Великий канал Китая: История и Значение

Canal in China

The Grand Canal is a system of interconnected canals linking various major rivers in North and East China, serving as an important waterborne transport infrastructure between the north and the south during Medieval and premodern China. It is the longest artificial waterway in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Grand Canal's main stem, known to the Chinese as the JingHang Grand Canal, is reckoned to extend for and is divided into 6 main subsections. The Jiangnan Canal runs from the Qiantang River at Hangzhou to the Yangtze River at Zhenjiang; the Inner Canal from the Yangtze at Yangzhou to the Huai River at Huai'an, which for centuries was also its junction with the former course of the Yellow River; the Middle Canal from Huai'an to the Nansi Lakes; the Lu Canal from the lakes past Jining and the present course of the Yellow River to the Wei River at Linqing; the Southern Canal from Linqing to the Hai River at Tianjin; and the Northern Canal from Tianjin to Tongzhou on the outskirts of Beijing. As such, it passes through the provinces and municipalities of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Tianjin, and Beijing. In 2014, the Chinese government and UNESCO recognized the Eastern Zhejiang Canal from Hangzhou to Ningbo along the former Tongji and Yongji Canals as official components of the Grand Canal. The oldest sections of what is now the Grand Canal were completed in the early 5th century BC during the conflicts of China's Spring and Autumn period to provide supplies and transport routes for the states of Wu and Yue. The network was completed by Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty in AD 609, linking the fertile Jiangnan region in the south to his capital at Luoyang in the west and to his armies in the far north. His unsuccessful and unpopular wars and the massive amounts of conscripted labor involved in creating the canal were among the chief factors in the rapid fall of the Sui, but the connection of China's major watersheds and population centers proved enormously beneficial. Additional canals supplied Chang'an (now Xi'an) even further west under the Tang dynasty while stopover towns along the main course became the economic hubs of the empire. Periodic flooding of the Yellow River threatened the safety and functioning of the canal while, during wartime, the rivers' high dikes were sometimes deliberately broken to delay or sweep away advancing enemy troops. Even so, restoration and improvement of the canal and its associated flood control works was assumed as a duty by each successive dynasty. The canal played a major role in periodically reuniting northern and southern China, and officials in charge of the canal and nearby salt works grew enormously wealthy. Despite damage from floods, rebellions, and wars, the canal's importance only grew with the removal of the capital to Khanbaliq under the Mongol Yuan and to Beijing under Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty and the Manchu Qing dynasty. Despite the importance of railways and roads in modern China, the People's Republic of China has worked to improve the navigability of the canal since the end of the Chinese Civil War and the portion south of the Yellow River remains in heavy use by barges carrying bulk cargo. Increasing concern over pollution in China and particularly the use of the Grand Canal as the eastern path of the South North Water Diversion Projectintended to provide clean potable water to the northhas led to regulations and several projects to improve water quality along the waterway. The greatest height on the canal is an elevation of above sea level reached in the foothills of Shandong. The canal has been admired by many visitors throughout its history, including the Japanese monk Ennin (794–864), the Persian historian Rashid al Din Hamadani (1247–1318), the Korean official Choe Bu (1454–1504), and the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci (1552–1610).

