Did the cold in history really lead to the demise of a dynasty?

A cowherd boy from a peasant background established a dynasty. This was the last Ming Dynasty that was unified by the Han people, and it died for 276 years.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, although Chongzhen wanted to be a good emperor of farmers, his family had almost perished. Coupled with natural and man-made disasters, the hungry farmers finally rose up and resisted.

Li Zicheng invaded Beijing and hanged himself in Jingshan Park, Chongzhen, declaring the demise of the Ming Dynasty. After the Qing soldiers entered the customs, they defeated the regimes of Hong Guang and longwu in Nanming successively, until Emperor Li Yong was killed and Nanming was destroyed, and the Qing Dynasty ruled by Manchu was established.

In fact, there is a very realistic natural reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the drought caused by the sudden drop of temperature caused famine, especially for the people in Guanzhong area.

Today, let's learn about the once-in-a-lifetime winter in China.

I'm sure you've all heard of the word "ice age". Maybe many people think it's a distant thing. After all, it is too far away from us, and because this period is rarely recorded in history, glacier activity has never stopped.

More than 300 years ago, there was a small-scale glacier propulsion activity, and the global climate entered a cold period. In China, this phenomenon is called "Little Ice Age of Ming and Qing Dynasties".

According to historical records, this Little Ice Age probably started in the13rd century or14th century and ended in the early 20th century. During this period, China was flooded or drought in summer and extremely cold in winter. People suffer from cold, not to mention the reduction of grain production caused by natural disasters. Many people froze to death and starved to death during this period.

When there are many natural disasters, it is reasonable for the state not only to reduce taxes, but also to allocate funds for disaster relief. However, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the national treasury was almost squandered, and Chongzhen's own ability was limited. He could only devote himself to saving the country and was unable to save it. When the accumulated grievances reached a certain height, the peasant uprising broke out.

At that time, people faced with the cold winter, and they were relatively short of coping means, which were nothing more than adding clothes, exercising properly and making a fire to keep warm. As early as the Paleolithic Age, ancient people had learned how to barbecue food, use fire for heating and lighting.

In the spring and autumn period, there was great progress than in the past, and a tool called "Liao furnace" appeared, which was specially used to burn charcoal for heating. Even then, people had some ideas of "automation". On the burning stove, a charcoal dustpan is added to add charcoal or take burning charcoal, which can keep the fire from burning and facilitate adding new charcoal when heating.

There were more advanced heating methods in the Ming Dynasty than in the Spring and Autumn Period, so the cold weather at that time actually had limited influence on people.

The problem lies in the influence of cold climate on crops. In the face of this extremely cold climate, human beings may be able to resist with foreign objects, but crops are inevitably hit hard.

At that time, the imperial court did not formulate corresponding effective policies to help the people tide over the difficulties. On the one hand, it is because of inexperience, on the other hand, the court has no idea how serious the disaster is. Many officials were afraid that the emperor thought it was the result of his poor governance and did not dare to report it to the court at all. Even after reporting, they try to play it down.

Therefore, emperors simply did not understand the suffering brought by natural disasters to the people. Although the historical materials of Ming and Qing dynasties describe the allocation of disaster relief funds, they cannot fundamentally solve the problem.

In the history of China, natural disasters actually occurred in every dynasty and generation. If you live in a period of political clarity, that's fine, but if you live in a period of internal troubles and foreign invasion, it's easy to change dynasties. Natural disasters are irresistible and force majeure, but the incompetence of the court is more likely to lead to the demise of the dynasty.

Some historians divide the Little Ice Age of Ming and Qing Dynasties into three stages, one of which is from the 28th year of Wanli (1600) to the 59th year of Kangxi (1720). During this period, dynasties changed, and the court only suppressed these folk "troublemakers", but in fact it was just a "bite".

It can be said that in these three stages, the country has experienced different degrees of social unrest. At the end of Ming Dynasty, the population of Han nationality was1.200 million, and at the beginning of Qing Dynasty, the population of more than 50 million was directly reduced by about half.

The change of natural phenomena is transmitted through the ecological chain, and ultimately affects the whole human society. Although there is no way to avoid these, the consequences of this natural disaster can be greatly reduced if people at that time had enough understanding of the changes of these natural phenomena and responded as comprehensively as possible.

Some people say that being prepared can keep you from losing money, but in the face of such natural weather changes. We can do our best, prepare for the worst, save our vitality as much as possible and wait for the arrival of spring.