Chapter 12 Section 6 The New Canal System of the Song Dynasty

Liang, Jin, Han, Zhou, and Northern Song were all capitals in Bianzhou, called Bianjing.The Northern Song Dynasty lasted a long time. In order to further close the economic and political ties between the capital and all parts of the country, a number of canals radiating in all directions were built to form a new canal system.It takes the Bianhe River as the backbone, including Guangji River, Jinshui River, and Huimin River, collectively known as the Bianjing Four Canals.And through the four canals, it communicates with the Huai River, the Yangchu Canal, the Yangtze River, and the Jiangnan River to the south, and the Jishui, Yellow River, and Wei River to the north (it was formerly known as the Yongji Canal, but the southern end has moved eastward to Weizhou. ).

During the Five Dynasties, the political situation in the north was turbulent, and dynasties changed frequently. In a short period of 53 years, there were Houliang, Houtang, Houjin, Houhan, and Houwu dynasties, which had a great impact on agricultural production.In the south, the political situation is relatively stable, and agricultural production continues to develop.During the Northern Song Dynasty, the government's dependence on Nanliang further increased.The Bianhe River was the most important waterway for the transportation of grain from the south to the north in the Northern Song Dynasty. .Therefore, the Northern Song Dynasty government paid special attention to the maintenance and management of this waterway.For example, in the second year of Chunhua (991 A.D.), the Bianhe River broke through. Song Taizong emphasized: ""He led all the officials to participate in the blocking.

However, for the smooth flow of this destiny, the Northern Song Dynasty paid a huge price.The Bianhe River uses the water of the Yellow River as its water source, and the river is sandy. After hundreds of years of deposition from the Sui Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, the riverbed has been raised above the ground, and the Bianhe River is very easy to break its embankment and cause disasters.The government of the Northern Song Dynasty knew that the Bian River was ruthless, and did not dare to relax at all in the Bian governance project.It formed a maintenance professional team, responsible for the usual maintenance and maintenance of Bianhe.When the Bianhe River was flooded, the imperial army was immediately dispatched to prevent the flood.During the overhaul, the people along the river were mobilized to participate.In order to consolidate the embankment and use Bian water to wash away the accumulated sand in the river, it laid 600 miles of wooden pillars and rows of piles on both sides of the Bian River, narrowing the Bian River to the point where the sand can be washed away, which was the first of its kind in the later "beam water attacking sand".

Huimin River is a canal that was built many times in the early Northern Song Dynasty. It is divided into upper and lower sections.The upper section uses the 潩〔yiyi〕Shui (浍河), a tributary of the Cai River (has been annihilated), as the water source, and a canal was opened to lead it to the capital.The lower section goes south from Bianjing and is formed by transforming the main stream of Caihe River.The Huimin River is second only to the Bian River in importance, and most of the taxes and grains in the Huai River Basin can be transferred to the capital from this river.Guangji River is also called Wuzhang River because it is about five feet wide.Its predecessor was the Zhan Canal opened in the Tang Dynasty, which was connected to Baimagou and Jishui, which can be used to transport Qilu and discharge the flood of Bianhe River.In the Northern Song Dynasty, it was governed many times, and it also played an important role in water transportation.Jinshui River is a newly dug channel in the early Northern Song Dynasty. It uses several small waters between Zhengzhou and Xingyang, such as Jingshui, Suoshui, Xushui, etc. as water sources, and canals are dug eastward to Bianjing.In addition to supplementing the water source of Guangji River (passing through the upper channel of Bianqu), it also provides relatively clear domestic water for the capital.

In addition to the four canals in Bianjing, in order to improve water transportation, the Northern Song Dynasty also built canals between the Jianghuai and Jianghan respectively. The Yangchu Canal is "the head of the Bianqu Canal", and it connects to the Jiangnan Canal in the south.These three canals constituted the main grain roads of the Northern Song Dynasty government, that is, the Jiangnan Canal transported the taxed grain from the Taihu Lake Basin, the main grain-producing area, and then entered Beijing through the Yangchu Canal and the Bianqu Canal.The waterway of the Jiangnan Canal is basically good and there is no need for major repairs.However, the Yangchu Canal and the waterway between the Yangchu Canal and Bianqu need to be greatly improved.It turns out that the Bian Canal and the Yangchu Canal are not directly connected. From Yang to Bian, the boats have to travel a long section of the Huaihe River, and this section of the river is full of rush water, which often damages the boats.In order to change this situation, in the early Northern Song Dynasty, construction was carried out three times successively. Along the south bank of the Huaihe River, a canal about 150 miles long was dug from the Mokou in the north of Chuzhou to Guishan Town in the northeast of Xuyi, avoiding this. section of rapids.The outstanding problem of the Yangchu Canal is that the water is dry and the river is shallow, making it inconvenient for large ships to navigate.The threat of flooding is also severe in the west of the channel, often breaking the channel.In order to solve these problems, Song built a relatively strong stone embankment with a length of 200 miles in the north of Gaoyou to protect the waterway, and set up 10 stone gates on the embankment for controlled drainage.In Zhenzhou (where the government is located today in Yizheng County, Jiangsu Province), Yangzhou and other places, the local natural lakes were used to transform them into water tanks for canals to provide water for the canals.

In addition to the Taihu Lake Basin being the main grain-producing area in the Northern Song Dynasty, the agricultural production of Sichuan and the two lakes also played a certain role.How to transfer tax and grain from these areas to Beijing is also a problem that the rulers of the Northern Song Dynasty need to solve.Detours to Yang and Bian, the distance is too long; land transportation from Xiangfan, the effect is too poor.After deliberation, the rulers of the Northern Song Dynasty decided to drill the second Jianghuai Canal.According to the plan, this waterway starts from Jiangling in the west, digs a canal to the east, and meets the Han River through Qianjiang.The next section uses the two natural waterways of the Han River and its tributary, the Bai River.The Baihe River is very close to the Lili River, a tributary of the Huai River. If a canal is built between these two rivers, riverboats can follow the Cai River, another tributary of the Huai River, directly to the city of Bianjing.Only part of this project was completed, that is, the channel between Jiangling and Han River was dug through, which made the water transportation between Jiangling and Han "greatly facilitated".However, due to the slightly higher terrain between Bai and Li, after two constructions, only water can be passed, but boats cannot be passed.Today, people have mastered the technology of building high dams, which can raise the water level of the Baihe River to a high level, and this place will no longer be an obstacle to water and navigation.The middle route project of the planned South-to-North Water Diversion Project is located here.

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