| class="wikitable sortable"
!Name
!Time
!Region
!Context
!Estimated number of dead |
| Mid-Tang Famine
|714-719
|
|Natural disasters, including a locust plague in 716. Tang Emperor Xuanzong subsequently instituted mandatory granary supplies and set fixed prices on grain.
|400,000 to over 1 million. |
| Xìngzhēn Disaster
|784-785
|Northern China
|Devastating locust plague.
|Millions dead or displaced.[{{Cite journal |title=The Two-Tax System, Locust Infestation and Famine in the Early Years of Emperor Tang De-zong |journal=Bulletin of the Department of History of National Taiwan University |url= http://lawdata.com.tw/tw/detail.aspx?no=489821 }}] |
| |873–884
|
|Drought, part of a broader climatic drying and cooling period, caused disastrous failures in crop harvest,[{{Cite wikisource |title = Zizhi Tongjian Vol. 252 |last = Lu |first = Xie }}] leading to famine and a peasant rebellion; Huang Chao captured capital
|Tens of thousands face starvation. |
| Chinese famine of 1333-1337
|1333–1337[{{cite web |url=http://www.norfolkesinet.org.uk/pages/viewpage.asp?uniqid=3358 |title=Projects and Events: 14th Century |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113065320/http://www.norfolkesinet.org.uk/pages/viewpage.asp?uniqid=3358 |archivedate=2016-01-13 }}]
|
|
|6 million[{{cite book |last1=Jacobson |first1=Judy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tBugHJRMO4IC&q=Chinese+famine+of+1333%E2%80%931337&pg=PA117 |title=A Field Guide for Genealogists |publisher=Genealogical Publishing Com |year=2001 |isbn=9780806350981}}] |
| Hongxi famine
|1425
|
| |
| Jingtai Slough
|1440-1455[{{cite book|title=The Cambridge History of China Volume 7 The Ming Dynasty, 1368—1644, Part I}}]
|Zhejiang, Shanxi, Shaanxi, northern Jiangsu, Shandong
|Cold conditions
| |
| |1477-1487
|
|Flooding of the Yellow River.
| |
| Hongzhi famine
|1494-1495
|
|Persistent drought, followed by flooding in northern China and the collapse of the Shandong dam. Worsened by climatic shifts in the northern hemisphere.[{{Cite journal |last=Atwell |first=William S |year=2002 |title=Time, Money, and the Weather: Ming China and the "Great Depression" of the Mid-Fifteenth Century |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-asian-studies_2002-02_61_1/page/83 |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=61 |issue=1 |issn=0021-9118}}]
| |
| |1526
|Beijing
|
| |
| |1543-1544
|Zhejiang
|
| |
| Wanli Slough I
|1586-1589
|
|Flooding followed by drought.[{{cite journal|journal=Chinese Autobiographical Writing: An Anthology of Personal Accounts|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/194/oa_monograph/chapter/3339856|title=Environmentl Catastrophes: Harrowing reports by Chen Qide 陳其德 (fl. 1640s) and Pu Songling 蒲松齡 (1640–1715)}}] coinciding with La Niña climate disruption
|Most lethal famine of the 1500's |
| Wanli Slough II
|1615-1619
|
|Drought, flood and sandstorms from deforestation.
| |
| Chongzhen drought
|1627–1644
|Beijing, southern Hebei, northern Henan, and western Shandong, along the Yellow, Wei, and Fen rivers in Shaanxi and the Yangtze River delta.
|One of the most severe droughts in Chinese history, leading to the collapse of the Ming dynasty in 1644
|2 million |
| Haizi famine
|1755–
1756
|
|Drought and flood
|70% of the poorer farmers of Rugao county[{{cite book|title=Records of the Hunger and Epidemic of Haizi|author=Mao Guozhu}}] |
| |1810–
1811
|Hebei
|Flood
|11 million[{{cite journal|url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-012-0490-9 |last1=Lee |first1=Harry F. |last2=Zhang| first2=David D. |date=2013|title=A tale of two population crises in recent Chinese history|journal=Climatic Change|volume=116 |issue=2 |pages=285–308 |doi=10.1007/s10584-012-0490-9 |bibcode=2013ClCh..116..285L |doi-access=free }}] |
| The Great Jiaqing Famine in Yunnan
|1815–
1817
|Yunnan, with hunger in most of China
|Microthermal climate disaster tied to the eruption of the Tambola volcano[{{cite journal|title=A Serious Famine in Yunnan ( 1815 —1817) and the Eruption of Tambola Volcano|journal=Fudan Journal (Social Sciences)|url=http://www.igsnrr.ac.cn/lwzzImg/1161151232919.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326133019/http://www.igsnrr.ac.cn/lwzzImg/1161151232919.pdf |archive-date=26 March 2009 }}]
|Tens to hundreds of thousands |
| |1846–
1851
|Hebei, Zhejiang and Hubei
|Flood
|15 million
(45 million population decrease, with unknown proportion emigrating) |
| |1857
|
|Flooding in Hubei and Shandong, combined with instability due to the Taiping Rebellion and Nian Rebellion.
