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The Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–1879 occurred in the late Qing dynasty in China. It is usually referred to as ''Dīngwù Qíhuāng'' (丁戊奇荒) in China. A drought began in northern China in 1875, leading to crop failures the following years. The provinces of Shaanxi, Hebei (then named Zhili 直隸), Henan, Shandong and the northern parts of Jiangsu were affected. Nine to 13 million people are estimated to have died in the famine out of a total population of the five provinces of 108 million.〔Edgerton-Tarpley, Kathryn, "Pictures to Draw Tears from Iron" http://www.ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f.0271/tears_from_iron/tfi_essay.pdf, accessed 5 Dec 2012〕 The drought was influenced by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation.〔"(Ó Gráda, C.: Famine: A Short History )". Princeton University Press.〕 ==Relief efforts== British missionary Timothy Richard first called international attention to a drought-caused famine in Shandong in summer 1876. He appealed to the foreign community in Shanghai for money to help the victims. In March 1877, the Shandong Famine Relief Committee was established with the participation of diplomats, businessmen, and Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries.〔Janku, Andrea (2001) "The North-China Famine of 1876-1879: Performance and Impact of a Non-Event." In: ''Measuring Historical Heat: Event, Performance, and Impact in China and the West. Symposium in Honour of Rudolf G. Wagner on His 60th Birthday''. Heidelberg, November 3rd - 4th, pp. 127-134〕 Richard became aware that drought conditions were even worse in neighboring Shanxi province, which at that time was virtually unknown to foreigners. In early 1878, Richard journeyed to Shanxi. His "famine diary" described conditions. "That people pull down their houses, sell their wives and daughters, eat roots and carrion, clay and leaves is news which nobody wonders at...The sight of men and women lying helpless on the roadside, or if dead, torn by hungry dogs and magpies () of children being boiled and eaten up is so fearful as to make one shudder."〔Thompson, Larry Clinton. ''William Scott Ament and the Boxer Rebellion'' Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009, p. 21〕 Shanxi was the most seriously impacted province in the famine, with an estimated 5.5 million dead out of a total population of 15 million people. Remote and inaccessible rural districts suffered most.〔"Epidemic Chinese Famine" http://www.faculty.kirkwood.edu/ry/ost/Famine.htm, accessed 6 Dec 2012〕 To combat the famine, an international network was set up to solicit donations, most of which came from England and foreign businesses in China. These efforts brought in 204,000 silver taels, the equivalent of $7–10 million in 2012 silver prices. The Roman Catholics raised at least 125,000 taels (about $5 million) and their greater physical presence in the famine area permitted them to work effectively at the local level. More than 40 Roman Catholic and 31 Protestant missionaries administered the relief efforts in the field, which helped about 3.4 million people in Shanxi alone. The Protestants included Arthur Henderson Smith and William Scott Ament, who would later achieve prominence. Three Protestant missionaries died of disease, probably typhus, which was rampant in the famine area.〔''China Famine Relief Fund Shanghai Committee'', pp. 1, 88, 128, 157 https://archive.org/details/cu31924023248796, "Epidemic Chinese Famine" http://www.faculty.kirkwood.edu/ry/ost/Famine.htm, accessed 6 Dec 2012〕 The Qing government, Chinese philanthropists, and businessmen also responded to the famine, raising funds with an illustrated pamphlet titled "Pictures to Draw Tears from Iron". There was rivalry between the foreign and Chinese relief efforts. The Chinese feared the missionaries would use their famine work to spread Christianity and to adopt and Christianize orphaned children. They raised large sums of money to establish orphanages and to redeem women and children who had been sold into slavery. While most foreign relief focused on Shanxi, the private Chinese effort was mostly in Henan, whose people they believed to be fiercely anti-foreign, and Shandong.〔Edgerton-Tarpley〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–79」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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