In 1743 AD, the eighth year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, a "hottest summer" swept across China.
In the history of our country, such a moment rarely occurs. In May of this year (lunar calendar), the same word was recorded in county annals from all over the country: "Great Heat".
And how hot is it? It can be said to be beyond your imagination.
According to the records in "Xu Donghua Lu": In June Bingchen, the capital was extremely hot.
"Tianjin County Chronicle" also left a record: May was bitterly hot, the earth and rocks were scorched, gold flowed from the top of the mast, and the crowd died of heat.
Even after two hundred years, we can still feel the burning suffocation between the lines , and the consequences of this heat disaster are also very disastrous.
During the "great heat" that lasted for more than ten days, more than 11,000 people died of heat in Beijing and nearby areas. Such a large number of casualties is unimaginable for future generations.
How hot was the heat disaster in the eighth year of Qianlong's reign?
After research and conversion by modern meteorological experts, people came to the conclusion that this great fever was mainly concentrated from July 20 to 25, 1743.
At this stage, the average temperature in Beijing and the surrounding areas is above 40℃, with July 25 being the hottest, with the highest temperature that day estimated to be as high as 44.4℃.
For an agricultural society with extremely backward refrigeration conditions, heat disaster is definitely the most deadly and most powerless disaster.
Frost disasters can be supported by transporting grain and coal from other places. Flood disasters can be dug trenches and embankments built. However, it is a "heat disaster" that leaves people with no ability to fight back.
It is true that our country has already had ice storage methods thousands of years ago, but compared with the huge population base, those artificially stored ice cubes are undoubtedly a drop in the bucket and cannot solve any substantive problems at all.
From the imperial court to local governments, all administrative agencies fell into a panic.
Facing the scorching sun, even the "Emperor" on earth seems so small.
At the beginning of the "big craze", farmers were the first to be affected.
May and June of the lunar calendar are the harvest season for wheat in the north, but it is almost impossible to work in such scorching heat.
In the fields, "the earth and rocks are all scorched". Just walking around in the fields with your feet is a big challenge. Any iron farm tools will be as hot as a soldering iron after just a little work.
Some farmers couldn't bear to miss out on farming. They forced themselves to work, but their lives were in danger. News of people being killed by heat came every day, adding a touch of terror to this year of disaster.
Even in the capital, the impact of the heat disaster was extremely huge. Several wells in the city were scooped out almost overnight, and even some turbid and bitter water became the object of competition for everyone.
According to the records of Gaoyi County, Hebei: From May 28th to June 6th, the heat was unbearable, the walls were heavily overcast and scorching like fire, lead and tin melted in the middle of the day, and many people died of thirst.
Even though people were hiding in the houses, the heat was still burning in the shade of the walls.
Under the scorching sun, metals such as lead and tin will melt, and corpses roasted to death due to the intense heat are everywhere...
As soon as the heat began, Qianlong in the court received countless reports from all directions.
Originally, he only thought that the weather was so hot only in the capital city, but he never thought that Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and the entire north were all experiencing the same situation , and there were cases of people dying due to high temperatures everywhere.
In the past, when there were major local disasters, Qianlong could directly allocate food funds with a stroke of his pen.
But heat disasters are different. People who call out are very likely to become "rescued" objects.
In the year of great disaster, even the emperor has no choice but to take care of this three-acre area in the capital.
Emperor Qianlong was often criticized by later generations for being "a great success", but it must be admitted that since this "big craze", his performance has still been to the best of his ability.
As soon as the "big fever" began, Qianlong immediately ordered relief for the people around the capital.
While arranging donations of ice soup and medicinal bait, people were performing sacrifices, hoping that the natural disaster would end soon.
In the later period, Qianlong even ordered the opening of warehouses to release grain to stabilize rice prices.
The people suffered from heat disaster, not famine. This move shows the desperate efforts of the imperial court. It can only be said that all available tricks have been used.
Qianlong's gifts were not limited to the common people, but surprisingly, they also included prisoners and foreign envoys at the time.