In the late Spring and Autumn period, King Fuchai of Wu (whose capital was in present day Suzhou), ventured north to attack the State of Qi. He ordered a canal to be constructed for trading purposes, as well as a means to ship ample supplies north in case his forces should engage the northern states of Song and Lu. This became known as the Han or Hangou Canal Hángōu). Work began in 486 BC, from south of Yangzhou to north of Huai'an in Jiangsu, and within three years the Han Canal had connected the Yangtze with the Huai River utilizing existing waterways, lakes, and marshes. It linked the Yellow River near Kaifeng to the Si and Bian rivers and became the model for the shape of the Grand Canal in the north. The exact date of the Hong Canal's construction is uncertain; it is first mentioned by the diplomat Su Qin in 330 BC when discussing state boundaries. The historian Sima Qian (145–90 BC) knew of no historical date for it, placing his discussion of it just after the legendary works of Yu the Great; modern scholars now consider it to belong to the 6th century BC. The new canal was to pass not Xuzhou but Suzhou, to avoid connecting with the Si River and instead make a direct connection with the Huai River just west of Lake Hongze. The Grand Canal was fully completed from the years 604 to 609 under Emperor Yang, first by linking his southern capital Yangzhou northwest to Luoyang by the Tongji Canal Tōngjì Qú). He then proceeded to connect Yangzhou southeast to Suzhou and Hangzhou by the Jiangnan Canal and to connect Luoyang northeast to his wars with Korea by the Yongji Canal Yǒngjì Qú). After this network's completion in 609, Emperor Yang was said to have led a flotilla of boats long from the north down to his southern capital at Yangzhou. This process again involved massive levies of conscripted labor and was detailed at length in the Record of the Opening of the Canal Kāihéjì). Besides being the headquarters for the government salt monopoly and the largest pre modern industrial production center of the empire, Yangzhou was also the geographical midpoint along the north–south trade axis, and so became the major center for southern goods shipped north. from the Yangtze Delta to northern China. Minor additions to the canal were made after the Sui period to cut down on travel time, but overall no fundamental differences existed between the Sui Grand Canal and the Tang Grand Canal. By the year 735, it was recorded that about of grain were shipped annually along the canal. To ensure smooth travel of grain shipments, Transport Commissioner Liu Yan (in office from 763 to 779) had special river barge ships designed and constructed to fit the depths of each section of the entire canal. After the An Lushan rebellion (755–763), the economy of North China was greatly damaged and never recovered due to wars and to constant flooding of the Yellow River. Such a case occurred in the year 858 when an enormous flood along the Grand Canal inundated thousands of acres of farmland and killed tens of thousands of people in the North China Plain. Such an unfortunate event could reduce the legitimacy of a ruling dynasty by causing others to perceive it as having lost the Mandate of Heaven; this was a good reason for dynastic authorities to maintain a smooth and efficient canal system. The city of Kaifeng grew to be a major hub, later becoming the capital of the Song dynasty (960–1279). Although the Tang and Song dynasty international seaports—the greatest being Guangzhou and Quanzhou, respectively—and maritime foreign trade brought merchants great fortune, it was the Grand Canal within China that spurred the greatest amount of economic activity and commercial profit. During the Song and earlier periods, barge ships occasionally crashed and wrecked along the Shanyang Yundao section of the Grand Canal while passing the double slipways, and more often than not those were then robbed of the tax grain by local bandits. This prompted Qiao Weiyue, an Assistant Commissioner of Transport for Huainan, to invent a double gate system known as the pound lock in the year 984. This allowed ships to wait within a gated space while the water could be drained to appropriate levels; the Chinese also built roofed hangars over the space to add further protection for the ships. Over a series of floods, this entirely shifted the river south of Shandong, capturing the course of the Si River and emptying the Yellow River into Hongze Lake and the East China Sea for centuries. The Jurchen Jin dynasty continually battled with the Song in this region. The warfare led to the dilapidation of the canal until the Mongols invaded in the 13th century and began necessary repairs. A summit section was dug across the foothills of the Shandong massif during the 1280s, shortening the overall length by as much as , making the total length about and linking Hangzhou and Beijing with a direct north–south waterway for the first time. As in the Song and Jin era, the canal fell into disuse and dilapidation during the Yuan dynasty's decline. The Grand Canal as infrastructure has had influence on other architectural works in the west. The Erie Canal in North America is designed and draws inspiration from the Chinese architecture. Many saw the canal as an economic advantage that could bring economic prosperity, like the canal and its benefits. Matteo Ricci's Journals describes the canal in great detail documenting the economic prosperity. The pound lock is one of the more notable features of the Erie canal that is directly connected to the infrastructure of the Grand Canal as it is used in other similar bodies of water.

