TNQX'TRY INTO TlIK POPULATION OF CTTTNA. 667 



l)aiiie(l by floods, typhus, aiul othci- scourges. Frcciiiciidv these 

 droughts histed in the same section of country for several successive 

 years or occurred at such close iiitei'vals that the country liad not 

 time to recover from them. To cite hut two cases: from A. 1). KJOl 

 to l()4;i drought is recorded in some one jH-ovince of China in thirty 

 years, in fifteen of Avhich it occurred iu the ])r()vince of Shan-hsi. and 

 in eleven in that of (Mie-kiang. 



The fearful loss of life which has marked every calamity tiiat has 

 visited any i)art of China, and the nearly incredible cruelty which has 

 l)een shown in the sui)i)ressi()n of eveiy u[)rising tliat has taken i)la(,v 

 from the earliest days down to the present time, are unfoitunately 

 too well authenticated to be denied. 



Without going baciv to the early annals of the Chinese for examples 

 of the terril)le mortality which has always attended natural calamities 

 and warfare in China, a few in the last three centuries, vouched for 

 by reliable Enropean writers, or by foreigners resident in the counti-y 

 at the time of their occurrence, may be cited here. 



Fathei- l)u IFalde" states that in the year 158:2 '^ there was such a 

 great drought in the Province of Shari-hsi, that it was impossible to 

 count the number of those who died of starvation. There were dug 

 in various localities some sixty great ditches, each of which held a 

 tlioiisand corpses, and were thereafter called Van gin keng." (Wan 

 jen k'eng), '* Grave of a myriad men.'' 



The same author '' says that on September -2, 1078, there was an 

 eartlujuake in the ProNince of Chih-li when over 30,000 persons lost 

 their lives in the town of T'ung-chou alone. On November HO, 17:51, 

 there was another earthquake in the same province, when over 100,- 

 000 persons lost their lives in Peking, and more than tliat nunil)er ui 

 the adjacent country. 



Father Amiot,'^ writing from Peking, May 20, 1780, tells of a 

 terrible drought which for the three past years had visited the prov- 

 inces of Kiang-nan, Ho-nan, and Shan-tung. The people in vast num- 

 bers sought to reach other provinces, bnt thousands npon thousands 

 died on the roads and their corpses were devoured by the survivors. 



As regards the extraordinary loss of life attending military opera- 

 tions in China, Dn Ilalde states'' that in 1035 the Chinese, to defend 

 the city of K'ai-feng Fn in Ho-nan against the rebels, cut the Yellow 

 River dikes. The whole city was submerged and 300,000 persons lost 

 their lives. 



a Description, I. p. r>-J2. Tlio expression Wan jen k'tMis: is coljociuially nsed 

 to (lesi.unate a pit into \v!iii-li tlie licdies of executed criuiinnis are tlH-(»\vn. See 

 II. A. (Jiles, Chin. Diet., s. v., Icen.i;. 



& Ibid. I, p. 'A:\. 



f Mem concernant les Ciiinois. XIII, ]). 42.^). 



<?Op. eit., I, p. 5:50. 



