History Of Canals In China
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History Of Canals In China
The history of canals in China connecting its major rivers and centers of agriculture and population extends from the legendary exploits of Yu the Great in his attempts control the flooding of the Yellow River to the present infrastructure projects of the People's Republic of China. From the Spring and Autumn period (8th–5th centuriesBCE) onward, the canals of China were used for army transportation and supply, as well as colonization of new territories. From the Qin (3rd century BCE) to the Qing (17th–20th centuriesCE), China's canal network was also essential to imperial taxation-in-kind. Control of shipbuilding and internal tariffs were also administered along the canals. History Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods In 647BCE, the State of Jin suffered major crop failure. Duke Mu of Qin despatched a large fleet of ships manned by Corvée labour from his capital at Yong (雍) in modern-day Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province. The ships carried several thousands ...
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Qingjiangpu
Qingjiangpu District () is one of four districts of the prefecture-level city of Huai'an, Jiangsu Province, China. It was approved to establish on June 8, 2016. The district has an area of with a population of 735,900 (as of 2016). The district of Qingjiangpu has 12 subdistricts and seven towns or townships under its jurisdiction, its seat is ''Chengnan Subdistrict'' (). History The district was named after ''Qingjiangpu River'' () cut in 1415 which was a ship canal that traversed ''Shanyang County'' () connecting the Huai River and Yellow River. The river of Qingjiangpu is a channel segment of ''Li Canal'' (). As a part of the Grand Canal, it historically is the name of an artificial that connects the ''docks of Qinghe'' () with the ''city of Shanyang'' (; modern Huai'an District). Its origins can be traced to the Spring and Autumn period. For wars and transport of army provisions, Fuchai King of Wu commanded to canalize ''Hangou Canal'' () located between ''Hancheng'' (; mo ...
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Yangtze
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows in a generally easterly direction to the East China Sea. It is the seventh-largest river by discharge volume in the world. Its drainage basin comprises one-fifth of the land area of China, and is home to nearly one-third of the country's population. The Yangtze has played a major role in the history, culture, and economy of China. For thousands of years, the river has been used for water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking, and war. The prosperous Yangtze Delta generates as much as 20% of historical GDP of China, China's GDP. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze is the list of the largest hydroelectric power stations, largest hydro-electric power station in the world that is in use. In mid-2014, the Chine ...
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Dujiangyan
The Dujiangyan () is an ancient irrigation system in Dujiangyan City, Sichuan, China. Originally constructed around 256 BC by the State of Qin (state), Qin as an irrigation and flood control project, it is still in use today. The system's infrastructure develops on the Min River (Sichuan), Min River (Minjiang), the longest tributary of the Yangtze. The area is in the west part of the Chengdu Plain, between the Sichuan Basin and the Tibetan Plateau. Originally, the Min would rush down from the Min Mountains and slow down abruptly after reaching the Chengdu Plain, filling the watercourse with silt, thus making the nearby areas extremely prone to floods. King Zhao of Qin commissioned the project, and the construction of the Dujiangyan harnessed the river using a new method of channeling and dividing the water rather than simply damming it. The water management scheme is still in use today to irrigate over of land in the region. The Dujiangyan, the Zhengguo Canal in Shaanxi and the Li ...
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Zhengguo Canal
The Zhengguo Canal, Zhengguoqu or Chengkuo Canal (), named after its designer, Zheng Guo, is a large canal located in Shaanxi province, China. The canal irrigates the Guanzhong plain, north of Xi'an. Together with the Dujiangyan Irrigation System and Lingqu Canal, it is one of the three biggest water conservation projects built before the Qin dynasty in ancient China. The canal connects the Jing river and Luo river, northern tributaries of the Wei River. History Historian Sima Qian in his Records of the Grand Historian wrote of the Zhengguo Canal: The plan to drain the resources of the State of Qin back-fired as Qin successfully completed the canal, which irrigated c. 27,000 square kilometres of additional agricultural land, providing the kingdom with sufficient resources to increase the size of its already massive armies. To this day the land surrounding the Zhengguo Canal is extremely fertile. By the time of its completion in 246 BC, during the Han dynasty ...
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Contour Canal
A contour canal is an artificially-dug navigable canal which closely follows the contour line of the land it traverses in order to avoid costly engineering works such as boring a tunnel through higher ground, building an embankment over lower ground, or constructing a canal lock (or series of locks) to change the level of the canal. Because of this, these canals are characterised by their meandering course. In the United Kingdom, many of the canals built in the period from 1770 to 1800 were contour canals - for example, the Oxford Canal. Later canals tended to be much straighter and more direct - a good example is the Shropshire Union Canal engineered by Thomas Telford. See also *Canals of the United Kingdom The canals of the United Kingdom are a major part of the network of inland waterways in the United Kingdom. They have a varied history, from use for irrigation and transport, through becoming the focus of the Industrial Revolution, to today's ... * Lingqu Canal - the o ...
