The Changing Landscape in Rural South Fujian 215
Quanzhou often had to lift water from the wells by means of pulleys.^31
The watering was much more difβicult in the hilly areas such as in Hue’an
District, because the cultivators used a more complicated technique
to pump water up to the terraced βields.^32 The apparatus consisted of
a chain of water paddles that βitted into a trough and then pushed the
water uphill. Without a breakthrough in agricultural technology, such
limited improvements did not provide a total solution. Hence, the
southern Fukienese people could only resign themselves to Heaven’s will,
especially during the dry seasons.
Natural calamities plunged them into greater grief. People suffered
severely from this kind of disaster. What happened in Zhangzhou during
the Jiajing reign (1522‒66)^33 , as recorded in one of the local gazetteers,
allows one to appreciate the tragic grievances:
Year Location Calamity
1530 Zhangpu starvation
1535 Pinghe drought in summer; βloods in autumn
1536 Nanjing disaster caused by drought & locusts
1537 Zhangpu starvation caused by drought
1538 Changtai & Pinghe drought & earthquake
1543 Longchi & Changtai earthquake
Changtai damage from frost
1544 Longchi & Pinghe starvation
Changtai drought
Zhangpu starvation
1545 Zhangpu starvation
Changtai βlood
Longchi & Changtai drought & starvation
1546 Zhangpu starvation
Whole prefecture starvation
Longchi & Changtai damage from hailstorm- Wang Shimao, Minbu shu, 16b–17a.
- Quanzhou fuzhi (1870 ed.), 20: 8b.
- Zhangzhou fuzhi (1877 ed.), 47: 4a–10a.
(cont’d overleaf)