|8 million |
| |1851–1873
|
|First Opium War, Treaty of Nanjing,[Vassilev, Rossen. "China’s opium wars: Britain as the world’s first Narco-state." New Politics 13.1 (2010): 75-80.] Nian Rebellion, Taiping Rebellion, flooding in 1863 and 1867, as well as drought.
|10–30 million people[{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19977188|title = Hong Xiuquan: The rebel who thought he was Jesus's brother|work = BBC News|date = 17 October 2012}}][{{cite web |url=http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHING/TAIPING.HTM |title=Ch'ing China: The Taiping Rebellion |access-date=2010-08-21 |archive-date=2007-12-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071211142247/http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHING/TAIPING.HTM |url-status=dead }}] |
| Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–79
|1876–
1879
|Mostly Shanxi (5.5 million dead), also in Zhili (2.5 million), Henan (1 million), Shaanxi and Shandong (0.5 million).[{{cite journal|title=Report of R.J. Forrest, Esq., H.B.M. Consul at Tien-tsin and Chairman of the Famine Relief Committee at Tien-tsin|first=R. J.|last=Forrest|author-link=Robert James Forrest|journal=China's Millions|date=November 1879|page=139|quote=The authorities are assured that in Shansi five millions and a half, in Honan one million, in Shantung half a million, and in Chili two millions and a half have perished, and there is unfortunately too much reason to believe that the enormous total of nine and a half millions is substantially correct.}}]
|Drought, decades of declining grain production relative to population size.[{{cite journal|title=Climate-induced agricultural shrinkage and overpopulation in late imperial China| url=https://www.int-res.com/articles/cr2014/59/c059p229.pdf|journal=Climate Research| bibcode=2014ClRes..59..229L| last1=Lee| first1=HF| date=2014| volume=59| issue=3| page=229| doi=10.3354/cr01215}}]
|9.5 to 13 million[{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LoN2XkjJio4C&pg=PA245 |author=Cormac Ó Gráda |title=Famine: A Short History |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=March 16, 2009 |isbn=978-0691122373 }}] |
| Northern Chinese Famine of 1901
|1901
|Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia
|The drought from 1898-1901 led to a fear of famine, which was a leading cause of Boxer Rebellion. The famine eventually came in Spring 1901.[{{cite book|title=History in Three Keys The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth|first=Paul A.|last=Cohen|date=1997|pages=95, 323}}]
|0.2 million in Shanxi, the worst hit province. |
| Chinese famine of 1906–1907
|1906-07
|northern Anhui, northern Jiangsu
|
|20 to 25 million [{{Cite book|last=Dianda|first=Bas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wGKZDwAAQBAJ|title=Political Routes to Starvation: Why Does Famine Kill?|date=2019|publisher=Vernon Press|isbn=978-1-62273-508-2|pages=45|language=en}}] |
| Chinese famine of 1920-1921
|1920–1921
|Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, southern Zhili (Hebei)
|
|0.5 million[{{cite journal |first=Lillian M. |last=Li |date=August 1982|title=Introduction: Food, Famine, and the Chinese State |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-asian-studies/article/abs/introduction-food-famine-and-the-chinese-state/22CE80321A9E6F37626707FA9423148D|journal=The Journal of Asian Studies|issn=0021-9118|volume=41 |number=4 |pages=687–707 |doi=10.2307/2055445|jstor=2055445|s2cid=162468862 }}] |
| Chinese famine of 1928–30
|1928–1930
|Northern China
|Drought, wartime constraints, and inefficiency of relief[{{Cite journal|last=Chen|first=Sherong|url=http://scholar.ilib.cn/A-ISSN~1001-0491(2002)01-0036-05.html|script-title=zh:浅析1928-1930年西北大旱灾的特点及影响|language=Chinese|trans-title=An Elementary Study about the Characteristics and the Effect of the Great Drought in Northwest China from 1928 to 1930|script-work=zh:固原师专学报|journal=Gùyuán Shīzhuān Xuébào|trans-work=Journal of Guyuan Teachers College|volume=23|issue=1|year=2002|access-date=2011-02-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707044408/http://scholar.ilib.cn/A-ISSN~1001-0491(2002)01-0036-05.html|archive-date=2011-07-07}}]
|6 to 10 million [{{cite book|last=Li|first=Lillian M.|title=Fighting Famine in North China: State, Market, and Environmental Decline, 1690s–1990s|location=Stanford|publisher=Stanford University Press|date=2007|pages=303–307|url=https://www.china.tu-berlin.de/fileadmin/fg57/SS_2012/Umwelt/Lillian_M._Li_-_Fighting_Famine_in_North_China__Part_1.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227142520/https://www.china.tu-berlin.de/fileadmin/fg57/SS_2012/Umwelt/Lillian_M._Li_-_Fighting_Famine_in_North_China__Part_1.pdf|archivedate=2021-12-27|quote=In Gansu the estimated mortality was 2.5 to 3 million [...] In Shaanxi, out of a population of 13 million, an estimated 3 million died of hunger or disease}}] |
| Sichuan famine of 1936-37
|1936-1937
|Sichuan, Henan and Gansu
|Drought and civil war.
