Abstract:

After the Gengzi Event of 1900 the eight-power allied army, local disbanded soldiers, gangsters and robbers pillaged and even killed people around the area of Tianjing and Beijing.The refugees' number increased rapidly, but the government of the late Qing Dynasty was unable to relieve them effectively.Shanghai's gentry and merchants formed philanthropic organizations to mobilize non-governmental strengths in provinces of southeast China to organize fund-raising activities, thus strongly making up for official temporary disabilities of social relief in the time of emergency, which not only indicated a new development of China's folk charities but also signified a new change of the relationship between governmental and non-governmental.

Key words: non-governmental philanthropic organization, time of emergency, philanthropic relief