What kind of catastrophe did Asia experience in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties?

The Little Ice Age in Ming and Qing Dynasties can be said to be the longest lasting and most influential natural disaster in the world history. The formation of the Little Ice Age in Ming and Qing Dynasties is still a mystery. To some extent, the Little Ice Age in Ming and Qing Dynasties was still a mysterious natural disaster. Let's talk about it in detail:

From the 29th year of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty to the 35th year of Qianlong in Qing Dynasty (1550 to 1770), the global temperature dropped obviously, which lasted for more than 300 years during Daoguang and Xianfeng years in Qing Dynasty. This cold period is called "Little Ice Age" in world history, and China historians often call it "Little Ice Age in Ming and Qing Dynasties".

During the "Little Ice Age" in Ming and Qing Dynasties, the temperature in China dropped obviously, which is clearly recorded in historical documents. As we all know, the Qinling-Huaihe line is the southernmost boundary line of the 0℃ isotherm of 65438+1October, and the rivers south of Qinling-Huaihe generally do not freeze in winter. The Huaihe line in Qinling Mountains is also the dividing line between warm temperate zone and subtropical zone in China, so it is impossible to locate the Yangtze River and Dongting Lake in the south of Huaihe River in Qinling Mountains. During the Little Ice Age of Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Yangtze River was frozen for a month, and the thickest part of Dongting Lake was one foot. Rivers in Zhejiang are as thick as ice. These extreme weather events occurred between 1450 and 1750.

In the fourth year of Jingtai in Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1453) and the fifth year of Jingtai in lunar calendar (A.D. 1454), there were "several feet of heavy snow, and many people and animals froze to death" in Meng Chun and Shandong. In the forty-eighth year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1620), extreme weather occurred in some places in Shandong Province, and heavy snow fell in October of the lunar calendar, with the thickness of ice and snow reaching.

As we all know, snowfall in Guangzhou in Lingnan area is very rare. However, during the nearly 400 years of the Little Ice Age in Ming and Qing Dynasties, the frequency of snowfall in Guangzhou increased, and the recorded frequency was about 1 1 time. As recorded in Nanhai County Records, in the third year of Qin Long in Ming Dynasty (AD 1569), in December of the lunar calendar, Nanhai County, guangzhou fu.

In the forty-six years of Wanli in Ming Dynasty (A.D. 16 18), heavy snow fell in many places in guangzhou fu. 1February, from the sixth day to the eighth day, it snowed for three days in a row, which led to "in the valley, the peaks stand tall and the forests are towering" in Conghua County. The local old man said that this is a phenomenon that has never happened before.

When the temperature drops, there will be a chain reaction, and droughts, locusts and plagues will occur frequently. These natural disasters seem to have reached their peak in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. From 1627 to 164 1, there is drought in the Yellow River Basin almost every year, for example, in the first year of Chongzhen (1628), there was a drought in Hebei. During the period of 15 from the third year to the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (A.D. 1630 to 1644), there were nine droughts in Henan, which cut off the Yellow River, and the water margin and Anshan Lake in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River actually dried up.

The long duration and wide range of drought in Chongzhen are rare in history, and there is a tendency to spread to the Yangtze River basin. The river network is dense, and Zhejiang, the land of plenty, also suffered from drought for years from the 12th to 15th year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty (AD 1639- 1642).

Years of drought have led to poor harvests, which has led to the tragedy of eating people. There is a record in Deping County Records that "there is a great drought, people eat vegetation, and there is flesh and blood cannibalism".

After the drought, plagues spread everywhere, such as in the eighth year of Wanli (AD 1580), Datong, Shanxi, where "ten rooms were empty". This year, plagues also occurred in Taigu County, Xinzhou, Baodezhou and other places in Shanxi Province, and Wanli Plague was also discovered in Henan and Hebei. During the Chongzhen period, the plague in North China entered another one.

Why is it easy to have plague after years of drought? There are three main reasons: first, during the drought, people are often in a state of hunger, and their physical resistance drops, making them vulnerable to plague; Second, whenever there is a drought, the temperature in the rat hole will increase due to the decrease of rainfall, and bacteria can easily breed on rats. When there is a drought, there will be a shortage of food crops. In order to find food, mice will migrate far away. When their range of activities expands, it will increase the probability of plague epidemic. For example, it is possible to transmit germs to domestic mice, and then to humans. Third, in famine years, rats have the habit of storing food in rat holes. When human beings are short of food, they will take the initiative to look for rat holes and take food out of them, which increases the chances of human contact with rats. In addition, in extreme cases, humans will use mouse meat as food to satisfy their hunger, thus increasing the chance of being infected with plague.

The epidemic of drought, locust plague and plague will not only reduce the population, but also lead to refugees who seek survival by fleeing famine and migration. Where refugees gather, there are often "thugs", who will take risks in order to fill their stomachs, thus triggering peasant uprisings.

The peasant uprisings led by Li Zicheng and Zhang in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties were all caused by famine.

The Little Ice Age of Ming and Qing Dynasties had an impact on the social economy of Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. In the prosperous time of Kanggan, the Qing Dynasty was able to cope with all kinds of natural disasters. During the Daoguang and Xianfeng years, the same situation appeared as that of the Ming Dynasty.

In the first year of Jiaqing (A.D. 1796), when Emperor Qianlong was still the emperor's father, the An Baili Rebellion broke out in Hubei, Henan, Sichuan and Shaanxi, which was known as the "Hundred Li Rebellion in Sichuan, Chu and An". The Qing court mobilized 654.38 million troops and spent 200 million silver from the state treasury. It was not until 1804 that the uprising was suppressed.

Without the Little Ice Age in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the population of China would have increased to 400 million in the Kangxi period, and the population of China would have increased to 600 million to 800 million in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. Today, it may have exceeded 2 billion. The arrival of the Little Ice Age in Ming and Qing Dynasties delayed the population growth of China from 200 million to 400 million for nearly 200 years, and from 400 million to 500 million for nearly 100 years.

Of course, the arrival of the Little Ice Age in Ming and Qing Dynasties not only affected the population growth in China, but also affected Europe. From 10 century to 14 century, there was a "medieval warm period" in Europe. 1340 The population of Europe reached about 70 million, and then the Black Death and the Little Ice Age appeared, which affected the population. The population of Europe is only1.600 million, but in the short 50 years from 1.850 to 1.900, the population of Europe has increased from more than 200 million to more than 400 million.

So, what caused the emergence of the Little Ice Age in Ming and Qing Dynasties? This is still a mystery in academic circles, and there are many explanations. There are two famous explanations. The first explanation is related to Indians. Before the opening of the new air route, Indians often burned land in America. After the forest was burned, a large amount of carbon dioxide was released into the air, which aggravated the greenhouse effect. After 1500 years, Europeans began to colonize the American continent and put smallpox, measles and so on.

There is also a saying that the arrival of the Little Ice Age in Ming and Qing Dynasties is related to the changes of celestial bodies in the Milky Way. The changes of the orbital positions of celestial bodies may lead to changes in gravity and cosmic rays, and these extremely weak changes may affect the climate change of the earth. Because of this, the Little Ice Age of Ming and Qing Dynasties is also called "the cosmic period of Ming and Qing Dynasties".