The Story of Pan Jixun Governing the River

The lower reaches of the Yellow River is a section of water flowing through the plains of Henan and Shandong provinces. It carries the sediment in the middle and upper reaches of the plateau, rushing down, with rapid water flow and extremely high sediment concentration. Since the Han dynasty, it has been raging in Henan and Shandong, and it never rains but it pours. All previous dynasties attached great importance to the management of the Yellow River and invested a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources to ensure the safety of people in the Central Plains and the safety of American lives and property. In the past, dredging was the main means to control the Yellow River, and great achievements were indeed made in water conservancy, such as Wang Jing's control of the Yellow River. However, the increasing sediment volume in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River has not been effectively curbed, and the sediment volume is increasing day by day, almost reaching a bowl of water and half a bowl of sand. In addition, the downstream channel has been dredged for many years, and the width of the Yellow River spillway is more than ten miles, which greatly slows down the flow velocity in the downstream channel. The flat and wide river covers the dangerous water situation of a large number of siltation and river bed elevation. Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, the downstream riverbanks have collapsed from time to time. From Xining 1068 to 1078 in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Yellow River actually burst its banks and changed its course due to downstream siltation. Instead of flowing northward into the sea as in the past, it branches into two streams, one of which crosses the Sihe River southward, squeezes into the Huaihe River and enters the sea in the Huaihe River. One flows north, overflows into Jishui River, and overflows. The water volume of Huaihe River and Jishui River can't be compared with that of Yellow River at all. The shallow and narrow river suddenly rose several times, which made people unbearable. In addition, the sediment of the Yellow River keeps accumulating and increasing, raising the riverbed. At that time, Huaihe River and Jishui River became Zeguo over the years. After the establishment, the Grand Canal was opened, which facilitated the communication between the north and the south, but it was usurped by the Yellow River. During the Zhengnian period, the Yuan government appointed Jia Lu to administer the Yellow River. Jia Lu widened the channel of the Yellow River, increased the diversion canal to the Huaihe River in the south, and kept the canal open temporarily. From then on, the Yellow River went south to borrow the Huaihe River into the sea. However, when the water volume in the middle and upper reaches skyrocketed, it still overflowed from north to south, and the Huaihe River burst its banks, posing a great threat to the production and life of the downstream people. In the first year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, when the Ming army was attacking the Yuan Dynasty due north, the Yellow River burst and blocked the road of the Ming army's northern expedition. Army generals also specially sent people to dig canals to divert water into Si for economic transportation, which increased the burden on the Huaihe River. In the following 30 years, there were 9 floods, and the loss of life and property was incalculable. In addition, the old channel of the Yellow River has been completely submerged, silted up on the land, and the drainage is not smooth, so the Xiu Yuan Grand Canal can no longer be used. After Wang seized the throne of the Ming Dynasty, he moved the capital from Nanjing to Peiping and renamed it Beijing. Government expenditure depends entirely on Jiangnan supply. Only one grain is needed in the Gyeonggi area every year, and millions of stones need to be transported from the south. They were forced to go by sea because the canal was impassable. A large number of grain ships from the south to the north set sail from Taicang, crossed the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea, arrived at zhi gu Tremella Bay, where they were transshipped to Beijing. And set up Tianjin Wei to send troops to guard the grain port. The damage of grain tanker often occurs in the process of transportation, and the risk is too great. In the fourth year of Yongle, Zhang Xin, assistant minister, was sent to the Yellow River to inspect the river conditions, and met with Henry Xu of Xing 'an Bo and Jiang Tingzan, assistant minister. They were ordered to dredge the same section of the Grand Canal in Xiu Yuan. Zhang put forward a proposal to restore the old course of the Yellow River, which was approved. Imperial secretary Song Li and assistant minister Jin Chun are in charge of this matter.

