History of canals in China


The history of canals in China connecting its major rivers and centers of agriculture and population extends from the legendary exploits of Yu the Great in his attempts control the flooding of the Yellow River to the present infrastructure projects of the People's Republic of China. From the Spring and Autumn period onward, the canals of China were used for army transportation and supply, as well as colonization of new territories. From the Qin to the Qing, China's canal network was also essential to imperial taxation-in-kind. Control of shipbuilding and internal tariffs were also administered along the canals.

History

Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods

In 647, the State of Jin suffered major crop failure. Duke Mu of Qin despatched a large fleet of ships manned by Corvée labour from his capital at Yong in modern-day Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province. The ships carried several thousands of tons of cereal and proceeded along the Wei, Yellow and Fen Rivers before arriving at the Jin capital Jiang .
Later, in 486, King Fuchai of Wu linked the Yangtze and Huai Rivers by excavating the Han Ravine so that water flowed from the Yangtze through the Lakes Fanliang, Bozhi and Sheyang into the Wei at Huai'an. This waterway was subsequently used to transport provisions for the army. Three years afterwards King Fuchai further extended the Han Ravine via the Heshui Canal to connect with the Si River in Shandong Province.

Qin dynasty

In 214 the first Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang ordered construction of a canal connecting the Xiang River and the Lijiang in order to supply his troops for an attack on the Xiongnu nomads. Designed by Shi Lu, the resulting Lingqu Canal is the oldest contour canal in the world. This canal along with the Zhengguo Canal in Shaanxi Province and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System in Sichuan Province are known as “The three great hydraulic engineering projects of the Qin dynasty”.

Han dynasty

During the Chu–Han Contention, General Xiao He used the Wei River to transport provisions for his army, thereby creating an effective logistics supply network. In 129, the sixth year of Emperor Wu, a canal was cut through the northern foothills of the Qin Mountains running parallel to the Wei River linking Tong Pass with Chang’an and greatly reducing the amount of time needed to transport goods between the two cities.

Sui and Tang dynasties

Although the Sui dynasty lasted only 37 years from 581 until 618, its rulers made a major contribution to improving the canal system. The Grand Canal became a major factor in economic growth and political unity by connecting north and south, allowing transport of tax grain and control of the sale of salt. The Hai, Yellow, Huai, Yangtze and Qiantang Rivers were all interlinked through the construction of canals thus laying the groundwork for further development during later dynasties. These were the Guangtong Canal, Tongji Canal, Shanyang Channel and Yongji Canal which formed the basis of a large scale canal based transport network.
At the time of Emperor Jingzong of Tang the canal system had become too shallow. This restricted the movement of salt and iron which were important government monopolies so to solve the problem seven rivers were diverted to the east.

Song dynasty

During the Song dynasty the capital Daliang, modern day Kaifeng, used the Bian Yellow, Huimin and Guangji Rivers as part of the canal network. In 976 CE during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song more than 55 million bushels of grain were moved along the Bian River to the capital. By the time of Emperor Renzong of Song the amount had increased to 80 million bushels.

Yuan dynasty

The Yuan Dynasty saw the establishment of a government body in the form of a "Si" near the capital to oversee the canal system. Known as the Huai & Yangtze Rivers Grain Transport Office, this was an offshoot of the Three Departments and Six Ministries of the administrative third grade or "San Pin". This office was responsible for arranging grain transportation to the Luan River then onwards to the capital at Dadu using more than 3,000 boats. Sea-based transportation within the grain taxation system was also important with canals playing a subsidiary role.

Ming dynasty

In 1368, the first year of the reign of the Ming Hongwu Emperor, the Capital Grain Transport Office was established under the auspices of a fourth grade commissioner. At the same time, the canal system's governor-general's office was set up in the prefectural capital of Huai'an, Jiangsu Province. Its responsibilities were to manage the canal network and ensure that annual grain shipments remained at around 40 million tons. Boatyards were also established in Anqing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jiujiang, Zhangshu and Raozhou . At Huai'an, a boatyard northwest of the Yangtze River ran for a distance of 23 Chinese miles variant evolved as grain tax transportation switched from the sea to the country's canal and river network. At Huai’an, Xuzhou, Linqing and other locations, warehouses were established to store taxes paid in grain and delivered by the local population. This was then shipped north to provision the army once every quarter. Storage became unnecessary with the advent of the "duiyun" form where taxes paid by the common people were partly used to directly pay the transportation fees for army supplies on the journey north. During the third stage known as "changyun" or "gaidui", the army took responsibility for the movement of grain from south of the Yangtze River.
According to Ming dynasty scholar Qiu Jun : “Use of the river and canal network saved 30-40% of costs compared to road transportation whereas the savings achieved using sea-borne transport were 70%-80%.”

Qing dynasty

Although the Qing dynasty continued to use the existing canal system it had numerous disadvantages and caused the government many headaches. In 1825 during the reign of the Daoguang Emperor a maritime shipping office was established in Shanghai with a grain tax receiving station at Tianjin. Qishan and other senior ministers thereafter managed the first grain shipments by sea. Operations in Tianjin quickly grew to outstrip those based in Linqing, Shandong Province. Before the First Opium War of 1839-42 and the Second Opium War, yearly grain-tax maritime shipments reached around 4 million bushels of grain per annum.
A series of events towards the end of the Qing dynasty led to the ultimate decline of the canal system:
During the Great Leap Forward, the Red Flag Canal was built entirely by hand as an irrigation canal diverting water from the Zhang River to fields in Linzhou in northern Henan. Completed in 1965, the main channel is long, winding around the side of a cliff and through 42 tunnels. It was celebrated within China and was the subject of several movies, including a section of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1972 documentary Chung Kuo.
The South–North Water Transfer Project is still ongoing, with the central route completed in 2014.