132 BC Yellow River flood

Natural disaster in China __NOTOC__ File:Figure 082. Shiftings of the Hoang-Ho during Three Thousand Years.jpg 250px A 19th-century map of the Yellow River's many courses. In 132 BC, its route shifted from north of Shandong one of the paths to its south. 前132年 黃河 洪水 前132年黄河洪水 qián 132 nián Huánghé hóngshuǐ ch'ien 132 nien Huang Ho hung-shui The 132 BC Yellow River flood was a major flood of China's Yellow River in the year 132 BC during the reign of the emperor Liu Chi, posthumously known as the Wu Emperor of the Western Han dynasty. The river breached the dyke at Dingtao in Shandong, covered the Juye Plain, and reached the channel of the Si River, following it south of Shandong to flow into the lower Huai and the Yellow Sea. After the initial attempt to repair the damage failed, the Han Empire did nothing further for decades, partially due to government corruption and partially due to imperial superstition. The dyke was finally restored and the river returned to its former channel in 109 BC. The story of the breach and its repair form a large section of Sima Qian's 91 BC Records of the Grand Historian and the historian himself was involved with the 109 BC repairs in a minor capacity. History thumb|right|400px|The Book of Rivers and Canals, Vol. 29 of the Records of the Grand Historian, largely details the circumstances of the 132 BC flood and Sima Qian's own first-hand account of the 109 BC restoration of the Huzi dyke by the Wu Emperor of the Western HanSima Qian, Vol. 29. Breach In 132 BC, the swelling Yellow River burst the dyke at Huzi in Jiyin Commandery (now Dingtao, Shandong) and flooded the Juye Plain. The swell was large enough that it reached the course of the Si River, shifting its own main course to follow it south of the Shandong Peninsula to the Huai River and Yellow Sea.Robinson 2020 13 The imperial government organized a corvee under Ji An (zh 汲 黯) and Zheng Dangshi (zh 鄭 當 時) to repair the breachRobinson 2020 15 but the river nearly immediately burst through again, again flooding the plain and flowing into the Si and Huai.Robinson 2020 13-14 The river was then allowed to remain in its new course for decades.Robinson 2020 14 The flood and imperial responses to it form the bulk of the Yellow River section of Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, an account that differs from many other sections of the Records in offering little criticism of the Wu Emperor's actions. In fact, taken in conjunction with other sections of the Records that relate locals' hardships,Robinson 2020 17-18 the Yellow River section is clearly focused in a way intended to shield the emperor from blame.Robinson 2020 14-15 Delay thumb|right|400px|Detail of a Ming-era map of Shandong, showing the Yellow River (in gold) following a similar course southeast around the peninsula, starting near Huzi (zh 定陶, Dingtao) The river's dikes were not mostly repaired until 109 BC,Loewe 1986 205Bielenstein 1986 243 when the river was returned to its previous northern course, probably by mortise and tenon floodworks.Robinson 2020 21 The last phases of this reconstruction were personally overseen by the Wu Emperor.Loewe 1986 161 Historians have generally attributed the extremely slow response to economic constraints on the Han Empire during its Xiongnu Wars,Robinson 2020 15, 21–22, & 38 while Sima Qian offers the specific reasons that the dowager empress Wang's brother, the chancellor Tian Fen (zh 田 蚡, died 130 BC), avoided further repairs in the 130s BC because it increased the value of his own properties to north of the river's new courseRobinson 2020 15-16 and the emperor waited decades to correct the issue because he was not made aware of its severity until that time.Robinson 2020 15 The empire should have had sufficient resources until around 124 BC to continue attempts at repairRobinson 2020 22 but Tian Fen argued to the superstitious emperor that the great change in the great river must be the will of Heaven, aided in his appeal by being part of the young emperor's personal Confucian faction whereas Ji and Zheng were officials who had been allied