Under the guidance of this idea, officials in charge of river management in various periods took dredging the Yellow River as their primary task and dug a large number of canals to divert floods. As long as the Yellow River flood does not reach the canal, they will try their best to flood the Huaihe River basin. Who knows that the more the Yellow River changes its course, the more it overflows. The more you don't block the canal, the more you block it from time to time. The princes and ministers of the Ming dynasty were almost helpless, managing rivers for many years and spending money every year. What is more troublesome is that the Huaihe River has been flooded for a long time, and the Huaihe River basin has been flooded for years, posing a threat to the ancestral graves of the Ming Dynasty located in the lower reaches of the Huaihe River. At that time, the Yellow River put the Ming government in a dilemma. After the Ming government was poor in skills, it actually begged the spirit to worship the Buddha, sealed the river god, built temples and set up spells, all to no avail. In the meantime, although there were capable ministers such as Xu Youzhen, they did their best; Although he once ruled out all interference with Jianhe Governor Cao; Although the property of countless people in the United States has been mobilized and blocked at all costs, there is nothing they can do. The most fundamental reason here is that the key to river regulation has not been found at this stage, and it can only cure the symptoms, not the root cause. Coupled with the single means of river regulation, it will only block the breach and dig the diversion ditch. It is also in vain to be quick and quick, if you don't know hydrology. By the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the river defense had become a serious threat to the imperial court. Since then, the river has something and the river has a direction. When the water falls for several years, it is better than T collapse, but it is weak when it falls, and it is only two feet shallow. Those who know it will be silted. By July 1944, the river had reached Pei county, and the whole river had been silted up and down for more than 200 miles. The whole river goes upstream, from Shahe, north of Xuzhou, to Tanglinji in Cao County. The north is divided into two branches: the one that flows south bypasses the Yangjia family in Qishan, Pei County, and enters Qingou to Xu; Northerners turned around in the northeast of Huashan Mountain in Fengxian County and left Feiyun Bridge from three churches. It is divided into thirteen tributaries, or crossing the river, or turning into a Cao River against the current, reaching the city gate, rambling on the slope of the lake, reaching Xuzhou as far as the eye can see, and the river becomes extremely extreme. The water transport in Ming dynasty was completely stagnant, and the people in Huanghuai were miserable, and the situation was extremely critical. In the Ming Dynasty, the municipal government hastily appointed Zhu Heng as the minister and river chief of the Ministry of Industry, and Pan Jixun as the imperial minister and prime minister of the capital, which was in the forty-fourth year of Jiajing. With Pan Jixun's participation, the river regulation in Ming Dynasty turned a new page. Pan Jixun, the word Shiliang, is from Wucheng, Zhejiang. After he took office, in view of the flood of the Yellow River, he asked to restore the old road in the lower reaches of the Yellow River west of Liucheng to kill the water potential. This discussion is related to the dredging plan in Zhu Heng. After reporting to the court, the ministers decided to adopt their suggestions: Zhu Heng opened a new river to lead the flood to the Huaihe River; West of Liucheng, Pan Jixun repaired the old course of the Yellow River. Soon, Pan Jixun and Ding You went to be officials, and Zhu Heng was in charge of the matter alone. Zhu Heng made some achievements in its early years. The Yellow River flood no longer pushed eastward into the canal, but flowed southward through the Huaihe River into the sea, and water transportation was restored. However, only four years later, the newly opened new river in Zhu Heng was blocked again, and the water transportation stopped again. What is even more frustrating is that due to the excavation of the new river to divert water from the Yellow River, all the flowing water in the lower reaches of the Yellow River is pressed on the new river, and the new river will clog and overflow almost every year; What's more, the silted sand is extremely sparse, turning and turning. Practice has proved that drainage can no longer solve the river flood, but accelerates the downstream overflow. be desperate

The burst of sand dike is the chief culprit of successive floods. Water diversion is tantamount to adding fuel to the fire. Unfortunately, no one could see this in the first hundred years of the Ming government, which wasted wealth and time. Pan Jixun insisted on restoring the old road, the main purpose of which was to build dikes to control water, divert water and wash sand, and replace manual dredging with hydraulic sand washing. It can be said that it is twice the result with half the effort. In the fourth year of Qin Long, Pan Jixun mobilized 50,000 laborers to repair the old course of the Yellow River. He blocked the breach of the levee again, built an unusually strong levee on both sides of the river, named the levee, stood by the river, tied the water eastward, dredged the bend, and made the river smooth. Under the restriction of dikes, the velocity of the main stream of the Yellow River is accelerated, the water potential is turbulent, and the sediment carried by it sweeps eastward before settling. At the same time, with the acceleration of water potential, large pieces of sand and stones can be deposited in a T-shape, which is completely washed down, forming violent plane erosion on the downstream riverbed, dispersing the deposited sand and stones, flooding the water and flowing eastward, thus avoiding the huge financial and material resources of manual dredging; People on both sides of the strait no longer suffer from floods; It's more like silting up fertile land and facilitating farming. Kill three birds with one stone and gain a lot. After nearly a year's efforts, Pan Jixun basically outlined the old channel of the Yellow River from Kaifeng to Xuzhou. The old course of the Yellow River has been repaired for nearly a hundred miles, and traces of the old course of the Yellow River can still be seen today. Pan Jixun wrote to the imperial court and talked about his reasons for dredging and repairing the old roads. He pointed out that the great benefits brought by the return of the old roads such as Feng, Pei, Cao and Shaanxi in the Yellow River will never sink, and the Huitong River will be safe. The incoming river is deep and easy to clean up, so the river below Xuzhou is deeply brushed and so on. These ideas have been basically realized, and the river regulation has achieved remarkable results for the first time. But at the same time, Pan Jixun was also envied by the dignitaries in the DPRK and China. Just as he was about to finish the project, a major shipwreck occurred in water transportation. Originally, this matter had nothing to do with Pan Jixun, but Luo Zun, who participated in the river survey, accused him and asked the court to remove Pan Jixun. After Pan Jixun left office, Zhu Heng took over. Zhu Heng accepted Pan Jixun. He continued to build high dikes to control water resources and lead the Yellow River back to the old road. The following spring, all the projects were completed. The Ming government rewarded Zhu Heng and others. I owe it to Pan Jixun. The strategy of attacking sand with water is also deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Zhu Heng once reported to the court, but unfortunately, this did not attract the attention of the court. However, the old course of the Yellow River has been silted up for nearly a hundred years, and it is difficult to get it back and clean up the silt in one day. In addition, Pan Jixun left his post halfway, and his river defense plan was not fully implemented. Thus, in the autumn of 1577, a catastrophic flood struck, and the Yellow River and Huaihe River burst at the same time. Huaiyin, Yangzhou, Gaoyou and Baoying once again became Zeguo, drowning countless soldiers and civilians. The Ming Zuling was also destroyed by the flood. Youshou was sent to hospital sick, and Wu Guifang, the minister in charge of the Ministry of Industry, died during his term of office, which shocked the ruling and opposition parties. In the second year, Zhang recommended Pan Jixun, who had achieved fruitful results in river repair, to preside over river repair. After taking office, Pan Jixun personally went to the river site to inspect the water situation, and finally came to the conclusion that it was good to divert the Yellow River back to the old road. But the dam built before is still relatively thin, and a serious flood will kill you, especially when you are alone. When the flood comes, the narrow riverbed can't hold the flood, and the flood will be accompanied by heavy sediment, which will inevitably lead to the breach of the river. Therefore, he decided to adhere to the principle of water control, that is, to stop the river diversion, strengthen the river embankment and stop the collapse. At the same time, he pointed out that in order to prevent the dam from bursting, we must make great efforts to grasp the quality of the dam and are willing to

