Chapter 35 Section 3 Aishanqu and Yushiqu
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Jie, Di, and Qiang, who were active in the north and west of my country, settled in the Yellow River Basin.At first, they mainly used grazing, and many farmlands in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River were converted into pastures.Animal husbandry has far less requirements for water conservancy than agriculture. Many water conservancy projects have been damaged by wars or have been in disrepair for a long time. The ancient canals in the Ningxia Plain are no exception.After the Northern Wei Dynasty of the Xianbei unified the Yellow River Basin, the situation changed, and agriculture received greater attention.Starting from the development of the agricultural economy, they paid new attention to the construction of farmland and water conservancy no matter in the Guanzhong Plain or the Ningxia Plain.
The most important project built in the Ningxia Plain by the Northern Wei Dynasty was the Aishan Canal.It was presided over by Diao Yong, general of Bogulu Town (where the government is located in the southwest of Lingwu County today), and was built in the fifth year of Taiping Zhenjun (AD 444).The head of the canal is located eight miles below the old canal mouth of the Han Dynasty in the southwest of Fuping County.The reason why the old canal was not used at that time was because the river here was turbulent and the river bed was cut down, so the old canal could no longer lead to the river.The mouth of the new canal has relatively superior water diversion conditions. There is a narrow and long sandbar in the center of the river, which divides the river into two streams, east and west. As long as a not too long barrage is built from the west bank to the lower end of the sandbar, the west part of the river can be diverted. Block the new canal.The barrage is 270 steps long (one step is six feet), 10 steps wide and four steps high.The channel opened is 15 steps wide, five feet deep, and 40 miles long; the following is connected with the old canal, and the total length is 120 miles.This section of the old canal should be a section of the Hanyan Canal. According to the Biography of Diao Yong in the Book of Wei, Aishan Canal can irrigate "more than 40,000 hectares of official and private land".Although this figure may be exaggerated, it is true that after the canal was dug, a large amount of grain was transferred from Bogulu Town. Southwest of Linhe County) Ships along the Yellow River transported hundreds of thousands of dendrobium of military rations.
In the Tang Dynasty, the status of the Ningxia Plain was also very important.It is an important area for defense in the northwest frontier. It has been stationed and garrisoned for a long time, first to deal with the powerful Turks, and then to guard against Tubo and Huihe.During the Anshi Rebellion (755-763 A.D.), it was still the political center. Tang Suzong, the rebuilding king of the Tang Dynasty, ascended the throne in Lingwu (where the government is located in the southwest of Lingwu County, Ningxia today).Starting from political and military needs, Tang built many water conservancy facilities here.There are Guanglu Canal, Yushi Canal, Bogulu Canal, Tejin Canal, Shangshu Canal, Han Canal, Hu Qu, Baijia Canal, Seven Level Canal, Qianjin Po, etc. recorded in historical records.However, the memory of the ancient books is very simple, and the statements in some places are not consistent, which affects our accurate understanding of the channel situation at that time.
.Water conservancy history researchers believe that the opening of the canal was during the reign of Tang Suzong (756-762 AD), when Guo Ziyi and Tang Suzong were based on the Ningxia Plain, actively deploying crusades against Anlu Mountain and Shi Siming to rebuild the Tang Dynasty .Researchers also believe that the predecessor of Yushi Canal should be the Guanglu Canal that was first dug in the Eastern Han Dynasty. When Guo Ziyi arrived, the Guanglu Canal was silted up, so he re-dug it.However, this Yushi Canal was seriously damaged soon. According to the "Old Tang Book Tubo Biography", in the thirteenth year of Dali (778 A.D.), Tubo attacked Lingwu and filled the Han Canal, Yushi Canal, Shangshu Canal, etc. Shuikou, in order to destroy Tang Juntian.Decades later, Li Ting restored it again. "Old Tang Book Li Tingzhuan" records that when he served as the governor of Lingzhou (where the government is located in today's Lingwu County), the local area had to transfer a large amount of grain from other places, and the transportation was very difficult. In the fifteenth year of Yuanhe (820 A.D.), the Guanglu Canal, which had been "abolished for a long time", was repaired by "replacement and transfer".Restoring Guanglu Canal is restoring Yushi Canal.
In addition to the Guanglu-Yushi canal in the Tang Dynasty, another canal with a slightly larger irrigated area was the Bogulu canal. It was located 60 miles south of Huile County (where the government is located in the southwest of Lingwu County today), and could irrigate more than 1,000 farmlands. are.In addition, the irrigated area of the special canal is not small, more than 600 hectares.For some other channels, the irrigated area is slightly smaller.
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