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Natural Disasters and the Development of Chinese History

ZHAO Xiaohua*

1 The Relation of Severe Natural Disasters to Political and Social life

Natural disasters are the common enemy of all human beings, who have
tenaciously struggled against all kinds of natural disasters to develop them-
selves. China has always been dogged by disasters, owing to its vast territory,
complex geographical conditions, and varying climatic conditions.
Contemporary disaster-science researchers in China believe that there have
been four major periods of disasters in China’s history, namely, the Xia Yu
Cosmic Period 夏禹宇宙期, Two Hans Cosmic Period 两汉宇宙期, Ming-Qing
Cosmic Period 明清宇宙期, and Late Qing Cosmic Period 清末宇宙期.1 The
first period, the Xia Yu Cosmic Period, also known as Xia Yu Flood Period
夏禹洪水期, spanned about 400 years roughly from 2010 to 1610 BCE.
According to records in the pre-Qin literature, the legendary King Yu 禹王
tamed the floods in this period. The important environmental changes in the
late Neolithic Period have become a focal point of research on early Chinese
civilization. According to one study by Chinese scholars, “A series of
geological, meteorological, astronomical, and cultural anomalies reveal that
the period around 2000 BCE was a period of cooling, great floods, earth-
quakes, and a great cultural shift in the context of astronomical anomalies. All
this indubitably confirmed that the Xia Yu Flood Period around 4,000 years
ago was a period of concurrent natural disasters, as well as an abnormal
period in the history of Chinese culture and an important cultural fault and

* Zhao Xiaohua 赵晓华 is a professor in the School of Humanities, China University

of Political Science and Law.
1 Xia Mingfang 夏明方, “The Historical Conditions for the Early Modernization of
China as Seen from the Period of Concurrent Natural Disasters in the Late Qing
Dynasty: Research on Disasters and the Westernization Movement” 从清末灾害群发
期看中国早期现代化的历史条件 灾荒与洋务运动研究之一, Qingshi yanjiu 清史研究,
1998, no. 1.
26 Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 7 2016

shift.”2 In addition, the Two Hans Cosmic Period lasted 400 years from 200
BCE to 200 CE; the Ming-Qing Cosmic Period, 200 years from 1500 to
1700; and the Late Qing Cosmic Period over 100 years from 1810 to 1911.
Western scholars such as D. M. Mallong and A. Hosie, and Chinese scholars
such as Zhu Kezhen 竺可楨, Chen Da 陳達, and Deng Tuo 鄧拓, have reviewed
studies on the frequency of natural disasters in China’s history. According to
Deng Tuo’s incomplete statistics, there were 5,258 natural disasters—
including floods, droughts, locust swarms, hail, wind, epidemics, earthquakes,
frosts, and snow—during the 3,703 years from 1766 BCE to 1937 CE.3
Among the various disasters, floods and droughts accounted for the biggest
percentage: “According to written records, almost every year witnessed a big
flood or drought during the 2,155 years from 206 BCE to 1949 CE.”4 The
Western scholar Walter H. Mallory called China the “land of famine” in the
subtitle to his book.5 The Chinese economic historian Fu Zhufu 傅筑夫
pointed out, “The Twenty-Four Histories can almost be regarded as a chron-
icle of disaster and famine. There are frequent occurrences of floods,
droughts, plagues of insects and locusts, and other natural disasters, and the
histories describe these disasters and famines at great length.”6
Chinese history has often been characterized as having “a disaster every
year and famine everywhere.” Frequent disasters of long duration—like
floods, droughts, and locust plagues—span a wide area on a large scale, and
thus cause huge loss of life and property. According to statistics, in Chinese
history from the Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE–8 CE) to the Opium War
(1839–1842), there were 144 major climatic disasters each responsible for a
loss of over 10,000 lives. If we add earthquakes of this magnitude, there have
been at least 160 disasters. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, large
numbers of people died of drought, hail, frost, tides, landslides, earthquakes,
and other disasters. The Ming Dynasty witnessed 370 disasters with
6,274,502 deaths, and the Qing Dynasty 413 disasters with 51,351,547
deaths, for a total of 783 disasters and more than 57,626,000 deaths during