After that, for a long time, the water level of the Yellow River was stable, the canal was smooth and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment. There was a rare quiet period in the lower reaches of the Yellow River in Ming Dynasty. The Ming government strongly praised Pan Jixun and named him Prince of Taibao and Minister of Industry. In this flood fighting, Pan Jixun also created a complete dike system that can wash sand with water and prevent water from overflowing: mausoleum dike, Mody dike, Moon model and Gedi dike. Dikes, that is, high dikes built on both sides of the river, have the function of diverting water back to the sea and preventing the river from overflowing. At the same time, dikes can also restrain the water flow and improve the water flow speed. But the dike has a single potential, and once it is flooded, it will be difficult to sustain itself. Once it is broken, it will do great harm to people on both sides of the strait. So, while heightening and strengthening the levee to make it strong, he built a remote levee two or three miles outside the levee, echoing the levee from a distance, acting as the second front and playing an insurance role. In order to prevent the river from rushing from the dike mouth to the distant levee, Pan Jixun also built a lattice dike between them to buffer the water potential and form three lines of defense to prevent the people on both sides of the levee from being flooded. In addition, he also built a crescent-shaped sand embankment on the inside of the embankment to protect the foot of the embankment from floods. At the same time, willows were planted on both sides of Yaodi and Lingdi, and reeds and water bamboo were densely planted at the foot of the dam, which not only consolidated the soil and built the embankment, but also beautified the environment, which was absolutely amazing. This flood control has made the lower reaches of the Yellow River, which has been flooded for many years, a new home for refugees to return home two years later. People have a rest and water transportation is unimpeded. People praised the smooth flow of the Yellow River and Pan Lao's contribution. Since then, the Yellow River has been calm for five or six years. Unfortunately, in the eleventh year of Wanli, Pan Jixun was dismissed for speaking for Zhang. Since then, no one has paid attention to the affairs of the Yellow River, thinking that once and for all, the river banks have been in disrepair for a long time, and rivers often occur at the junction of the two provinces. As a last resort, the court used Pan Jixun to harness the river and appointed him as the governor of Youdu. At this time, he was almost seventy years old, and still went to the river to check the water situation, insisting on returning to his old job and tying the embankment to wash sand. At this time, however, the Yellow River disaster threatened the Ming Zuling. Some ministers advocated opening a new river, but Pan Jixun firmly opposed it, claiming that as long as the Yellow River returns to its old course, the flood near Zuling will disappear automatically. But a few years later, the Ming Zuling was surrounded by water, so people were in an uproar and attacked Pan Jixun in succession. In the twentieth year of Wanli, Pan Jixun resigned and retired, and later died at home at the age of 75. Pan Jixun has been in charge of political water for four times and 27 years. He is proficient in water conservancy affairs, and has a book "Introduction to River Defense", which expounds all his water control methods. He was the most outstanding water conservancy expert in Ming Dynasty. Point out the history of rivers and canals.

Song Lichuan in Ming Dynasty

Records of rivers and canals in Ming dynasty

The end of chronicles of the Ming Dynasty.