Chapter 39 Section 2 Ancient open channels in the Western Regions

Xinjiang was called the Western Regions in ancient times.Before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian to the Western Regions, countries such as Qiemo and Khotan (the capital is in today's Hotan) in southern Xinjiang had already begun to cultivate grains. There may be simple water conservancy projects to draw water from nearby rivers to irrigate the fields.However, the construction of large-scale water conservancy projects in southern Xinjiang began when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty garrisoned fields in the Western Regions.In the late Western Han Dynasty, with the expansion of the Tuntian area, the construction of ground irrigation canals developed further.

Both "Historical Records" and "Hanshu" record that during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, "there were more than 5,000 hectares of irrigated fields" in Luntai at the southern foot of Tianshan Mountain.To irrigate so much land, the scale of water conservancy facilities will certainly not be too small.Contemporary archaeologist Huang Wenbi once went deep into Xinjiang for field investigation and found that the ancient canal of the Han Dynasty can still be seen on the surface of Shaya County in Aksu Prefecture, which is about 200 miles long.He said that the locals called it "Hei Tai Ya La Ke", which means Han people's canal.Next to it is the ruins of an ancient city, which the locals call "Black Taiqin", which means the city of Han people. In 1965, the staff of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps discovered a fairly complete irrigation network of the Han Dynasty in the east of today's Ruoqiang County. The main canal diverted water from the Milan River and was divided into seven branch canals.There are main gates and branch gates on the main canal and branch canal.Channel embraces the ancient city of Milan.It is said that this canal system can still be used as long as it is cleaned up a little.The records in the literature and the discovery of the relics show that during the Han Dynasty, the construction of ground irrigation canals in southern Xinjiang had already achieved great success.

From the Three Kingdoms, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the construction of irrigation canals in the Western Regions was further expanded, especially in the Tang Dynasty.From very incomplete documents, we can still know that irrigation channels of a certain scale were built in both Gaochang and Julicheng. Located in the southeast of Turpan, Gaochang was the administrative seat of Xizhou in the Tang Dynasty, and was once the resident of Anxi Duhufu.The Tang Dynasty attached great importance to the construction of water conservancy here.According to documents unearthed in Turpan, the Tang Dynasty set up a special water officer here, responsible for coordinating the construction and management of water conservancy here; not only Han Chinese, but also ethnic minorities such as Turks participated in the construction of water conservancy.The document also said that there is a canal in the south of Gaochang City. Within 20 miles, there are 16 dikes, and each dike has a branch canal, which shows the dense distribution of canals.

The Great Belvedere is located on the banks of the Talas River.In Xuanzang's "Da Tang Western Regions", it is called Tanluosi City (now Zhambul City, Kazakhstan).During the Tang Dynasty, it belonged to the Anxi Dufu, and many Tang people lived here.According to records, there is an important irrigation channel outside Juli City, which was built by the local Tang people led by Wang Jizhi, the staff officer of the Anxi Jiedushi and a native of Taiyuan.The quality of this project is very good, and it continued to function when the army of the Mongolian Khanate marched westward.Yelu Chucai, an important minister of the Mongolian Khanate, saw this irrigation canal with his own eyes when he went west to Central Asia to see Temujin, and recorded it in "Journey to the West".

By the Qing Dynasty, more irrigation canals had been built in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains.Tibet, Songyun, Lin Zexu, Zuo Zongtang, etc. have all made significant contributions in this regard. From the 20th to the 24th year of Qianlong (AD 1755-1759), the Qing army successively quelled the rebellions of Amursana, Branidun, and Huo Jizhan (that is, the size and Zhuo).In order to strengthen the military strength of Huijiang (the Qing name for Xinjiang at that time), in the 29th year of Qianlong (AD 1764), the Qing government transferred an army from the northeastern region, that is, the jurisdiction of General Shengjing (Shenyang City, Liaoning Province). to Yili.This army is composed of Xibe people, including family members, a total of 3,000 people.They were stationed in the Yili area while they were stationed and cultivated at the same time.Starting from the needs of reclamation, they used the Yili River as the water source and built a main canal about 180 miles long, called Chabuchar.Chabuchar means "granary" in Xibe.In the seventh year of Jiaqing (AD 1802), Tibet, the general manager of Xibo Battalion, led his soldiers and civilians to dig a new canal to the north of the old canal in eight years. , 10 feet wide.The two canals can irrigate more than 100,000 mu of land, and they are still functioning today.

At the same time that Tibet was digging the Chabuchar new canal, the highest military and political leader in Huijiang and Ili general Songyun (a Mongolian Zhenglan bannerman) was also carrying out large-scale water conservancy construction on the north side of the Ili River. Canal, and dig a new canal.In a series of canal system construction, the most important is the expansion of the canal that uses the Hash River (Kashgar River), a tributary of the Ili River, as the water source. More than 170 miles of new branch canals have been built.Later, it was named Tonghui Canal by the emperor. "Xinjiang Tuzhi" records that Hash has an imperial canal that irrigates 437,000 mu of land.Some people think that this Huang Canal may be Tonghui Canal.

In the 22nd year of Daoguang (AD 1842), the Qing government banished Lin Zexu, who had made great contributions to the ban on smoking, to Yili, "serving to make amends".In Ili, Lin Zexu won the respect of Yili General Buyantai. In 1844, he was ordered to jointly establish the Southern Xinjiang Water Conservancy with Quanqing.The two organized people of all nationalities, and in southern Xinjiang Horhan (today's Ruoqiang North), Yarkand (today's Shache), Karashar (today's Yanqi), Ilarik (today's Toksun West) After about a year of hard work, a large number of water conservancy projects have been built in places such as Kuqa, Wushi, Khotan, and Kashgar, and nearly 700,000 mu of land has been reclaimed, which is a remarkable achievement.

In the third year of Tongzhi (1864 A.D.), the Kokand Kingdom in Central Asia, with the support of the United Kingdom, sent Agubai to invade the southern border of our country.Then, Russia also used the excuse of protecting overseas Chinese to forcibly occupy the Ili area of ​​our country.Many water conservancy facilities in northern and southern Xinjiang have been abandoned.Later, Zuo Zongtang led troops into Xinjiang, and Zeng Jize went to Russia to negotiate. With both military and diplomatic efforts, most of the lost land was recovered.In the twelfth year of Guangxu (AD 1884), Xinjiang was established as a province.Before and after the establishment of the province, when Zuo Zongtang and Liu Jintang successively held important military and political positions in Xinjiang, they both regarded the restoration and development of farmland and water conservancy in northern and southern Xinjiang as one of the important contents of the aftermath work. Many channels have reclaimed a large amount of farmland.According to the statistics of "Xinjiang Illustrated Records · Ditch Records" compiled later, there are more than 900 main canals in the whole region, and the area of ​​irrigated fields is more than 11 million mu.

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