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ADVANCES IN CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH 1(2): 9199, 2010 www.climatechange.cn DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1248.2010.00091 ARTICLE A Long Lasting and Extensive Drought Event over China in 18761878 De’er Zhang, Youye Liang National Climate Center of China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China Received 18 June 2010; revised 9 July 2010; accepted 21 July 2010 Abstract Between 1876 and 1878 a large-scale drought occurred in China. This is a major meteorological disaster and an ex- treme climate event despite the cold climate at the end of the Little Ice Age. In this paper the dynamic evolution of the occurrence and development of the drought is reproduced on the basis of historical literature records. These were used to calculate the yearly numbers of drought-hit counties and to determine the spatial distribution in addition with con- comitant famine, locust plague and pestilence epidemic for each of the three years. The persistent drought disaster spread over 13 provinces with its center in Shaanxi, Henan and Shanxi provinces, where the continuous non-soaking rain period exceeded 340 days. Conclusively, it is more severe than the worst drought (19281930) in the 20th century. This drought disaster of 18761878 took place in the descending phase of the 11th sunspot activity period and the start of the 12th period. It also happened during a spell of frequent El Niño events and corresponds with an extremely strong El Niño. Keywords: extreme climate event; drought; meteorological disaster; 18761878 Citation: Zhang, D., and Y. Liang, 2010: A long lasting and extensive drought event over China in 18761878. Adv. Clim. Change Res., 1, doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1248.2010.00091. 1 Introduction orous emendation are employed to analyze the 18761878 drought in a dynamic manner, including Over the last 1,000 years 15 major droughts have its genesis and development, severity, resulted been observed [Zhang, 2004; 2005a] occurring in damages and losses, and the related climate char- different cold and warm climate phases [Zhang, acteristics in order to enhance the understanding of 2005b]. The 17841786 dry event emerged in a rela- extreme climate aridity in China. tively warm climate phase [Zhang, 2000]. This drought happened in the 2nd to 4th reigning year of the Guangxu Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. It is 2 Reproduction of the historical drought a long-lasting extensive disaster, bringing about event of 18761878 extremely serious social consequences and is thus called the Guangxu Severe Drought by Chinese The 18761878 heavy drought event hit parts of historians. The historical records subjected to rig- 13 provinces, i.e., Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Corresponding author: De’er Zhang, [email protected] 92 ADVANCES IN CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong, Gansu, Ningxia, 2004b] and the drought lasting until the spring of Sichuan, Hubei, Anhui and Jiangsu. It started in 1878. The summer to autumn drought of southern January 1876 and ended in mid August 1878 (all Shaanxi in 1877 continued till 1878. Many counties months refer to the months in the lunar calendar). of Gansu and Ningxia reported that “Not a single The authors utilize the historical climate descrip- raindrop was received throughout the year”, or tions quoted from Compendium of Chinese Meteoro- “No rainfall in May until the end of the year oc- logical Records of the Last 3,000 Years [Zhang, 2004b] curred”. As shown in the local chronicles, Kaifeng, to retrieve the processes of occurrence and devel- Fangcheng, and Mianchi of Henan province ex- opment of the hazard, along with the calculation of perienced “Severe successive droughts in summer, dryness characteristics. autumn and winter of 1877 and then persisting till the end of 1878 spring”. Spring dryness was severe 2.1 Dynamic evolution of the drought disaster all over Shandong province. In addition, summer drought pounded parts of the provinces of Anhui, In 1876, a summer drought was experienced in Jiangsu and Hubei. The disaster was also severe in northern China. Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, and Shan- northern Hunan, especially in Cili and Shimen dong in conjunction with parts of Liaoning and counties where “Very serious aridity lasts for 70 Inner Mongolia suffered little or no rainfall starting days”. The dry situation of Sichuan, particularly in from January 1876 to the start of the wet season in the northern part of the province, was also in abun- mid July 1877. Then the drought was relieved by dance following the report of “No rain from April some degree from south to north. Especially to August” in 1877. In Guizhou province the Cangzhou and Gaocheng in central Hebei province situation was similar compared with Sichuan, experienced the drought for almost one year (start- where they noted that “No rain is received