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Grand Canal (China)
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Grand Canal (China)
The Grand Canal (Chinese: 大运河; pinyin: Dà yùnhé) is a system of interconnected canals linking various major rivers and lakes in North and East China, serving as an important waterborne transport infrastructure between the north and the south during Medieval and premodern China. It is the longest artificial waterway in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Grand Canal has undergone several route changes throughout history. Its current main stem, known as the Jing–Hang Grand Canal, is thought to extend for 1,776 km (1,104 mi) linking Beijing in the north to Hangzhou in the south, and is divided into 6 main subsections, with the southernmost sections remaining relatively unchanged over time. The Jiangnan Canal starts from the Qiantang River at Hangzhou's Jianggan District, looping around the east side of Lake Tai through Jiaxing, Suzhou and Wuxi, to the Yangtze River at Zhenjiang; the Inner Canal from Yangzhou across the Yangtze from Zhenjiang, going through the Gaoyou Lake to join the Huai River at Huai'an, which for centuries was also its junction with the former course of the Yellow River; the Middle Canal from Huai'an to Luoma Lake at Suqian, then to the Nansi Lakes at Weishan; the Lu Canal from the Nansi Lakes at Jining and into the present course of the Yellow River at Liangshan, splitting off downstream at Liaocheng's Dong'e County before continuing to the Wei River at Linqing; the Southern Canal (named for its location within Hebei) from Linqing to the Hai River at Tianjin; and the Northern Canal from Tianjin to Tongzhou on the outskirts of Beijing. As such, it passes through the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, and the municipalities of Tianjin and Beijing. In 2014, the Chinese government and UNESCO recognized the Eastern Zhejiang Canal from Hangzhou to Ningbo along the former Tongji and Yongji Canals also as official components of the Grand Canal.
The oldest sections of what is now the Grand Canal were completed in the early 5th century BC during the conflicts of China's Spring and Autumn period to provide supplies and transport routes for the states of Wu and Yue. The network was expanded and completed by Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty in AD 609, linking the fertile Jiangnan region in the south to his capital at Luoyang in the Central Plain and to his armies in the northern frontiers. His unsuccessful and unpopular northeastern wars against Goguryeo and the massive amounts of conscripted labor involved in creating the canals were among the chief factors in the rampant rebellions during his reign and the eventual rapid fall of the Sui dynasty, but the connection of China's major watersheds and population centers proved enormously beneficial during the subsequent Tang dynasty. Additional canals supplied Chang'an (now Xi'an) even further west were rebuilt under the Tang to better connect the Guanzhong heartland to the Central Plain, while stopover towns along the main course became the economic hubs of the empire. Sections of the canal gradually degraded and faded into ruins during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and the Song dynasty, and periodic flooding of the Yellow River associated with climate changes during the Medieval Warm Period had eroded and threatened the safety and functioning of the canal while, during wartime, the rivers' high dikes were sometimes deliberately breached to delay or sweep away advancing enemy troops. Even so, restoration and improvement of the canal and its associated flood control works was assumed as a duty by each successive dynasty. The canal played a major role in periodically reuniting northern and southern China, and officials in charge of the canal and nearby salt works grew enormously wealthy. Despite damage from floods, rebellions and wars, the canal's importance only grew with the relocation of the national capital to Khanbaliq (now known as Beijing) under Kublai Khan during the Mongol Yuan dynasty, and again later under Yongle Emperor during the Ming dynasty and under Shunzhi Emperor the Manchu Qing dynasty. Despite the importance of railways and highways in modern times, the People's Republic of China has worked to improve the navigability of the canal since the end of the Chinese Civil War and the portion south of the Yellow River remains in heavy use by barges carrying bulk cargo. Increasing concern over pollution in China and particularly the use of the Grand Canal as the eastern path of the South-North Water Diversion Project—intended to provide clean potable water to the north—has led to regulations and several projects to improve water quality along the canals.
The greatest height on the canal is an elevation of 42 m (138 ft) above sea level reached in the foothills of Shandong province. Ships in Chinese canals did not have trouble reaching higher elevations after the Song official and engineer Qiao Weiyue (926-1001) invented the pound lock in the 10th century. The canal has been admired by many visitors throughout its history, including the Japanese monk Ennin (794–864), the Persian historian Rashid al-Din Hamadani (1247–1318), the Korean official Choe Bu (1454–1504), and the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci (1552–1610).
In the late Spring and Autumn period, King Fuchai of Wu (whose capital was in present-day Suzhou), ventured north to attack the State of Qi. He ordered a canal to be constructed for trading purposes, as well as a means to ship ample supplies north in case his forces should engage the northern states of Song and Lu. This became known as the Han or Hangou Canal (t 邗溝, s 邗沟, Hángōu). Work began in 486 BC, from south of Yangzhou to north of Huai'an in Jiangsu, and within three years the Han Canal had connected the Yangtze with the Huai River utilizing existing waterways, lakes, and marshes.
