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Towards a History of Natural Disasters in China

The Case of Linfen County

Andrea Janku is School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. E-mail: andrea.janku{at}soas.ac.uk

Hitherto two discourses have dominated our thinking about natural disasters in China. The first is linked to the ancient theory of the Heavenly Mandate, interpreting natural phenomena in terms of people's behaviour and especially the government's performance. The second discourse describes China as a country especially prone to natural disasters, due to its particular geographical conditions and general backwardness. This view has gained prominence in the course of intensifying interactions with the Western world since the second half of the nineteenth century. This article is an attempt to get beyond the surface of these dominating discourses by looking at the local level experience in the pre-modern period. The history of disasters of Linfen county in the south of Shanxi province is reconstructed on the basis of local sources, such as records of portents, stele inscriptions, literati writings and popular legends. It shows how the experience of disasters is inscribed in local culture in ways very different from what the dominating discourses would suggest.

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