The Ji River was a former

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

in north-eastern China which gave its name to the towns of

Jiyuan Jiyuan () is a sub-prefecture-level city in northwestern Henan province, People's Republic of China. It borders the prefecture-level cities of Jiaozuo and Luoyang to the east and southwest respectively, as well as the province of Shanxi to the n ...

and

Jinan Jinan (), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized as Tsinan, is the Capital (political), capital of Shandong province in East China, Eastern China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is the second-largest city i ...

. It disappeared during one of the massive Yellow River floods of 1852, as the

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 ...

shifted its course from below the

Shandong Peninsula The Shandong (Shantung) Peninsula or Jiaodong (Chiaotung) Peninsula is a peninsula in Shandong Province in eastern China, between the Bohai Sea to the north and the Yellow Sea to the south. The latter name refers to the east and Jiaozhou. G ...

to north of it. In the process, it overtook the Ji and assumed its bed.

Name

''Jǐ'' is the

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

romanization Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...

of the present-day

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

pronunciation of the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A personal ...

written in

traditional characters Traditional Chinese characters are one type of standard Chinese characters, Chinese character sets of the contemporary written Chinese. The traditional characters had taken shapes since the libian, clerical change and mostly remained in the ...

and in the simplified form used in

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

. The river's

Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...

pronunciation has been reconstructed as /* s�əjʔ/ or /*ʔsliːlʔ/. Ancient Chinese accounts also wrote the name with the character ,. and Lin Chuanjia considered this to be identical with the that gave

Yuanqu County Yuanqu County is a county in Yuncheng City, in the south of Shanxi province, China, bordering Henan province to the southeast and south. It is the easternmost county-level division The administrative divisions of China have consisted o ...

its name.

Geography

The Ji River changed its precise course several times over the historical period before its disappearance. Generally, it traced its course from an origin near

in what is now

Henan Province Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

through

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 ...

to 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 ...

.. During the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

, the Ji was probably a tributary of the

, merging with its lower course in the

North China Plain The North China Plain or Huang-Huai-Hai Plain () is a large-scale downfaulted rift basin formed in the late Paleogene and Neogene and then modified by the deposits of the Yellow River. It is the largest alluvial plain of China. The plain is bord ...

.. At some point, its flooding shifted the lower course of the Yellow River into a separate channel, while the Ji continued to occupy its earlier path. The two rivers ran parallel to one another under the Zhou,.

Qin Qin may refer to: Dynasties and states * Qin (state) (秦), a major state during the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China * Qin dynasty (秦), founded by the Qin state in 221 BC and ended in 206 BC * Daqin (大秦), ancient Chinese name for the Roman Emp ...

, and

Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...

.. Under the Han, the Ji River's central course passed through the

Great Wild Marsh Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

( t s ''Dàyězé'') and its

mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...

was in

Qiansheng Commandery Le'an Commandery ( zh, 樂安郡) was a historical commandery in China, located in present-day central and northern Shandong. The commandery was established as Qiansheng Commandery (千乘郡) during Emperor Wu of Han's reign from part of Qi Comma ...

( ''Qiānchéng Jùn'').

History

The area around the Ji River was among the most densely populated in China during the

Neolithic Age The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

, when its plains were a center for the Longshan and

Yueshi culture The Yueshi culture () was an archaeological culture in the Shandong region of eastern China, dated from 1900 to 1500 BC. It spanned the period from the Late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age. In the Shandong area, it followed the Longshan cultu ...

s. It was honored as a god in ancient Chinese religion.

Sima Qian Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his ''Records of the Grand Historian'', a general history of China covering more than two thousand years b ...

lists the Ji among the rivers connected by the Honggou Canal ( t s ''Hónggōu'', "Canal of the Wild Geese"),. whose remote antiquity caused him to place it next after the works of the legendary figure

Yu the Great Yu the Great (大禹) was a legendary king in ancient China who was famed for his introduction of flood control, his establishment of the Xia dynasty which inaugurated dynastic rule in China, and his upright moral character. He figures prominen ...

.. In fact, the

Heshui Canal Heshui County () is a county of Gansu province, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Qingyang, and is the easternmost county-level division of the province. Its postal code is 745400, and its population in 1999 was ...

( t s ''Héshuǐ Yùnhé'') connecting the Ji to the Si was completed by soldiers under the command of

King Fuchai Fuchai (reigned 495–473BC), sometimes also written Fucha, was the last king of the state of Wu during the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history. His armies constructed important canals linking the Yellow, Ji, and Huai River systems of ...

of Wu in 483 and 482BC in order to improve their supply lines while at war with the northern states of Qi and Jin. From the Si, the Ji River then had access to the

Huai River The Huai River (), Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as the Hwai, is a major river in China. It is located about midway between the Yellow River and Yangtze, the two longest rivers and largest drainage basins ...

, which connected to the new course of the

through the Hongguo Canal and with the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

through the Hangou Canal just completed by Fuchai's men in 486BC. Under the Zhou, the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

of Qi was centered on the broad

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

of the Ji. It also used the "clear Ji" along with the "muddy

" as part of its borders with and defenses against the states of

Yan Yan may refer to: Chinese states * Yan (state) (11th century – 222 BC), a major state in northern China during the Zhou dynasty * Yan (Han dynasty kingdom), first appearing in 206 BC * Yan (Three Kingdoms kingdom), officially claimed indepe ...

and Zhao.. During antiquity, the river was a center of

salt production Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quanti ...

. The river went dry during the Wei and Jin period (3rd–4th centuryAD).. The Ji finally disappeared during one of the massive Yellow River floods of 1852,. as the

shifted its course from below the

to north of it. In the process, it overtook the Ji and assumed its bed. Other parts of the former course of the Ji form the present

Xiaoqing River Xiaoqing River () is a river in Shandong Province, China. It is part of the Bohai Sea basin and empties into the Bohai Sea. The river flows through the major cities of Jinan, Zibo, Binzhou, Dongying, and Weifang. It is long and drains a basin. Se ...

Legacy

The Ji River was the namesake of

("Source of the Ji") and

("Lands South of the Ji").

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . * . {{ref end

External links

《济水》
at

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Rivers of China Former rivers