The Flood And Local Society In The Middle Reaches Of The Shaying River

Flood is an important perspective to understand the local society,and the interaction between floods and society reflects the state of the man-land relationship to a certain degree.For the seven counties in the middle reaches of the Shaying River during the Qing Dynasty,the floods have a strong impact on human society and natural environment,for instance,the floods cause famine,social unrest,water affairs conflicts,damage to flood control facilities,changes to the landscape,and so on.The spatial and temporal distribution of the floods in this region shows certain characteristics,the floods are very frequent during the years from Shunzhi to Yongzheng and from Tongzhi to Xuantong,compared with Yancheng,Linying,Shenqiu and Xihua,the floods in Huaining,Shangshui and Xiangcheng are more frequent.The natural causes of the floods in this region mainly include four aspects: Monsoon climate of warm temperate zone,there is much precipitation in summer and autumn;Plain terrain,the land is low and flat;The network of rivers is dense,the flood carrying capacity of watercourses is low;The Yellow River floods southward.In addition,people’s behavior that don’t pay attention to water conservancy accelerates the occurrence of the floods.Under the influence of the floods,flood control and disaster relief are normal in the middle reaches of the Shaying River during the Qing Dynasty.Flood control activities mainly include the building of embankments,the digging and dredging of rivers,the magistrate,squires and laborers constitute a network of flood control activities,The magistrate and squires are leaders,planners and organizers,laborers are the foundation of the smooth development of flood control activities.However,the recruitment of laborers always presents many problems,magistrates have to beg to stop recruiting the laborers of the Yellow River,adjust the methods of recruiting laborers,for example,Xihua County carries out the reform about Number Laborers System.The building of Xihe Embankment in Yancheng County is typical.The Xihe Embankment is a city-protection dike of Yancheng County,the southwest of the county town of Yancheng approaches Sha River,facing the severe erosion of the town wall by Sha River,it adopts the strategy of backing and constructing the town wall during the Ming Dynasty,but follows the method of building embankments during the Qing Dynasty.The building of Xihe Embankment is a process of continuous development,however,because of insufficient funds to a great degree,Yancheng County doesn’t make full use of Xihe Embankment’s function of flood control.Disaster relief activities are divided into official disaster relief activities and folk disaster relief activities.The official disaster relief activities are closely related to granaries,in the early and middle Qing Dynasty,the seven counties actively promote the construction of granaries,establishing the grain storage system taking ever-normal granary as the main body.Disaster relief involves many problems,the government needs to formulate and follow certain regulations.The government plays a leading role in disaster relief,but folk disaster relief activities should not be underestimated,squires have a certain economic strength,who are the main force of folk disaster relief,squires and rich civilians always give relief in the villages where they live.In the late Qing Dynasty,the construction of granaries increasingly gets into a difficult situation,which directly leads to the decline of official disaster relief ability,the government has to rely on the folk force,the role of folk disaster relief is enhanced.