Deng Yunte was a respected academic and artist. He was also a propagandist and political commentator, before becoming one of the earliest victims of the Cultural Revolution. He committed suicide in 1966. This is the first English translation of his classic study of famine relief in Chinese history. Richly researched, Deng plots the history of famine from ancient times to the Republican period, and explores the impact of famine relief in China with a focus on social and economic forces. This is a unique and revealing text, not only as a study of famine in China, but as an example of historical scholarship from twentieth-century China.