Surviving historical accounts show that China was hit by a series of epidemics in 1331–34, 1344–46, and then throughout the 1350s.[11] According to imperial records, these were devastating. An outbreak in the northeast province of Hebei in 1331 is reported to have killed 90 percent of its inhabitants. The Chinese population collapsed, falling from about 125 million at the beginning of the fourteenth century to 65 million at the end—although war and floods also contributed to the death toll.[12]
