Research On Flood Control Techniques And System During The Kangxi Reign, The Yongzheng Reign And The Qianlong Reign

Qing Dynasty was in the Little Ice Age with relatively cold weather and all kinds of natural disasters took place frequently during that period. Overall, Qing Dynasty was a comparatively moist dynasty; there were many flood events records during that period in the historical literature and the existing researches have shown that flood events were more frequent than the drought events. During the Kangxi reign, Yongzheng reign and Qianlong reign of the early Qing Dynasty, in the face of frequent flooding, emperors and the successive water conservancy officials attached great importance to the governance of rivers; Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong conducted site supervision, put forward the guiding flood governance advice and participated in the formulation of water conservation policy. During that period, a group of capable officials of water conservation emerged, such as Zhu Zhixi, Jin Fu; they summed up predecessors’ experience and lessons, personally inspected and practiced, formulated a series of flood prevention and control technical methods, and applied them, gradually forming a set of suitable flood control system and greatly reducing the harms to the people’s production and living brought by flood.In the paper, the climate background and general situation of the flood in the period are firstly analyzed; through the predecessors’ research achievements, historical records and the specific cases, the seriousness of the flood during the period is analyzed; it is taken as the research background of flood control technology. Secondly, the government’s emphasis on flood control and the relevant government behaviors during the period were analyzed, mainly including emperors’ visiting and inspection in the south and appointment of full-time capable officials of water conservation. Then, by combining with the historical data, the technologies used in that period to control flood are summarized and classified according to different types, including water conservation sand stop technology, embankment technology, distributaries and banking technique, channel adjustment technology and unblocked river mouth technology. The principal contradiction of various technical means is analyzed so as to research how to adopt the targeted technical means to govern flood. Next, the series of technical means is integrated according to the interactive mechanism and form flood prevention and control system. Finally, the relatively perfect flood prevention and control system during the period is studied by taking Qingkou Hydro Project case; how the flood control technologies connect with each other, work together and realize the flood control and prevention is analyzed.Through the researches on the flood prevention and control technology in that period and the comparison with the previous flood governance technology, it is concluded that a lot of the flood prevention and control technology in that period followed the water control technology and theory of the previous dynasties; since the leadership attached great importance, the water conservation technology obtained some innovation and progressed in practice; in the reign of Qianlong, it eventually forms a set of relatively complete system of flood prevention and control technology and effectively combined sand sluicing, guarding Yellow River as well as the flood control technology, provided strong technical support to cope with floods and objectively promoted the development of the productive forces. The researches of the flood prevention and control technology during the period, absorption of the experience and lessons, the inheritance and innovation of the advanced ideas and technological means can provide historical experience reference to today’s flood governance policy and the relevant water conservancy technologies, avoid disadvantages, safeguard the people’s life and promote the further development of social productivity.