The 1642 Yellow River flood or Kaifeng flood was a man-made disaster principally located in Kaifeng, now a prefecture-level city in the People's Republic of China's Henan province and a former capital of China. The city is located on the south bank of the Yellow River, which has been prone to violent flooding throughout its history. The 1642 flood, however, was not natural but directed by the Ming governor of the city in the hopes of using the flood waters to break the six-month siege the city had endured from the peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng.[1]
The dikes were burst, but the water destroyed Kaifeng. Over 300,000 of the 378,000 residents were killed by the flood and ensuing peripheral disasters such as famine and plague.[2] When counted as a "natural disaster", the flood is currently considered the 7th deadliest in history.
After this disaster the city was abandoned until 1662 when it was rebuilt under the rule of the celebrated Qing emperor Kangxi. It remained a rural backwater city of diminished importance thereafter and experienced several other less devastating floods.
The flood also brought an end to the "golden age" of the Jewish settlement of China, said to span from about 1300 to 1642. China's small Jewish population (estimated at around 5,000 people) was centered at Kaifeng and the flood reduced the number of families from around 12 to 7. Further, the flood destroyed the synagogue and most of the community's irreplaceable Torah.[2]