农村公共食堂与大饥荒

The Rural Communal Dining Halls and the Great Famine

本文以"粮食"为核心,在农村公共食堂的具体历史中探讨公共食堂制度与1959—1961年"大饥荒"的关系。通过对历史档案的梳理,笔者发现"大跃进"时期农村公共食堂的发展历史与粮食流转体系紧密相连。历次口粮标准的下调都是因为粮食大购、外调后地区粮食库存不足而被迫采取的措施。在某种程度上,农村公共食堂初期的无定量、无制度诱发了饥荒,但从粮食的总体消费特征来看,并没有呈现"过度消费"。饥荒的延续是粮食高征购的产物,饥荒的结束源于粮食征购大量减少与自留地划分带来的农民余粮的增加,与农村公共食堂并没有本质关联。

Focusing on the issue of ‘grain ', this article discusses the relationship between the Communal Dining Halls and the Great Famine of 1959-1961 in China. Through scrutinizing the related historical documents,we found that the development of the Communal Dining Halls had close relation with the grain circulation system at that time. The decreased ration of food for people is an inevitable measure of the shortage of food storage due to the excessive procurement and exportation of grain.Although the early un-institutionalized period of the Communal Halls with no standards of food ration did incur the breakout of the famine to some degree,there had been no over-consumption during the whole period. The lasting of the famine is the outcome of excessive procurement and the ending of it is because of the increased grain of peasants due to the decreased procurement and the distributed private plots. To put it simply,the Great Famine has no essential connection with the Communal Dining Halls.