The Early Qing Dynasty In Henan Food And Social Response

The grain problem is a vital question, it relates with the nation's destiny and people's livelihood. In the Chinese feudal society, the government always pays great attention to the grain question. Qing Dynasty, as the last dynasty of Chinese feudal society, had also been facing the increasingly serious problems of population expansion and the food crisis, which had been payed more attention by the rulers and the society. And it was particularly prominent in Henan province. Henan has always been an agricultural province which has a big population, so the seriousness of the problem of food that faced by Henan people has a great impact on the whole country's social situation, and the problem of food in Henan province has a large extent in the country's food security problem. Hence, in this thesis, the author aims to study the problem of food in the early Qing Dynasty in Henan Province, and to analyze its performance, reasons , as well as the measures taken by the Government to resolve the food problem, and these measures' effect.The thesis is divided into five chapters:1. The performances of the grain problem in Henan province. In the early Qing Dynasty, especially in the Qianlong period, China reached the pinnacle of the development of feudal society because of its political and social stability, economic prosperity, and the consolidation of a unified multi-ethnic. However, everything has two sides. Although the socio-economic and cultural development in the Qianlong period had made great achievements, but it existed a number of shortcomings and limitations inevitably, one of which was the increasingly serious grain shortage. In Henan, the problem manifested in two aspects: grain prices uncasing rising; many rebellions occurring in the whole province. These areas, from different angles, explained the seriousness of the grain shortage in early Qing Dynasty in Henan province, which caused panic in society, as well as thinking about the issue.2. The reasons of grain shortage in Henan province. To solve the grain problem in Henan, we must know what causes it. Facing the more and more serious grain problem, the Qing government was more concerned about the causes of the problem. And in Henan, most people believed that the main reason was the sharp growth of population. After special analysis on the specific circumstances of Henan province, the author suggest that there are six main reasons: the first one is the serious natural disasters; the second one is the decline of irrigation conservancy; the third one is the slow food production technology and the low grain production; the forth one is the serious land-concentrated situation; the fifth one is the enormous population pressure; the sixth one is the influence of breweries and luxury.3. Measures to solve the grain problem. For the food problem in Henan, the Qing government adopted the following measures to remedy: in the circulation, to promote inter-provincial and provincial grain communication. In reserve, to ensure the food reserves in Henan Province, to prepare for disasters. On the production side, to expand the arable lands to increase food production firstly, to improve irrigation conservancy, to promote high-production crops, as well as to limit the plant of some economic crops. On the consumption side, to limit unnecessary grain consumption, one of the most significant measures was to ban breweries and luxury.4. The effects of measures. In this paper, there are four aspects to illustrate the problem: the effects of agriculture policies; the effects of storage policy; the effects of temperance and the effects of cutting extravagance. These measures had achieved some results, but because of some reasons, some of them had brought some disadvantageous influence. So we should investigate these measures in an all-round way. It is necessary to see the good side, meanwhile, we can not ignore the negative side.5. Conclusion. Because Qing Government attached great importance to the food problem, and implemented some comprehensive and practical measures to solve the grain problem in Henan Province, it had obtained lots of effects, this is the place to learn. But because of the limitations of the class and the times, Qing government had not combined the population control and the grain problem together. At the same time, these measures brought some disadvantageous influence, One of the most obvious was the damage to the ecology. Through investigating these measures in an all-round way, the author hope it can give us some enlightenment in order to solve the current grain problem better.