THE 1920S DROUGHT RECORDED BY TREE RINGS AND ...

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426 ERYUAN LIANG ET AL.TABLE VThe historical records about the 1920s droughtYear Historical record Source1928 In Shaanxi, Ningxia and Gansu, the summer grain only has20–30% of the average annual yield and the autumn grain hadno harvest at all in 1928.The winter wheat could not be sown because of the persistentdrought. The corn price was 5 times higher than normal in thewinter of 1928.The extraordinary drought in 1928 also caused a heavy mortalityof old trees in Shaanxi and Gansu.No precipitation during the spring and summer in 1928 inwestern Inner Mongolia; no grass could survive in thegrassland region, leading to a substantial loss of livestock.Since 1925, Chihli, including eastern Inner Mongolia andnorthern Hebei Provinces, has suffered from the drought, andthe nomadic area in Xilin Gol Banner lost most livestock.As a consequence of the repeated crop failures in Shaanxi,Ningxia, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, the overwhelming majorityof the population had to live on an unwholesome diet,including grasses and their roots, tree bark, and chaff. Theeating of grass and tree bark mixed with ground clay resultedin sickness and usually hastened death.1929 There were 2.21 million victims of drought calamity in fourteencounties including Guanzhong, Weinan, Pucheng, Huaxian andLintong, et al., in Shaanxi by the end of January 1929; grainstorage was only about 12.5 million kg. Thus, each person inthese counties had only an average of six kg of grain in a year.No single grain was harvested among all the 88 counties ofShaanxi Province in the summer and autumn of 1929.In the worst affected area in Gansu, Ningxia and Shaanxi, thechaff, seeds and roots of grasses and tree bark were notavailable in 1929. Most livestock starved to death and wereeaten. About 70% of the trees have been killed throughanthropogenic removal of tree bark and leaves.Severe hunger has led to some cases of cannibalism in Shaanxiand Gansu Provinces.In Shaanxi, three million perished from starvation, disease andviolence and six million people became utterly destitute andhomeless, which accounted for 70% of the entire population(13 million).Out of a population of 5.5 million, 4.57 million were affected bythe famine in Gansu. The death of people in Gansu was about2.3 million, of which 1.4 million people perished of starvation,0.6 million died of epidemics and 0.3 million lost their lives inthe violence.Ningxia Province lost one third of its entire population (0.7million).Takung Newspaper,September 21 1928;Shanghai Daily, June 26,1929Summary documents ofdisaster relief, 1928Takung Newspaper, July16Takung Newspaper, July14, 1929Takung Newspaper onJuly 16 and September8, 1928The report of “Lvpingassociation for disasterrelief in Shaanxi” inFebruary 1929Summary documents offamine relief inShaanxi, 1932Takung NewspaperFebruary 15, May 6,1929 Takung,Newspaper, May 61929Shanghai Daily, April28, 1929 and March16, 1931Guowen WeeklyNewspaper, 7 (19),page 8Summary documents ofdisasters in eachcounty of Gansu in1929Deng, 1937
THE 1920S DROUGHT IN NORTHERN CHINA 427rate from 1928–1930, the population age structure developed a corresponding agegap in Gansu (Su, 1988).The heavy effect of the 1920s drought was due to multiple factors. The prolongedsevere drought, combined with high temperatures and widespread crop failure,contributed to catastrophic famine and millions of deaths (Xu, 1997). This madethe period a crucial point in the country’s history. The disastrous results of the 1920sdrought were also closely related to the socioeconomic situation and poor humandecisions. Lower productivity in the 1920s increased the vulnerability of societyto natural disasters. In the semi-arid regions, agricultural yield is more dependenton the weather than in other parts of China and is usually low. With such a largepopulation (millions live along the Yellow River), the loss of even one crop wouldhave ensured widespread starvation (Mallory, 1926). Because of the misguidanceof local government, a large area of opium was planted on fertile land, which hadpreviously been used for agriculture (Snow, 1937). Furthermore, the planting ofopium in a large area (70–80% of the fertile land in Shaanxi) had a great effecton agricultural production, making Northwest China highly vulnerable to naturaldisasters (Shanghai Daily, June 30, 1931). In addition, frequent civil wars led to asharp food demand for soldiers, and farms were consequently overburdened (Deng,1937). Deterioration in the economic situation of the country was thus aggravatedby the severe drought conditions through most of the 1920s. Swarms of locustsfollowing the sustained drought gave rise to further hardships (Shanghai Daily,August 14, 1930). In addition, the government could not organize effective reliefactivity or control of epidemics during the drought, exacerbating conditions evenfurther (Deng, 1937). Thus, the natural and social factors together had direct anddevastating effects on socio-economic conditions and resulted in unimaginable loss.5. ConclusionTree ring chronologies in the semi-arid and arid areas of northern China are sensitiverecords of extreme drought. Analysis of tree-ring records spanning the last 200 yearsshows an abnormal growth decline in the 1920s and early 1930s, and a variety ofhistorical records provide substantial evidence of the severity of the 1920s droughtin northern China. In the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, the low-flowin the 1920s was coincident with dramatic tree growth decline. The high incidence ofmissing rings in 1928 and 1929 was synchronous with extremely low precipitationrecorded at several meteorological stations, the dramatic runoff decline or dryingup of river courses and desiccation of lakes, catastrophic agricultural failure, greatfamines and merciless decimation of the population in North China and the easternpart of Northwest China. This study demonstrates that tree rings in the semi-aridand arid regions of northern China are excellent indicators of severe and sustaineddrought.Tree-ring networks across the arid and semi-arid areas of northern China havethe potential to reflect the severity, extent and duration of historical megadroughts.
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