Wen Shu Duan Bangbang (Fangtang Think Tank Yellow River Cultural Research Center Trainee Researcher)
Since the beginning of summer, a series of thunderstorms have caused the water volume of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River to soar, flood discharge of the Three Gorges Dam and Xiaolangdi The flood discharge of the dam has shown us the power of the surging flood, and we can't help but lament the series of protective measures implemented by the state to ensure the safety of people on both sides of the strait. The Yellow River has the dual attributes of a river of civilization and a river of disasters in Chinese history. The Chinese nation has accumulated rich experience in river management in the process of fighting floods. The Yellow River governance thought has an important reference to flood governance.
Judging from the historical process, the Yellow River governance from the initial simple containment of the breach to the later overall planning shows that people’s understanding of the Yellow River is an in-depth process, so the Yellow River governance thought is dynamic in the historical process Development has peaks and valleys. Based on this, we combed the historical evolution of the thought process of the Yellow River governance, and tried to analyze the representative plans and countermeasures during the peak period of the thought of river governance, so as to understand the current flood control measures in a deeper level from the historical basis.
1
The first peak of the Yellow River governance thought
When it comes to the first peak of the Yellow River governance thought, it is none other than the Han Dynasty. 1): From Flood Control to Resource Benefits", we mentioned that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had personally participated in the management of the Weanzikou dyke by the first-line commanding generals and officials. We also mentioned that the king of the Eastern Han Dynasty had achieved the 800-year feat of safe flow of the Yellow River. In addition, there was a figure governing the Yellow River in the Han Dynasty. His thoughts on governing the Yellow River had a profound impact on later generations and were particularly controversial. He was Jia Rang who was famous for governing the Yellow Emperor in the Western Han Dynasty.
At that time, the Yellow River frequently overflowed, and the official responsible for the river channel wrote a letter, “I want to be able to dredge the river and dredge the river”. At this time, Jia Rang applied for the application and proposed the famous upper, middle and lower three policies. This is a reservation. The earliest document on river management of systematic planning. The top policy is "the people who migrate to Jizhou will act as water rushers, and the Liyang will obstruct the pavilion, and let the river into the sea." That is, the migration of the residents of the Yellow River Basin, actively adjust the direction of the Yellow River to widen the Yellow River; the middle policy is the embankment on the east side of the Yellow River. A water gate was built on the western highlands. During floods, the west gate was opened to divert the floods, and the Yellow River water was used to release silt during the dry season. The next step was to continuously repair and increase the dikes. Jia Rang believes that if the upper policy can be realized, it can be "the river will stabilize the people and the people will be safe for thousands of years." If the middle policy can be realized, it can "enrich the country and the people, eliminate harms and benefit the people, support hundreds of years", and the next policy is "labor expenses". There is no end to it.
Regarding Shangce’s relocation of residents in parts of the Yellow River basin, the reason was that at that time, the “Han Fang ruled thousands of miles”. The area was vast and there were many arable and uncultivated land. The migration was not very difficult, and it was not necessary. Water is just a stone’s throw away", and it is possible to "spend years of river governance to the people who have been discipled by industry" (creatively proposes the concept of compensation time). The most important thing is that the adjustment of the river can ensure that the Yellow River can swim from left to right and wide. Slowly but not forcibly". Although this is a good plan, it still sacrifices a lot for the people who have relocated from their homeland. The cost will be even worse as the population of the Yellow River Basin increases in the future. Therefore, this plan will become less and less feasible in the future.
Therefore, although later generations agreed that Jia Rang’s three strategies for governing the river were very important in the history of governing the Yellow River, there were many controversies, especially during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. For example, Qiu Jun of the Ming Dynasty believed that There will be no three strategies." In the Qing Dynasty, Xia Qi also said: "Although Dayu returned to this time, there were no people who did not emigrate to Hebei, and An De did not think it was a good policy!". Jin Fu said in one sentence: "If there are words that can be heard but cannot be done, Jia Rangzhi's argument is also about governing the river."
