Southern Song Dynasty The Early Liangzhe Areas Of Famine And Disaster Relief Measures

Under the influence of both natural and social factors, disasters occurred in the two zhe regions in the early Southern Song Dynasty frequently, which caused huge casualties and the destruction of production and seriously affected peoples normal life, thus bringing serious impact on the political and economic aspects of the society. In order to stabilize the social order and recover the economic production, the government implemented a series of measures dealing with the disasters, which contributed to the great development of the relief of Song Dynasty. These measures included three links: preventive measures before disasters, emergent measures during disasters and recovery measures after disasters. Meanwhile, the folk strength strengthened during this period. The civil relief organizations, such as temples, social positions, cemetery, and disaster relief individuals as officials, rich residents and merchants also extensively participated in the catastrophe relief activities.With the common effort of government and folk strength, the disaster counter measures of this period played a significant role in the restoration of the social production and alleviation of the social contradiction. While, it was difficult for some measures to carry out effectively because of limitations of the measure itself and the restriction from other factors during the process of operation.