The Research Of The Geographical Regularity And Environmental Mechanism About Epidemic Disease Of Henan Province In The Qing Dynasty

Historically Henan Province was an area which had high frequency periods of epidemics, while the situation was especially serious in the Qing Dynasty. This thesis aims to explore the temporal-spatial distribution and its environment mechanism in Henan Province from the view of historical geography.There were96plague years in Henan Province during the Qing Dynasty which governed China for268years, as the average epidemic frequency was35.82%, which meaned epidemics occurred very2.8years.10dynasties all had epidemic periods, and plague was the most frequently in the Xuantong, Guangxu and Tongzhi Dynasty, Qianlong Dynasty had the lowest epidemic frequency. In terms of the epidemic season, plague occurred in summer and autumn more whereas the rare periods dropped into spring and winter. As a whole, epidemic occurred frequently in early Qing Dynasty while it was less in the later stage. As for epidemic frequency, it showed an increasing trend. In addition, epidemic frequency of the later stage had a faster growth than the early one.In terms of the spatial distribution, there was a wide distribution of epidemics in Henan Province, epidemic occurred in90counties, which meaned84.11%counties had been involved in plague. The high epidemic area was located in east, central section and southwest of Henan, whereas the spare area spreaded in west, north and south section. As to the plague counties’distribution, the overall epidemic frequency was pretty low. Huaining in Chenzhou Fu and Neixiang in Nanyang Fu took the first place, with a frequency of5.6%and4.48%, which constituted the first center of plague. What’s more, the condition of disaster in Nanyang Fu and Kaifeng Fu was the most grievous as to epidemic distributional difference of every Fu. Runing Fu, Guide Fu, Huaiqing Fu, Zhangde Fu and Henan Fu take second place. The rest Fu with smaller area like Ru Zhou, Shan Zhou, Xu Zhou, Weihui Fu, Guang Zhou, Zheng Zhou, and Xichuan Ting had rare plague. The core of epidemics of earlier, mid-term and later stages revealed a shifting trend from southwest to northeast.The epidemics were restricted by various environmental factors. In the aspect of regional natural environment, topography, climate, hydrology, biology all had profound impact on epidemics. In the aspect of the topography,84.44%plague counties were located in the eastern plains or Nanyang Basin at an altitude of200m below. In terms of climate, Henan was affected by the monsoon, bearing obvious features of continental climate. Rainfall was concentrated mostly in summer and fall leading to frequent floods and droughts caused the plague epidemic in turn. Meanwile, the biological diversity of Henan increased the possibility of the spread of disease. As to the regional social environment, population, transportation, and war also related to the occurring of plague. In Qing Dynasty, the population gravity center of Henan Province was close to its core of epidemics, the high populated areas had the highest epidemic frequency. Most of the epidemic centers had convenient transportation while mountainous regions with inconvenience transportation limited the spread of epidemics. Moreover, war was another important factor of plague. As to the climatic variation, the high frequency period of epidemics happened in the cold time while the the low frequency period occurred in the warm time. The increase of precipitation is accompanied with the enlargement of epidemic disease, and vice versa. Natural disaster was an important factors that induceded epideminc. The main disaster in the Qing Dynasty was flood, drought, locust plague, famine, earthquake, hail damage, wind damage, frost and so on. Each of them had an impact on epidemics to varying degrees, especially for the famine, flood and hail damage.