Southern Zhejiang Road Famine

Natural disasters play a huge role in the destruction of human lifeand their production activities, not only because of the direct damageexerted by the forces of nature upon human life and property, but alsodue to the indirect threat to human survival caused by the animaldeaths and reduced plant production resulting from the destroy of theneeded environment. When a famine occurs, if the government fails totake timely, decisive and effective measures to stop it, it will lead topublic anger which will in turn affect the stability of the rule base.Therefore, any regime will not ignore the destructive power of naturaldisasters. They take various remedial measures to fight against thesubsequent famine and related laws and institutions, namely faminepolicy, are adopted by them.To institute the famine policy and to carryfamine relief activities out are not only among the basic social functionsof a nation, but also a necessary means for the ruling class to maintainits dominant position.In the Southern Song Dynasty, the Liangzhe luabounds in natural disasters. Due to the unique geographicalenvironment and climatic conditions, natural disasters in the Liangzhe lupossess some unique features, such as the relatively high frequency offlood and drought, and the low rate of locusts andearthquakes.Therefore, compared with other regions, the famine reliefmeasures taken in Liangzhe lu share commonalities and, at the sametime, show some unique characteristics.Based on the specific reality inthe Liangzhe lu in the Southern Song Dynasty and resorting to scientifictheories as a guide, this thesis aims to carry out a systematical summaryand analysis of the famine disasters and the famine relief policies in thisgiven area during the period of Southern Song Dynasty. Focusing on thedepiction and discussion of the governments and private measures tofight the disasters, this thesis proceeds to carry out a specific exploration and summary of the new ideas manifested in the disaster relief policywith Southern Song characteristics and to make a basic evaluation ofthe ideas’ historical influence.This thesis is divided into fourchapters.Based on the study of the special geographical and climaticconditions in Liangzhe lu of the Southern Song Dynasty, Chapter Onedescribes systematically the overview of the famines taking place in theregion of Liangzhe Area. In a targeted manner, this chapter alsodescribes the reasons for the frequency of disasters from both theperspective of the natural causes and that of the man-madeones.Beginning with the Southern Song government acts in carrying outthe policy, Chapter II proceeds to describe the specific measures,boththe pre-disaster precautions and the post-famine measures.Thepre-disaster prevention measures mainly include the storage practicesand the building of water conservancy projects and the post-faminemeasures consist of a variety of relief measures and tax-free policy.These government measures are not only a reflection of the ruling class’attention to the peoples living conditions, but also an important meansfor them to consolidate their rule.Chapter III discusses the private relief measures. Mainly based onthe two aspects of pre-disaster and post-disaster measures, one part ofthe chapter is related to the activities of advising the have’s tocontribute their corns to relieve the victims; the other is on the rise,promotion and the role of social depots. No matter what kind of faminemeasures it is, the private relief is both an outcome of the sweat andwisdom of the most talent people of that time and a great innovation inchallenging tradition and putting consequent ideas into action.Thefourth chapter is to introduce the famine ideas adopted in the SouthernSong Dynasty. Zhu Xi’s people-oriented relief thoughts of takingadvance precautions and their application and effect are discussed inthis chapter. Dong Wei’s famine thoughts, his book On How to Relieve the People in a Disaster and his impact on the future famine practice,famine thinking and famine monographs are also discussed. By now, itcan be concluded that Chinas famine ideas have come to a maturestage since the period of Southern Song Dynasty.