|5 million in Sichuan,[{{cite news|title=10,000,000 starving in China's drought|work=New York Times|date=March 29, 1937}}][{{cite book|title=Eating People is Wrong|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M2yYDwAAQBAJ|author=Cormac Ó Gráda| date=March 2015 |publisher=Princeton University Press|quote="...1936 famine, the product of severe drought compounded by civil war, killed up to five million people in Sichuan and led to reports of widespread cannibalism."|page=138| isbn=978-0-691-16535-6 }}] up to 50 million displaced as 'famine refugees' |
| 1942–1943 famine
|1942–1943
|Mainly Henan
|Second Sino-Japanese War
|0.7 to 1 million[{{cite journal|title=A Quantitative Description of the Henan Famine of 1942|last=Garnaut|first=Anthony|journal=Modern Asian Studies|issn=1469-8099|publisher=Cambridge University Press|volume=47|number=6|date=November 2013|pages=2034, 2044|doi=10.1017/S0026749X13000103|s2cid=146274415|quote=A detailed survey organized by the Nationalist government in 1943 of the impact of the famine came up with a toll of 1,484,983, broken down by county. The official population registers of Henan show a net decline in population from 1942 to 1943 of one million people, or 3 per cent of the population. If we assume that the natural rate of increase in the population before the famine was 2 per cent, [...] Comparison with the diminution in the size of age cohorts born during the famine years suggests that the official Nationalist figure includes population loss through excess mortality and declined fertility migration, which leaves a famine death toll of well under 1 million.}}] |
| Great Chinese Famine
|1959–1961[Dikötter, Frank. Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-62. Walker & Company, 2010 pp.32, 67, xxiii. Becker, Jasper (1998). Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine. Holt Paperbacks p.xi. Yang, Jisheng (2008). Tombstone (Mu Bei - Zhong Guo Liu Shi Nian Dai Da Ji Huang Ji Shi). Cosmos Books (Tian Di Tu Shu), Hong Kong pp.12, 429.]
|Half of the country, in particular Anhui (18% died), Chongqing (15% died), Sichuan (13% died), Guizhou (11% died), Hunan (8% died)
|Great Leap Forward, Floods, Droughts, Typhoons, Insect Invasion[{{cite web |title=The Great Chinese Famine |url=https://alphahistory.com/chineserevolution/great-chinese-famine/ |website=Alpha History |date=26 September 2019 |accessdate=24 October 2019}}]
| 15 to 55 million[{{cite journal|title=中國大饑荒時期「非正常人口死亡」研究之綜述與解讀|last= 劉兆崑|journal=二十一世紀|volume=77|date=August 2008|page=|url=https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ics/21c/media/online/0805050.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201211070408/https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ics/21c/media/online/0805050.pdf|archivedate=2020-12-11}}][{{cite book|title=大饥荒：1959-1961年的中国人口|last=曹树基|date=2005|pages=46,67,117,150|url=https://staff.lib.msu.edu/wuxian/GreatFamine/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160211201311/https://staff.lib.msu.edu/wuxian/GreatFamine/|archivedate=2016-02-11|publisher=時代國際出版|location=Hong Kong|isbn=9789889828233}} An excerpt is published as: {{cite journal|title=1959-1961年中国的人口死亡及其成因|last=曹树基|journal=中国人口科学|issue=1|date=2005|page=|url=http://www.yhcw.net/famine/Research/r060628a.html}}][{{Cite journal|title=Great Leap, Great Famine: A Review Essay|url=http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2013.00595.x/pdf|last=Gráda|first=Cormac Ó|date=March 2011|journal=Population and Development Review|issue=1|volume=37|pages=191–210|doi=10.1111/j.1728-4457.2013.00595.x|s2cid=154275320 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307051706/http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2013.00595.x/pdf|archive-date=2016-03-07}}] |
