Study on the Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Correlation of the Meteorological Disasters and Plague Epidemics in Ming and Qing Dynasties in China

Abstract

Objective: To clarify the spatiotemporal characteristics of meteorological disaster changes and plague epidemics during the Ming and Qing Dynasties in China, as well as their correlation. Method: The occurrence time and meteorological types of meteorological disasters during the Ming and Qing Dynasties were collected based on the background data of ‘General Collection of Meteorological Records of China for Three Thousand Years’ and ‘Chronology of Epidemic in Ancient China’; Frequency, exploratory factors, decision trees, and other analyses were conducted using Excel 2016, IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0, and AMOS24.0 software to analyze the occurrence time and location of the epidemic. Result: The frequency of meteorological disasters in various provinces during the Ming and Qing dynasties, from high to low, was as follows: Shandong, Hebei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Henan, Guangdong, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, etc., with the highest frequency in East China and the lowest in Northeast China. The frequency of meteorological disasters from high to low is: rainstorm flood, drought, hail, wind, snow, frost, cold, fog, warm/hot, and the impact of rainstorm flood and drought is more severe than other meteorological disasters. The frequency of plague outbreaks in various provinces of China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, from high to low, was as follows: Zhejiang, Fujian, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Hubei, Shanxi, Anhui, etc. Nine common factors were extracted from the plague epidemic areas, which basically conform to the epidemic characteristics of geographically close areas. The meteorological disaster factors most closely related to the occurrence of plague in the Ming and Qing dynasties are gale and rainstorm flood. The plague epidemic in factor 1 area is affected by the type of meteorological disasters, which are wind, hail, rainstorm flood, snow, drought, etc. Conclusion: With the increase of meteorological disasters during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the occurrence and prevalence of epidemics intensified, and the epidemic of epidemics had obvious regional distribution and characteristics of meteorological disaster types.