Research On Henan Natural Disasters In Sui,Tang And Five Dynasties

The period of Sui,Tang and Five Dynasties was one of the periods where natural disasters occurred frequently in Henan.According to the available data,there were 284 floods in Henan,including droughts,insects,wind,hail,colds,earthquakes,and epidemics during this period,with an average of about once a year.On the whole,681-740,781-840,861-880,and 921-959 were the most frequent periods of disasters in Henan during the Sui,Tang and Five Dynasties,and spatially concentrated in the weste of Henan and easte of Henan.In terms of disaster types,the frequency of flood,drought,and insect disasters were higher than that of other disasters,and along with obvious characteristics.Among them,the frequency of floods wsa much higher than that of droughts.From the late Tang to the Five Dynasties,the Yellow River in Henan had overflowed many times and its dykes,and Luoshui and its tributaries had also overflowed frequently;the frequency of droughts was lower than that of floods,but with wide range and long duration.The drought in Henan had created an environment for the occurrence of epidemics and locust plagues;locust plagues were with obvious continuity,which was mainly manifested in that after the locust plague occurred in the autumn of that year,it was also prone to locust plagues in the summer of the following year.The reasons for the frequent disasters in Henan during the Sui,Tang and Five Dynasties were not only the geographical location of Henan and the changing climate at that time,but also the destruction of forests due to the ruling class’ s implementation of the Tuntian policy,construction of large temples,and palaces in Henan.In addition,at the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty,the Anshi Rebellion,the late Tang and the Five Dynasties,Henan was repeatedly invaded by wars.The crops and property of the people were destroyed,which weakened the ability of the victims and the ruling class in Henan to resist disasters.In response to the frequent disasters in Henan,the ruling class generally used the reserves of warehouses such as free warehouses and Changping warehouses in Henan during the disaster,and sometimes also collected disaster relief materials through Zhedi(折籴),Hedi(和籴)or transshipment of grain from Jianghuai area to relief the victims by lending and distributing official goods.After the disaster,the levies,corvee and debts of the victims in Henan were exempted,suspended or delayed to help the victims survive the famine.At that time,people also made progress in the prevention and control of pests and epidemics,such as using the natural enemies of locusts to control locust plagues,cutting off their eggs to prevent locust plagues,and promoting prescriptions and improving the environment of the capital to prevent and control plagues.Generally speaking,the reign of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty,the early Tang Dynasty,and the reign of Tang Dezong to Xuanzong were the periods when the ruling class actively participated in disaster relief and above disaster relief measures exerted a good disaster relief effect.