with the Taoist faction of the grand empress dowager Dou.Robinson 2020 16 The emperor was able to claim he had not personally witnessed the flooded region's distress until his 110 BC pilgrimage to Mount Tai for the Feng and Shan sacrifices but would have been received decades of annual reports from the affected areas by then, detailing both the agricultural lands impacted by increased flooding in Liang (Shandong, Henan, & Anhui) and Chu (Jiangsu & Anhui) and the massive local expenses (mostly unsuccessfully) attempting to provide for flood control along the new course.Robinson 2020 17-18 However, the emperor had already begun considering repairing the breach before his trip. Sima Qian's Records notes that one of the main attractions of the magician and alchemist Luan An in 113 BC was his claimed ability to restore the dyke at Huzi and divert the Yellow River back to its former course.Robinson 2020 19 Whether before Luan or inspired by him, the Wu Emperor is said to have now felt that restoring the proper course of the river was the will of Heaven, an act worthy of the legendary Xia patriarch Yu the Great, and an essential step on his path to immortality.Robinson 2020 19-20 (In similar fashion, he emulated Shun with his inspection tours beginning in 113 BC and Yao with his 104 BC calendrical reform.)Robinson 2020 29 The drought that occurred in 109 BC was then taken as further divine assistance and utilized in order to complete the needed repairs.Robinson 2020 21 & 28–29 By this time, the salt and iron monopoliesinstituted by the ministry of agriculture in 117 BChad again filled the imperial coffers.Robinson 2020 22 Repair Once reconstruction began under Ji An's younger brother Ji Ren (zh 汲 仁) and Guo Chang (zh 郭 昌), the emperor travelled to personally oversee the work, composed an hymnthe Ode of Huzi (zh 《瓠子 歌》)beseeching the Lord of the River for his blessing, and cast jade and a white horse into the river as an offering.Robinson 2020 31 He ordered the court historian Sima Qian and other officials to join the laborers in carrying bundles of sticks to shore up the floodwall.Robinson 2020 31 Upon the dyke's restoration, the river returned to flowing north and the emperor had the Xuanfeng Temple (zh 宣 房 宮) built at the site.Robinson 2020 31 The emperor then funded a spate of canal and irrigation projects around the empire.Robinson 2020 32 See also Other floods of the Yellow River Records of the Grand Historian and Sima Qian References Citations 30em Bibliography Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian, Vol. 29: The Book of Rivers and Canals (in Chinese). Bielenstein Hans Wang Mang, the Restoration of the Han Dynasty, and Later Han 223–290 Hans Bielenstein https://books.google.com/books?id=A2HKxK5N2sAC The Cambridge History of China, Vol. I: The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221B.C. A.D.220 Cambridge University Press Cambridge Denis Twitchett Michael Loewe 0 1986 978-0-521-24327-8 https://books.google.com/books?id=A2HKxK5N2sAC&pg=PA223 . Chen Yunzhen Chen Yunzhen 1 Socio-economic Impacts on Flooding: A 4000-Year History of the Yellow River, China James P.M. Syvitski Gao Shu Irina Overeem Albert J. Kettner 10.1007/s13280-012-0290-5 682–698 41 5 June 2012 22673799 Ambio: A Journal of the Human Environment 7 Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Stockholm 3472015 Chen & al. 2012 . Loewe Michael Michael Loewe https://books.google.com/books?id=A2HKxK5N2sAC The Cambridge History of China, Vol. I: The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221B.C. A.D.220 Cambridge University Press Cambridge Denis Twitchett Michael Loewe 0 1986 978-0-521-24327-8 The Former Han Dynasty 103–222 https://books.google.com/books?id=A2HKxK5N2sAC&pg=PA103 . Robinson Rebecca https://www.persee.fr/doc/etchi_0755-5857_2020_num_39_1_1681 Repairing the Yellow River Breach at Huzi: Flood Control and Immortality during the Reign of Han Wudi 13–39 Études Chinoises 2020 39 Association Française d'Études Chinoises Paris . 0.9867 Yellow River flood 0.9867 Yellow River flood 0.9867 Yellow River flood Yellow River flood 0.9867 Yellow River 0.9867