Along Shandong Canal Health Study

This dissertation is mainly on the Wei-So along the Jinghang Canal in Shandong Province, exactly on the distribution, organization and functions of the Wei-So along the section from Dezhou to Jining(that is a part of YuHe , Hui-Tong River and a section of Ji-Zhou River)(In Xiaocong Li's Regional History and Geography of China, the section from Linqing through Jining to Tai'erzhuang in Xuzhou is also called Hui-Tong River or the Shandong Canal, which my dissertation follows). In the Yuan Dynasty, Shandong Province was the south shield of the Capital, as well as the link of Hebei Province and Jiangnan area. In the Ming Dynasty, the Shandong Canal played an important part in military. In the same Ming Dynasty, especially after the emperor Yongle's moving the capital to Beijing and the re-dredging of the Jing-Hang Grand Canal, Dezhou, Linqing, Jining and other cities on both sides of the Canal in Shandong had played prominent parts as hubs of communications. The government strengthened the power of guard in these cities for their important role in communications, storage and economics, therefore the garrison--the Wei-So was set up here.The Jing-Hang Grand Canal, as the national economic lifeline, mainly manifested in cao-yun. In this dissertation, by probing, analyzing and comparing of some classical materials, I want to explain that the Wei-So along the Shandong Canal had not only their own militaryfunctions but also some extended functions according to their special geographical, political, economical and even cultural needs. By analyzing the direct and indirect materials, this dissertation focuses on the special functions of the Wei-So and the Canal, such as the grain- transportation, the canal dredging and the canal maintaining etc., even the interaction between the Canal and the Wei-So. As a result, the regional special phenomena appeared in the Wei-So and the local towns.This article is based on the fundamental research. The recent academic papers pay more attention to specific aspects, such as the city-research, cao-yun and the Canal. And few articles systematically summarize the functions of the Wei-So on both sides of Shandong Canal. This article attempts to elaborate the establishment time, distribution, reasons, backgrounds, configurations and functions of the Wei-So on both banks of Shandong section of the Jing-Hang Grand Canal in the Ming Dynasty and to outline the basic characters of them.