Climate Change and Social Vicissitudes in China over the Past 2000 Years

The relationship between climate change and historical rhythms in China has long been discussed.  Based on semantic differential method, a quantitative sequence of the social vicissitudes over the past 2000 years with a 10-year resolution was reconstructed by using 1586 items of direct and proffered evidence from 29 Chinese history books. Social vicissitudes have clear cyclical features on multiple time scales, and temperature change displayed more significant effects on them in the long-time scale, while precipitation change displayed more significant effects in the short-time scale. Social rise mostly occurred in the centennial-scale warm periods, whereas social decline mostly occurred in the centennial-scale cold periods.