晚清50年江苏省疫灾的特征与社会成因初探

A Tentative Analysis of the Characteristics and Social Causes of Plague Disasters in Jiangsu Province in the Fifty Years of the Late Qing Dynasty

晚清是清代江苏省被疫年数和州县次最多的时期。其时江苏境内的瘟疫分布地区广、流传时间长,其中最为严重的是霍乱。其时疫灾具有南多北少的空间特征和天气反常时多发的时间特征,且防疫治疫具有明显的西方特色。晚清江苏疫灾频仍且严重,存在多方面的社会成因,主要包括人口繁密且流徙频繁、卫生环境肮脏、民众生活困苦、缺医少药且医药治疫寡效、救疫制度缺失以及禳灾活动频生等。

The late Qing Dynasty witnessed the most frequent outbreaks of plague in Jiangsu province.The cholera at that time spread widely in the whole province and circulated for a long time,with a spatial characteristic of striking southern areas more than northern ones and a temporal characteristic of occurring more in abnormal weather than in regular one.Moreover,the countermeasures against the epidemic were obviously introduced from the West.The frequent and devastating outbreaks of plague in Jiangsu in the late Qing Dynasty resulted from many social problems,including the large and frequently migrating population,the dirty environment,the poor people who could not afford effective medicine and treatment,the lack of epidemic control system,the superstitious gatherings of praying to gods for eliminating disasters,and so on.