2 Hao Ping 郝平 and Gao Jianguo 高建国, On Disasters and Social Change in North
China from a Multidisciplinary Perspective 多学科视野下的华北灾荒与社会变迁研究
(Taiyuan: Beiyue Wenyi Chubanshe, 2010), p. 41.
3 Deng Tuo 邓拓, The History of Disaster Relief in China 中国救荒史 (Beijing: Beijing
Chubanshe, 1998), p. 53.
4 People’s Daily 人民日报, March 14, 1990.
5 Walter H. Mallory, China: Land of Famine (New York: American Geographical
Society, 1926).
6 Fu Zhufu 傅筑夫 et al., China Economic History Data 中国经济史资料, Qin, Han,
Three Kingdoms vol. 秦汉三国编 (Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe,
1982), p. 96.
 Natural Disasters and the Development of Chinese History 27

the two dynasties.7 In addition, various natural disasters led to arid lands, crop
failures, population migrations, and deterioration of ecological environments,
all of which severely restricted the development of agricultural production.
Severe natural disasters also threatened social stability and feudal rule.
According to statistics, of 13 large-scale peasant uprisings in premodern
China, 12 broke out partly because of natural disasters (mostly floods,
droughts, and insect infestations), of which 8 directly weakened or even led
to the collapse of the dynasty in power.8 Natural disasters and related
manmade disasters were important causes of regime change. History is
littered with examples of dynastic decline induced by such disasters. In the
Western Han Dynasty, natural disasters were already rampant, but by the end
of Wang Mang’s Xin Dynasty (9–23 CE), “droughts year after year left
people in poverty and forced them to resort to stealing.”9 In 611, the seventh
year of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, floods in Shandong and Henan
inundated more than 30 counties, and officials also seized property from ordi-
nary people. As a result, commoners were forced to rise up against the Sui
Dynasty. In 874, the first year of Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty,
severe drought and locust plagues caused Wang Xianzhi 王仙芝 and Huang
Chao 黄巢 to led a peasant uprising. Those affected by the disasters could
barely survive, but local officials failed to relieve them. Moreover, “officials
hid the situation from the Emperor and left the people suffering from hunger,
so people formed gangs of thieves and caused trouble wherever they went.”
The Huang Chao Uprising was eventually suppressed, but the Tang Dynasty
was about to collapse. By the end of the Tang Dynasty, “in the city, people
ate each other, and fathers ate sons; while the Emperor ate porridge, others in
the Imperial Palace often starved to death.”10 In the late Ming Dynasty
(1368–1644), there were consecutive great droughts, locust plagues, and
epidemic diseases in Zhili, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu,
Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. The afflicted areas presented a scene of utter desola-
tion, and the bodies of the starved were everywhere, when famine victims
“formed gangs of thieves.” Finally, the great Li Zicheng 李自成 uprising

7 Chen Yuqiong 陈玉琼, Gao Jianguo 高建国, “Time Characteristics of Major Climatic
Disasters Responsible for the Loss of over 10,000 Lives in Chinese History” 中国历
史上死亡一万人以上的重大气候灾害的时间特征, Daziran tansuo 大自然探索, 1984, no.
4. Gao Jianguo 高建国, “A Study of Basic Parameters of Natural Disasters, Part 1”
自然灾害基本参数研究 (一), Zaihaixue 灾害学, 1994, no. 4.
8 He Zhiqing 赫治清, A Study of the History of Disasters in Premodern China 中国古
代灾害史研究 (Beijing: Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe, 2007), p. 473.
9 Ban Gu 班固, “Wang Mang” 王莽傳, in the Book of Han 漢書, vol. 99 (Beijing:
Zhonghua Shuju, 1990).
10 Ouyang Xiu 欧阳修, “Food and Goods, Part 2” 食貨志二, in Xin Tang Shu 新唐書
(New Book of Tang) , vol. 52 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1975).
28 Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 7 2016

broke out. Before the Revolution of 1911, the whole country was stricken by
disasters. From 1904, the thirtieth year of Emperor Guangxu, to 1910, the
second year of Emperor Xuantong, there were severe floods in Hubei, Hunan,
and other provinces for seven consecutive years, with a few areas suffering
from severe droughts. In 1911 floods were still raging in the middle and
lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Anhui,
Zhejiang, and Jiangxi, rain poured down in torrents in the summertime and
drowned fields and farmhouses. In the famine years, people became destitute
and homeless, and their misery drove them to plunder around for rice. In this
context, the Wuchang Uprising 武昌起義 led to the Revolution of 1911, which
quickly swept the country.

