Kaifeng Flood

1465

The Yellow River burst its dikes in Henan Province, flooding tens of thousands of hectares and killing an uncounted number of peasants. The Ming hydraulic bureaucracy responded with forced labor dike repair. China's oldest environmental problem continued producing its oldest political responses: corvee, famine relief, and imperial rescripts. The Yellow River's catastrophic tendency made flood control the single most important administrative task facing any Chinese dynasty throughout history.