The Grand Canal was renovated almost in its entirety between 1411 and 1415 during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). A magistrate of Jining, Shandong sent a memorandum to the throne of the Yongle Emperor protesting the current inefficient means of transporting 4,000,000 dan (428,000,000 liters) of grain a year by means of transferring it along several different rivers and canals in barge types that went from deep to shallow after the Huai River, and then transferred back onto deep barges once the shipment of grain reached the Yellow River. Chinese engineers built a dam to divert the Wen River to the southwest in order to feed 60% of its water north into the Grand Canal, with the remainder going south. They dug four large reservoirs in Shandong to regulate water levels, which allowed them to avoid pumping water from local sources and water tables. The only other viable contender with Suzhou in the Jiangnan region was Hangzhou, but it was located further down the Grand Canal and away from the main delta. Therefore, the Grand Canal served to make or break the economic fortunes of certain cities along its route and served as the economic lifeline of indigenous trade within China. The scholar Gu Yanwu of the early Qing dynasty (1644–1912) estimated that the previous Ming dynasty had to employ 47,004 full time laborers recruited by the lijia corvée system in order to maintain the entire canal system. It is known that 121,500 soldiers and officers were needed simply to operate the 11,775 government grain barges in the mid 15th century.

The Manchus invaded China in the mid 17th century, allowed through the northern passes by the Chinese general Wu Sangui once the Ming capital at Beijing had fallen into the hands of a rebel army. The Manchus established the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), and under their leadership, the Grand Canal was overseen and maintained just as in earlier times. In 1855, the Yellow River flooded and changed its course, severing the course of the canal in Shandong. This was foreseen by a Chinese official in 1447, who remarked that the flood prone Yellow River made the Grand Canal like a throat that could be easily strangled (leading some officials to request restarting the grain shipments through the East China Sea).

Because of various factors—the difficulty of crossing the Yellow River, the increased development of an alternative sea route for grain ships, and the opening of the Tianjin Pukou Railway and the Beijing Hankou Railway—the canal languished and for decades the northern and southern parts remained separate. Many of the canal sections fell into disrepair, and some parts were returned to flat fields. Even today, the Grand Canal has not fully recovered its importance prior to the floods of the mid 19th century. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the need for economic development led the authorities to order heavy reconstruction work. The Grand Canal played a major role during Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward as it provided an efficient way to transport grain. It was further refurbished following Deng Xiaoping's Reform and Opening Up, with improving economic conditions leading to greater infrastructure investment. The economic importance of the canal will likely continue. The provincial governments of Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang undertook dredging intended to increase shipping capacity by 40 percent by 2012. The central government has also made the main route of the Grand Canal the eastern path of the South North Water Diversion Project, using enormous pumping stations to redirect water from the Yangtze Delta to the drier north. The canal became greatly polluted during China's industrialization. By the 1990s, canal barge crews could tell when they neared Hangzhou by the stench of the visibly black water they passed through. Similarly, fishermen on Dongping Lake in Shandong objected to the introduction of water from the Yangtze as part of the South North Water Diversion Project when they saw it noticeably killing fish and affecting their catch. During the 21st century, increasing efforts have been made to improve environmental conditions along the canal. Around Hangzhou, for instance, a $250 million restoration project begun in 2001 improved water quality to the point where it no longer produces a noticeable odor and is once again capable of supporting some fauna. On 22 June 2014, UNESCO's Conference on World Heritage listed the Grand Canal as a World Heritage Site.

As well as its present day course, fourteen centuries of canal building have left the Grand Canal with a number of historical sections. Some of these have disappeared, others are still partially extant, and others form the basis for the modern canal. The following are the most important but do not form an exhaustive list.

In 12 BC, in order to solve the problem of the Grand Canal having to use of the perilous course of the Yellow River in Northern Jiangsu, a man named Li Hualong created the Jia Canal. Named after the Jia River whose course it followed, it ran from Xiazhen (modern Weishan) on the shore of Shandong's Weishan Lake to Suqian in Jiangsu. The construction of the Jia Canal left only of Yellow River navigation on the Grand Canal, from Suqian to Huai'an, which by 1688 had been removed by the construction of the Middle Canal by Jin Fu.