2 Disaster Relief in Chinese History

In the long struggle against natural disasters, the Chinese have gained a
deep understanding of disasters and have summarized their experience in a
series of lessons in disaster prevention, disaster mitigation, and disaster relief.
In the Book of Rites 禮記, “Proceedings of Government in the Different
Months” 月令, it is said that the government provides relief for shortages in
the second month of spring. It can thus be seen that the Chinese, when faced
with disasters, were concerned about relief from an early age. For example,
King Yu tamed the flood during the transition period between the late
Longshan Culture 龍山文化 and the early Erlitou Culture 二里頭文化, when
serious flooding occurred in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow
River. King Yu developed a scientific flood control scheme through field
survey and measurements, and took the lead in taming floods. After thirteen
years of efforts, he finally succeeded in controlling floods. The Great Yu’s
success in flood control indicates that the ancient Chinese had certain abilities
to resist natural disasters. In ancient Chinese society, famine-relief-related
laws, institutions, policies, and measures were collectively referred to as the
Famine Policy 荒政. The twelve items of famine policy listed in the Rites of
Zhou 周禮, “Grand Minister of Land and People” 大司徒, have long been
regarded as criteria for disaster relief.11 The Qing Dynasty, China’s last feudal
dynasty, absorbed the essence of previous relief systems. In the Collected
Statutes 會典 of both the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns, the twelve items of

11 These twelve items of famine policy are distributing resources 散利, reducing levies
薄征, suspending punishments 緩刑, relaxing corvée labor 弛力, removing prohibi-
tions on hunting 舍禁, eliminating tariffs 去幾, diminishing the number of rituals 眚
禮, simplifying mourning for the dead 殺哀, putting away music instruments 蕃樂,
taking measures to increase marriages 多昏, praying to the gods 索鬼神, and ridding
society of thieves 除 賊.
 Natural Disasters and the Development of Chinese History 29

famine policy were adjusted and reinterpreted.12 By absorbing the experience

of past dynasties, the Qing Dynasty established a fairly complete system of
disaster relief. In what follows, I will briefly introduce the traditional system
of relief, with the Qing Dynasty system as an example.
The relief system in the Qing Dynasty had many aspects: disaster reports,
disaster surveys, raising funds for relief, disaster relief, and so on. Disaster
reports 報 , the first step of the relief system, involved reporting the circum-
stances of the disaster up through the bureaucracy. In 1660, the seventeenth
year of Emperor Shunzhi, the court explicitly stipulated the deadlines for
disaster reports: for disasters in the provinces directly administered by the
court, circumstances should be reported first; for disasters in summer, the
deadline was the end of the lunar sixth month; for disasters in autumn, the
deadline was the end of the lunar ninth month. Disaster survey 勘 involved
local officials’ investigating the severity of disasters and determining the
corresponding disaster scores. The surveys served as an important basis for
determining disaster scores and the amount of relief. In the Qing Dynasty,
disasters were divided into ten grades of severity, with scores from six to ten
defined as a disaster. In 1728, the sixth year of Emperor Yongzheng, the court
stipulated that disaster surveys should be finished within 45 days. If local
officials exceeded the time limit by half a month to over three months, they
were punished according to the number of days overdue.13 In the process of
disaster relief, raising funds for relief 籌賑 was a crucial step. Thus, Qing
governments gradually established and improved the system for raising relief
funds. In the Qing Dynasty, relief funds came mainly from the imperial-court
allocation, province and county assistance, and local collections. In addition,
individual donations, such as payments for official titles, were encouraged. In
the early Qing period, the imperial-court allocation was the primary source of
disaster relief. In the late Qing, individual donations became the main source
of disaster relief because the central government was financially exhausted.
Disaster relief 賑 included tax exemptions, delay of the imposition of taxes,
government relief, commodity-price controls, work relief, and pacification of
displaced victims. The policy on tax exemptions 蠲 was that victims paid
no taxes or less tax in the event of a natural disaster. In 1728, the sixth year

