the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Reconstruction of ancient drought in Northwest China and societal responses: A case study of 1759
Zhixin Hao
Haonan Yang
Meirun Jiang
Danyang Xiong
Abstract. According to the written records and scores of grain harvest in the official historical documents of the Qing Dynasty in China, the spatial-temporal distribution of and the impact caused by the 1759 AD drought in Northwest China were reconstructed, and the response of Chinese society to the drought at that time was summarized. In the spring and summer of 1759, vast areas of northern China suffered from drought, of which that experienced in the northwest region was the most serious. Starting from 27 April 1759, droughts covered Zhili, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces, and the droughts in Gansu and northern Shaanxi provinces lasted until 23 July 1759. This severe drought caused the worst crop failure in Northwest China in 1759 during the period 1730–1900. By implementing a series of disaster relief measures, the Qing government managed to ease the adverse societal impact of the drought in the summer of 1760. Among the relief measures, tax reduction and exemption in disaster-stricken areas, grain storage in the northwest region, and bumper agricultural harvests in Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces in 1759 were the main reasons for the rapid recovery from the drought impacts. With better climatic conditions in the 18th century, China had higher agricultural harvest levels in the 18th century than in the 19th century. Favorable financial conditions increased drought relief efforts, which was the background for the greater societal adaptability to the climate disaster of 1759.
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Zhixin Hao et al.
Status: open (until 28 Oct 2023)
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CC1: 'Comment on cp-2023-40', Fang Xiuqi, 01 Aug 2023
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This study presents a comprehensive reconstruction of the 1759 drought in NWAR, from the spatial-temporal distribution, to the impacts of the drought, and the societal responses. The historical records in NAR are arranged well to illustrate the drought process. The research draws three main conclusions, that is from spring to summer in 1759, the NAR experienced a severe drought due to the continuous low rainfall in spring and summer, the Qing government adopted a series of disaster relief measures to response the severe drought in the NWAR and the long-term climate fluctuations impact on the capacity of a society to respond to climate disasters. The results are valuable for disaster prevention, reduction and relief in modern society.
The title of “4.2 The impact of drought on society at the time”, could not cover the contents of the part. The impacts of the drought was beyond the time and out of the region. It is suggested to change the title and focus the topic on the subsequent long-term impacts and the impacts out the connected regions.
Some suggestions are as follows.
- Line 27. “Asia, Brazil, and Africa” are different scale units. Did only Brazil in South America suffer from the drought in 1877-1878?
- Line 60. “a hundred-year agricultural failure” should be “a once-in-a-century”.
- Line 61-62. Why “the 1759 drought event did not cause serious social unrest” is a topic to be answered in the paper. So the statement of “It can be seen that the societal adaptability at that time resolved the negative impact of the drought-driven agricultural failure” is not suitable be used here.
- Line 70. At present, Qinghai Province is generally belongs to the Tibet. According to Figure 1, only part of Qinghai is included in the Northwest China.
- Line 71. It should be rainfed “crops can be planted in the eastern part of Northwest China”. In the oases in Northwest China, if there is irrigation, crops can also be planted.
- Figure1 a and b is suggested to combine into a single one.
- Line 311. “drought, (1759)” is “drought (1759) ,”
- Line 369. “By 1759, the territory of the Qing Dynasty expanded further to Kashgar,……”, does it mean “the Kashgar ,…… had under been controlled by central goverment of the Qing Dynasty”
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2023-40-CC1
Zhixin Hao et al.
Zhixin Hao et al.
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