Characteristics Reconstruction Of Meiyu And Research On Disaster From 1881 To 1911 Of Anqing

Anqing is in the southwest of Anhui Province.It had jurisdiction over Huaining, Wangjiang, Susong, Taihu, Qianshan, Tongcheng counties in late Qing dynasty. The whole territory is right in the middle of Meiyu region over the Yangtze River valley.Based on the reconstruction of the Meiyu sequence of Anqing from 1881 to 1911, this paper ascertains the characteristics of Meiyu in this period and explores preliminarily the method to determine second Meiyu in history through analyzing the single station’s intermission in sequence of long period of time. Analyzing the weather causes of floods in 1882 and drought in 1887, it probes the weather process of floods and droughts in regional social cause by abnormal Meiyu eigenvalues and the operation of the social response mechanisms.The results show that:a) The set-in date of Meiyu focused on June 3 to 5 Hou,and set-out date focused on July 2 and 3 Hou, and the rainy season usually lasts 15-35 days. Average set-in date is June 13, one day later than instrumental period;average set-out date is July 8, one day earlier than instrumental period;one day less than instrumental period, average Meiyu length is 26 day. b) To identify 1909 and 1911 two second plum rain years in 1881-1911 by the judging indicators of the second historical Meiyu in Anqing, which is≥6 continuing sunny days during the rainfall concentration in June 15th-July 10th.c) The objective conditions which lead to summer floods and droughts is the abnormal Meiyu eigenvalues. Continuous heavy rainfall and prolonged rainy period leads to the flood in 1882, and the rainfall below the normal quantity in Meiyu season and hot dry summer drought period is the drought’s weather background in 1887. d) Regional community’s capacity to respond the disasters subjectively determines the severity of disaster. Anqing was poor and weak in late Qing dynasty so that slight abnormality in Meiyu season would collapse the dams and destroy the city or leads to continuous drought for several months, e) Although disaster response mechanism has matured in late Qing, official rescue was slow and inefficient and regional community’s self-help or mutual aid seemed beyond their grasp resulted from the affection of the scale of the country’s political and economic events on the rescue.This paper consists of three parts:in the first part, to reconstruct the Meiyu sequence of Anqing from 1881 to 1911, and based on the intermittent characteristics of sequence, to explore preliminarily the method to determine the second Meiyu in history. In the second part, based on the case in flood of 1882 to reconstruct its spatial and temporal distribution and explore the social response through the region of Anqing. In the third part, based on the case of drought in 1887, to reconstruct its spatial and temporal distribution and explore its weather and the social causes so as to further analyze its impact, the area and official response, and the impact on regional disaster response by the background.