#我来唠家常#
▲ Dari Yellow River Valley. Photography / Wang Jianzhu (source: book "Discover Qinghai")
-The Legend of the Gentleman of Things-
Manic and temperate
▲ The Yellow River, the "mother river" of the Chinese. From west to east, it flows through 9 provinces (autonomous regions) of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong, and finally flows into the Bohai Sea. The picture shows a schematic diagram of the Yellow River system. Reference: National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation;
The Yellow River, whimsical and endless, starts from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau's Bayankala Mountain Range branch in the west - the Zhaqu at the southern foot of the Chahasila Mountain; the waves are rolling, the momentum is like a rainbow, and the grass grows and warblers fly in the north, and the wilderness is vast in the Inner Mongolia Plateau.
▲ The first bend of the Yellow River is located in Tangke Township, Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
Hundreds of rivers irrigate the river, pouring thousands of miles, going south to Bianjing Kaifeng, where "the Sui embankment is like smoke and willows like weaving"; all the way to the east, the vast soup soup, leaping into the Bohai Bay, which is surrounded by land on three sides; sometimes the rapids splash, sometimes the water waves are not prosperous, in the northern mainland of China, splashing ink, and writing down a big "several" character in a sprinkled manner.
▲ Laoniuwan, located at the junction of Shanxi and Mongolia, with the Yellow River as the boundary, the scenery is both rigid and soft, and it is "the place where the Great Wall and the Yellow River shake hands". Photo/Visual China
As the mother river of the Chinese nation, every move of the Yellow River is related to the survival of the sons and daughters along its shores.
Where does the water of the Yellow River start to turn yellow?
▲ "The Yellow River in the world is Guideqing". Is this kind of Yellow River enough to refresh our cognition?Photography/Lu Lei (Source: Book "Discovering Qinghai")
Although it is called the Yellow River, it is covered with a large amount of sediment and has been labeled with "a bowl of water, half a bowl of sand", but whether you can wash it away by jumping into the Yellow River depends entirely on where you jump down.
The source of the Yellow River, which is clear and rippling, runs in the mountainous area where the bedrock is exposed, and is more clear and beautiful after the precipitation of Zhaling Lake and Ngoling Lake, which are filled with vast smoke and waves, and unfolds a poetic and picturesque scenery against the backdrop of grassland, loess, water birds, and blue sky, and the Yellow River in the middle and lower reaches are like two rivers.
▲ Zhaling Lake. Photography / Zhou Weilin (Source: Book "Discover Qinghai")
▲ Ngoring Lake. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
But the good times did not last long, rushing down from the Ngoring Lake, passing through the "Dazhaling Lake Township", under the double help of the frequent flash floods and the already loose soil, the Yellow River became turbid.
▲ Lanzhou section of the Yellow River. Photo by Xu Xiaotian
The turbid river goes all the way east, jumping down from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, sweeping to the loess plateau with thousands of ravines and bare surfaces.
▲ Lanzhou's sheepskin raft. Photo by Lu Wen
When the water is gentle and the river is wide, Hekou Town (now gone) draws an end to the upper reaches of the Yellow River with the image of a "golden waterway" that connects the merchants of the Central Plains and the people outside the Saiwai River, and opens the prelude to the middle reaches of the mud and sand.
Since then, the Yellow River has had the frequent swing of "30 years in Hedong, 30 years in Hexi", and also jumped over the Hukou Waterfall with steep stone walls, nourished Luoyang City, which "can ask about the ancient and modern things", and passed through the "boundary between mountains and plains" - Taohuayu, and finally got rid of the shackles of the last mountain, jumped into the flat realm, and sang forward calmly.
▲ West of Jinan City, Qihe Yellow River Bridge. Photo/Visual China
At the same time as she slowed down, the sediment accumulated in her body, the riverbed was raised step by step, and the "hanging river" appeared on the ground, giving the river a reason to abandon the original riverbed and find a new way after the river burst, laying another layer of foreshadowing for the frequent swing of the Yellow River.
