by the importation of grain from Manchuria.
1753. Good harvests.
1761. Great snowfall. Many geese and ducks frozen to death.
1765. Second moon, eleventh day: earthquake. Sixth moon: great floods, land flooded, houses destroyed, people injured.
1766. Great drought.
1767. Third moon, twenty-first day: great storm, trees uprooted and houses destroyed. Sixth moon, twentieth day: earthquake.
1769. Autumn, a comet.
1770. Seventh moon, twenty-ninth day. In the evening the north quarter of the sky became red as if on fire.
1771. Sixth moon. Continuous rain from second to ninth days. Crops ruined; famine.
1774. Second moon, second day: great storm which made the sands fly and the rocks roll, burst open houses and uprooted trees. Heaven and earth became black. Eighth moon: locusts.
1775. Summer, great drought. Eighth moon, seventeenth day: earthquake.
1783. From first to sixth moon, no rain; food excessively dear.
1785. Eighth moon, tenth day. Earthquake.
1790. Tenth moon, sixth day. Earthquake.
1791. Tenth moon, ninth day. Earthquake.
1796. First moon, second day. A sound like thunder rolled from north-east to south-west.
1797. Eleventh moon, second day. "Heaven's drum" was heard.
1801. Fourth moon. A star was seen in the north, of fiery red colour; it went westward, and was like a dragon. Summer and autumn, great drought: all grass and trees withered. Famine in winter.
1802. Tenth moon. Wheat eaten by locusts.
1803. Great snowfall.
1807. Seventh moon. Comet seen in the west, dying away in the tenth moon. Good harvests.
1810. Floods. In spring, devastation was caused by wolves.
1811. Eighth moon. A comet was seen, more than forty feet long. There was a great famine. During this year there were seventeen earthquakes, the first occurring on the ninth day of the fourth moon, the last on the sixteenth day of the ninth moon.[41]
1812. Famine in spring. The people lived on willow-leaves and the bark of trees. Multitudes died of disease. The district-magistrate opened the public granaries. The famine continued till the wheat was ripe.
1813. Wolves caused devastation from this year onwards until 1818. The year 1816 was the worst, and the officials organised expeditions to hunt the wolves with dogs.
1815. A comet was seen in the west.
1817. Fourth moon, eighth day. Earthquake and loud noise.
1818. Sixth moon, floods. People drowned. A kind of temporary lifeboat service was organised by the officials.
1821. Famine. Locusts. A deadly pestilence in autumn. Fourth moon, a repetition of the celestial phenomenon mentioned under the date 1725.
1823. Earthquake.
1835. Sixth and seventh moons. More than forty days of rain. Government help given to the people.
1836. Famine. Food and seed provided by the officials. Abnormally high tides this year.
1838. Fourth moon. A plague of locusts. The district-magistrate collected the people of the country, and went out at their head to catch and slay the insects. After a few days they utterly vanished. Excellent harvest thereafter.
1839. From fourth to seventh moon, crops spoiled by excessive rain. Tenth moon, twelfth day, a noisy earthquake. From the sixteenth to the twenty-third of the same month rain fell unceasingly.
1840. Eclipse of the sun.
1842. Sixth moon, first day, an eclipse of the sun, during which the stars were visible.
1844. Eighth moon, twenty-fifth day, at midnight, a great earthquake.
1846. Sixth moon, thirteenth day, at night, a great earthquake.
1847. Seventh moon. The planet Venus was seen in daytime.
1848. Drought and locusts.
1850. First day of the New Year, an eclipse of the sun.
1852. Eleventh moon, first day, an eclipse of the sun.
1856. Seventh moon, locusts. Great pestilence. On the first of the ninth moon, an eclipse of the sun.
1861. Eighth moon, first day, same phenomenon as witnessed in 1725 and 1821.
1862. Seventh and eighth moons, great pestilence.
These extracts from the local chronicles are perhaps enough to prove that the Weihaiwei peasant has not always lain on a bed of roses. When we know him in his native village, and have learned to appreciate his powers of endurance, his patience, courage, physical strength and manly independence, and remember at the same time how toilfully and amid what perils his ancestors have waged the battle of life, we shall probably feel inclined either to dissociate ourselves forthwith from the biological theory that denies the inheritance of acquired qualities or to recognise that the principle of natural selection has been at work here with conspicuous success.
The chief boast of the Promontory district, including Weihaiwei, is or should be its sturdy peasantry, yet it is not without its little list, also, of wise men and heroes. Weihaiwei, like other places, has its local shrine for the reverential commemoration of those of its men and women who have distinguished themselves for hsien, chieh, hsiao—virtue, wifely devotion and filial piety; and the accounts given us in the official annals of the lives and meritorious actions of these persons are not without interest as showing the nature of the deeds that the Chinese consider worthy of special honour and official recognition.[42]
On the northern slope of Wên-têng Shan, near the city of that name, is the tomb of Hsien Hsien Shên Tzŭ—the Ancient Worthy Shên. He was a noted scholar of the Chou dynasty (1122–293 B.C.). The T'ang dynasty honoured him (about one thousand years or more after his death) with the posthumous title of Earl of Lu (Lu Pai). The Sung dynasty about the year 1012 A.D. created the deceased philosopher Marquess of Wên-têng (Wên-têng Hou). His descendants—no longer of noble rank—are said to be still living in the ancestral village of Shên-chia-chuang (the village of the Shên family), his native place. In 1723 a new monument was erected at his grave by the district-magistrate of that time, and the custom was established for the local officials to offer sacrifices at the marquess's tomb three days before the Ch'ing-ming festival.[43]