12 For example, the Collected Statutes of the Jiaqing Reign 嘉慶會典 adjusted the twelve
items to preparing for famine relief 備祲, killing pests 除孽, rescuing from disasters
救 , providing relief supplies 發賑, reducing the selling of grain 糶, providing
loans 出貸, allowing tax exemptions 蠲賦, delaying the imposition of taxes 緩征,
facilitating commerce 通商, encouraging donations 勸輸, encouraging reconstruction
興工築, and resettling displaced victims 集流亡.
13 Collected Statutes and Precedents of the Qing Dynasty 大清會典事例 (Beijing:
Zhonghua Shuju, 1990), vol. 288, pp. 366 367.
30 Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 7 2016

of Emperor Yongzheng, proportions of tax exemptions were specified as

follows: “victims of ten-score disasters enjoy a 70-percent tax exemption;
victims of nine-score disasters a 60-percent tax exemption; victims of eight-
score disasters a 40-percent tax exemption; victims of seven-score disasters a
20-percent tax exemption; and victims of six-score disasters a 10-percent tax
exemption.”14 In 1738, the third year of Emperor Qianlong, it was added that
“victims of five-score disasters can also report disasters and enjoy a
10-percent tax exemption upon completion of the survey by local officials.”15
Delay of the imposition of taxes 緩征 involves postponing the imposition of
taxes due in afflicted areas. Sometimes imposition was delayed until the
ripening of wheat or the harvest in autumn. Sometimes taxes were imposed
every two or three or five years. Government relief 賑濟 involved the govern-
ment’s dispensing food, funds, and other supplies for free to help victims
through immediate difficulties. The relief might take the form of food, funds,
or cooked porridge. Commodity-price controls 平糶 involved stabilizing grain
prices in afflicted areas. Famine or crop failure was often accompanied by
high prices for rice. To relieve disaster victims, the government would stabi-
lize prices by storing rice, sending rice by canal, purchasing rice, and the like.
Work relief 以工代賑 involved relieving people in disaster areas by giving
them employment in civil-works projects. Relief work projects mainly
included repair of city walls; construction of river embankments, roads, and
bridges; and renovation of houses and temples. The Qing Dynasty attached
great importance to the pacification of victims 安輯. The government accom-
plished this in two major ways: resettlement and rehabilitation. Resettlement
involved local governments’ accepting and settling famine refugees, relieving
them with food and sheltering them in modest housing. Rehabilitation
involved local officials’ returning famine refugees to their hometowns in early
spring and aiding them to ensure spring plowing.
Besides the system of disaster relief, China also established systems of
disaster prevention and mitigation down through the dynasties. For example,
there were systems for storing grain against natural disasters. The most basic
form was the Ever Normal Granary 常平倉, created in the Western Han
Dynasty (206 BCE–8 CE) and followed by later generations. An official
institution, Ever Normal Granaries were set up in the administrative cities of
provinces and districts. In addition, private Public Welfare Granaries 義倉
were established in small cities and towns, and private Charitable Granaries
社倉 were founded in villages. These three sorts of granaries constituted a

14 Collected Statutes and Precedents of the Qing Dynasty 大清會典事例, vol. 288, p. 369.
15 Veritable Records of the Qianlong Reign 清高宗實錄 (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1986),
vol. 68, p. 102.
 Natural Disasters and the Development of Chinese History 31

