Research On Natural Disasters And Government Response In Gansu In Qing Dynasty (1644-1840)

In the Qing Dynasty,the main natural disasters in Gansu were drought,flood,hail,frost and snow disaster,biological disaster,earthquake disaster and so on.Judging from the frequency of occurrence,drought was the most serious disaster,and the number of drought years reached 163 in 197years,which was almost a year of disasters,and the drought had the widest scope and the biggest impact.Flood and hail disasters were also frequent,with the number of years being 136 and 135 respectively,but the affected area was smaller and the situation was lighter in most of years.Other disasters,such as frost and snow,insect and epidemic also happened in different degrees.As a whole,there were many kinds of disasters,wide geographical distribution in Gansu in this period,and the high frequency of disasters caused losses.Frequent natural disasters had a profound impact on all aspects of Gansu society,especially agricultural production and population.In terms of agricultural production,the destruction of cultivated land led to crop failure.Gansu was vast in Qing Dynasty,but the cultivated land resources were very limited and the ecological environment was fragile,besides,the flood led to a large number of cultivated land reduction and more acute contradictions.Without doubt,frequent natural disasters often caused local agricultural production reduction or even total crop failure.The impact of natural disasters on the population of Gansu was also very obvious.Firstly,the population Gansu was reduced.On the one hand,the poor harvest reduced the supply of grain and increased food prices,which had led to famine and a large number of deaths.On the other hand,earthquakes,floods and other sudden natural disasters also directly caused a large number of deaths in Gansu.Secondly,natural disasters caused spatial movement of population in Gansu.During the disaster years,some families don’t have the resources to feed themselves,so they were forced become displaced people.In response to frequent natural disasters,the Qing government gradually set up a set of nearly standardized and procedural disaster relief system throughout the country.Because the first step in disaster relief was to obtain timely and truthful disaster situation.The disaster reporting system including the time limit for reporting disasters and punishment for violations had been basically established in Shunzhi period.In the seventh year of Qianlong(1742),the Qing government made a differentiated provision for the reporting period in Gansu,allowing it to extend the reporting period.There are different stages during the occurrence of natural disasters,such as the incubation period and outbreak period.The disaster reporting system does not fully meet the actual needs of disaster relief because its only reported in the outbreak period of the disaster,witch lead to a significant lag.In the middle and late period of Kangxi,the Qing government paid more attention to the signs before the disaster.In order to facilitate early planning for the disaster,the government had established a system for reporting rainfall,harvest and food prices.The disaster information system of Qing Dynasty was formally established in the early years of Qianlong and was becoming more and more mature.The Qing government strengthened the control of each province through the disaster situation system.In order to obtain timely and truthful information of disaster situation,on the one hand,the Qing government expanded the range of officials and the source of information;on the other hand,the government increased various forms of temporary reports.However,there were many loopholes in the system design,and there was a lack of corresponding specifications in the implementation process,so concealment and false reporting of disasters occur in carious places in the Qing Dynasty.Even during the Qianlong period,there were corruption cases in which officials in Gansu region falsely reported disasters for many years.This phenomenon showed that the disaster situation information system in the Qing Dynasty is still insufficient.On the basis of inheriting various previous measures for famine relief,the Qing government developed and improved the system of famine relief in ancient China by combining local disaster relief practices.Gansu is located in the northwestern border,and the civilian disaster prevention ability was poor at that time.In case of disasters,it was highly dependent on government relief.In the early Qing Dynasty,the Battle of Zhungeer was settled for many years,and Gansu undertook a large number of military supplies and transshipment,which aggravated the pressure on Gansu society.In view of this situation,the Qing government’s post-disaster relief policy for Gansu had been very lenient for a long time.The specific measures included deferment,exemption,relief,lending and appeasement of refugees,which could be called "spare no effort".But it could not be ignored that the corruption and misconduct of officials during the relief process had greatly reduced the actual effectiveness of the disaster relief.