Climate change in China during the past 2000 years: An overview Ge Quansheng , Zheng Jingyun Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China Email:
[email protected] Outline 1 Introduction 2 Historical Documents as Proxy 3 Reconstructions and Analyses 4 Summary and Prospects 1. Introduction: E Asia2K Climate System Socio-economic System •typical East Asian •dense population and rapid monsoon climate economic development • significant seasonal and • be susceptible to global inter-annual and inter- warming and extreme decadal variability climate events Climate change study in the past 2ka in East Asian is both beneficial and advantageous. • various types of natural proxy • Plenty of historical documents Fig. Active regional working groups under as proxy the past 2ka theme (PAGES 2009) 2. Historical Documents as Proxy Type Period Amount Chinese classical 1,531 kinds, 137 BC~1470 AD documents 32,251 volumes More than 8,000 1471~1911 (The Ming Local gazettes books (部), 110, and Qing Dynasty) 000 volumes Memos to the About 120,000 1736~1911 emperor pieces Archives of the 1912~1949 20,000 volumes Republic of China More than 200 Private diaries 1550~ books (部) Chinese classical documents AD 833, North China plain: Extreme drought event was occurred, crops were shriveling, no yields, people were in hungry…. Fig. Example for Ancient Chinese writings Local gazettes The 28th year of the Daoguang reign (1848 AD), the 6th (lunar) month, strong wind and heavy rain, the Yangtze River overflowed; the 7th month, strong wind Fig. Gazettes of Yangzhou Prefecture and thunder storm, field published in 1874 AD and houses submerged.