In 1566, to escape the problems caused by flooding of the Yellow River around Yutai (now on the western shore of Weishan Lake), the Nanyang New Canal was opened. It ran for from Nanyang (now Nanyang Town, located in the center of Weishan Lake) to the small settlement of Liucheng (in the vicinity of modern Gaolou Village, Weishan County, Shandong) north of Xuzhou City. This change in effect moved the Grand Canal from the low lying and flood prone land west of Weishan Lake onto the marginally higher land to its east. It was fed by rivers flowing from east to west from the borders of the Shandong massif.

North of the Jizhou Canal summit section, the Huitong Canal ran downhill, fed principally by the River Wen, to join the Wei River in the city of Linqing. In 1289, a geological survey preceded its one year construction. The Huitong Canal, built by an engineer called Ma Zhizhen, ran across sharply sloping ground and the high concentration of locks gave it the nicknames chahe or zhahe, i. e. 'the river of locks'. Its great number of feeder springs (between two and four hundred, depending on the counting method and season of the year) also led to it being called the quanhe or 'river of springs'.

This, the Grand Canal's first true summit section, was engineered by the Mongol Oqruqči in 1238 to connect Jining to the southern end of the Huitong Canal. It rose to a height of 42 meters (138 ft) above the Yangtze, but environmental and technical factors left it with chronic water shortages until it was re engineered in 1411 by Song Li of the Ming. Song Li's improvements, recommended by a local man named Bai Ying, included damming the rivers Wen and Guang and drawing lateral canals from them to feed reservoir lakes at the very summit, at a small town called Nanwang.

In AD 369, General Huan Wen of the Eastern Jin dynasty connected the shallow river valleys of the Huai and the Yellow. He achieved this by joining two of these rivers' tributaries, the Si and the Ji respectively, at their closest point, across a low watershed of the Shandong massif. Huan Wen's primitive summit canal became a model for the engineers of the Jizhou Canal.

The Shanyang Canal originally opened onto the Yangtze a short distance south of Yangzhou. As the north shore of the Yangtze gradually silted up to create the sandbank island of Guazhou, it became necessary for boats crossing to and from the Jiangnan Canal to sail the long way around the eastern edge of that island. After a particularly rough crossing of the Yangtze from Zhenjiang, the local prefect realized that a canal dug directly across Guazhou would reduce the journey time and thus make the crossing safer. The Yilou Canal was opened in 738 and still exists, though not as part of the modern Grand Canal route.

This southernmost section of the canal runs from Hangzhou in Zhejiang, where the canal connects with the Qiantang River, to Zhenjiang in Jiangsu, where it meets the Yangtze. After leaving Hangzhou heading north toward Beijing, the canal passes around the eastern border of Lake Tai, through the major cities of Jiaxing, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou before reaching Zhenjiang. The Jiangnan (or 'South of the Yangtze') Canal is heavily utilized by barge traffic bringing coal, containers and construction materials to the booming delta. It is generally a minimum of 100 meters wide in the congested city centers, and often two or three times this width in the neighboring countryside. In recent years, broad bypass canals have been dug around the major cities to reduce 'traffic jams'. The Suzhou section of the Jiangnan Canal flows through the western part of the city. It includes ten city gates and over 20 stone bridges of traditional design and historic areas that have been well preserved as well as temples and pavilions.

The Inner Canal runs between the Yangtze and Huai rivers, skirting the Shaobo, Gaoyou, and Hongze lakes of central Jiangsu. This section connects the cities of Huai'an and Yangzhou. Here the land lying to the west of the canal is higher than its bed while the land to the east is lower. Historically the Shanghe region west of the canal has been prone to frequent flooding, while the Xiahe region to its east has been hit by less frequent but immensely damaging inundations caused by the failure of the Grand Canal levees. Recent works have allowed floodwaters from Shanghe to be diverted safely out to sea. Like the Jiangnan Canal, the Inner Canal is heavily utilized by barge traffic bringing coal, construction materials and increasingly shipping containers around Jiangsu Province.

