February 1992 P. K. Wang 423 Recent Studies of the Reconstruction of East Asian Monsoon Climate in the Past Using Historical Literature of China By Pao K. Wang Department of Meteorology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, U.S. A. and De'er Zhang Academy of Meteorological Science, State Meteorological Administration, Beijing, People's Republic of China (Manuscript received 5 August 1991, in revised form 7 December 1991) Abstract Recent work on the reconstruction of past climate of the part of China that is influenced by the East Asian monsoon based on Chinese historical literature are reviewed. General climate informa- tion that can be extracted from historical documents are described and some examples are given. The sources of available documents useful for more quantitative reconstruction purposes are given and assessed. Reconstruction of winter and summer temperature series and dryness/wetness series are then reviewed and discussed. The reconstruction of temperature series were generally based on climatological interpretation of phenological records such as the dates of lake or river freezing, bird migration, or the beginning and ending of snow. Reconstructed temperature series for various parts of China are given. Next, the reconstruction of humidity series are reviewed. The data sources for this purpose are mainly flood, drought, and rain records. Some high quality data sources, such as the daily weather reports, the Clear and Rain Records of Qing Dynasty, are also discusses. The reconstructed series are then used to summarize the general evolution of the monsoon climate of China from 300 to 1900 AD. A brief conclusion is made. 1. Introduction defined reversal of the wind directions between sum- mer and winter. Monsoon phenomenon is the central feature of the In this paper, we will summarize recent studies on climate in East Asia and it has been recognized by the reconstruction of past monsoon climate in East ancient people of this area for a long time. Be- Asia based on the historical documents of China. cause of the relatively early civilization of this area, The referencesare drawn mostly from the work done many monsoon-related weather and climate records by Chinese researchers. It would have been ben- are kept in written documents such as chronicles, eficial to include the work done by researchers in city, county, and provincial records, memoirs to the the neighboring countries such as Japan and Korea. throne, travel reports, agricultural books, private di- Unfortunately, the limitation of time has prevented aries, etc. (for example, Zhu, 1973; Wadachi, 1958; such an effort. Yoshino, 1978, 1981; Wang, 1979, 1980; Kim and In the succeeding sections, we will first review Choi, 1987; Wang and Zhang, 1988). Since mon- some general features of the records containing mon- soon plays such a dominant role, virtually all climate soon climate information in historical documents. records in the ancient literature of China, Japan, The use of them to extract quantitative informa- Korea, and other countries in this region can be con- tion of climate will be briefly described. Then, a sidered as reflecting the monsoon influence. In this relatively detailed review of the research on the re- review, we shall take this broad interpretation of construction of past climate based on these records monsoon climate. However, sometimes we shall re- will be given. The reconstruction was usually fer the monsoon phenomenon as the more narrowly done either for the temperature or humidity (dry- (c)1992, Meteorological Society of Japan ness/wetness) series, although some other climatic 293 424 Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan Vol. 70, No. 1 Fig. 1. A map of China showing the geographical locations mentioned in the text. parameters such as wind and the positions of pres- northeastward to Guangzhou.1 The above passage sure centers can also be deduced in some cases. Fi- indicates that the winter monsoon in Indian Ocean nally, the findings of these studies will be summa- then was NE so that the ship sailed to the SW. Sec- rized. ondly, his 5 month stay in Java was apparently not 2. Monsoon climate records in Chinese his- sightseeing but for the purpose of waiting for the torical literature SW summer monsoon to return to Guangzhou (Zhu, 1954). ,2.1 General literature related to monsoon The trade between China and Arab countries be- One of the earliest records in China concerned came more frequent in Song (960-1287 AD) and directly with monsoon was that written by Bud- Yuan (1280-1368AD) Dynasties. Such trades were dhist monk, Faxian, of East Jin Dynasty (317-419 accomplished mainly via oceanic routes which must AD) who traveled from today's Xian (the ancient have depended heavily on monsoon and there were Changan, the the Capital of China) to India by land reports saying that the foreign merchants usually in 399 AD but returned via an oceanic route fifteen arrived at China sometimes