A great earthquake 400 years ago weakened a dynasty in China.

So far, the worst earthquake in the world happened in China, not Wenchuan or Tangshan, but the Guanzhong earthquake in Shaanxi during Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty.

It is the earthquake with the largest number of deaths since human records.

The great earthquake in Guanzhong during Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty occurred on December 12, Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty. Modern scientists infer from historical records that the earthquake intensity at that time was 8 to 8.3, and the intensity was 1 1 degree. The epicenter was located in Hua County, Shaanxi Province.

The earthquake caused serious damage and a large number of deaths, which are rare at all times and in all countries. 10 1 county was damaged in the earthquake, which distributed in Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Shanxi and Henan provinces, covering an area of about 280,000 square kilometers. The epicentre is about 2,700 square kilometers from Weinan, hua county, Huayin, Tongguan and Chaoyi to Yongji County, east of Xi 'an.

Record:

"Thirty-four years in December, four provinces of Renyin, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan, earthquakes occurred at the same time, and the sound was like thunder. This is particularly evident in Weinan, Huazhou, Chaoyi, Sanyuan and Zhou Pu. Or the ground cracks, the spring overflows, there are fish in it, or the houses in the city are trapped underground, or the flat land suddenly becomes a mound, or there are several earthquakes a day, or earthquakes continue. The Weihe River overflowed, Hua Yue and Zhong Nanshan rang, and the river was clear in a few days. It is strange that officials, soldiers and civilians have killed 830,000 people. "

After the earthquake, countless houses, government agencies, temples and academies became ruins; Stronger tall buildings such as towers, pagodas and palaces almost all collapsed.

The earthquake caused the disconnection between Huayin County and Maqiao in the west, and the ground of Dayuan Village in the north of the city cracked several feet and the water flooded several feet.

After the earthquake, the purple micro-scale in Taibaichi, south of Lixian and southwest of Chaoyi, dried up. The great customs clearance on the south bank of the Yellow River and the banks of Zhou Pu collapsed. The stone spring in Huashan County has completely dried up.

According to the records of counties and cities, the earthquake caused a large number of deaths, and about 830 thousand people were named in newspapers alone. In the midwinter earthquake, the victims froze to death and starved to death, and the plague epidemic and other secondary disasters in the following year caused countless deaths.

In the face of natural disasters, whether you are a senior official or a poor person, you are all equal in the face of death. Guanzhong area was the core area of Ming Dynasty at that time. In this earthquake, a large number of ordinary people lost their lives, and some senior officials and nobles were not spared. For example, Han Shangshu of the Ministry of War at that time, Qing Ma Li of Guanglu Temple, and Wang Weizhen of imperial academy.

It is said that the earthquake started in the afternoon, but it was only about magnitude 5. However, at that time, the conditions were limited, the evacuation work was not done well, and the people were unwilling to evacuate out of the psychology of settling down and moving. In the end, it became an earthquake of magnitude 8 in the middle of the night, and they couldn't run if they wanted to.

This earthquake, which happened in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, indirectly led to the serious decline of Daming's national strength. In order to alleviate the financial problems, Emperor Jiajing even acquiesced in Yan Song and his son's "selling officials and titles", which became the mainstream trend at that time and indirectly caused the demise of Daming.