It can be said that the Great Wall and the Grand Canal are two beautiful business cards of China's history and culture, and they are also the organic carriers of China's cultural heritage. If the Great Wall is the bones and muscles of the Chinese nation, then the Grand Canal is the blood of the Chinese nation; If the Great Wall is a solidified history, then the Grand Canal is undoubtedly a flowing culture; If the Great Wall has maintained a stable environment, then the Grand Canal has promoted economic prosperity. It has a glorious history and has been playing an important role in the development and communication of politics, economy, culture, military affairs and science and technology in China.
Let's talk about the Grand Canal today.
Like the Great Wall, the Grand Canal was not built overnight. The Grand Canal was dug in 486 BC. Coincidentally, according to the historical definition of the age, this year happened to be a major event in which the three ethnic groups divided Jin and Tian replaced Jiang. At that time, Wu was located in Taihu Lake Basin. In order to compete with the state of Jin, Fu Cha, the king of Wu, ordered Seoul to be built in the north as a stronghold. This Seoul is located near Yangzhou today. At the same time, using the natural rivers and lakes in the Yangtze River Delta, the "ancient waterway" from Suzhou to Yangzhou today was dredged, and the canal "Hangou" was dug. Hangou connects the Yangtze River from Yangzhou, crosses Sheyang Lake in the northeast, and then turns to Huai 'an to connect the Huaihe River in the northwest. From then on, the Yangtze River and Huaihe River were connected by ravines, which made the transportation of Wu's troops, trench and other materials much more convenient.
After more than 300 years of division between the Northern and Southern Dynasties, time came to the Sui Dynasty. For expedition and transportation, the Sui Dynasty successively excavated several sections of canals connected end to end. In 587, the canal from Huai 'an to Yangzhou was first regulated, the river course was straightened, and it was no longer bypassed from Sheyang Lake. In 605, the Sui Dynasty began to dig catchments to divert water such as Luoshui into the Yellow River, then the Yellow River into the Bianhe River, and then into the Huaihe River through Shangqiu, Suxian and Sixian counties, connecting Luoyang with the Huaihe River. In 608, Yongji Canal was opened again, introducing Qinshui, a tributary of the Yellow River, into Weihe River to Tianjin, and then connecting Beijing through Yongding River. That's not all. In 6 10, the Jiangnan Canal was reopened, drawing water from the Yangtze River, passing through Wuxi, Suzhou and Jiaxing, and finally reaching Hangzhou and Qiantang River. In this way, after several excavations, the Grand Canal with a total length of more than 2,700 kilometers was finally formed, connecting Hangzhou in the south and Beijing in the north. It can be said that the people of Sui Dynasty contributed the most to the construction of the Grand Canal.
But to a great extent, it is precisely because of the grand canal that the people lost their money and complained. The Sui Dynasty lasted only 37 years. In the Tang Dynasty, the Grand Canal was further renovated, including dredging rivers, building dikes and revetment, and gradually transforming all navigable dams built since the Jin Dynasty into single-lock shiplocks. The so-called weir dam is an earth dam with backwater, which is used to raise the upstream water level for water conveyance or irrigation. However, the weir dam will undoubtedly split the canal, but the Banmen lock is different.
In the Song Dynasty, the Grand Canal continued to be dredged and renovated. First, the former earth embankment was turned into stone, and then the single lock was upgraded to a double lock with upper and lower locks. When the single lock and gate are opened, the water often growls in an instant, while the double lock is much milder, and the water can level itself slowly, which greatly improves the safety of ships passing through the gate and further improves the capacity of the canal.
In terms of transportation organization, special transshipment ambassadors and maritime ambassadors were set up in Tang and Song Dynasties to take charge of canals and water transportation throughout the country. With the improvement of navigation conditions and the strengthening of transportation management, the annual water transport capacity of the canal has gradually increased from 200,000 stones in the early Tang Dynasty to 4 million stones, reaching 7 million stones at the highest. How big is a stone? According to my information, a stone in the Song Dynasty was about 97 kilograms, so 7 million stones were 679 million kilograms. Of course, I think different materials have different expressions, in short, many, many. In addition, due to the development of shipping and the prosperity of commerce, some famous big cities have gradually formed along the canal, including Suzhou, Hangzhou, Zhenjiang, Wuxi and Yangzhou.
After the Yuan Dynasty made its capital, it was inconvenient to transport grain at first. At that time, the route of water transportation was from Jianghuai to Kaifeng and Shangqiu through the Yellow River, then to my hometown Xinxiang through land transportation 180, then to Tongzhou to Weihe River through Tianjin, and then to the metropolis through land transportation. It doesn't matter if this route detours. The key is to go through two land-water conversions, which is very inconvenient.
So 1282 Yuan Dynasty began to dig Jeju River, and 1289 dug Huitong River. The specific route is more complicated, and I am not familiar with the place I passed. In a word, after the river is dug, grain transportation can go directly from Huaihe River to Tongzhou. 129 1-1293, the Yuan Dynasty dug the Tonghui River between Tongzhou and Dadu. From then on, JAC tankers can enter Tonghui River in Tongzhou and go straight to Beijing. The canal water reaching Beijing has formed a big lake in Beijing, which is the Jishuitan.
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, because Beijing was the capital, the canal was expanded. By the Qing Dynasty, the canal route was completely separated from the Yellow River. From then on, the Yellow River no longer plays the role of communication canal, and the two just cross. In addition, with standardized management, the navigation conditions of the canal were further improved during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
However, in 1855, the Yellow River burst northward in Henan and seized the Daqing River in Shandong, so the Grand Canal was interrupted. During the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, people proposed several times to control the canal, but it was not put into practice because of frequent wars.
In recent years, the construction of the East Route of South-to-North Water Transfer Project has brought new vitality to the Grand Canal, with an annual total water supply of 654.38+063 billion cubic meters, further expanding the water transport capacity of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Water diversion has raised the water level, improved the navigation conditions, improved the navigation guarantee rate, greatly improved the water quality and beautified the environment of the Grand Canal. It not only protects cultural relics, but also promotes the economy, so that the culture that stretches for 2500 years can be passed down.