January 23, 1556

1556 Shaanxi earthquake

The 1556 Huaxian earthquake devastates the Wei River region

Qin Keda woke thinking thieves were making the noise. Only when the wall beside his head collapsed did he understand what was happening.

Midnight in the Wei valley

Around midnight on 23 January 1556 a destructive earthquake struck the Wei River region of Shaanxi during the Jiajing reign. Ming records say the ground shook simultaneously in Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan.

Accounts describe city walls and buildings collapsing or sinking, the ground opening, springs erupting, the Wei River overflowing, and hills, roads and waterways substantially altered. In the loess plateau, cliff-cut cave dwellings and landslides buried inhabitants; the survivor Qin Keda reported entire cave-dwelling families crushed.

By morning

Survivors searched for relatives and dug people out of debris. At noon, survivors had still not eaten because their cooking vessels, grain and flour were buried. Fires, flooding, landslides and continuing shocks compounded the destruction, and Qin's account says officials answered looting and panic with summary executions.

The date is the conventional Julian rendering; the same instant is 2 February in the proleptic Gregorian calendar, and the twelfth day of the twelfth month of Jiajing 34 in the Chinese calendar.

The number, and what it is

The Ming Veritable Records preserve a memorial reporting at least 830,000 named dead plus uncounted others. That figure comes from a memorial preserved in annals, not a forensic count, and scholars differ over whether it represents direct deaths or longer-term demographic loss.

Magnitude is likewise reconstructed. Estimates derived from historical intensity reached 8.25–8.5, while a 2020 study of the faults found Mw 7.5 plausible and Mw 8.0 a reasonable upper limit. That work finds the Weinan Fault probably ruptured, likely together with the Huashan segment — about 90 km of fault in combination.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 4 sources 2 audit passes, 1 issue open Traditional date

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

Traditional date. This date is the conventional one, not one fixed by a contemporary record.

What the sources leave uncertain

January 23 is the conventional Julian-calendar rendering. The same instant is February 2 in the proleptic Gregorian calendar and the twelfth day of the twelfth month of Jiajing 34 in the Chinese calendar.
The famous 830,000 comes from a Ming memorial preserved in annals, not an instrumental or modern forensic count. Scholars differ over whether it can be treated as a precise direct-death total or includes longer-term demographic loss.
Magnitude estimates derived from historical intensity reached 8.25–8.5, but a 2020 fault study found Mw 7.5 plausible and Mw 8.0 a reasonable upper limit.
“Epicenter at Huaxian” is a historical and geological reconstruction, not an instrumental location.