机制转换:清末福建水灾的赈济与善后(1900—1910)

Mechanism Transformation: Relief and Aftermath Handling of Fujian Flood Disasters in the Late Qing Dynasty

1900年,福州发生水灾,各级官员根据成例救济,效果不彰。1903年至1905年闽南发生连续性水灾,业已施行新政的闽地各级官府调整应灾机制,鼓动绅商乃至海外华侨参与,试图将救灾事务交由社会力量主理。1908年,漳州遭遇特大水灾,当局迅速调动官绅等各方力量展开赈济,灾后又联合绅、商、学三界人士筹办浚河工程以治本。然而,其时正处新旧救灾机制转换之际,新制尚须检验与修正,未能达到标本兼治的目的。

In 1900, when a flood disaster hit Fuzhou, officials of all levels carried out an ineffective relief work as they followed the traditional disaster relief operation. During the constant floods from 1903 to 1905, the governments which had implemented the New Deal adjusted the disaster relief mechanism by arousing gentry merchants and overseas Chinese to take part in the work and entrusting modern disaster relief affairs to social forces. In 1908, soon after Zhangzhou was struck by a severe flood, the governments mobilized all forces to carry out relief promptly. Later on, in order to effect a permanent cure, they organized a river dredging project with the joint efforts of gentries, merchants and scholars. However, disaster relief mechanism was converting from the old to the new,and needed to be examined and corrected, so it failed to achieve the goal of flood disaster prevention and control.