The swinging Yellow River washed away the dynasty
Compared with the upstream, the middle and lower reaches, especially the lower reaches of the Yellow River, seem to be more restless, so that the saying that "the Yellow River is harmful, only one set of riches" has been passed down since the Han Dynasty.
▲ The Hetao Plain is located in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China, and is an alluvial plain along the Yellow River. It is composed of the Yinchuan Plain (also known as the Xitao Plain) east of Helan Mountain, the Wolf Mountain in Inner Mongolia, the Houtao Plain and the Tumochuan Plain (also known as the Qiantao Plain) south of Daqing Mountain, covering an area of about 25,000 square kilometers. The picture shows a view from Helan Mountain-the Tomb of the Western Xia Dynasty. Photo/Visual China
"Two breaks in three years, and one diversion in a hundred years", the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, after "good silting and good decision", often develop to the point of "good migration".
▲ According to statistics, in the thousands of years before 1946, the Yellow River burst and flooded 1,593 times, and there were 26 major diversions. It is diverted to the northernmost through the Haihe River and out of Dagukou, and the southernmost through the Huai River and into the Yangtze River. The picture shows a brief list of the six major diversions of the Yellow River in history. Painted / Q year
The Suxukou Breach in the fifth year of King Zhou Ding is the earliest written record related to the diversion of the Yellow River in the fifth year of King Ding, and it is this diversion that allows the Huangshui and Zhangshui to merge into a river in the east, and flow into the Bohai Sea from the south of today's Tianjin.
In the Warring States period, the Yellow River began to change its basic flow state, and large-scale embankments were built downstream, ending the long-term situation of multiple diversions. To a certain extent, the embankment restricts the free and scattered water, and the large tidal land silted out on both sides of the river channel is used for cultivation and self-defense, and "those who are far away are several miles away from the water, and those who are close are only a few hundred steps".
▲ Tianjin. Photo/Visual China
The primitive vegetation of the Loess Plateau has been destroyed by rudimentary production tools, and the erosion of water and soil has been exacerbated by frequent human activities, and the sedimentation has led to "the river bed is pressing, the river body is winding, the siltation is rapid, and the danger is repeated".
Large and small breaches impact the inherent river channel little by little.
▲ The Yellow River Stone Forest in Baiyin, Gansu Province, is a magnificent scenery bred by the Loess Plateau. Photo/Visual China
In 11 A.D. (the third year of Wang Mang's founding of the People's Republic of China), the second large-scale diversion of the Yellow River came unexpectedly. The Yellow River burst above Yuancheng in Wei County (in present-day Damingdong, Hebei), and the river flooded to several counties east of Qinghe County.
At this point, the river course that had flowed for 600 years since the Spring and Autumn Period changed greatly from Puyang to the east, leaving the old river channel that entered the sea from Tianjin to the Shandong Peninsula, and became a parallel river flowing north of the Yellow River today.
▲ The junction of Shanxi and Shanxi, Qiankun Bay of the Yellow River. The Yellow River makes a sharp turn here, which is the representative of the snake meandering of the Yellow River. Photo/Visual China
But the reason why the Yellow River has been talked about this time is closely related to the political choice made by Wang Mang, a "short-lived monarch". According to historical legend, "the river broke to the east, because Wang Mang's ancestral tomb in Yuancheng was not threatened, he did not block the mouth, and heard that the flood lasted for nearly 60 years."
At that time, about one-fifth of the population lost their lives in the flood, and the people everywhere the river went to live in poverty, and the ranks of the victims grew until they were merged into a large army, the Red Mei Army. The diversion of the Yellow River and Wang Mang's government's policy of "advocating empty words and no doers" intensified social contradictions and became the fuse for the fall of the new dynasty, and Wang Mang's army, which fought on multiple fronts against the rebels and the Xiongnu, finally failed.
