Shiji – The Book of Rivers and Drains

It is recorded in the Book of Xia in the Shangshu that during the thirteen years that Yu managed the flood, he did not go home to visit his relatives even when he passed by his doorstep. He traveled by car on the land route, by boat on the water route, by wooden sled on the mud route, and by sedan chair on the mountain route. Thus, the boundaries of the nine states were divided, the mountainous terrain was followed, the silted rivers were dredged, and the levels of tribute were determined according to the land products. The roads of the nine states were made smooth, the zebu banks of the nine states were built, and the products of the mountainous terrain of the nine states were measured. However, there was also the Yellow River flooding, which caused great harm to the Central Plains. Therefore, Yu concentrated his efforts to control the Yellow River, guiding the river from Jishi Mountain through Longmen, southward to Huayin County, eastward through Mizhu Mountain and Mengjin and Luo River Bend, and arriving at Dapi Mountain. Yu thought that the areas above Dapi through which the Yellow River flowed were high and fast-flowing, making it difficult to pass through the flatlands east of Dapi, or else they would fail the dikes and break the banks from time to time, causing floods, so he dug two channels to divert the Yellow River into two channels, and drew the Yellow River eastward to flow directly into the sea, flowing from the Jizhou area where the terrain was high, through the precipitation, and to the continental land zones, where it was appropriated into nine tributaries, which together welcomed the waters of the Yellow River and flowed into the Bohai Sea. The rivers and streams of the nine states were dredged, and the water-barrier embankments were built in the great zones of the nine states. The states of China were governed and stabilized, and their achievements benefited the three generations of the Xia, the Shang, and the Zhou.

After the Great Yu, later generations drew the Yellow River from Xingyang to the southeast, which became the Honggou, linking Song, Zheng, Chen, Cai, Cao and Wei, and meeting with the water systems of Ji, Ru, Huai and Si respectively. In the land of Chu, ditches were built between the Han River and Yunmengze in the west, and ditches were built between Jianghuai and Huaihuai in the east. In Wu, rivers and canals were dug between the three rivers and five lakes. In Qi, ditches were built between the waters of Shisei and Ji. In Shu, Li Bing, the governor of Shu, excavated the Li Dui to avoid the flooding caused by the Fo Shui, and two tributaries of the Jiang Shui in the area of Chengdu. These rivers and canals were deep enough for boats, and any excess water was used to irrigate farmland, bringing much convenience to the people. As for the canal water through the area, people often cut some branch canals to draw the canal water to irrigate the farmland, the number of canals into the field is not less than a thousand million, but due to the small scale, it is not worth counting.

Ximen Bao drew water from Zhangzhang to irrigate the farmland in Yecheng County, which enriched the Hannei region of Wei.

When Korea heard that Qin was good at new and strange things such as public works and wanted to deplete its power so that it could not afford to use military force against the Shandong states, it ordered Zheng Guo, a water engineer, to find a chance to persuade (shuì) the king of Qin to cut through the Jing River and build an aqueduct from the Zhongshan Mountain (north of Jingyang County in Shaanxi Province) to the mouth of the gourd, more than three hundred miles long, out of the northern mountains and flowing eastward into the Luo River, which was intended to be used to irrigate the farmland. Before the aqueduct was completed, Zheng’s purpose was discovered, and the king of Qin wanted to kill him. Zheng said, “I began as a spy of Korea, but the successful construction of the aqueduct did benefit Qin.” Qin thought he was right and finally ordered him to continue to build the aqueduct to completion. After the completion of the aqueduct, the silted and muddy water of the Jing River was diverted to irrigate more than 40,000 hectares of low-lying saline land on both sides of the river, and the yields of all of them reached six stone and four dipper per mu. From then on, Guanzhong had thousands of miles of fertile land, and there were no more years of famine, so Qin became rich and powerful, and finally annexed the vassal states, so the canal was named “Zheng Guo Canal”.

Thirty-nine years after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, the Yellow River embankment broke down at the time of Emperor Xiaowen in Saozhao County, and the golden embankment on the east side was washed away, so Dongxian County mobilized a lot of soldiers to block the breakage.

