Recent studies of the reconstruction of East Asian monsoon climate in the past using historical literature of China

Abstract

Recent work on the reconstruction of past climate of the part of China that is influenced by the East Asian monsoon based on Chinese historical literature are reviewed. General climate information that can be extracted from historical documents are described and some examples are given. The sources of available documents useful for more quantitative reconstruction purposes are given and assessed. Reconstruction of winter and summer temperature series and dryness/wetness series are then reviewed and discussed. The reconstruction of temperature series were generally based on climatological interpretation of phenological records such as the dates of lake or river freezing, bird migration, or the beginning and ending of snow. Reconstructed temperature series for various parts of China are given. Next, the reconstruction of humidity series are reviewed. The data sources for this purpose are mainly flood, drought, and rain records. Some high quality data sources, such as the daily weather reports, the Clear and Rain Records of Qing Dynasty, are also discusses. The reconstructed series are then used to summarize the general evolution of the monsoon climate of China from 300 to 1900 AD. A brief conclusion is made.