occurred in Shandong province of late years of Wanli period of Ming Dynasty, the flood in Shandong province in the42th year during the reign of Emperor Kangxi as well as the "Ding-wu Disaster" in the reign of Emperor Guangxu. Based on the record of the disaster and famine cannibalism, the thesis reproduces the historical scene. Finally, the author makes a case study of disaster and famine cannibalism in late Ming dynasty.