after the summer sol- years later. He reported on his return trip: "Sail- stice (in June) and went back to their countries in ing southeastward on the sea, we were helped by the "10th Month" around November). The timing the early winter trade wind and arrived at the Lion was obviously coincident with the change of mon- Country (i. e., today's Sri Lanka) in 14 days and soon wind direction. nights." He stayed in Sri Lanka for another 2 years Associated with the summer monsoon in East and eventually went to Java and stayed there for 5 Asia is the rainy season called Meiyu in China and months. Then, on "4th Month, 16th Day" (around Baiu in Japan, both meaning "plum rain," as the May in the Gregorian calendar), he boarded a large 1 A map indicating the location of places mentioned in this ship along with other 200 some passengers and sailed paper is given in Fig. 1. ,294 February 1992 P. K. Wang 425 season coincides with the time when plum ripens. general contents of these documents. Some descrip- The plum rain is closely related to the SE mon- tions were also given by Wang (1979, 1980), Wang soon and for this reason the SE monsoon had been and Chu (1982), and Wang and Zhang (1988). called "drop plum wind" in Interpretation of Cus- The most well known source of historical climate toms (Feng Su Tong, by Ying Shao, circa 200 AD). records is the official dynastic histories of China. The famous Song poet, Su Shi (1036-1101 AD), These histories were normally (although no always) wrote an introduction to his poem Ship Wind say- written by officially appointed scholars of the dy- ing, "After the Meiyu has passed in Wu (around nasty succeeding the previous one. For example, Suzhou) area, there would be refreshing wind for the scholars of Yuan Dynasty wrote the OfficialHis- tens of days. It occurs every year. Local folks tory of the Song Dynasty. The materials used for call it the ship wind. This is also the time when these histories were that compiled by imperial his- seafaring ships return and the wind comes at the torians of the previous dynasty. The format of these same time with the ships." A Ming Dynasty book, histories are almost unchanged ever since Ban Gu Chats of Yuzhi Hall (Yuzhi Tang Tan Hui, edited (32-92 AD) wrote the History of Han. In addi- by Gu Mie and Xu Yingqiu), gave the SE monsoon tion to political events, most of these histories also another name: "In the 6th Month in the south there contain records of weather and climate. As a rule, are long southeast winds called the yellow sparrow only unusual phenomena or severe conditions were wind." Though the names are different, they all refer recorded. These records are usually found in either to the SE monsoon. the Book of Five Elements (Wuxing Zhi in Chinese Monsoon climate is known for its large spatial and pronunciation in pinyin system) or Book of Por- temporal variabilities. For example, the Meiyu rain- tents (Zaiyi Zhi) of each history. Occasionally, the fall can vary greatly from one year to the other. calamities were so severethat they became the steer- This too can be seen in ancient literature. For ing force of the political course of the country and example, a Song poet Sima Guang (1019-1086) therefore were recorded in the Biographies (Ben Ji, wrote in one of his poems that "In the yellow Shi Jia, or Lie Zhuan). plum season/Rains in every family." Another poet, The recognized official histories are the so-called Zeng Yu (1073-1135), also of Song, wrote, "When Twenty Four Histories which include a series of plums turn yellow/Every day is sunny." Yet another books starting with Shi Zi ( The Book of History) Song poet, Dai Fugu (1167-?), wrote, "Ripen plum by Sima Qian (145-86 BC) and Han Shu by Ban weather/Half sunny, half cloudy." (one of the easiest Gu down to the History of Ming Dynasty. Reprints sources to find these poems is the Poems of Thou- of these histories are widely available commer- sand Scholars (Qian Jia Shi)). All three observa- cially. The History of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 tions are still valid today in general. AD) has not been published but a draft version Due to such large variabilities, flood and drought Qing Shi Gao, is commercially available. In addi- are not unusual in the monsoon climate zone in tion, a pre-Han Dynasty chronicle, the BambooAl- China. There are folklores that associate flood and bum (Zhu Shu Ji Nian), is also considered as having drought to monsoon. One example is given in Folk- the status of an officialhistory. lores of Farmers (said to be written by Tsui Shi of The relevant weather and climate records in these Han Dynasty, but quoted by Tao Zungyi (circa 1400 histories consist of flood, drought, excessiverain, un- AD) of Ming in his book Suo Hu): "When ship wind usual cold and hot weather, severe wind or thun- and clouds arise/The Drought Demon is immensely derstorms, dust rains, excessive snow, and heavy happy." This lore associates the SE monsoon with hailstorms.