The catastrophe had just begun, and Qianlong remembered several foreign envoys from the Sulu Kingdom (today's Philippines).
He was worried that the envoys would suffer from heat stroke, so he specially gave ice cubes and heat-relieving medicines, and sent imperial doctors to take care of them.
On May 29th, Qianlong showed sympathy for the prisoners in the prison and ordered those who committed minor crimes to have their sentences reduced or directly released. Those who committed serious crimes were inevitably exempted from the law, but they should also buy mats and straw huts and distribute ice soup to take care of them.
It is worth mentioning that because the weather was too hot at that time, court officials once wrote a letter requesting that the court should not be held for these two days and that everyone should have a holiday together.
Qianlong was quite dissatisfied with this.
He specifically ordered: "All ministries and eight banners introduction personnel will be introduced as usual. The matters that need to be handled will also be handled as scheduled without delay."
It was precisely because of this order that the next rescue was carried out. Activities were carried out minimizing the impact of the disaster.
Emphasis on relief and survived the disaster
As an emperor, Qianlong himself certainly did not have to worry about dying from heat. From the beginning of the disaster, countless icebergs were placed in the palace, and an "air-conditioned room" was built.
Although the body felt cooler, the anxiety in the heart could not be calmed down.
During this period, Qianlong once wrote: "The ice plate and the snow mat, the cold light, the pain and heat, my heart is beside Qianli."
The meaning is probably that although he has endless enjoyment in the palace The "ice tray" and "snow mat" are even quite cool.
However, I still toss and turn every day because of the heat disaster, feeling restless. Every time I think of the people who are suffering from the scorching heat, I always feel heartbroken.
After completing what he could do politically, Qianlong did not forget to pray to God and Buddha.
During this period, he summoned the ministers of the Qin Tianjian many times to inquire about the celestial phenomena.
Seeing that the emperor was doing this, the ministers who loved to show off their talents hurriedly stood up and put forward four opinions:
1. Relax the ban on gambling; 2. Restore the bad silver regulations; 3. Reduce taxes; 4. Loose penalties.
These suggestions seem to have no problem, but the key is that this principle is too confusing.
"Let the people do what they want, and the harmony will inspire them, and the rain will come in time." In other words, as long as the people are happy, rain will naturally fall.
Qianlong was furious on the spot for this "nonsense" suggestion.
Historical records: After finishing his words, Emperor Qianlong was quite angry and reprimanded him for "being unreasonable and hurting the Tao, so don't do this."
Later Qianlong even issued another edict: "If it is so despicable and absurd, it is arbitrarily fabricated and confusing. Anyone who hears it must not go unpunished. "
Whoever talks nonsense like this again should be careful with their heads.
From this small incident, we can also see Qianlong's inner anxiety at that time.
After that, there was really no other way. Qianlong finally reluctantly issued a " Sinner Edict ", reflecting on Yifan's own mistakes and praying for the people, hoping to get over this disaster as soon as possible.
In the face of the entire disaster, Qianlong's performance was quite remarkable.
Although these actions have not actually changed the weather, it is undeniable that these actions have comforted people's hearts.
People have free ice soup in the hot summer, and the price of rice in the market is getting cheaper and cheaper.
Overall, people feel confident in surviving this disaster.
Fortunately, the disaster did not last long. After only more than ten days, the heat wave subsided and the country returned to calm again.
Although the "heat disaster" has passed, the impact of the "heat disaster" still exists. Post-disaster relief and organization of production are all tasks that need to be done now.
In addition, the imperial court also realized that the severe drought caused by the disaster would inevitably lead to a reduction in food production.
In order to avoid famine, Qianlong also ordered the southern provinces to adjust grains quickly without delay.
At the same time, pay attention to the resettlement of the refugees and do not let them all flock to the capital to avoid the breeding of plague.
’s disaster response process during this period is of great reference significance even today.
In November of that year, just as the court expected, a large number of disaster victims poured into Beijing.
During this period, the imperial court first resettled the people, and then in December unified the organization to arrange their livelihood for the coming year. They even adopted the method of " providing work for ", which can be said to be eye-opening.