complete storage network. Another example of disaster prevention and miti-

gation is that owing to frequent floods and droughts, premodern Chinese
governments had their own water policies, such as irrigation projects and
flood control. Moreover, they also pursued afforestation and land reclamation.
In addition to establishing a complete and rigorous system of disaster
relief, China kept a lot of historical data on natural disasters and relief
measures throughout the dynasties. The leading American environmental
historian John R. McNeill believes that if we limit ourselves to using written
records to reconstruct the environmental history, most of the world cannot
compared with China, because “in Africa, Oceania, America, and most of
Asia, except for the most recent periods, historians who are interested in other
periods must rely on the work of archaeologists, climatologists, geologists,
geological morphologists, and so on,” yet in China, “historians can play an
important role.”16 The Chinese famine historian Xia Mingfang 夏明方 argued
that McNeill was only half right, however. “Even from as late as The Spring
and Autumn Annals 春秋, China’s first systematic history book, China enjoys
at least two thousand years of history in recording natural disasters. The huge
amount, many types, long series, and strong continuity are enough to make
these records unique and valuable in the data bank of world environmental
history.”17 Relatively accurate records of natural disasters were first seen in
the Book of Han 漢書, “The Five Elements” 五行志. After that, official histories
all followed its style to record various catastrophic events. Even most local
histories followed the style with great attention to recording natural disasters
of all kinds. Moreover, a large amount of historical data on famines can also
found in official records, documents, and books. Since the Song Dynasty
(960–1279), groups of scholars have systematically summarized official and
private disaster-relief measures and experience. These men of insight wrote
these summaries in books, most of which were regarded as relief guides by
later rulers, were repeatedly published, and were widely spread. These works
have considerable academic value today for understanding the evolution of
natural disasters in history and learning past lessons on disaster relief and
mitigation.

16 John McNeill 約翰·麥克尼爾, China’s Environmental History from a Global

Perspective 由世界透視中國環境史, in Accumulations: Essays on China’s
Environmental History 積漸所至 中國環境史論文集, vol. 1, edited by Liu Cuirong 劉
翠溶 and Mark Elvin伊懋可 (Taipei: Zhongyang Yanjiu Yuan Jingji Yanjiusuo, 1995),
pp. 53 54. English version: John McNeill, “China’s Environmental History in World
Perspective,” in Sediments of Time: Environment and Society in Chinese History,
edited by Mark Elvin and Ts’ui-jung Liu (New York: Cambridge University Press,
1998), pp. 31 52.
17 Xia Mingfang 夏明方, “Inhuman Tendencies in the Study of the History of Disaster
in China” 中国灾害史研究的非人文化倾向, Shixue yuekan 史学月刊, 2004, no. 3.
32 Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 7 2016

3 Research on the History of Disasters of China

In modern China, research on the history of disasters began in the 1920s
and 1930s. Zhu Kezhen 竺可楨 earlier explained the history of famines with
modern science and in particular explored the development of disasters from
the perspective of natural science. In 1928 Zhu Kezhen published a paper
titled “The Geographical Environment and Floods in Zhili during the Qing
Dynasty” 清直隸地理的環境與水 , the earliest paper about Qing famine
history.18 Prior to 1949 Zhu Kezhen also wrote the most papers about famine
history of any scholar. In 1937 Deng Tuo 鄧拓, at the age of 25, published
The History of Disaster Relief in China 中國救荒史. This pathbreaking book
was the first Chinese monograph to study disasters and relief ideas
throughout Chinese history in a relatively complete, systematic, and scientific
way. At the time, it was regarded as the best work about Chinese famine
relief, as a work that “promoted the study of the Chinese history of famine to
a new stage.”19 Also in the late 1930s, the scholar Pan Guangdan 潘光旦
analyzed the impact of disasters on the Chinese gene pool from the angle of
eugenics in his book National Character and National Health 民族特性與民族
衛生, Jiang Jie 蔣傑 applied Malthus’s theory of population to the demo-
graphic study of the Great Northwest Famine of 1928 in his Guanzhong
Rural Population Problem 關中農村人口問題, and Chen Gaoyong 陳高庸
compiled A List of Natural and Manmade Disasters through Chinese History
中國歷代天災人禍表.20 From the foundation of the People’s Republic of China
in 1949 to the end of the Great Cultural Revolution, however, research about
the history of disasters in the humanities and social sciences came almost to
a standstill.21 Yet during that time, natural scientists from earthquake and
water-conservation government agencies and research institutes, in the service
of China’s economic construction and disaster prevention and mitigation,
fruitfully summarized a tremendous amount of historical data about natural