The Han Canal is known as the second oldest section of the later Grand Canal since the Hong Canal (t 鴻溝, s 鸿沟, Hónggōu, "Canal of the Wild Geese" or "Far-Flung Canal") most likely preceded it. It linked the Yellow River near Kaifeng to the Si and Bian rivers and became the model for the shape of the Grand Canal in the north. The exact date of the Hong Canal's construction is uncertain; it is first mentioned by the diplomat Su Qin in 330 BC when discussing state boundaries. The historian Sima Qian (145–90 BC) knew of no historical date for it, placing his discussion of it just after the legendary works of Yu the Great; modern scholars now consider it to belong to the 6th century BC.
The reunification of China under the Sui dynasty (581–618) ended three centuries of chaos since the Upheaval of the Five Barbarians, and the renewed political stability allowed both the thorough repair of existing canals and flood control systems as well as the construction of new canals. The primary consideration of the Sui canals was the need to tap into the expanding economic and agricultural resources of the Jiangnan region in the southeast to enrich the main Sui capital at Luoyang to the west and to supply the expeditionary Sui armies in the Goguryeo-Sui Wars to the northeast. The institution of the Grand Canal also obviated the need for army garrisons to become self-sufficient part-time militia-farmers while guarding the dry frontiers between China, Goguryeo and Göktürk.
A dike-building project in 587 along the Yellow River—overseen by engineer Liang Rui—established canal lock gates to regulate water levels for the canal. Double slipways were installed to haul boats over when the difference in water levels was too great for the flash lock to operate. Similarly, by the year 600, there were major buildups of silt on the bottom of the Hong Canal, obstructing river barges whose drafts were too deep for its waters. The chief engineer of the Sui dynasty, Yuwen Kai, advised the digging of a new canal that would run parallel to the existing canal, diverging from it at Chenliu (Yanzhou). The new canal was to pass not Xuzhou but Suzhou, to avoid connecting with the Si River and instead make a direct connection with the Huai River just west of Lake Hongze. With the recorded labor of five million people under the supervision of Ma Shumou, the first major section of the Grand Canal was completed in the year 605 and was called the Bian Qu.
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Grand Canal (China)
The Grand Canal (Chinese: 大运河; pinyin: Dà yùnhé) is a system of interconnected canals linking various major rivers and lakes in North and East China, serving as an important waterborne transport infrastructure between the north and the south during Medieval and premodern China. It is the longest artificial waterway in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Grand Canal has undergone several route changes throughout history. Its current main stem, known as the Jing–Hang Grand Canal, is thought to extend for 1,776 km (1,104 mi) linking Beijing in the north to Hangzhou in the south, and is divided into 6 main subsections, with the southernmost sections remaining relatively unchanged over time. The Jiangnan Canal starts from the Qiantang River at Hangzhou's Jianggan District, looping around the east side of Lake Tai through Jiaxing, Suzhou and Wuxi, to the Yangtze River at Zhenjiang; the Inner Canal from Yangzhou across the Yangtze from Zhenjiang, going through the Gaoyou Lake to join the Huai River at Huai'an, which for centuries was also its junction with the former course of the Yellow River; the Middle Canal from Huai'an to Luoma Lake at Suqian, then to the Nansi Lakes at Weishan; the Lu Canal from the Nansi Lakes at Jining and into the present course of the Yellow River at Liangshan, splitting off downstream at Liaocheng's Dong'e County before continuing to the Wei River at Linqing; the Southern Canal (named for its location within Hebei) from Linqing to the Hai River at Tianjin; and the Northern Canal from Tianjin to Tongzhou on the outskirts of Beijing. As such, it passes through the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, and the municipalities of Tianjin and Beijing. In 2014, the Chinese government and UNESCO recognized the Eastern Zhejiang Canal from Hangzhou to Ningbo along the former Tongji and Yongji Canals also as official components of the Grand Canal.