After the fall of Chang'an, Wang Mang himself was divided by the angry Gengshi army, a short-lived dynasty that existed for 15 years and was sometimes called "the dynasty washed away by the Yellow River" by later generations.
Turbulent times after millennia of calm
▲ Longyangxia Hydropower Station, known as the "dragon head" power station of the Yellow River, is the first large-scale cascade power station in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. PHOTO BY YZERG
In 70 AD, under the leadership of Wang Jing, the overflowing river was fully controlled, and a new channel was fixed - flowing through the border area of Hebei and Shandong, from the border of Lijin County in Shandong Province into the sea, very close to the direction of the Yellow River today.
In the nearly 1,000 years since Wang Jingzhi River, the Yellow River has not had a major flood, but the accumulation of thousands of years has gradually caused the downstream river channel to gradually silt up. By the end of the Tang Dynasty, small-scale diversions and pan-duels began to be staged frequently, and the river gradually swung northward.
▲ Lanzhou, now west of Puyang, Henan. The picture shows farmers in Liyuan Township, Puyang County, harvesting crops in the water in the back depression of the Yellow River beach area. Photo/Visual China
Finally, in 1048 A.D., the Yellow River broke through the Shanghu of Lanzhou, went straight north to the Daimyo and then entered the sea, which was called "Beiliu" by the Song people.
In the 12th year after the formation of the North Stream, the Yellow River broke again and formed a new divergence, the East Stream, and the Yellow River "became two streams." From Wei, En to De, Cang into the sea".
In the following 40 years, the Yellow River was in a state of two branches, although there was no major diversion, but the north and east rivers were frequently troubled, until the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the controversy over the north and east rivers has always existed in the court of the Song Dynasty.
▲ Hohhot City, Inner Mongolia, Tuoketuo County Basin of the Yellow River. Photo by Li Qiong
In 1128 A.D. (the second year of Jianyan in the Southern Song Dynasty), in order to prevent the Jin soldiers from going south, the Song Dynasty stayed in Du Chong in the southwest of Huaxian County, Henan, and artificially broke the river, so that the Yellow River flowed eastward through the northeast of Henan and southwest Shandong, and flowed into Surabaya, seizing Si into Huai.
The Yellow River left the old course that flowed through the area of Jinjun and Slip since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and the downstream channel bent to the east or southeast. It swings in the northeast of Henan to the southwest of Shandong, and no longer enters the Hebei Plain, and even in the following 700 years, it is normal for the southeast to flow into the Huai.
▲ Starting from Taohuayu in Xingyang, the Yellow River enters the downstream area. The "chasm" of the ancient canal connecting the Yellow River and the Huai River is located on the west side of the Taohuayu Bridge. Photo/Visual China
Shortly thereafter, the Yellow River underwent one of the largest migrations in history.
In the twenty-third year of Yuan Shizu to Yuan (1286), the Yellow River was executed in 15 counties such as Yuanyang, Zhongmu, Yanjin, Kaifeng, Qixian, Suixian, Chenliu, Tongxu, and Taikang. The Yellow River is divided into three strands in Yuanyang County, and the four rivers of Ying, Si, Whirlpool and Huai River are invaded and entered the sea.
The flooding of the river spread throughout the vast areas of present-day central Henan, Anhui and northern Jiangsu provinces. In addition to the main stream, the downstream river channel divides several branches at the same time, overlapping the main and secondary, the changes are uncertain, extremely chaotic, until the middle of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, the chaos of multiple streams is basically over.
But this does not mean that the Yellow River entered the Taiping period.
The river is in troubled times, and the vicissitudes of the sea are overnight
▲ There are many factors that cause the river to rise, and Lingxun is one of them. Flooding refers to the phenomenon of rising river water due to the freezing of the lower part of the river or the blocking of the river channel by ice dams. Photo/Visual China
In the summer of 1855, heavy rains fell in many places in the Yellow River basin, and the water level of the Yellow River soared, and many rivers that had been silted up for a long time were on the verge of collapse.