18 Zhu Kezhen 竺可楨, “The Geographical Environment and Floods in Zhili during the
Qing Dynasty” 清直隸地理的環境與水災, Shixue yu dixue 史學與地學, 1928, no. 3.
19 Li Wenhai 李文海 and Xia Mingfang 夏明方, “The Aspirations and Seminal Ideas of
Deng Tuo’s History of Disaster Relief in China” 邓拓 中国救荒史 研究的抱负与卓
见, Beijing ribao 北京日报, June 6, 2008.
20 Pan Guangdan 潘光旦, National Character and National Health 民族特性與民族衛生
(Shanghai: Shangwu Yinshuguan, 1937). Jiang Jie 蔣傑, Guanzhong Rural
Population Problem 關中農村人口問題 (Yangling, Shaanxi: Guoli Xibei Nonglin
Zhuanke Xuexiao 國立西北農林專科學校, 1938). Chen Gaoyong 陈高庸, A List of
Natural and Manmade Disasters through Chinese History 中國歷代天災人禍表
(Shanghai: Guoli Jinan Daxue 上海国立暨南大学, 1939).
21 Zhu Hu 朱浒, “A Study of and Comments on the Qing History of Disasters in the
Twentieth Century” 二十世纪清代灾荒史研究述评, Qingshi yanjiu 清史研究, 2003, no.
3.
 Natural Disasters and the Development of Chinese History 33

disasters, explored the evolution and spatial distribution of natural disasters in

China, and made a mid- and long-term predictions about possible trends of
future disasters. Since 1980s, the history of disasters, as a branch of social
history, has made great strides. In this period, Li Wenhai 李文海 at Renmin
University of China took the lead and founded the Natural Disasters Research
Group. This group has published A Chronology of Modern China’s Natural
Disasters 近代中国灾荒纪年, Disasters and Famine: 1840–1919 灾荒与饥馑:
1840–1919, and other works.22 These findings broadened the research
approach of the history of disasters by providing new data and developing
new theoretical paradigms, and thus led a batch of scholars to engage in
research in related fields. From the 1990s, a growing number of researchers
entered the field of the history of disasters and published a variety of notable
research outcomes. As a result, this discipline has gradually developed a
distinct theoretical framework, fleshed out its academic content, and backed
up its findings with ample historical data. The joint efforts of natural scien-
tists and historians has led to the discovery and review of related historical
records. These efforts led to four milestone publications in the history of
disasters in China: A Chronology of Chinese Seismic Data 中国地震资料年表
(1956), the Qing River Flooding Historical Records Series 清代江河洪涝档案
史料丛书 (from 1988), A Distribution Atlas of Droughts and Floods in the Past
500 Years in China 中国近五百年旱涝分布图集 (1981), and China’s Famine
Relief Integration 中国荒政书集成 (2010). The last work, a collection of 185
famine relief documents in Chinese history totaling nearly 13 million Chinese
characters, is the world’s first systematic, complete compilation of Chinese
famine-policy data. This book gives a general picture of Chinese famine-
relief thought and practices from the pre-Qin period to the late Qing Dynasty,
a time span of over two thousand years. Owing to the efforts of generations
of scholars, research in the history of disasters in China has gradually
expanded, penetrated deeper, and created a broader space for development.
In the twenty-first century, global destruction of the environment has
created a need for research on the relationship between man and nature,
including the history of natural disasters. This need will inevitably become a

22 Li Wenhai 李文海, Lin Dunkui 林敦奎, Zhou Yuan 周源, and Gong Ming 宫明, A
Chronology of Modern China’s Natural Disasters 近代中国灾荒纪年 (Changsha:
Hunan Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 1990). Li Wenhai 李文海, Lin Dunkui 林敦奎, Cheng Xiao
程歗, and Gong Ming 宫明, A Continuation of a Chronology of Modern China’s
Natural Disasters 中国近代灾荒纪年续编 (Changsha: Hunan Jiaoyu Chubanshe,
1993). Li Wenhai 李文海 and Zhou Yuan 周源, Disasters and Famines: 1840 1919
灾荒与饥馑 1840 1919 (Beijing: Gaodeng Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 1991). Li Wenhai 李
文海, Cheng Xiao 程歗, Liu Yangdong 刘仰东, and Xia Mingfang 夏明方, Modern
China’s Top Ten Disasters 中国近代十大灾荒 (Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin
Chubanshe, 1994).
34 Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol. 7 2016

powerful driving force for further research. I truly believe that research on the
history of disasters will continue to develop and produce significant academic
results.