North China Famine of 1876-79

Between 1876 and 1879 a severe drought strikes northern China, with the worst effects in Shanxi, Henan, Zhili, Shandong and Shaanxi. Known in China as the 'Incredible Famine' (Dingwu Quhuang, after the years 1877 and 1878), it kills an estimated 9 to 13 million people, making it one of the deadliest famines in history.¹²

The drought was part of the same climatic episode that hit India, but the Qing state was poorly placed to respond. It had lost much of its wealth and grain reserves in the Taiping Rebellion and other wars of mid-century, and the old granary system had declined. Roads were poor, and without railways, grain could not be moved far from the south in time. Starving peasants ate bark and sold their land and children, and disease followed hunger, so that whole villages emptied.¹²

Local officials, gentry and a number of foreign missionaries organized relief. The British Baptist missionary Timothy Richard gathered funds and recorded the famine, and an international appeal in Shanghai raised money for the north. The imperial court also sent grain and tax relief, but not enough. The catastrophe depopulated much of Shanxi province, and it remained a living memory for decades. It also showed the need for railways, which the Qing began to build in the following decade, in part to move grain.²³