This 'Middle Canal' section runs from Huai'an to Weishan Lake, passing through Luoma Lake and following more than one course, the result of the impact of centuries of Yellow River flooding. After Pizhou, a northerly course passes through Tai'erzhuang to enter Weishan Lake at Hanzhuang bound for Nanyang and Jining (this course is the remnant of the New Nanyang Canal of 1566 – see below). A southerly course passes close by Xuzhou and enters Weishan Lake near Peixian. This latter course is less used today. Canal is utilized by barge traffic bringing coal and construction materials around northern Jiangsu Province.

At Weishan Lake, both courses enter Shandong province. From here to Linqing, the canal is called the Lu or 'Shandong' Canal. It crosses a series of lakes—Zhaoyang, Dushan, and Nanyang—which nominally form a continuous body of water. At present, diversions of water mean that the lakes are often largely dry land. North of the northernmost Nanyang Lake is the city of Jining. Further on, about north of Jining, the highest elevation of the canal ( above sea level) is reached at the town of Nanwang. In the 1950s a new canal was dug to the south of the old summit section. The old summit section is now dry, while the new canal holds too little water to be navigable. About further north, passing close by Dongping Lake, the canal reaches the Yellow River. By this point waterless, it no longer connects to the river. It reappears again in Liaocheng City on the north bank where, intermittently flowing through a renovated stone channel, it reaches the city of Linqing on the Shandong – Hebei border. Liangshan County is the northern terminus of the canal for barge traffic.

The fifth section of the canal extends for a distance of from Linqing to Tianjin along the course of the canalized Wei River. Though one of the northernmost sections, its name derives from its position relative to Tianjin. The Wei River at this point is heavily polluted while drought and industrial water extraction have left it too low to be navigable. The canal, now in Hebei province, passes through the cities of Dezhou and Cangzhou. Although to spectators, the canal appears to be a deep waterway in these city centers, its depth is maintained by weirs and the canal is all but dry where it passes through the surrounding countryside. At its terminus, the canal joins the Hai River in the center of Tianjin City before turning north west.

In Tianjin, the canal heads northwest, for a short time following the course of the Yongding, a tributary of the Hai River, before branching off toward Tongzhou on the edge of the municipality of Beijing. It is here that the modern canal stops and that a Grand Canal Cultural Park has been built. During the Yuan dynasty, a further canal on the Tonghui River connected Tongzhou with a wharf called the Houhai or "rear sea" in central Beijing. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, however, the water level in the Tonghui River dropped and ships could not travel from Tongzhou to Beijing. Tongzhou then became the northern shipping terminus of the canal. Cargo was unloaded at Tongzhou and transported to Beijing by land. The Tonghui river still exists as a wide, concrete lined storm channel and drain for the suburbs of Beijing.

The Eastern Zhejiang Canal runs across the coastal plain south of Hangzhou Bay in northern Zhejiang. It begins at the Qiantang River in Xixing, Binjiang District, Hangzhou; crosses the Cao'e River in Shaoxing; and connects to the Yong River and ports on the East China Sea at Ningbo. This HangzhouNingbo canal began as the Shanyin Canal excavated in Shaoxing by the Yue official Fan Li in the early 5th century BC during China's Spring and Autumn Period. Despite the difficulty of connecting the route's various watersheds, the present route was completed with the construction of the Xixing Canal by the Jin official He Xun in the late 3rd century AD. The canal was an important artery of transport and supply for the region during periods of disunity in medieval China and was particularly prosperous and vital during the Southern Song, who established their capital at Lin'an within present day Hangzhou. During the Yuan, Ming, and Qing, the canal diminished in importance but was kept navigable until the development of railways and roads in the 19th and 20th century. Renovation of the canal for use by modern barges began in 2002, was completed except for areas around Ningbo by 2009, and was fully completed in late 2013. In November 2008, the Eastern Zhejiang Canal was added to the Grand Canal's UNESCO nomination and, in May 2013, was officially included as part of the Grand Canal and listed among the 7th group of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level by the Chinese government. In 2014, it was included with the BeijingHangzhou and Sui and Tang canals as part of UNESCO's listing for the Grand Canal.

