When Bai Juyi was the governor of Hangzhou, he saw that six ancient wells in Hangzhou were in disrepair for a long time, so he took charge of dredging the six wells to solve the drinking water problem of Hangzhou people. We also saw that the West Lake was silted up and the farmland was in drought.
Therefore, embankments were built to store lake water to facilitate irrigation and alleviate the damage caused by drought. They also wrote "Qiantang Lake Stone Records", which engraved the policies, methods and precautions for lake water management and placed them on stones beside the lake. , for future generations to know, and had a great influence on the subsequent management of lake water in Hangzhou.
Before leaving office, Bai Juyi left an official salary in the state treasury as a fund to facilitate the official turnover of officials who later governed Hangzhou, and then replenished the original amount afterwards.
Extended information:
There is a white embankment in the West Lake, with willows planted on both sides. Later generations mistakenly believed that this was the embankment built by Bai Juyi, and it was called Baigong Embankment. In fact, this "White Causeway" existed before Bai Juyi came to Hangzhou. It was called "Baisha Causeway" at that time and can be seen in Bai Juyi's poems.
When Bai Juyi was in Hangzhou, Yuan Zhen was also transferred from the prime minister to the observer of eastern Zhejiang. Eastern Zhejiang and Hangzhou were not too far apart, so there were many poems of gifts and replies between the two. When Bai Juyi left Hangzhou after completing his term of office, Yuan Zhen asked Bai Juyi to hand over all his works and compile them into fifty volumes of "Bai's Changqing Collection".