List of famines in China

[1][2] 1641 1756 1811 1817 1851 (45 million population decrease, with unknown proportion emigrating)[7] 1879 In China, famines have been an ongoing problem for thousands of years.

From the Shang dynasty (16th–11th century BC) until the founding of modern China, chroniclers have regularly described recurring disasters.

There have always been times and places where rains have failed, especially in the northwest of China, and this has led to famine.

National famines occurred even when the drought areas were too large, especially when simultaneously larger areas of flooded rivers were over their banks and thus additionally crop failures occurred, or when the central government did not have sufficient reserves.

Qing China built an elaborate system designed to minimize famine deaths.