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Lingqu Canal
The Lingqu () is a canal in Xing'an County, near Guilin, in the northwestern corner of Guangxi, China. It connects the Xiang River (which flows north into the Yangtze) with the Li River (Guangxi), Li River (which flows south into the Gui River and Xijiang), and thus is part of a historical waterway between the Yangtze and the Pearl River Delta. It was the first canal in the world to connect two river valleys and enabled boats to travel from Beijing to Hong Kong. History In 214 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC), ordered the construction of a canal connecting the Xiang and the Li rivers, in order to Qin invasion of Guangdong, attack the Baiyue tribes in the south. The architect who designed the canal was Shi Lu (). It is the oldest contour canal in the world, receiving its water from the Xiang. Its length reaches 36.4 km and it was fitted with thirty-seven Flash lock, flash locks by 825 AD and there is a clear description of pound locks ...
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Shi Lu
Shi Lu (; 1919–1982), born Feng Yaheng (), was a Chinese painter, wood block printer, poet and calligrapher. He based his pseudonym on two artists who greatly influenced him, the landscape painter Shitao and writer Lu Xun. Life and art Shi Lu came from a wealthy land owning family in Renshou County, Sichuan Province. A student of the Chinese traditional painting style '' guohua'', he studied at Dongfang Art College and West China Union University in Chengdu (1934-1940). He joined the Communist Party of China and in 1949 at the first national assembly was elected and executive member of the China Artists Association. In 1955 Shi Lu travelled to India to supervise the overall art design of a Chinese pavilion at an international expo. In 1956 he attended the Asian-African National Art Exhibition in Egypt. During these travels he made many sketches of the people he observed developing his technique of Western drawing and Chinese brushwork. In 1959 he was commissioned to produce a ...
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Xiongnu
The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 209 BC, founded the Xiongnu Empire. After their previous rivals, the Yuezhi, migrated west into Central Asia during the 2nd century BC, the Xiongnu became a dominant power on the steppes of East Asia, centred on the Mongolian Plateau. The Xiongnu were also active in areas now part of Siberia, Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang. Their relations with adjacent Chinese dynasties to the south-east were complex—alternating between various periods of peace, war, and subjugation. Ultimately, the Xiongnu were defeated by the Han dynasty in a centuries-long conflict, which led to the confederation splitting in two, and forcible resettlement of large numbers of Xiongnu within Han borders. During the Sixteen Kingdoms era, as one of the "Five B ...
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Lijiang River
The Li River or Li Jiang () is the name for the upper reaches of the Gui River in northwestern Guangxi, China. It is part of the Xijiang River system in the Pearl River Basin. The river flows from Xing'an County to Pingle County, where the karst mountains and river sights highlight the famous Li River cruise. Background The Li River originates in the Mao'er Mountains in Xing'an County and flows in the general southern direction through Guilin, Yangshuo and Pingle. In Pingle the Li River merges with the Lipu River and the Gongcheng River and continues south as the Gui River, which falls into the Xi Jiang, the western tributary of the Pearl River, in Wuzhou. The upper course of the Li River is connected by the ancient Lingqu Canal with the Xiang River, which flows north into the Yangtze; this in the past made the Li and Gui Rivers part of a highly important waterway connecting the Yangtze Valley with the Pearl River Delta. The course of the Li and Gui Rivers is flanked by g ...
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Xiang River
The Xiang River is the chief river of the Lake Dongting drainage system of the middle Yangtze, the largest river in Hunan Province, China. It is the 2nd largest tributary (after Min River) in terms of surface runoff, the 5th largest tributary by drainage area of the Yangtze tributaries. The river flows generally northeast through Guangxi and Hunan two provinces, its tributaries reach into Jiangxi and Guangdong. Traditionally, it was regarded that the West (left) Branch is the Main Stream of the Upper Xiang, which rises in the ''Haiyang Mountains'' between xing'an and Lingchuan counties of Guangxi. In the 1st national water census of China in 2011, the East Branch Xiao River,湘江源头在湖南蓝山, 湘江干流全长948公里, 流域面积94,721平方公里 - When the source stream of the Xiang is the Xiao, beginning in Lanshan County, the main river of the Xiang has a length of with a drainage basin area of :hn.xinhuanet.como was identified as the Main Stem of the U ...
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Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of "king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor () of the Qin dynasty from 221 to 210 BC. His self-invented title "emperor" ( ') would continue to be borne by Chinese rulers for the next two millennia. Historically, he was often portrayed as a tyrannical ruler and strict Legalist, in part from the Han dynasty's scathing assessments of him. Since the mid 20th-century, scholars have begun to question this evaluation, inciting considerable discussion on the actual nature of his policies and reforms. Regardless, according to sinologist Michael Loewe "few would contest the view that the achievements of his reign have exercised a paramount influence on the whole of China's subsequent history, marking the start of an epoch that closed in 1911". Born in the Zhao state capital Handan, as Ying ...
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Shandong
Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River. It has served as a pivotal cultural and religious center for Taoism, Chinese Buddhism and Confucianism. Shandong's Mount Tai is the most revered mountain of Taoism and a site with one of the longest histories of continuous religious worship in the world. The Buddhist temples in the mountains to the south of the provincial capital of Jinan were once among the foremost Buddhist sites in China. The city of Qufu is the birthplace of Confucius and was later established as the center of Confucianism. Confucianism developed from what was later called the Hundred Schools of Thought from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. Shandong's location at the intersection of ancient and modern n ...
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