We believe that after Jia Rang objectively summarized the development history of the embankment, he clearly realized that blindly working hard on dredging and strengthening the embankment could not solve the fundamental problem of the Yellow River governance, so he proposed a complete set of plans for systematic governance of the Yellow River. From this point of view, Jia Rang's three strategies for managing the river are undoubtedly a peak in the history of the Yellow River governance thoughts, which deeply influenced the study of the Yellow River governance by later scholars.
2
Ideological pattern of Yellow River governance is improved
The characteristics of the Yellow River are "good siltation, good resolution, and good migration", that is, the ultimate consequence of poor governance of the Yellow River is to break free The original river course has gradually been pointed out by scholarsInstead of waiting passively for the Yellow River to change its course, it is better to actively choose a reasonable course for the Yellow River. Therefore, choosing a reasonable river course for the Yellow River has become a hot topic in people's management of the Yellow River. In order to better understand this part of the content, we first have a general understanding of the historical changes of the Yellow River.
The Yellow River’s bursting overflow range extends from the north to the Haihe River and to the Jianghuai River in the south. According to the main flow direction of the river, the historical changes of the Yellow River can be roughly divided into three periods: from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States to the Northern Song Dynasty, the Yellow River mainly flows to the north. It flows through the middle of the Hebei Plain and enters the sea from the Bohai Bay. From the Southern Song Dynasty to the Qing Xianfeng four years, the Yellow River that broke at Huaxian County merged into Surabaya and Jishui, captured Huainan and entered the Yellow Sea, and the river channel often changed in a small area. Later, the river channel with uncertain migration was basically fixed after the Ming Dynasty Pan Jixun governance (Ming Qing ancient road) . In the fifth year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty, the Yellow River broke in Lankao, Henan, merged into the Daqing River, and re-entered the Bohai Sea from Lijin, Shandong.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Yellow River disaster greatly surpassed previous generations, and the river course changed very drastically. The decision, overflow, and migration all created new records in history. In addition, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty was in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. Closely connected with the interests of the ruler, the Song Dynasty paid much attention to the governance of the Yellow River, and the choice of the Yellow River was the most important to the courtiers. For example, during the Song Renzong period, one faction of the court advocated the Yellow River to flow northward, while the other faction advocated restoring the old course to make the Yellow River flow eastward (the “East Flow” in the Northern Song Dynasty was still a kind of north flow in the macro-level “South and North Flow”. ), Ouyang Xiu's exposition is very exciting in the struggle between Dongliu and Beiliu. Ouyang Xiu believes that the imperial court has been using troops for a long time, the country is exhausted, and the people are exhausted. The 300,000 people will open more than one thousand miles of rivers. Not only manpower and material resources are not allowed, but it will also cause exiles and thieves. Moreover, the Yellow River is blocked and the river has been abandoned. , Rash return is definitely not advisable. Later, Song Renzong did not listen to Ouyang Xiu's opinions, and ended in failure in returning to the river.
Five years ago in Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty, the Yellow River merged with the Huaihe River and the Canal into the sea. Due to the strong water of the Yellow River and the weak water and transportation of the Huaihe River, the Yellow River often caused the Yellow River to carry mud and sand back into the Huai River, causing frequent floods in the lower reaches of the Huanghuai River. , The canal was blocked, and the water transportation was blocked. In February of the eleventh year of Daoguang, Lin Zexu was promoted to governor of the Donghe River. Based on the river regimes high in the south and low in the north and the practical experience of treating the river, he pointed out that he wanted to save the difficulties of the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River. It is necessary to change the Yellow River into the sea from Shandong”, that is, the idea of diverting the Yellow River to the north along the Daqing River into the sea. Less than 20 years after he proposed this idea, the Yellow River had undergone a major diversion in Xianfeng five years, and its route was exactly the same as Lin Zexu's idea.
Of course, many scholars in Qing Dynasty advocated diversion of the Yellow River to the north, Hu Wei, Sun Xingyan, Ji Huang, etc. before Lin Zexu, and Wei Yuan after him. It can be seen that the Yellow River flows from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Yellow Sea and develops to Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty. In five years, the old river course has been unable to continue to carry the safe south flow of the Yellow River, and the changes in the Yellow River course have become a consensus among people of insight.
