Famine in China and the Missionary : : Timothy Richard as Relief Administrator and Advocate of National Reform, 1876-1884 / / Paul Richard Bohr.

• Superior document: Harvard East Asian Monographs ; 48
• VerfasserIn: Bohr, Paul Richard,
• Place / Publishing House: Boston : : Harvard University Asia Center,, 1972.; Leiden; , Boston : : BRILL,, 1972.
• Year of Publication: 1972
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs ; 48.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

The most disastrous famine in recent Chinese history took place between 1876 and 1879, afflicting all five provinces of North China [Shantung, Chihli, Honan, Shensi, and Shansi] and claiming no fewer than nine and a half million human lives . The hunger, pestilence, and violence brought about by the famine presented an overwhelming challenge to government and foreign relief efforts. Despite these obstacles, however, Timothy Richard of the Baptist Missionary Society succeeded in organizing an effective, systematic scheme of relief distribution in several districts of Shantung and Shansi. His work on the scene in turn stimulated the foreign community to organize the China Famine Relief Fund Committee, and his method of rendering aid set the pattern of foreign almsgiving which did much to ease the suffering of thousands. This study analyzes Richard's role in the North China famine and evaluates his contribution to the relief effort. It concentrates on Richard's initial distribution attempts in Shantung, 1876-1877, and his more extensive activities in Shansi, 1877-1879. By comparing Richard's relief measures with those of the Ch'ing government as well as with those of the foreign distributors supported by the China Famine Relief Fund Committee, the study attempts to describe the various approaches to the problem of famine relief and to illuminate the many difficulties encountered by Chinese and foreigners in the relief work. Richard emerged from the calamity convinced that he must urge China's leaders to eradicate the basic causes of famine and similar natural disasters and to elevate the physical as well as the spiritual welfare of the rural masses.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Timothy Richard: Background and Early Thought, 1845-1876 -- Dimensions of the Great Famine -- Government Relief Efforts -- Western Relief Efforts: Timothy Richard as Relief Administrator -- After the Famine: Ch'ing Policies of Rehabilitation and Richard's Early Views of Reform -- Richard's Early Reform Proposals in Chinese Perspective -- List of Gazetteers Containing Information Regarding Famine Conditions and Government Relief Operations in Shansi -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Glossary -- Index -- Harvard East Asian Monographs.