Throughout The history of China's water conservancy projects, can be preserved for thousands of years, not many are still in use today, known as the "world's ancient water conservancy architecture pearl", known as the Lingqu, in many ancient water conservancy projects have an important position.
Spirit Canal
The Lingqu, built in the Qin Dynasty and located in Xing'an, Guangxi, is one of the oldest canals in the world. It connects the Yangtze River and Pearl River systems, connects the source of the Xiang River with the source of the Li River, and opens up the north-south water channel. The excavation of the Spiritual Canal provided an important guarantee for the Unification of Lingnan by the Qin Dynasty, and played a positive role in consolidating national unity, strengthening political, economic, and cultural exchanges between the North and the South, and bringing people of all nationalities closer together.
Map of the qin dynasty territory
The engineering structure of the Spiritual Canal
Lingqu has the reputation of "the pearl of the world's ancient water conservancy architecture", about 30 kilometers long and about 5 meters wide, and is composed of major projects such as Huazui, Large and Small Balance, Steep Gate, South Canal, North Canal, Qin Causeway, etc., and Dujiangyan and Zhengguo Canal are known as "three great water conservancy projects of the Qin Dynasty".
Watersheds and north-south canals
In order to channel the water of the Xiang River into the Ling Canal, a watershed with "sharp front and blunt back" needed to be built. Because of its shape like a plough, it is called "wedge". The "wah-bill" is followed by two long causeways: the north embankment is slightly longer, called the "big balance"; the south embankment is slightly shorter, called the "small balance". The three form an adult glyph-shaped watershed. The front end of the "wah-bill" points directly to the upper reaches of the Xiang River, splitting the water flow in two. The three-point south flow is introduced into the south canal by the "small balance"; the seven points of the north flow are directed into the north canal by the "big balance". The South Canal extends west to join the Li River, and the North Canal extends north to return to the Xiang River. Therefore, the spiritual canal includes two water canals in the north and south, each with a division of labor and complementary to each other.
Satellite view of the Lingqu diversion dam
The watershed is shorter than the banks of the river on either side. During the dry period, the water of the Xiangjiang River is all channeled into the channel; during the flood period, the river water can cross the embankment and flow into the Xiangjiang River Old Road, which can not only discharge the flood, but also avoid the destruction of the spiritual canal for flooding.
A close-up view of the small balance of the Lingqu Canal, the water is flowing over the embankment into the Xiangjiang Old Road during the flood season
Steep doors
The channel of the spiritual canal is characterized by shallow, narrow, curved and urgent, the water flow is rapid during the flood season, and the water flow is scarce during the dry period, in order to ensure the smooth passage of ships, a "steep gate" is set up in the channel to improve the water level and concentrate on the lowering, and its function is no different from today's sluice gate. Therefore, the "steep gate" of the spiritual canal is also the earliest sluice gate building in the world. "Every time a boat enters a bucket gate, it will be re-gated, and when the water accumulates and the boat will progress gradually, it can follow the cliff and build a boat down to pass through the north and south of the boat."
The Lingqu Star Bridge is steep
The important role of the spiritual canal
The completion of the Lingqu completed the great cause of Qin Shi Huang's unification of China, expanded the territory of China, and promoted the economic and cultural exchanges between the Central Plains and Lingnan and the integration of nationalities. To this day, it still plays an important role in shipping, irrigation and tourism.
Realize the unification of Lingnan
The Lingqu was first and foremost a military traffic project, created by Qin Shi Huang to unify Lingnan. Before the Qin Dynasty, the Lingnan region was a "land outside the world" and was never included in the territory of China. In 221 BC, after Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, he launched a war to conquer Lingnan. In order to solve the problem of logistical supplies for the Qin army, Qin Shi Huang "made it impossible for Jian Lu to be paid, and then dug canals and opened grain roads with pawns to fight the Vietnamese." By digging the Ling canal, the Qin army received a steady stream of logistics and supplies, and finally unified the Lingnan region in 214 BC. The excavation of the Lingqu, while achieving the great cause of the unification of the Qin Empire, also greatly expanded China's land and sea territory and laid the basic pattern of China's territory.
