﻿3IO SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 47 



crease of population in China than in other countries enjoying like 

 natural advantages: I refer to the desire of every Chinese to have 

 posterity, to keep up the ancestral worship. We find Mencius (b. c. 

 372-289) saying: " There are three unfilial acts, and to have no pos- 

 terity is the greatest of them " (pu Iisiao yu son, wu hou wei ta). 1 

 Failure to support one's parents enduring poverty is only second to 

 it, for by failing to have posterity one offends against the whole line 

 of one's ancestors by putting an end to the sacrifices due them. To 

 this belief is due the universal practice of early marriages which has 

 always prevailed in China. 



The exceptional checks we find to a large increase of the popula- 

 tion are, however, quite as potent as the encouragements to its in- 

 crease just mentioned. Among these, famine, floods, and pestilence 

 have been the most constantly operating, and have arrested rapid 

 increase more even than the losses incurred through the fearful 

 butcheries which have throughout China's history invariably accom- 

 panied the suppression of every rebellion, the establishment of 

 every new dynasty. 



Alexander Hosie in his paper on " Droughts in China from a. d. 

 620 to 1643," 2 or during a period of 1,023 years, found that drought 



1 Mencius, Bk. iv, Pt. i, Ch. xxvi. 



" Hosie's inquiries, drawn from the great Chinese work called the T'n-shu 

 chi ch'cng (see Journ. Ch. Br. Roy. Asiat. Soc, n. s., xii, 51 et seq.), may be 

 summarized as follows : 



Between a. d. 620 and 700, inclusive, there were 41 years with droughts, of 

 which 2 were the results of great floods. 



From 701 to 800, inclusive, there were 46 years with drought. In 790 ty- 

 phus raged. 



From 801 to 900, inclusive, there were 43 years with drought, 8 of which 

 were of great severity. 



From 901 to 1000, inclusive, there were 60 years with drought, 13 being 

 " great droughts." 



From 1001 to 1100, inclusive, there were 68 years with drought, 6 being of 

 long duration, 8 "great droughts" and one (1086-87) universal and of long 

 duration. 



From 1101 to 1200, inclusive, there are 60 recorded droughts, of which 9 

 were "great droughts," 4 of long duration and 5 "very severe." 



From 1201 to 1300, inclusive, there were 76 droughts, of which 12 were 

 "great droughts" and 4 "very severe." 



From 1301 to 1400. inclusive, there were 59 years with drought, of which 

 25 were "great droughts," 4 accompanied with floods in other sections of the 

 country. 4 with locusts, and during 6 of the droughts the people resorted to 

 cannibalism. 



From 1401 to 1500, inclusive, there were 57 years with drought, of which 

 36 were "great droughts"; during 8 cannibalism i-< recorded, and during sev- 

 eral typhus raged. 



