Research On Meteorological Disasters Of Hubei Province In Song Dynasty And Its Countermeasures

During the 320 years of the Song Dynasty,meteorological disasters that broke out in Hubei Province are quite frequent,including 111 floods,110 droughts,19 other meteorological disasters and 49 derivative disasters,totaling 289 times.From the perspective of time distribution:in the dynasty,Hubei Province suffered the most meteorological disasters during the 27 years of Song Xiaozong Dynasty,a total of 60 times.The Song Guangzong Dynasty had the highest frequency of disasters,averaging 3.2 times per year.From the perspective of the distribution characteristics of the decade,in the continuous 50 years from 1160 to 209,there were 109 meteorological disasters and their derivative disasters occurred in Hubei Province,accounting for 37.7%of the total,which was the peak period of the disaster outbreak in Hubei during the Song Dynasty.In terms of seasonal characteristics,meteorological disasters occurred most frequently in summer and the number of winter disasters was the least.The summer and autumn,especially summer,was the season which had most drastic meteorological changes in Hubei Province during the Song Dynasty.From the perspective of spatial distribution:Xingguo Army and Qizhou and Huangzhou in southeastern Hubei are the areas most frequently affected by disasters;followed by the Jianghan Plain,where Jiangling Prefecture,Ezhou,Fuzhou and some other Prefectures are located;once again,Xiangyang Prefecture in northern Hubei and Shangjin County of Shangzhou(Golden State)and other places in the northwestern Hubei,While the number of meteorological disasters was relatively small in the Shizhou area in southwestern Hubei.In general,there was a distribution trend that gradually decreases from east to west and from south to north.Frequent meteorological disasters seriously threaten the lives of local people.These disasters have affected all aspects from agricultural production to food consumption,and caused great damage to the agricultural social economy in Hubei Province.The Population exile and civil unrest caused by disasters have seriously impacted the local social order in Hubei Province.The disaster has made the people unable to make a living.The miserable scenes of the same family eat each other and abandonment of children have appeared frequently,which has also caused great impact on the ethics and morality of the society.In the face of meteorological disasters raging in Hubei,Court of the Song Dynasty and the local government and some folks also took timely measures to deal with them.In terms of disaster prevention,under the guidance of the imperial court,the local government not only actively encouraged the people to engage in agricultural production and reclaim wasteland,but also paid close attention to the construction and maintenance of warehouses such as Changping Warehouse and Yicang Warehouse,gave full play to their function of warehousing reserves.At the same time,water conservancy facilities including long canals and wooden canals were vigorously constructed throughout Hubei Province to lay a solid foundation for local disaster prevention work.In terms of material relief after the disaster,the Song Dynasty court not only mobilized the state treasury and various local materials to provide disaster relief,but also widely mobilized the rich civilians and businessmen to participate in the relief of Hubei Province by means of persuading the rich to help the poor and investment promotion methods,And guided locals to provide disaster relief resources to each other through Mobilizing food and Prohibition of interference in food transactions.Then comprehensively adopting the methods of Giving,Reluctant glutinous rice and Reluctant loan to provide material relief for the victims of Hubei Province,including rice,wheat,millet,porridge,grain seeds and other common food varieties,as well as drugs,distiller’s grains,money,and sputum,etc.,which could alleviate the survival dilemma of the local victims in a timely manner.In terms of non-material relief after the disaster,on the one hand,the court and the local government offered the Hubei people with preferential policies of exemption and deferred payment for all kinds of taxes and servitude,as well as the money,grain and other materials they borrowed from the local government.On the other hand,in the Hubei area,they also set out to leniently execute the prisoners in the prison,especially leniently deal with people who had become thieves because of the disasters.These measures were of great benefit to the local people’s post-disaster reconstruction and recovery of production.The various subjective prayers and reflections made by the official and folk in the Song Dynasty due to the disasters in Hubei Province also contributed to the psychological rehabilitation of the people in Hubei after the disaster to a certain extent.In addition,the relief measures implemented by the Song Dynasty court in the post-disaster areas of Hubei Province,such as relief for work,food for locusts and recruitment the people as soldiers during disasters,are conducive to improving the overall effectiveness of disaster response.On the whole,although the disaster relief behaviors of the Song Dynasty government in Hubei Province were essential to maintain its own rule,objectively it was a process of "making benefits with the people." Judging from the effect of disaster response in Hubei,the Song Dynasty court’s disaster relief for local people was basically successful.