Portrait of Qin Shi Huang
Important trade routes
The Lingqu connects the entire Chinese water transport network, is an important commercial and trade channel connecting the Central Plains and Lingnan, and has become the main traffic artery between the north and the south, that is, the ancient "water highway". During the Sui and Tang dynasties, with the opening of the Grand Canal, cargo ships in the Lingnan area could go directly to Chang'an City via the Li River, Lingqu, Xiangjiang, Yangtze River and Grand Canal. In the tenth year of Ming Chongzhen (1637), according to Xu Xiake's "Diary of Western Guangdong", he saw a busy scene of "giant ships and scales" when he passed through the Lingqu.
Schematic diagram of the waterway from Lingnan to Chang'an via the Ling Canal in the Tang Dynasty
Play an irrigation role
The Later Han Shu Ma Yuanlie's biography records that when the Eastern Han Dynasty general Ma Yuanzheng crossed his toes, he "went through canals to irrigate to benefit his people." According to the "Guangxi Tongzhi", in the early Tang Dynasty, Linyuan County was built on the south side of the Lingqu, and the site of the city was in present-day Xing'an County. Due to the increase in population, the land around the county seat has been reclaimed in large quantities, and the irrigation effect of the spiritual canal has gradually become prominent. To this end, there are weirs and culverts built on the canal, and the role of the weir dam is similar to that of the steep gate, which is used to raise the water level and facilitate the water truck to take water and irrigate the field. To the Song Dynasty, "the canal waters around Xing'an County, the people's fields laizhi" (the language goes out of the Zhou Dynasty, the Lingwai Daida Lingqu), the Qing Dynasty "near the canal of the field, the irrigation is no less than hundreds of hectares" (Ortai "Reconstruction of the Guilin Province East and West Two Steep Rivers"). After the founding of New China, the irrigation function of the Lingqu was further developed, and Xing'an became a well-known granary.
Vast farmland on both sides of the Lingqu Canal
Promote cultural dissemination
Throughout the ages, countless military generals and literati entered Lingnan via the Lingqu, including Ma Yuan of the Han Dynasty, Li Jing, Zhang Jiuling, Liu Zongyuan, Li Shangyin, Li Bo of the Tang Dynasty, Fan Chengda, Huang Tingjian, Zhang Xiaoxiang, and Liu Kezhuang of the Song Dynasty, Yan Song, Xie Jin, Yan Zhenzhi, Xu Xiake of the Ming Dynasty, or Tai, Chen Yuanlong, Ruan Yuan, and Yuan Ming of the Qing Dynasty, who either left historical merits or poems and articles, enriching the cultural heritage of Lingnan. In addition, the rich and colorful Central Plains culture has also gradually spread to Lingnan through the Lingqu, including agriculture, handicraft technology, architecture, food and other cultures, folk literature such as Gui opera, color tone, Horse Zai tune, Helang song, etc., as well as the folk beliefs and folk customs of the Han people in the Central Plains.
An important node of the Maritime Silk Road
The Lingqu is an important link connecting Hepu, the starting port of the Maritime Silk Road, to the hinterland of the Central Plains. At that time, Hepu had a land and water transport channel leading to Chang'an: the waterway ran from Guangxi Hepu NanliuJiang - Beiliu River - Xunjiang River - Xijiang - Guijiang River - Li River - Lingqu - Xiangjiang - Yangtze River - Hanjiang - Hanzhong - Baoshui, by land to Qinling - Xianyang (Chang'an), and the Lingqu was an important throat of this water-land combined transport channel. It can be seen that the construction of the Spiritual Canal has laid a precious foundation for the formation of the Maritime Silk Road, for promoting international exchanges, and for the implementation of today's "Belt and Road" strategy.
Schematic diagram of the Maritime Silk Road
The historical context of the Lingqu
Qin Dynasty
In 219 BC, in order to solve the difficulties in the transportation of military grain and consolidate the unity of the country, Qin Shi Huang sent the superintendent Yu Shilu to dig a canal to transport grain, and this project was the spiritual canal of "digging the canal through the Xiangshui Lishui".
