Earthquakes were first described in detail in Guoyu, which recorded an earthquake that occurred in Shaanxi in the second year of Zhou Youwang (780 BC): "There were three Sichuan earthquakes in the Western Zhou Dynasty. It's years old, Sanchuan is exhausted, and Qishan collapses. Sanchuan is now Jinghe, Weihe and Luohe in Shaanxi, and Qishan is now Qishan County in Shaanxi.
The ancients could not give a scientific explanation for the cause of the earthquake. The ancients usually attributed the cause of earthquakes to the imbalance of yin and yang with the theory of yin and yang in the Book of Changes, and even thought that natural disasters and man-made disasters were the punishments suffered by emperors who violated God's will in the world. So after the earthquake, many emperors quickly reviewed whether they had made any mistakes. For example, in the year of Emperor Taizong's death-the 23rd year of Zhenguan (649), a strong earthquake occurred in Hedong area (now Shanxi), killing 5000 people at a time. This year, floods, droughts and locust plagues occurred one after another in other areas. Therefore, Tang Gaozong, the new successor, took the initiative to take responsibility: "When I first ascended the throne, there were frequent earthquakes in Jinzhou due to my ignorance of politics and religion. This is caused by rewarding and punishing the wrong party and the good party. Another example is the earthquake near Beijing in the 18th year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1679). Emperor Kangxi quickly issued a "Guilt for Yourself" to reflect on his mistakes: "The sudden earthquake was all because of my incompetence, political disharmony, and my officials could not work, which led to disharmony between Yin and Yang and different disasters. He also sent officials to the Temple of Heaven to pay homage, and led several kings and officials to pray in the Temple of Heaven.
In order to make up for their mistakes, emperors will go all out to help the disaster. For example, after the earthquake in the eighteenth year of Kangxi, the emperor immediately ordered the Ministry of Housing and Industry to allocate funds for disaster relief. For those whose houses collapsed beyond repair, the flag bearer gave four silver cups to each room and two silver cups to each private house. Families who have died in the earthquake and cannot be buried in coffins will each get two silver cups. Tax relief and food distribution will be given to the people in the disaster areas to solve the problem of famine after the disaster. In addition, whenever there is an earthquake disaster, people's disaster relief activities are also quite enthusiastic, and many people of insight are generous.
In the long-term practice, the ancients in China have long recognized that earthquakes are precursors, and left a wealth of earthquake precursor records. For example, after the 1739 Yinchuan earthquake in Ningxia, it was inferred that there might be some relationship between the earthquake and well water changes, animal uneasiness, underground sound before the earthquake and abnormal weather phenomena.
The ancients once recorded in the "Earthquake Records": "You can't get sick when you die, you have to wait for the earthquake to pass. Even if there is a nest, you can finish eating the eggs. " That is to say, when an earthquake happens, don't rush out of the house, but take the time to find a suitable damping place and take the form of squatting or sitting down until the earthquake passes, so that even if the house collapses, people can be safe and sound.