After forty years, in the year of Yuan Guang of the Emperor of this dynasty, the Yellow River again broke at Gouzi and flowed southeastward into Kui Ye Ze, connecting the Huai River and Surabaya River. The emperor ordered Ji An and Zheng to send men and criminals to plug the breach, but the water often destroyed the breach just before it was plugged. At that time, the prime minister of the court was Tian (fén), the Marquis of Wu’an, and his bongyi was Shū (鄃), who lived on the rent and tax of Shū (鄃). The county was north of the Yellow River, and when the Yellow River broke, the water flowed southward, and there was no flooding in the county, so the harvest was very good. Therefore, Tian said to the emperor, “The river breaks are all matters of heaven, and it is not easy to force the blockage by human power; even if the break is blocked, it may not be in accordance with the will of heaven.” In addition, people who looked at the clouds and divined by magic also said the same thing. Therefore, the son of heaven did not mention the matter of plugging the breach for a long time.

At that time, Zheng, who was then the chief agricultural officer, said, “Usually, grain from Guandong was transported upstream along the Wei River, and it took six months to reach Chang’an, which was more than 900 miles by water, and there were many difficult places on the way. If a canal was opened from Chang’an to draw the Wei Shui, along the south mountain and down to the Yellow River, it was only more than 300 miles, a straight road, easy to ship, and it was estimated that it would take only three months to finish the transportation; and more than 10,000 hectares of farmland along the canal could be irrigated again. This will not only reduce the labor and time for transporting grain in the canal province and save money, but also make the farmland in Guanzhong more fertile and have a better harvest.” The Son of Heaven thought it was right and ordered Xu Bo, a water engineer from Qi, to measure the terrain and determine the course of the river, and mobilized tens of thousands of soldiers to dig the canal, which took three years to complete. It took three years to complete. The canal was opened and used for transportation, which was really very convenient. After that, the water transportation gradually increased, and the people around the canal were able to get the benefit of irrigating their fields with water.

After that, Hedong Shoupan said, “The transportation of grain and rice from Shantung to the west is more than one million stones per year, and in the middle of it, there are many bad people died in the canal boats passing through the prohibited area of Jianzhu, and the transportation cost is too big. If we go through the canal to draw the Fen water to irrigate the land around Pi and Fen Yin, and draw the Yellow River water to irrigate the land around Fen Yin and Pu Ban, it is estimated that we can make 5,000 hectares of fields. These 5,000 hectares of fields were originally abandoned wasteland near the river, where the people only grazed and pastured, but now they were irrigated and cultivated, and it was estimated that more than two million stones of grain could be obtained. These grains will be transported into Chang’an along the Wei River, no different from those harvested directly from Guanzhong, instead of being transported into Guanzhong from the east of the Mainstay.” The Son of Heaven agreed with him and mobilized tens of thousands of soldiers to build canal fields. A few years later, when the Yellow River was diverted and the water in the canal was insufficient, those who planted the canal fields could not even repay the seeds loaned by the government. After a long time, the He Dong canal field was completely abandoned, and the imperial court gave it to the people who moved in from the Yue land to cultivate, so that the Shaofu could get a little bit of meager rental income from it.

After this, some people wrote a letter to the court, in order to want to open the Baoshi Road and the transportation of goods, the son of heaven gave this matter to the royal historian Zhang Tang to deal with, Zhang Tang detailed understanding, said: “from Hanzhong into Shu has always taken the old road, the old road has a lot of mountains and banzai big slopes, twisting and turning the road is far away. Now, if we cut through the Baoshan Road, there are fewer mountains and slopes, and it is nearly 400 miles farther than the old road; moreover, the Baoshan Water is connected with the Shin Water, and the Slanting Water is connected with the Wei-Wei Water, which are able to pass through the canal ships. The ship could travel from Nanyang to Baoshui along the Shinshui, land on the Baoshui and travel more than one hundred miles to the Xiashui, transfer by car, and then disembark and travel down the Xiashui to the Weiashui. In this way, not only the grain from Hanzhong could be transported, but also the grain from Shandong could be transported from Shinshui without any obstruction, which was more convenient than transporting the grain through Jinzhu. Moreover, the richness of the wood and arrows and bamboo in the Baosi area can be compared with that of Ba Shu.” The son of Zhang Tang was appointed governor of Hanzhong County, and tens of thousands of men were mobilized to open a road more than 500 miles long. It was really convenient and close, but the water was turbulent (tuān) and rocky, and the grain ships could not pass.