Schematic diagram of the Spiritual Canal
Han dynasty
In the seventeenth year of Jianwu (42 AD), Ma Yuan continued to repair the Spiritual Canal. "According to legend, the general Ma Fubo of the Later Han Dynasty assisted Kaichuan Junji, and the water was sharp and twisted, and it was used to curb its knots, and the knots were doumen to garrison its momentum." This time, the re-cultivation of the spiritual canal not only dredged and navigated, but also established a bucket gate.
Enssing Images
Tang dynasty
In the first year of the Tang Jingzong Bao calendar (825), the Poet and Observer of the Middle Tang Dynasty made Li Bo rebuild the Spiritual Canal. He "re-introduced, but still added to the old traces, in order to facilitate the boat." Sui Ye its to the side of the stream, steep its door to the level of direct injection, and so that the lawsuit along, no longer astringent.
Li Bo Image
In the ninth year of Tang Xiantong (868 AD), after Yu Mengwei became the defense envoy of Guizhou, he carried out a large-scale renewal and rectification of the Lingqu. This comprehensive repair not only dredged the channels, strengthened the steep gate and the Qin causeway, repaired the wadio and the wheezing, but also increased the steep gate to eighteen weights, making the supporting projects more perfect and the results more remarkable.
The statue of Yu Mengwei in the Lingqu Sixian Ancestral Hall
Song dynasty
According to the "Biography of Song Shi Tao Bi", Li Shizhong repaired the canal in the Song Dynasty to pacify Annam.
Yuan
In the fourteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1345), the deputy envoy of the Lingnan Guangxi Province, Su Zhenglian, repaired the spiritual canal, repaired the collapse of the embankment and the steep gate, and the boat was passed.
Ming dynasty
In the twenty-eighth year of Hongwu (1395 AD), in order to quell the rebellion, the imperial court sent the overseer Yushi Yanzhen to supervise the repair of the Lingqu. Due to the increase in the large and small balances, the two overflow culverts discharged less water, and when they encountered floods, they washed away the embankment, and the flood flowed to the north canal, and the south canal was shallow, which could not be navigable and affected the irrigation of farmland. Therefore, in February of the second year of Yongle (1404), it was restored as old.
Qing Dynasty
In the fifty-third year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1714), Inspector Chen Yuanlong led the provincial officials to donate money to repair the rule, and the destroyed large and small balance was rebuilt from the original tiled dam roof with boulders to a turtle's back shape. The remaining 14 steep doors were repaired, and 8 of the 22 steep doors that had been abandoned were restored.
In the eleventh year of Guangxu (1885), the flood washed away the watershed and the north-south steep embankment, and Li Bingheng of the Guangxi Nursing Home asked for permission to repair the canal. The spirit canal seen today is roughly the appearance after this repair.
republic
In the 21st year of the Republic of China (1932), the Xing'an flood, the size of the balance was partially damaged, Xing'an County Changtian Liangji repaired a section of 43 to 75 zhang, 107 meters long.
Navigation chart of the Lingqu in the early years of the Republic of China
After the founding of New China
In the winter of 1953, the Xing'an County Water Conservancy Bureau dredged a section of the channel from the south of the south canal to the steepness of Dawan, and rebuilt the Qin Causeway next to the Feilai Stone.
From the winter of 1973 to the winter of 1979, the Guangxi Autonomous Region allocated funds to repair the Qin Causeway, build the North Steep Flood Control Embankment, repair the Bamboo Branch Weir, remove the barrage dam that blocked the North Canal, and restore the water supply of the North Canal.
In 1982, Lingqu was named a national key scenic spot, and the local organization built Lingqu Park, planned the Water Street Scenic Area, rebuilt Lingyuan Temple, and built a new Linyuan Pavilion, which complemented the natural landscape and humanistic architecture.
Aerial view of the head of the Lingqu Canal
In November 1986, experts from the World Dam Commission inspected the Lingqu and praised "the Lingqu is the pearl of the world's ancient water conservancy architecture, and the steep gate is the father of the world's locks." ”
In 1988, it was listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit.
In 2006, it was included in the Preliminary List of World Cultural Heritage of China.
On the morning of August 14, 2018, Lingqu was successfully listed in the World Irrigation Engineering Heritage List, becoming the first "World Irrigation Engineering Heritage" in Guangxi.
The scene of the successful award of the 2018 Lingqu application for heritage
The source | Pearl River Water Conservancy