Chapter 9 Section 3 Shanyangdu and Jiangnan River

Shanyangdu is the ancient Hangou, which starts from Hancheng in the south and ends in Shanyang County (now Huai'an, Jiangsu Province) in the north.Hangou was first dug in the state of Wu at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period. At that time, due to the temporary needs of the war, the project was crude and simple, and the waterway was tortuous and shallow, so that only small boats could pass through it, not large ships.Later, people carried out many transformations on it.One of the more important ones was Chen Deng, the prefect of Guangling (where the government is located in today's Yangzhou City) at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, changing the route from Fanliang Lake to the north until Huai'an entered the Huai River.This change established the basic pattern of Hangou later.Starting from the needs of conquering Chen, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty adjusted some channels and changed the water inlet to Huaihe River from the shallow end to Shanyang.However, due to the immediate start of the military operation, it was too late to transform the whole canal.

In order to improve the shipping capacity of Shanyangdu, Emperor Yangdi of the Sui Dynasty made a more thorough treatment of this ancient canal in conjunction with the Tongji Canal.While digging the Jiqu, that is, the first year of Daye (605 A.D.), he recruited more than 100,000 people from Huainan to participate in this project.At that time, in addition to dredging and widening the channel according to the standards of Tongji Canal, building roads and leaving the palace, a new canal into the river was dug.Due to the siltation of the Yangtze River sandbar, the mouth of the Shanyangdu River was seriously blocked.For this expansion, the southern section was turned to the west, and a new canal of dozens of miles was opened to make it flow into the river from the Yangtze (southeast of Yizheng, Jiangsu).This is the famous Yangtze River ferry Yangzijin in the Sui and Tang dynasties.After this transformation, Shanyangdu is unimpeded in its entirety, and giants like dragon boats can advance and retreat freely.

In the sixth year after the completion of Tongji Canal and Shanyangdu, Emperor Yang of Sui ordered to expand the Jiangnan River. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, there were canals in the Taihu Lake Basin.After Qin Shihuang established a unified country, in order to strengthen the control of the Wuzhong area, and also to meet the needs of the east tour of Kuaiji (where the government is located in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, and the area under its jurisdiction includes today’s southern Jiangsu and central and northern Zhejiang), on the basis of the ancient canal in the Spring and Autumn Period It was expanded to connect the waterway from Dantu in the north (where the government is located in Dantu Town in the southeast of Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province), through Kuaiji County in the middle, and Qiantang (Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province) in the south.This should be the embryonic form of the Jiangnan River later.It is said that Dantu got its name because there were 3,000 ocher-clothed prisoners participating in river governance at that time.Dantu and Qu'a (where the government is located in today's Danyang City, Jiangsu Province) are located in the northwest of the Taihu Lake Basin. The terrain here is slightly higher than other nearby places. Therefore, the riverbed in the passage from here is high, the river water is insufficient, and the boats are not smooth.In order to solve these problems, during the Three Kingdoms and Eastern Jin Dynasties, construction was carried out here again and again. For example, the state of Wu dredged the riverbed between Dantu and Qu'a to improve the waterway here; the Eastern Jin Dynasty built Dingmao in Jingkou (Zhenjiang City) to control the river water. Leaked into the Yangtze River and so on.

On the basis of the above, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty expanded the Jiangnan River. "Zi Zhi Tong Jian Sui Ji Si" contains: "The imperial edict crosses the Jiangnan River, from Jingkou to Yuhang (now Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province), more than 800 miles, more than ten feet wide, so that dragon boats can pass through, and post palaces, Caodun, I want to visit Kuaiji in the east." The Kuaiji here refers to the Kuaiji Mountain in Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province today. It is said that Dayu once met princes here, and Qin Shihuang, the emperor of the ages, also climbed this mountain to "look at the South China Sea" ( Actually refers to today's East China Sea), Emperor Sui Yang, who was very happy, probably also wanted to follow the stories of Dayu and Qin Huang.However, Emperor Sui Yang's goal of going to Kuaiji was not achieved, because soon after he ordered the excavation, he was trapped by the Koryo War and peasant uprising, and had no time to cross the Yangtze River south.However, the expansion of the Jiangnan River has greatly promoted the development of shipping in the Taihu Lake Basin, and also strengthened the connection with Jiangnan, Huaihe and other places.The Jiangnan River is still the golden waterway in the Taihu Lake Basin.

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