The 1034 Yellow River flood () was a natural disaster along

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...

originating in a burst

fascine A fascine is a rough bundle of brushwood or other material used for strengthening an earthen structure, or making a path across uneven or wet terrain. Typical uses are protecting the banks of streams from erosion, covering marshy ground and so ...

following heavy rainfall at Henglong in the territory of the

Northern Song Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

. The flood divided the

from its previous course into three more northerly channels meeting the Chihe, You, and Jin. The Yellow River's new channels caused flooding in the rich northern regions of

Dezhou Dezhou () is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Shandong province, People's Republic of China. It borders the provincial capital of Jinan to the southeast, Liaocheng to the southwest, Binzhou to the northeast, and the province of Hebei t ...

and

Bozhou Bozhou () is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Anhui province, China. It borders Huaibei to the northeast, Bengbu to the southeast, Huainan to the south, Fuyang to the southwest, and Henan to the north. Its population was 4,996,844 at the ...

, as well as reducing revenues in the northern regions of the Northern Song. The Yellow River flooded once again in 1048, causing the river's course to move northward past the southern Hebei-Shandong region, where it had led into the sea before.

Background

In the rule of the

dynasty over China, there were four major floods of the Yellow River to note. The first one of these floods occurred before the year in 983, while the other three occurred after 1000CE in 1019, 1034, and 1048 respectively. Before the 1034 flood, the Yellow River followed the same route it had since the year 11CE.In order to maintain protection from the heavy annual rains around July, a system of fascines were constructed along much of the river's path in areas controlled by the Northern Song.

Flood

During a period of intense rainfall in July 1034, a fascine outside at Henglong burst, causing a massive flow of water from the Yellow River away from the course it had previously followed and been directed into. This diversion created three new channels that connected into the Chihe, You, and Jin rivers alongside the river's original outlet into the

Bohai Sea The Bohai Sea () is a marginal sea approximately in area on the east coast of Mainland China. It is the northwestern and innermost extension of the Yellow Sea, to which it connects to the east via the Bohai Strait. It has a mean depth of a ...

. The amount of water brought into the Chihe, You, and Jin rivers stirred up massive amounts of sediment that were carried downriver.

Aftermath

Unlike the controlled path of the Yellow River previously, the river's newly diverted path caused extensive flooding in the Dezhou and Bozhou regions (of modern-day

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 civilizati ...

). The large amounts of sediment picked up when the Yellow River's waters entered the Chihe, You, and Jin rivers also caused major economic damage to the northern provinces of the Northern Song where the tributary rivers led to. Under the rule of Renzong, an emperor known for his modesty, the Song worked for five years futilely attempting to restore the Yellow River's previous course. This project used over 35,000 employees, 100,000 conscripts, and 220,000 tons of wood and bamboo in a single yearbefore the project was abandoned in 1041. Only seven years after the project to restore the river's course was ended, the Yellow River flood of 1048 caused the river to move much further north, meaning that the Chihe, You, and Jin rivers were no longer a threat to agriculture around modern-day

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

and

. Due to the flooding of agriculture in Dezhou and Bozhou, as well as the sediments carried along the Yellow River's three new tributary rivers, the 1034 flood was recorded as reducing the revenues of the northern provinces by half. The economic consequences of the first flood however were not fully repaired by the time that the second flood came, leading to yet more devastation in the northern provinces of the Northern Song.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

* {{refend Yellow River floods Yellow River flood, 1034 Yellow River flood, 1034 11th-century floods Yellow River flood, 1034