List of famines in China
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of famines in China, part of the series of lists of disasters in China. Between 108 BC and 1911 AD, there were no fewer than 1,828 recorded famines in China, or once nearly every year in one province or another. The famines varied in severity.[1]: 1 [2]
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Famines in China
| Name | Time | Region | Context | Estimated number of dead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-Tang Famine | 714-719 | Natural disasters, including a locust plague in 716. Tang Emperor Xuanzong subsequently instituted mandatory granary supplies and set fixed prices on grain. | 0.4 to 1 million | |
| Xìngzhēn Disaster | 784-785 | Northern China | Devastating locust plague. | Millions dead or displaced.[3] |
| 873–884 | Drought, part of a broader climatic drying and cooling period, caused disastrous failures in crop harvest,[4] leading to famine and a peasant rebellion; Huang Chao captured capital | Tens of thousands face starvation. | ||
| Chinese famine of 1333-1337 | 1333–1337[5] | 6 million[6] | ||
| Hongxi famine | 1425 | |||
| Jingtai Slough | 1440-1455[7] | Zhejiang, Shanxi, Shaanxi, northern Jiangsu, Shandong | Cold conditions | |
| 1477-1487 | Flooding of the Yellow River. | |||
| Hongzhi famine | 1494-1495 | Persistent drought, followed by flooding in northern China and the collapse of the Shandong dam. Worsened by climatic shifts in the Northern Hemisphere.[8] | ||
| 1526 | Beijing | |||
| 1543-1544 | Zhejiang | |||
| Wanli Slough I | 1586-1589 | Flooding followed by drought.[9] coinciding with La Niña climate disruption | Most lethal famine of the 1500's | |
| Wanli Slough II | 1615-1619 | Drought, flood and sandstorms from deforestation. | ||
| Chongzhen drought | 1627–1644 | Beijing, southern Hebei, northern Henan, and western Shandong, along the Yellow, Wei, and Fen rivers in Shaanxi and the Yangtze River delta. | One of the most severe droughts in Chinese history, leading to the collapse of the Ming dynasty in 1644 | 2 million |
| Northern Chinese Famine of 1743–44 | 1743–1744 | Counties within 100 miles of Beijing (including Zhili) | Drought[10][11]: 17 | |
| Haizi famine | 1755–1756 | Drought and flood | 70% of the poorer farmers of Rugao county[12] | |
| 1810–
1811 |
Hebei | Flood | 11 million[13] | |
| The Great Jiaqing Famine in Yunnan | 1815–
1817 |
Yunnan, with hunger in most of China | Microthermal climate disaster tied to the eruption of the Tambora volcano[14] | Tens to hundreds of thousands |
| 1846–1851 | Hebei, Zhejiang and Hubei | Flood | 15 million
(45 million population decrease, with unknown proportion emigrating)[13] | |
| 1857 | Flooding in Hubei and Shandong, combined with instability due to the Taiping Rebellion and Nian Rebellion. | 8 million | ||
| 1851–1873 | First Opium War, Treaty of Nanjing,[15] Nian Rebellion, Taiping Rebellion, flooding in 1863 and 1867, as well as drought. | 10–30 million people[16][17] | ||
| Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–79 | 1876–
1879 |
Mostly Shanxi (5.5 million dead), also in Zhili (2.5 million), Henan (1 million), Shaanxi and Shandong (0.5 million).[18] | Drought, decades of declining grain production relative to population size.[19] | 9.5 to 13 million[11]: 23 |
| Northern Chinese Famine of 1901 | 1901 | Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia | The drought from 1898-1901 led to a fear of famine, which was a leading cause of Boxer Rebellion. The famine eventually came in Spring 1901.[20] | 0.2 million in Shanxi, the worst hit province. |
| Chinese famine of 1906–1907 | 1906-07 | northern Anhui, northern Jiangsu | 20 to 25 million [21] | |
| Chinese famine of 1920-1921 | 1920–1921 | Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, southern Zhili (Hebei) | 0.5 million[22] | |
| Chinese famine of 1928–30 | 1928–1930 | Northern China | Drought, wartime constraints, and inefficiency of relief[23] | 6 to 10 million [24] |
| Sichuan famine of 1936-37 | 1936-1937 | Sichuan, Henan and Gansu | Drought and civil war. | 5 million in Sichuan,[25][26] up to 50 million displaced as 'famine refugees' |
| 1942–1943 famine | 1942–1943 | Mainly Henan | Second Sino-Japanese War | 0.7 to 1.4 million[27] |
| Great Chinese Famine | 1959–1961[28] | Half of the country, in particular Anhui (18% died), Chongqing (15% died), Sichuan (13% died), Guizhou (11% died), Hunan (8% died)[29] | Great Leap Forward, Floods, Droughts, Typhoons, Insect Invasion[30] | 15 to 55 million[31][29][32] |
Responding to famines
In China, famines have been an ongoing problem for thousands of years. From the Shang dynasty (16th–11th century BC) until the founding of modern China, chroniclers have regularly described recurring disasters. There have always been times and places where rains have failed, especially in the northwest of China, and this has led to famine.
It was the task of the Emperor of China to provide, as necessary, to famine areas and transport foods from other areas and to distribute them. The reputation of an emperor depended on how he succeeded. National famines occurred even when the drought areas were too large, especially when simultaneously larger areas of flooded rivers were over their banks and thus additionally crop failures occurred, or when the central government did not have sufficient reserves. If an emperor could not prevent a famine, he lost prestige and legitimacy. It was said that he had lost the Mandate of Heaven.
Qing China built an elaborate system designed to minimize famine deaths. The system was destroyed in the Taiping Rebellion of the 1850s.[33][34]