"To the Lake":The Ecological Consequences of the Eastward Move-ment of the Canal and the Southward Movement of the Yellow Riv-er in Ming and Qing Dynasties
After the Ming Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing,the tribute grain transportation by sea was stopped and the canal was reopened to the east.Because the canal located in the lower reaches of the Yel-low River,which was easy to break,it often collapsed.In order to protect the canal,the Taihang Dyke was built on the north side of the Yellow River during the reign of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty,and the Yellow River was moved south,forcing all the water of the Yellow River flow into the relatively narrow Huaihe Riv-er.In order to scour the sediment from the lower reaches of the Yellow River and supply water to the Huai'an Canal,Water conservancy minister in Ming Dynasty cut off the lower reaches of the Huai River and built a gi-ant reservoir,Hongze Lake,on the plain.In addition to the Weishan lakes,which were built in the highlands to supply water to the Jining section,the highest point of the canal,the northern Jiangsu,southern Shandong,northern Anhui and southeastern Henan were subject to serious flood disasters every year.The lands here were virtually lakes all year round,the people forget the words"field"and"land",and replace them with"lake";when they went to fields are called"going to the lake".Behind the formation of this dialect,there was an extremely tragic history of flood disaster and ecological decline.In order to maintain the annual transport of about 4 million shi of grain,the annual crop loss in northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui was equivalent to 6.5 to 22.5 times of tribute the total amount of tribute grain each year.About 11 times the annual fiscal reve-nue in the middle of the Qing Dynasty.
to the Lakethe canal moved eastthe Yellow River shifted southHongze LakeLower Wuba
万方数据