Though the canal nominally crosses the watersheds of five river systems, in reality, the variation between these is so low that it has only a single summit section. The elevation of the canal bed varies from 1 m below sea level at Hangzhou to 38.5 m above at its summit. At Beijing, it reaches 27 m, fed by streams flowing downhill from the mountains to the west. The water flows from Beijing toward Tianjin, from Nanwang north toward Tianjin, and from Nanwang south toward Yangzhou. The water level in the Jiangnan Canal remains scarcely above sea level (the Zhenjiang ridge is 12 meters higher than that of the Yangtze River).

From the Tang to Qing dynasties, the Grand Canal served as the main artery between northern and southern China and was essential for the transport of grain to Beijing. Although it was mainly used for shipping grain, it also transported other commodities and the corridor along the canal developed into an important economic belt. Records show that, at its height, every year more than 8,000 boats transported four to six million dan (240,000–360,000 metric tons) of grain. The convenience of transport also enabled rulers to lead inspection tours to southern China. In the Qing dynasty, the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors made twelve trips to the south, on all occasions but one reaching Hangzhou. The Grand Canal also enabled cultural exchange and political integration to occur between the north and south of China. The canal even made a distinct impression on some of China's early European visitors. Marco Polo recounted the Grand Canal's arched bridges as well as the warehouses and prosperous trade of its cities in the 13th century. The famous Roman Catholic missionary Matteo Ricci traveled from Nanjing to Beijing along the canal at the end of the 16th century. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the canal has been used primarily to transport vast amounts of bulk goods such as bricks, gravel, sand, diesel, and coal. The Jianbi ship locks on the Yangtze are currently handling some 75,000,000 tons each year, and the Li Canal is forecast to reach 100,000,000 tons in the next few years. When first constructed, the canal served as a major source of transportation, linking northern and southern China. With the introduction of expressways, railways and high speed railways in modern China, passenger travel on the canal became far less common. Currently, ships can only travel up to Jining. The section from Jining to Beijing is not available for transport due to the silt deposit buildup from the Yellow River and lack of water sources. There are plans for restoring transportation up to Tai'an.

The Grand Canal is currently being upgraded to serve as the Eastern Route of the South North Water Transfer Project. Additional water will be pumped into the canal from the Yangtze at Jiangdu near Yangzhou using a pumping station. The additional water will then be fed uphill by pumping stations along the route and passed under the Yellow River through tunnels, whence it can flow downhill to reservoirs near Tianjin. The project has been mooted since the 1960s and the Jiangdu pumping station was built in the 1980s but construction on the Eastern Route officially began on 27 December 2002. Clean drinkable water was supposed to reach Tianjin by 2012 but water pollution at the source and along the route has affected the viability of this project.

In 1169, with China divided between the Jurchen led Jin dynasty in the north and the Southern Song dynasty in the south, the Southern Song Emperor Xiaozong sent a delegation to the Jurchen to wish their ruler well for the New Year. A scholar official named Lou Yue, secretary to the delegation, recorded the journey, much of which was made upon the Grand Canal, and submitted his Diary of a Journey to the North to the emperor on his return. In 1170, the poet, politician, and historian Lu You traveled along the Grand Canal from Shaoxing to the river Yangtze, recording his progress in a diary. In the late 1200s, Marco Polo traveled extensively through China and his trips included time on the Grand Canal, then a major artery for shipping silk, porcelain, and wine. In 1345, Maghrebi traveler Ibn Battuta traveled China and journeyed through the Abe Hayat river (Grand Canal) up to the capital Khanbalik (Beijing). In 1488, the shipwrecked Korean scholar Choe Bu traveled the entire length of the Grand Canal on his way from Zhejiang to Beijing (and on to Korea) and left a detailed account of his trip. In 1600, Matteo Ricci traveled to Beijing from Nanjing via the Grand Canal waterway to gain the support of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming dynasty with the help of Wang Zhongde, the Director of the Board of Rites in the central government of China at the time. In 1793, after a largely fruitless diplomatic mission to Jehol, a large part of Lord Macartney's embassy returned south to the Yangtze delta via the Grand Canal. In 1848, Robert Fortune reached Hang Chow Foo by the Grand Canal in his quest for tea plants.