We believe that the idea of actively choosing a river course has a broader and far-reaching vision, because it is a new river planning after the emergence of a river course, and involves the comprehensive application of knowledge such as geographic calculations, thus becoming the Yellow River The sublimation of governance thought broadened the pattern of Yellow River governance.
3
The core focus of the Yellow River governance ideology
The changes in the Yellow River course are actually a helpless choice for the accumulation of sediment in the Yellow River in the course of the Yellow River. Therefore, every development of the Yellow River course in history At a certain stage or a long period of disrepair, it will cause silt and blockage, affect the transportation of water, and eventually break and divert. Therefore, the governance of the Yellow River does not lie in choosing a suitable river channel for the time being, but to focus on solving the problem of sediment deposition in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. The master of sand control theory in history is actually Pan Jixun’s water attack in the Ming Dynasty. Sand theory.
Pan Jixun is acclaimed for his theory of water beam attack and sand attack. During the five years of Ming Wanli, the Yellow River burst northward in Cuizhen. At that time, Zhang Juzheng of the main pavilion used Pan Jixun to preside over the control of the Yellow River, Huaihe River and the canal. After field investigation, Pan Jixun pointed out that the old course of the Yellow River has been inundated for a long time. Even if the dredging is restored, the depth and width of the river bed cannot meet the requirements of the current river transportation, but the breach must be blocked. So he adopted “build dikes to prevent overflow, build dams to reduce water, and use dikes to draw water. The method of attacking sand with water. Taking into account the advantages of the clear water of the Huai River, the method of constructing high weirs was adopted to increase the water potential of the Huai River, and the clear flow of the Huai River was used to wash away the turbid sand of the Yellow River. This yellowThe measures for the simultaneous governance of the Huai River and the Huai River have solved the problems of flooding and water transportation. In particular, the embankment project on both sides of the Yellow River and the junction project of the three rivers in Qingkou and Hongze Lake area have been systematically rectified. Later, Pan’s thoughts and theories on water control were compiled into "River Defense List", which focused on Pan Jixun’s propositions of "controlling rivers with rivers and attacking sand with water". This book became the level of river engineering and water conservancy in China in the 16th century. Representative works of science and technology.
In fact, the strategic idea of using water to control sand was first put forward by a talented person in Yucheng County, and was later compiled by Wan Gong’s preliminary practice and compiled into "Water Control hoof". Since Wan Gong once worked in Hegong, he paid great attention to summing up previous experiences, absorbing suggestions from the masses, and putting forward his own opinions based on practice. Therefore, "Water Control" is unique because of its many insights, such as this book. The fundamental problem of living in the Yellow River’s sediments was explored, and the characteristics of the Yellow River’s skyrocketing volatility were further analyzed, and the establishment of the Pegasus flood reporting system was first advocated. Compared with the previous generation, these contents have made considerable progress, even unprecedented. Therefore, later generations of books and local chronicles have quoted "Controlling Water Rune". Pan Jixun's "List of River Defenses" quoted many contents of the book. Among them, the thoughts on sediment control have been further developed and improved by Pan Jixun, and it has become the rule of the Yellow River for hundreds of years. Leading thought.
We believe that the history of the Yellow River governance is a history of thinking that correctly treats sedimentation. The sedimentation and siltation of the Yellow River has caused the Yellow River to break and divert from time to time. People have gradually figured out this law in the struggle against floods. In the practice of the Yellow River, he has mastered the technology of the Yellow River sediment control step by step.
At this stage, the Yellow River governance technology is more and more developed, and there are more and more flood prevention measures. However, people’s purpose of harnessing the Yellow River is the same as that of the ancients. The thinking of harnessing the Yellow River is also in the same line as the ancients. The limited and incurable sediment problem can be completely eradicated in the near future, and the idea of flood control can be raised to a higher level.
is a critical period for flood control of the Yellow River and Yangtze River. I hope that flood control can be carried out in an orderly and effective manner, and the people along the coast can ensure safety.
References:
1, Lu Shuyuan, Chen Xiande. History of the Yellow River[M]. Zhengzhou: Henan People’s Publishing House, 2001.5
2, Shang Qunchang. The formation of the Yellow River and the changes of the river course[M]. N]. Henan Daily, 2019-12-27(013).
