List of famines in China

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][2]

Victims of a famine forced to sell their children from The Famine in China (1878)
Global famines history

Famines in China
Name Time Region Context Estimated number of dead
875–884 Peasant rebellion in China inspired by famine; Huang Chao captured capital
1333–1337[3] Famine in China
1630–1631 Northwestern China Eventually causing the Ming dynasty to collapse in 1644
1810, 1811, 1846, 1849 Unknown (45 million decrease, unknown how many emigrated or avoided census to evade taxes)[4]
1850–1873 Nian Rebellion, Taiping Rebellion and drought Primarily caused by famine, lower life expectancy and plague in the case of the Nian rebellion, the total war casualties are claimed to possibly be 10–30 million people[5][6]
Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–79 1876–1879 Mostly Shanxi (5.5 million dead), also in Zhili (2.5 million), Henan (1 million) and Shandong (0.5 million).[7] Drought 9.5–13 million[8]
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.[9] 0.2 million in Shanxi, the worst hit province.
Chinese famine of 1906–1907 1906-07 northern Anhui, northern Jiangsu 20-25 million [10]
Chinese famine of 1920-1921 1920–1921 Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, southern Zhili (Hebei) 0.5 million[11]
Chinese famine of 1928–30 1928–1930 Northern China Drought, wartime constraints, and inefficiency of relief[12] <6 million [13]
Sichuan famine 1936–1937 1936–1937[14] Sichuan, Gansu likely 5 million dead, with 50 million 'famine refugees' (some may have taken refuge due to the civil war)[15]
1942–1943 famine 1942–1943 Mainly Henan Second Sino-Japanese War 0.7-1 million[16]
Great Chinese Famine 1959–61[17] Half of the country, in particular Anhui (18% died), Chongqing (15% died), Sichuan (13% died), Guizhou (11% died), Hunan (8% died)[18] Great Leap Forward, Floods, Droughts, Typhoons, Insect Invasion[19] 17 million to 45 million[20][18][21]

Responding to famines
Chinese officials engaged in famine relief, 19th-century engraving

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.[22][23]

