Engineering, Environmental, Social: The Ming And Qing Huang Yun River And Its Impact

Huang-Yun area studied in this thesis refers to the region in the shape of an approximate triangle formed by the Yellow River and the Canal,with Kaifeng being the connecter,ranging from Liaocheng in the north to Huai'an in the south.In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huang-Yun area was frequently encroached on by the Yellow River and was the gate of the Canal as well.So the government had been paying high value on fathering the two rivers,plunging into a great deal of manpower and resources.And a series of river works had been carried out.The so-called "Hegong"(river works) refers to the management of rivers and the water conservancy projects.In the second chapter of the thesis,the author makes statistics about the frequency and the location of the river works carried out both in the Yellow River and the Canal during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.And the chart is made to analyze the data. According to the analysis,it indicates that the river works were closely related to the Yellow River and were more frequently carded out with a large scale in the Huang-Yun area.In addition,the majority of the river works were post-disaster responses and temporary types with apparent discrepancies and unevenness in time and space distribution.Smooth river works depended on the distribution Of labors,the purchase of materials and fund-raising.Labors,finance and materials were the basic issues which are studied in Chapter Three,Four and Five.The materials used in river works can be divided into soft materials and hard materials.In terms of time,the soft materials had gone through the evolution from civil-planted willows to official willows,from willow branches to reeds,and then to sorghum straws.From the 20th year of Kangxi Reign,the amount of the civil-planted willows gradually decreased and after the 26th year of Kangxi Reign,the majority of willows used in river works were official willows.It was during Kangxi Reign and Qianlong Reign that willow branches were replaced by reeds. Since the 2nd year of Yongzheng Reign when Tian Wenjing worked as Bu Zheng Shi(a provincial official in charge of civil and financial administration) in Henan,sorghum straws were used as conservation materials,which expanded the material sources and made more people related with river works.The use of hard materials was marked by gravel works occurring in the late Jiaqing Reign and by the use of brick materials in the 15th year of Daoguang.In space distribution,sorghum straws were widely used in the area north of Pizhou and reeds south of Pizhou.The use of gravel first appeared in Xuzhou,and was later extended to Henan and Shandong.The usage of brick was extended from Henan Province to the south of the Yangtze River.Stone materials formed the main materials in the river works in Xuzhou because they were easy to quarry and transport in this area.While in Henan the stone materials were replaced by bricks because Henan was far from the stone quarries resulting in the lack of stone materials.The changes in the materials,reflecting the environmental consequences resulting from river works and regional development,were virtually the adaptation to the environment in order to obtain the adequate and cheap river training materials to ensure the smooth progress of fiver works.The materials for river works had different types with various purposes,dosage,purchases,and modes of transport,embodied in the differences of the seasons and prices.The gathering,levy and allocation, purchase,transport and uses of the materials would influence the local environment and society,including the positive impact and the negative impact.The various labors in river works consisted of the local common people,paupers,homeless people,floaters,criminals,soldiers,etc.From Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty,the labors evolved from "pufu" to "baofu",and from "yaofu"(forced labour ) into "mufu".After the mid-Ming Dynasty,the system of "pufu" defending the dike was implemented first in the Yellow River dike project.In the 8th year of Yongzheng Reign,"pu" was changed to "bao" and "baofu" were arranged to defend the dike along both sides of the Yellow River and the Canal. During this period,the requisition of labors was mainly forced labors, with "gumu" as the supplement.In Qing Dynasty,"gumu" was the main requisition method with "qianpai" as the supplement.In Qing Dynasty, "River-men" system was changed to "River soldiers" system."River soldiers" system appeared in 1678,and was established in 1699.The establishment of the "river soldiers" system strengthened the dike management.This paper also makes the case study of reed-harvesting "River soldiers" - "the reed camp in Jiangnan." A large number of workers labors were mostly from the Huang-Yun area,and the working places also centered round the region.The distribution and the employ of the labors would inevitably bring positive or negative impacts to the local environment and society.The outlay sources of river works were diversified and the expenditures encompassed the amount used in year repairs,rush repairs, additional levee sections,and the projects of blocking up the overflow holes.Through further interpretation of the relevant information,the paper sorts out various types of expenditures in different periods and ascertains the cost for year repairs and rush repairs which were formerly confused.The research shows that in the Ming and Qing Dynasties the outlay costs for river works increased with time going on.In Ming Dynasty,the proportion of the overall expenses in river works was not very large except in some particular years.While in Qing Dynasty,the growing expenditures formed an increasing proportion in financial revenue.The average annual expenditure was about 4 million liang, accounting for 10 percent of the state's financial revenue;during the reign of Jiaqing and Daoguang,the expenditure reached 8 million liang with a high ratio of 20%.The vast majority of the huge expenditure was appropriated and squandered.Only a small proportion was used in river works.During Jiaqing and Daoguang periods,the outlay used for river works was about 3 million to 4 million liang,but the amount used in river works was only about 20 percent.Many factors led to the increase of expenditures,including the inflation of price,the corruption in river regulation,etc.This thesis also studies the corruption in river regulation and its impact.The river works had definite influence on the water system of the Yellow River and the Canal,as well as the production and living environment.Its influence on river systems included watercourse project, gate dam project and dike project;the most noteworthy of its impact on the lake system included Nansi Lake,Luoma Lake and Hongze Lake;its impact on the production and people's life involved the living environment and agricultural production environment.The impact was either positive or negative.The river works affected the environment and was affected by the environmental changes at the same time.In short,Huang-Yun area was the main source area of the materials used in river works,and the majority of the labors were sent here and the outlay for river works was mainly spent in this area.As the river works were carried out,some changes would take place accordingly in the environment and society which were deeply branded with the stigma of river training works.River works brought profound influence on the environment and society of Huang-Yun area,so that this region was deeply involved in the flood-control activities.Here,water conservancy projects,mainly relying on national mobilization,were large-scale public works at the national level,different from the small,local projects.The river works remained a vital part of a nation.Therefore,Huang-Yun area is called the "Basic River Works District" in this thesis in order to emphasize the function of the area in the river training works and the influence of river works on the area.History is a mirror.The research on the river training works in history and its influence on the environment and society can provide valuable experience and enlightenment for the future construction of water conservancy projects.