After that, Zhuang Xiongfang said: “The people of Linjin area are willing to cut through the Luo River to build a canal to irrigate more than 10,000 hectares of saline land to the east of Chongquan. If we can get water to irrigate, we can make the yield of each mu reach ten stones.” So he mobilized more than 10,000 soldiers to open the canal and drew Luo water from Zhengcheng to the bottom of Shangyan Mountain. Since the earth bank was prone to collapse, wells were drilled along the stream, some of which reached a depth of more than forty feet. In many places, wells were drilled, and the wells were connected to each other, so that the water could pass through. The water passed through Shangyan Mountain from the ground and traveled eastward until it was more than ten miles away in the mountains. From then on, wells and canals were created. A dragon’s bone was dug out when the canal was being dug, so the canal was named the Dragon’s Head Canal. The canal was built for more than ten years, and some parts of it were opened, but it did not get much benefit.

For more than twenty years after the Yellow River broke at Hisago, the land was flooded every year, and the Liang and Chu areas were even worse. As the Son of Heaven had already sealed the Zen temple and toured the famous mountains and rivers in the world, the next year, the sky was dry, and it was said that the heaven was less rainy in order to dry up the sealing soil of Taishan Mountain. So he ordered Ji Ren and Guo Chang to deploy tens of thousands of soldiers to block the gourd’s mouth to stop the waterlogging. After praying to the gods from the Wanli Shazhi Temple, the Son of Heaven visited the Yellow River’s mouth in person on his way back, sank a white horse and a jade jade jade in the river to pay tribute to the god of the river, and ordered all the accompanying officials from the rank of generals downwards to carry firewood on their backs to fill up the mouth of the mouth. At that time, the people of Dongxian County could only burn grass for cooking, and since firewood was scarce, they were ordered to cut down the bamboos in Ki Yuan to be used as piles for plugging the breach.

Since the son of heaven personally visited the place where the river broke, he mourned the unsuccessful plugging of the break and sang, “What can be done when the gourd river breaks, the vastness of the state has been turned into a river. The river has been turned into a river, and the place is in a state of anxiety. The river has been leveled, and the water is flowing out, and the water tribe is clamoring, forcing the sky and the sun. The river channel has been abolished and the water has left the regular flow, and the dragon is traveling far away. The water has returned to its old course, and the gods are blessed. How would we know this if we did not seal the temple? Tell Uncle He why he is not benevolent, and why the river is flooding. The river is flooded with niè (聂)sang (齧桑), and the Huai and Surabaya are full of water, and the river has not returned to its old path for a long time, so I wish the water would slow down a little bit.” Another song reads, “The river is flowing fast, and it is difficult to dredge it. No grass was uncovered and no jade was sunk in the river. Even if the river chief allowed the water to be rested, there was not enough firewood to pay for it. Even if the river chief had authorized the restoration of the water, there was not enough fuel wood, but the guards of the river were condemned! I’ll cut down the bamboos of Qi Yuan, and block the stone pillars, and block the Xuanfang, and I’ll be blessed. So he blocked the gourd and built a palace at the mouth of the river, which he named Xuanfang Palace. He also built two canals to divert the river water northward, restoring the way it was at the time of Yu, so that the Liang and Chu areas were again peaceful and free from floods.

From then on, officials in charge of river and canal affairs scrambled to suggest water conservancy construction. Shuo Fang, Xi He, He Xi, and Jiu Quan drew water from the Yellow River and the valley to irrigate farmland; while the auxiliary ditches and Ling 轵渠 in Guanzhong drew water from Chuanzhong; Runan and Jiujiang drew water from the Huaihe River; Dong Hai County drew water from Kui Ding Ze; and the area around Taishan Mountain drew water from Wen. Each of these canals was able to irrigate more than ten thousand hectares of farmland. Other small canals, as well as the waterways cut through the mountain, can not be described. But the biggest project is the Xuanfang river project.

Tai Shi Gong said: “I have traveled south to Mount Lu, to see the remains of Yu dredging the Jiujiang River, and then to Huiji too Huangshu, Gusu Terrace, looking out over the five lakes; eastbound to visit the Luo 汭(ruì), Dapi, against the river, walking through the Huai, Si, Ji, Luo Luo, Luo water; westbound to look at the western Sichuan area of the Minshan Mountain and the LiDui; northbound from the Dragon Gate to the ShuoFang. Deeply feel: water and human interests are too great! I traveled with the Son of Heaven, I also had to carry firewood to block the Xuanfang break, in order to grieve for the Son of Heaven made the goose “gourd”, and therefore wrote the “book of the river and canal”.