from ing from autumn 1876 and ending on July 8, 1877). October 1876 to April 1877”. The hazard persisted much longer in Shandong In 1878 the affected areas appeared to decrease province, with Linju, Shouguang and Shanxian in Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Henan, and counties suffering until late August 1877. The Shandong provinces, with a westward movement summer dryness of 1876 prevailed over Jiangsu of the main drought-stricken areas towards Shaanxi, and Anhui provinces, over the Jiang-Huai Valleys, Gansu and Sichuan. There was little or no rainfall and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The in spring and summer over Hebei, Shanxi, Henan summer drought continued at Yingshan of Hubei and Shandong, with the drought coming to an end and Nanchong of Sichuan in the mid-upper basin when precipitation started in mid August 1878. of the Yangtze River until autumn 1877. Summer Later on, the rain band remained in Shanxi, Henan aridity was also experienced in Gansu province in and Shandong from the end of September to mid 1876. October 1878, bringing about heavy rainfall. Until In 1877 the drought-stricken area was expanded then the nearly three year long aridity was thor- and the hazard lasted even longer, leading to se- oughly overcome while the following more than vere aridity and no rainfall in summer and autumn decade-long precipitation caused field crops to over Hebei and Shanxi, with the longest rain-free mould and rot in Yuci, Xiyang and Shouyang of period in history. In Pinglu of Shanxi, for example, Shanxi province. “No rains occur for more than 200 days from spring Documentary evidence from Zhang [2004b] in- to winter” [Zhang, 2004b]. In Hengshan of Shaanxi dicates that for central Shaanxi the drought, start- province and its vicinity for instance, the dryness ing in April 1877 and persisting one year, was fully was severe enough to have “Not even a single relieved due to multi-day heavy rainfall beginning raindrop from 1877 spring to summer” [Zhang, in 13 April 1878. But the drought subsequently re- De’er Zhang et al. / A Long Lasting and Extensive Drought Event over China in 18761878 93 occurred in May to June and was so severe that the In addition, the concept of a period of days of “Runde Spring of Qishan becomes dried up once non-soaking rainfall is employed to represent the more”. The local chronicles showed that Wudu, field water deficit and hence aridity, which is used Tianshui, and Yongdeng of Gansu suffer grave in various kinds of reports as concerning aridity. In dryness in autumn and winter of 1878 which last historical documents and books there are descrip- until the early summer of 1879. Besides, another tions of severe local droughts, as given by the summer to autumn drought happened in Sichuan, phrase of “Without any raindrop from a particular with particularly Ya’an suffering “Serious aridity in month to a later month”. However, ”non-soaking May which persists for the following 70 days”. rain” (NSR) descriptions denote only the day or a Such disasters affected other areas as well. The long spell of days having insufficient rainfall for crops, lasting extensive dryness terminated in the whole differing from the definition of rain-free day or a country in 1878. spell of rainless days in modern meteorology. In Historical drought events (with the older county addition, the described NSR varied spatially in names converted into the present-day ones) are amount, depending on the season and growth stage employed to prepare maps to depict the dynamic of crops. As a result, it is impossible to get the ac- development of drought-hit areas on annual basis. tual rainwater amount from the NSR days in a pe- Figure 1 presents the drought-hit areas of the riod for a particular region. Despite this, the NSR 18761878 drought (brown shading) and it shows connotations are comparable in historical and the largest drought-hit area in 1877, especially lo- modern times. The authors utilize the concept of a cated in Shanxi province. spell of NSR days used in historical climate re- search to represent the aridity intensity. 2.2 Inference of aridity severity Based on the records of “no rain date” and “date of rain starting”, the length of NSR days can be 2.2.1 Estimate of non-soaking rain days calculated. In Pinglu of Shanxi province, for in- Aridity can be quantitatively denoted by the stance, the local chronicle noted that “No precipita- number of days without rainfall, the number of tion during more than 200 days from spring to continuous no-rain days, and departure of precipi- winter occurred”. Based on that, we determined tation. And the aridity index is sometimes con- 200 NSR days for this county. Likewise, based on structed by means of meteorological data. These the description of “No rain from June to the fol- methods are, however, unsuitable for the use in lowing May” for a particular place, we can infer calculating the index from historical descriptions.

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