See also

References
  1. Mallory, Walter H.; Vinacke, Harold M.; King-Hall, Stephen (May 1927). "China: Land of Famine". Journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. 6 (3): 185–187. doi:10.2307/3014847. ISSN 1473-799X. JSTOR 3014847.
  2. "Heaven, Observe!". Time. February 6, 1928.
  3. "Projects and Events: 14th Century". Archived from the original on 2016-01-13.
  4. 民国时期社会调查丛编. p. 73.
  5. "Hong Xiuquan: The rebel who thought he was Jesus's brother". BBC News. 17 October 2012.
  6. "Ch'ing China: The Taiping Rebellion". Archived from the original on 2007-12-11. Retrieved 2010-08-21.
  7. Forrest, R. J. (November 1879). "Report of R.J. Forrest, Esq., H.B.M. Consul at Tien-tsin and Chairman of the Famine Relief Committee at Tien-tsin". China's Millions: 139. The authorities are assured that in Shansi five millions and a half, in Honan one million, in Shantung half a million, and in Chili two millions and a half have perished, and there is unfortunately too much reason to believe that the enormous total of nine and a half millions is substantially correct.
  8. Cormac Ó Gráda (March 16, 2009). Famine: A Short History. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691122373.
  9. Cohen, Paul A. (1997). History in Three Keys The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth. pp. 95, 323.
  10. Dianda, Bas (2019). Political Routes to Starvation: Why Does Famine Kill?. Vernon Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-62273-508-2.
  11. Li, Lillian M. (August 1982). "Introduction: Food, Famine, and the Chinese State". The Journal of Asian Studies. 41 (4): 687–707. doi:10.2307/2055445. ISSN 0021-9118. JSTOR 2055445. S2CID 162468862.
  12. Chen, Sherong (2002). 浅析1928-1930年西北大旱灾的特点及影响 [An Elementary Study about the Characteristics and the Effect of the Great Drought in Northwest China from 1928 to 1930]. Gùyuán Shīzhuān Xuébào 固原师专学报 [Journal of Guyuan Teachers College] (in Chinese). 23 (1). Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2011-02-15.
  13. Li, Lillian M. (2007). Fighting Famine in North China: State, Market, and Environmental Decline, 1690s–1990s (PDF). Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 303–307. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-12-27. In Gansu the estimated mortality was 2.5 to 3 million [...] In Shaanxi, out of a population of 13 million, an estimated 3 million died of hunger or disease
  14. "Natural Disasters and Hazards - Historical Events Timeline".
  15. "FAMINES IN CHINA | Facts and Details".
  16. Garnaut, Anthony (November 2013). "A Quantitative Description of the Henan Famine of 1942". Modern Asian Studies. Cambridge University Press. 47 (6): 2034, 2044. doi:10.1017/S0026749X13000103. ISSN 1469-8099. S2CID 146274415. A detailed survey organized by the Nationalist government in 1943 of the impact of the famine came up with a toll of 1,484,983, broken down by county. The official population registers of Henan show a net decline in population from 1942 to 1943 of one million people, or 3 per cent of the population. If we assume that the natural rate of increase in the population before the famine was 2 per cent, [...] Comparison with the diminution in the size of age cohorts born during the famine years suggests that the official Nationalist figure includes population loss through excess mortality and declined fertility migration, which leaves a famine death toll of well under 1 million.
  17. Dikötter, Frank. Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62. Walker & Company, 2010 pp.32, 67, xxiii. Becker, Jasper (1998). Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine. Holt Paperbacks p.xi. Yang, Jisheng (2008). Tombstone (Mu Bei - Zhong Guo Liu Shi Nian Dai Da Ji Huang Ji Shi). Cosmos Books (Tian Di Tu Shu), Hong Kong pp.12, 429.
  18. 曹树基 (2005). 大饥荒：1959-1961年的中国人口. Hong Kong: 時代國際出版. pp. 46, 67, 117, 150. ISBN 9789889828233. Archived from the original on 2016-02-11. An excerpt is published as: 曹树基 (2005). "1959-1961年中国的人口死亡及其成因". 中国人口科学 (1).
  19. "The Great Chinese Famine". Alpha History. 26 September 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  20. 劉兆崑 (August 2008). "中國大饑荒時期「非正常人口死亡」研究之綜述與解讀" (PDF). 77. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-12-11. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  21. Gráda, Cormac Ó (March 2011). "Great Leap, Great Famine: A Review Essay". Population and Development Review. 37 (1): 191–210. doi:10.1111/j.1728-4457.2013.00595.x. S2CID 154275320. Archived from the original on 2016-03-07.
  22. Pierre-Etienne Will and R. Bin Wong, Nourish the people: The state civilian granary system in China, 1650–1850 (University of Michigan Press, 2020).
  23. Kathryn Jean, Edgerton-Tarpley, "From 'Nourish the People' to 'Sacrifice for the Nation': Changing Responses to Disaster in Late Imperial and Modern China." Journal of Asian Studies (2014): 447-469. online

Further reading
  • Bohr, Paul Richard. Famine in China and the missionary: Timothy Richard as relief administrator and advocate of national reform, 1876–1884 (Brill, 2020).
  • Edgerton-Tarpley, Kathryn Jean. "From 'Nourish the People' to 'Sacrifice for the Nation': Changing Responses to Disaster in Late Imperial and Modern China." Journal of Asian Studies (2014): 447-469. online
  • Edgerton-Tarpley, Kathryn, and Cormac O'gr. Tears from iron: cultural responses to famine in nineteenth-century China (U of California Press, 2008).
  • Li, Lillian M. Fighting famine in North China: state, market, and environmental decline, 1690s-1990s (Stanford UP, 2007).
  • Maohong, Bao. "Environmental history in China." Environment and History (2004): 475-499. online
  • Shiue, Carol H. "The political economy of famine relief in China, 1740–1820." Journal of Interdisciplinary History 36.1 (2005): 33-55. online
  • Shiue, Carol H. "Local granaries and central government disaster relief: moral hazard and intergovernmental finance in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century China." Journal of Economic History (2004): 100-124. online
  • Will, Pierre-Etienne, and R. Bin Wong. Nourish the people: The state civilian granary system in China, 1650–1850 (University of Michigan Press, 2020).
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