How cold was the Little Ice Age in Ming and Qing Dynasties?

From 1550 to 185 1, from Jiajing in Ming Dynasty to Daoguang in Qing Dynasty, extremely cold weather similar to the present occurred in China. At that time, lack of experience and untimely defensive measures led to a large-scale crop reduction, followed by a series of chain social effects such as famine and peasant uprising, which had a great impact. This event is also recorded in Historical Records, which is called "Little Ice Age of Ming and Qing Dynasties" in China.

In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, this strange weather was mentioned in Records of Reading the World, Notes of Yongxianzhai, Five Elements of Ming History, Draft of Qing History and Disaster Records.

The winter of 1892- 1893 is the coldest winter in the southeast coastal areas of China in recent 300 years. It is not surprising that plants sometimes freeze to death in the cold winter in the north. However, in the winter of 1892, the Wusong River and Huangpu River, which had been flowing eastward for many years in Shanghai, were also frozen in1February, and the river ice remained frozen for ten days. In Suzhou, Jiangsu, it is "the mountain is closed by heavy snow in winter, and the ice in Taihu Lake is thick."

In Nanjing, "it is extremely cold in winter and the river is frozen for ten days." The heavy snow in this area extends at least eastward to Nanling, Anhui Province. Jiashan area "1 1 in the late month, it was freezing, the river was frozen for more than ten days, and the ships were blocked." /kloc-in February, it snowed for two days and nights, and the area was three feet. "Hedeqing area" 1 1 On the 27th of the month, it was raining and snowing, freezing for four or five feet, and the wind was cold.

From Wen Ming Bridge to Changqiao River, the boat could not support, and some people were walking on the ice. It will be solved step by step by1February. "Rivers and ports in Xiaoshan, Yuyao, Xiangshan, Taiping, Linhai and Fuyang have also been frozen. Linhai area: "The ice layers of streams and rivers are frozen, which is unprecedented in South China. "Guangxu Taiping County Continuation" also said: "Rivers are frozen. Can't sail, flowers and trees are dying, and centenarians have never seen them. "

There were 72 freezing disasters recorded in Ming Dynasty and 277 in Qing Dynasty. At that time, freezing disastrous weather occurred in northern, western, eastern, central and southern Guangdong.

Many freezing disasters occurred in Nanhai County, dapu county, Huilai County, Xingning County, Jieyang County and Longchuan County. During this period, the snow line in Guangdong even reached the northern coastal area of Hainan Island, where the temperature actually dropped below zero.

1606 (thirty-four years of Wanli in Ming Dynasty), Qiongshan in Hainan was extremely cold in winter, and six animals froze to death; 1767 (thirty-two years of Qianlong) Frost in Wanning, Hainan-It should be hard to imagine for countless "migratory birds" who came to Hainan from the north to warm up for the winter.

Extended data:

The tactics of keeping out the cold in history: smoking, ridging and wrapping;

Of course, for Cantonese who are used to warm life, those snowy days in history are often expensive. So people invented all kinds of indigenous methods. For example, the smoking method, that is, burning firewood, straw, dead branches, fallen leaves, dry dung blocks and other smoke, releases smoke screens, weakens the effective radiation on the ground and raises the temperature. This method was first seen in Qi Yao Min Shu in the Northern Wei Dynasty.

Another example is the method of cultivating soil, which is to cultivate the soil to take root before the arrival of freezing weather, so as to loosen the soil, raise the soil temperature and protect the root system. The method of cultivating soil is mostly used for fruit trees to prevent cold. For example, in Han Yanzhi's citrus monograph "Orange Record", "winter river mud bacon" was recorded.

The parcel law is no stranger to modern city people. This method is mostly used for wintering and cold protection of trees, and it is still widely used in modern garden tree management, but it is time-consuming and laborious and inefficient. In the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Zongfa wrote in Saint Ji Nong: Olives "like cold, so it is appropriate to tie velvet grass in winter"; Longan "its tree is afraid of winter, it must be covered with velvet, and its stalk is tied with grass and thick as a square", which is a very practical experience for Guangdong.

But after all, artificial defense can only stop temporary emergencies, and the change of climate is irreversible. During the Little Ice Age of Ming and Qing Dynasties, the distribution boundary of litchi, coconut and betel nut gradually moved southward. Many places in Fujian and Guangxi are no longer suitable for planting litchi after this period.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Little Ice Age in Ming and Qing Dynasties