395
THE FAMINE IN SHANTUNG.
To the Editor of
THE SHANGHAI COURIER AND CHINA GAZETTE.
Sir,-The suffering here is terrible. Almost the whole province of Shantung suffers severely from the effects of the drought of last year; but the suffering of the eight hien, for the relief of which the Government has made a grant of Tls. 45,000 (a mere pittance for such a calamity) is beyond description. These eight hien are Lin-k'ü, I-in, Ch'ang-lo, Wei-hien, Tungan, Show-kwang, Lin-tsz, Fo-bing. Of these, Liu-k'ü, which suffers most, received Tls. 10,000 for relief.
In the course of my inquiries, I visited twenty villages. At Li-kin-chwang, out of a hundred families, formerly well off, thirty persons were already dead of starvation. At Fo-wang, out of sixty families, forty persons were dead, and many gone away. At Min-seong, out of forty families, forty individuals had perished.
These are not picked out as specimens of the greatest suffering. In the same twenty li, I saw a man dead on the roadside, with a dog watching his corpse. Before I went out of sight of this distressing spectacle, I met a father and son carrying a beam back with them. They had come thirty li to sell it for fuel and would get only one hundred and fifty cash for it. The son had not recovered from illness, but was forced to get up or starve.
Entering one of the villages, I inquired if everyone had starved. "As for starving, there is this house," they said, "it had seven persons two months ago, only a boy of thirteen remains, and who will die in a day or two." (This boy I took under my care).
A few li further on, a number of people were picking grain husks from a corpse close by. At the end of the twenty li, we found that the only schoolmaster in that village had died of starvation a few days ago. I took in his starving boy.
The cases just mentioned occurred within such a short distance as twenty li. I do not complete the list. I have another little boy, the only one left of a family of six. The grandmother committed suicide, the father and a sister died of starvation, another sister was sold, the mother got married (anything to live).
Many people eat grain-husks, potato stalks, and cha bark, buckwheat stalks, and grass reeds which they gather in the fields and dry. When these are exhausted, they pull down their houses, sell their timber, and it is reported everywhere that many eat the rotten kaoliang reeds (stalks) from the roof and the dried leaves of which they usually burn for fuel.
Of their clothing, little remains, and many take refuge in pits built underground to keep themselves warm by the fetid breath of the crowd, which is bought dearly. In the suburb of Ching-chow city, there are four such pits. One has heaps of doors and windows cast up for fuel.
Every village presents the appearance of desolation. Villagers of 300 families report 800 dead of starvation; villages of 300 report one hundred persons dead.
The suffering is far more intense than that caused by the rebels. Land to sell can only be disposed of at an astounding reduction of 80 per cent. One hundred thousand worth is now daily sold at fifteen thousand.
It is seriously calculated that in many villages only half of the inhabitants will see the wheat ripen. I trust that for this extraordinary distress, extraordinary generosity will be shown. It is not charity to the poor for which I plead, but life to the dead.
There is not a moment to be lost—thousands are dying while I write, and thousands more will have died before this can reach you. The mortality is on the increase.
The ground is covered with corpses so that the poor creatures can pick up nothing to stay the pangs of their hunger. Three months hence, some weeds will grow, and on these the poor creatures can support themselves.
The Government is far too careless (or rather helpless). Let us foreigners show a better example and help our fellowmen.
Instead of indiscriminately distributing the balance of the money forwarded to me by the Rev. J. Lees, I have opened four places at Show-kwang, a big hien, which contains one thousand six hundred villages.
A moderate hien has about a thousand villages. Leave you to calculate the thousands upon thousands which must have perished already.
One of a family of four, three are dead of starvation, and the fourth, a little boy, is under my care; another little boy not recovered from small-pox was brought to me because his father died last night.
A young woman of twenty was found dead in a temple close by this morning. "Who is dead or dying?" is the subject of everybody's conversation, and the worst is yet to come, I fear.
The number of those who go for gruel daily is so great that they get only six or eight cash worth each (and that is not at the cheap rate of Tls. 0.30 per day).
Many have had nothing but this to live upon for some time. Such people are getting so weak that young women of twenty cannot walk the distance of ten li for it, so they will linger on for a few days and die.
If it is thus with the youths, what must be the condition of children and old people? There is no help for them but to wait their doom.
What I have done for those with the money at my disposal, I will let you know at another time.
Besides those now at home, as many and probably more families have broken up forever, each one to struggle for life as shipwrecked sailors struggle with the waves.
Many parents will never see their children again, and many children will come back to learn that their parents have died from the famine.
Such suffering is sufficient to wring the hardest heart. The snow is on the ground, and the poor creatures are not only starving but facing death.
None could see their pitiable condition without helping them. Cannot the natives of Shanghai be also stirred up to do something for Lin-k'ü, which is said to be suffering most intensely also?
Besides crying to Heaven for the grand mercy they have had in the neighbourhood of Shanghai, perhaps pity for their fellowmen will surely yield something.
Alas! there are no means of speedy communication, but I will yet wait on in faith, believing that some measure of succor will be sent.
Not since the 1st year of Kian-lung, ninety years ago, has there been any such suffering in this province as now exists.
The cry of thousands in agony from hunger and cold day and night incessantly is ringing in our ears, and by generous and immediate aid, many of them may yet be saved.
Three months hence, it will be too late.
In one hien, the suffering is far less efficiently relieved there than in other places.
Yours truly,
12th February.
TIMOTHY RICHARD.
DEAR SIR,-
Since writing the above, my teacher, whom I sent three days ago to make inquiries about Lin-k'ü, returned, and gives still more harrowing accounts of things there.
One village with one hundred and eighty inhabitants last summer, now there remain ninety-three only, forty are dead, and the rest gone away.
Considering the number of the dead and the expense of burying, a pit has been dug in the south-east suburb. It is called Nan-she-king (ten thousand man pit), and there the dead are buried.
I have received private letters from the Rev. A. Toussaint of I-chow-fu, from which I learn that the residents and natives there are doing all they can to relieve the distress in the interior as well as that of the sufferers who have come to I-chow-fu.
There he saw some of the few dogs able to stand, feeding on the corpses.
Speaking after careful calculation, in the language of sober and truth, it is said that one-half of the people in many villages of Lin-k'ü will not live to see the wheat crop ripen.
I am also informed that corn can be procured in the famine-stricken district, so that money will afford ready means of relief.
The Rev. Dr. Nevins has started for Ching-chow, which he hopes to reach by the 15th of this month, and the Rev. Mr. Corbett follows him at once.
The distribution of such funds as may be sent to the sufferers will therefore be easy, as up to the latest dates of Mr. Richard's letters, the people were remarkably quiet, suffering in patience.
I have also received several reports of the distress written in Chinese. These will be used through the Shanghai and other channels to inform the natives of the extent of the sufferings of their countrymen.
It is intended to have the matter brought before some of the energetic and wealthy Chinese of the settlement so as to have a relief fund begun among them.
It is also proposed to appeal to all the open ports of China and Japan as well as to the Straits Settlements.
I am instructed to state that the British and United States Consuls at Chefoo will immediately transmit to the three gentlemen I have named all sums sent to them.
Yours truly,
JAMES TUPPER.
Shanghai, 7th March, 1877.