A Study On The Flood Disasters Of Yongding River In Qing Dynasty And Its Coping Strategies

As a vital river flowing through places such as Beijing and Tianjin,Yongding River received much attention from the Qing court due to the important political and economic role of Beijing in Qing dynasty.However,the river had serious flood disasters and frequent breaches during Qing dynasty,which resulted from the climate,the terrain,the hydrology,the population,the failure in prevention and other natural and human factors.The flood disasters of Yongding River in Qing dynasty caused great harm to people’s life and property along the river in many ways,for example,drowning the people and livestock,destroying houses and farmland,posing financial burden on the government,and damaging buildings and roads.In the presence of the severe flood disasters of Yongding River,the Qing court took numerous corresponding measures mainly from four aspects.First,measures of disaster relief.The government,to begin with,provided disaster relief measures by reducing or avoiding taxation,relieving the refugees,providing work relief,compensating the loss,pacifying the refugees,intercepting the tribute grain,advocating donation and so on;then the local officials in the states and counties along the river adopted measures such as building dikes,donating money,saving victims in persons at risks;what’s more,there were lots of self-rescue methods among the people,like sowing seeds after the floods receded,helping from the county gentlemen,nongovernmental relief,self rescue of the refugees,etc.Second,measures of river regulation.The main force of river regulation was Qing government,who adopted river-regulation measures like constructing dykes,dredging the watercourse,draining off the flood water,changing river course,which did not remove the sources of flood disasters,but eased the severe flood disasters.Third,spotting the malpractices in the Yongding River engineering project and cleaning up.There existed many problems in the river engineering project,for instance,the corruption and apportion occurring during the implementation process of the river engineering project,oversight in the flood prevention works,the frauds when checking and accepting the dyke engineering,the conflicts between the river engineering project and local states and counties,the soil using from the farmers in the river engineering project.Qing government conducted remediation and rectification specific to these problems.Fourth,measures of administration.Qing government set up official positions,established specific regulations on annual repairs and materials,and paid much attention to the rewards and punishments with regard to river engineering projects.The Qing court had financial problems in the mid-to-late periods of Qing dynasty,but still made every endeavor to collect and borrow money for river regulation.In addition,the river officials compiled river topography to leave lessons for later generations.During Qing dynasty,the government,as the main body,adopted a great deal of measures in allusion to the flood disasters of Yongding River,which,however,failed to remove the frequent flood disasters.But the efforts of Qing government,including relieving,administrating,removing malpractices and managing cannot be obliterated and its contributions worth approving.