The oldest sections of what is now the Grand Canal were completed in the early 5th century BC during the conflicts of China's Spring and Autumn period to provide supplies and transport routes for the states of Wu and Yue. The network was expanded and completed by Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty in AD 609, linking the fertile Jiangnan region in the south to his capital at Luoyang in the Central Plain and to his armies in the northern frontiers. His unsuccessful and unpopular northeastern wars against Goguryeo and the massive amounts of conscripted labor involved in creating the canals were among the chief factors in the rampant rebellions during his reign and the eventual rapid fall of the Sui dynasty, but the connection of China's major watersheds and population centers proved enormously beneficial during the subsequent Tang dynasty. Additional canals supplied Chang'an (now Xi'an) even further west were rebuilt under the Tang to better connect the Guanzhong heartland to the Central Plain, while stopover towns along the main course became the economic hubs of the empire. Sections of the canal gradually degraded and faded into ruins during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and the Song dynasty, and periodic flooding of the Yellow River associated with climate changes during the Medieval Warm Period had eroded and threatened the safety and functioning of the canal while, during wartime, the rivers' high dikes were sometimes deliberately breached to delay or sweep away advancing enemy troops. Even so, restoration and improvement of the canal and its associated flood control works was assumed as a duty by each successive dynasty. The canal played a major role in periodically reuniting northern and southern China, and officials in charge of the canal and nearby salt works grew enormously wealthy. Despite damage from floods, rebellions and wars, the canal's importance only grew with the relocation of the national capital to Khanbaliq (now known as Beijing) under Kublai Khan during the Mongol Yuan dynasty, and again later under Yongle Emperor during the Ming dynasty and under Shunzhi Emperor the Manchu Qing dynasty. Despite the importance of railways and highways in modern times, the People's Republic of China has worked to improve the navigability of the canal since the end of the Chinese Civil War and the portion south of the Yellow River remains in heavy use by barges carrying bulk cargo. Increasing concern over pollution in China and particularly the use of the Grand Canal as the eastern path of the South-North Water Diversion Project—intended to provide clean potable water to the north—has led to regulations and several projects to improve water quality along the canals.
The greatest height on the canal is an elevation of 42 m (138 ft) above sea level reached in the foothills of Shandong province. Ships in Chinese canals did not have trouble reaching higher elevations after the Song official and engineer Qiao Weiyue (926-1001) invented the pound lock in the 10th century. The canal has been admired by many visitors throughout its history, including the Japanese monk Ennin (794–864), the Persian historian Rashid al-Din Hamadani (1247–1318), the Korean official Choe Bu (1454–1504), and the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci (1552–1610).
In the late Spring and Autumn period, King Fuchai of Wu (whose capital was in present-day Suzhou), ventured north to attack the State of Qi. He ordered a canal to be constructed for trading purposes, as well as a means to ship ample supplies north in case his forces should engage the northern states of Song and Lu. This became known as the Han or Hangou Canal (t 邗溝, s 邗沟, Hángōu). Work began in 486 BC, from south of Yangzhou to north of Huai'an in Jiangsu, and within three years the Han Canal had connected the Yangtze with the Huai River utilizing existing waterways, lakes, and marshes.
The Han Canal is known as the second oldest section of the later Grand Canal since the Hong Canal (t 鴻溝, s 鸿沟, Hónggōu, "Canal of the Wild Geese" or "Far-Flung Canal") most likely preceded it. It linked the Yellow River near Kaifeng to the Si and Bian rivers and became the model for the shape of the Grand Canal in the north. The exact date of the Hong Canal's construction is uncertain; it is first mentioned by the diplomat Su Qin in 330 BC when discussing state boundaries. The historian Sima Qian (145–90 BC) knew of no historical date for it, placing his discussion of it just after the legendary works of Yu the Great; modern scholars now consider it to belong to the 6th century BC.
The reunification of China under the Sui dynasty (581–618) ended three centuries of chaos since the Upheaval of the Five Barbarians, and the renewed political stability allowed both the thorough repair of existing canals and flood control systems as well as the construction of new canals. The primary consideration of the Sui canals was the need to tap into the expanding economic and agricultural resources of the Jiangnan region in the southeast to enrich the main Sui capital at Luoyang to the west and to supply the expeditionary Sui armies in the Goguryeo-Sui Wars to the northeast. The institution of the Grand Canal also obviated the need for army garrisons to become self-sufficient part-time militia-farmers while guarding the dry frontiers between China, Goguryeo and Göktürk.
A dike-building project in 587 along the Yellow River—overseen by engineer Liang Rui—established canal lock gates to regulate water levels for the canal. Double slipways were installed to haul boats over when the difference in water levels was too great for the flash lock to operate. Similarly, by the year 600, there were major buildups of silt on the bottom of the Hong Canal, obstructing river barges whose drafts were too deep for its waters. The chief engineer of the Sui dynasty, Yuwen Kai, advised the digging of a new canal that would run parallel to the existing canal, diverging from it at Chenliu (Yanzhou). The new canal was to pass not Xuzhou but Suzhou, to avoid connecting with the Si River and instead make a direct connection with the Huai River just west of Lake Hongze. With the recorded labor of five million people under the supervision of Ma Shumou, the first major section of the Grand Canal was completed in the year 605 and was called the Bian Qu.
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