The Mongol conquest of China in the thirteenth century had caused a decline in farming and trading, but economic recovery had been observed at the beginning of the fourteenth century.

In the 1330s, however, a large number of natural disasters and plagues lead to widespread famine, starting in 1331, with a deadly plague arriving soon after.

A “terrible mist emitting a fearful stench and infecting the air” precedes China’s plague of 1333.