Qianlong was able to remain calm and orderly in the face of major disasters. A large part of the reason comes from the " people-oriented thinking " that ancient Chinese society has always pursued.
The educational theory accepted by any emperor or official is to "love and protect the people". Because of this, Qianlong was able to survive this disaster.
The reasons behind the "big boom" in the eighth year of Qianlong's reign
And why was it so hot in the eighth year of Qianlong's reign?
Due to its long history and lack of sufficient meteorological data, it is impossible for us to answer this question today.
The current mainstream theory is that the "big craze" of originated from the massive construction of palaces and the cutting down of vegetation near Beijing during the Qianlong period. . The destruction of vegetation eventually led to this craze.
This statement seems reasonable, but in fact it is quite reluctant. After all, the damage to the environment caused by agricultural society is quite limited, which is simply not worth mentioning compared to industrial society.
In fact, even if Qianlong only engaged in cutting down trees from the beginning, it would be difficult to create such a "big hit" in eight years.
wants to explain the reasons behind this, but we ultimately have to come back to the climate issue.
In fact, the climate temperature in different historical eras is not constant.
Related issues have been discussed in Zhu Kezhen's "Preliminary Research on China's Climate Change in the Past Five Thousand Years".
Affected by the Little Ice Age, the average climate of different dynasties in Chinese history was also very different.
In the article, Zhu Kezhen cited the height of the snow line in Norway above sea level as a reference, which corresponds to the history of the past five thousand years, and summarized the temperature changes in China in various periods since the Jin Dynasty .
It is worth mentioning that among the temperature changes over the years, the Qianlong period was in the recovery period of the Little Ice Age, which was a relatively warm period.
Generally speaking, warm climate brings many benefits to agricultural society. The most direct impact is the increase in grain production. The so-called " Kangxi and Qianlong " is not unrelated to this.
However, is recovering from the ice age, but it also has a major problem, which is that humans cannot control it.
As long as it exceeds the maximum threshold that human society can bear, there will be this kind of "big fever" that is rare in thousands of years.
However, although this heat wave is rare in a century, as we enter the 21st century, there are more and more similar high temperature events.
Taking the data on June 25, 2022 as an example, currently, the maximum temperatures at 38 national stations in Hebei, Shandong, Beijing, Tianjin and other places have reached or exceeded the historical extreme values in June.
There are three cities with temperatures as high as 44°C, namely Hebei Lingshou, Gaocheng, Zhengding.
Judging from the temperature alone, these three cities have caught up with the "big boom" in the eighth year of Qianlong's reign.
However, what we are facing now is not only climate warming, but also the large amount of greenhouse gas emissions from industrial society.
Although with the advancement of science and technology, it is unlikely that we will see the tragic situation of "more than 10,000 people killed by heat" during the Qianlong period, related issues are worthy of our attention.
Many people have not formed a correct understanding of "climate warming".
Some people even think that "climate warming" is not necessarily a bad thing, and can even make winter better.
However, this idea is wrong.
The National Climate Center stated as early as last year that although global warming will not cause direct harm, it means that the instability of the climate system will indeed increase in the future.
This means that global warming is often not accompanied by a general and uniform increase in temperature, but is more likely to be extreme heat or extreme cold.
We can still withstand the current temperature changes of with our technological capabilities, but no one can guarantee when the next temperature change will be and whether it can be resisted.
As a king of feudal society, Qianlong could "examine himself". As contemporary people, we should understand relevant knowledge and do a good job in environmental protection in a down-to-earth manner.
References:
- "Preliminary Study on China's Climate Change in the Past Five Thousand Years". Zhu Kezhen.
- "Scorching Hot Weather in the Eighth Year of Qianlong". Ha Enzhong.
- "Preliminary Study on the Emergency System in the Gyeonggi Region in the Eighth Year of Qianlong". Wang Bo.
- "Super dog days appeared in the eighth year of Qianlong". Liu Wei.
- "Records of high temperatures in Beijing during the Qianlong period". Cao Jilu.