Once the Yellow River bursts, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which flows into Huai'an Prefecture, will face the risk of paralyzing transportation at any time, and it is very likely to block the entry of money and grain from the south into Beijing. But the Qing government was facing a more difficult problem than the Yellow River bursting—the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
▲ The estuary of the ancient Yellow River in Binhai County, Yancheng, Jiangsu. Binhai County is diverted from the Yellow River to silt and silted into land, and is located at the gateway of the Huai River to the sea. Photo/Visual China
Just a few months earlier, Shi Dakai, the winged king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, had defeated the naval division of the Hunan army of the Zeng State Domain at Jiujiang; Qin Rigang, Wei Jun, and Chen Yucheng had defeated the army of Yang Pei, the governor of Huguang, at Guangji, Hubei, and had taken Qizhou by defeat; and the three occupied the Wuchang and Pheasant River Gathering Alliances, and the vanguard of the Northern Expeditionary Army even advanced to Beijing.
The Qing government, which was suffering from internal and external troubles, could not spare extra energy, financial resources, and manpower to manage the Yellow River, so it had to resign itself to fate. So on August 1 of that year, the Yellow River swung its tail, "flowing north from the Tongwaxiang Junction in Lanyang County, Kaifeng, passing through the prefectures and counties of Henan and Shandong Provinces, passing through Zhangqiu Town, Shandong, and seizing the Daqing River to Lijin County into the Bohai Sea." ”
▲ The estuary of the Yellow River, located in Kenli County, Dongying City, was diverted by the Yellow River in 1855. Photo/Visual China
In this way, the Yellow River was born in a densely populated and prosperous place, and completed its transfer from south to north, "the villages were washed away, and in an instant, the country became a vast and boundless country; the victims of the disaster were scattered on the plateau at the foot of the mountains, and they built shacks for temporary shelter; Jinan and Wuding, such as Licheng and Zhangqiu, and many other prefectures and counties were immersed in huge flooding, and the number of people who died was incalculable."
The so-called vicissitudes of the sea, but overnight, the lower reaches of the Yellow River ended more than 700 years of history from Huai to the sea with blood and tears, and poured into the Bohai Sea again.
But the disaster didn't end there. After the flood receded, the fertile fields were covered with silted sediment, and the desertification was severe, which was undoubtedly devastating for Shandong, which has many people and little land, and is also a large agricultural province.
▲ The scene of rolling yellow sand abounds in the Yellow River Basin. Photo by Li Qiong
More and more bankrupt peasants have set their sights on the black soil across the sea and have taken a step towards breaking into the eastern part of the country.
Despite the government's order prohibiting it, even if it was "drilling into mountains and forests, wading into rivers, starving, fighting wild beasts, avoiding bandits, ...... others", even if they left their homeland and were despised by others, with the belief that "if they go home, they will die, and they can still live here", the bankrupt peasants in Shandong under the double blow of war and floods finally gained a firm foothold in the northeast.
▲ A large number of Shandong laborers, survivors and Shandong immigrants who have successively entered the eastern part of the country settled in Songling, Jilin Province, forming Shandong Tun. Photo/Visual China
Those who came out found a way to live, and those who stayed behind in the Yellow Flood Area did not see the tenderness of the mother river in the face of the desertification of the land, the decline of the salt works, and the calamity brought about by the cessation of the transportation of the Grand Canal.
And the loss of the mother river in northern Jiangsu has also from the original "through the Yellow River to develop a rich land" has become frequent famines, and the sea canal transport goes hand in hand with southern Jiangsu, the gap is getting bigger and bigger, until today, has not been able to turn the tables against the wind.
Eternal run-in
▲ Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve. Diagram / Diagram Worm Creative
Even if the vicissitudes of the sea and the diversion of the Yellow River did not stop there.
In 1938, in order to prevent the Japanese army from invading Zhengzhou in the west, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the Yellow River embankment at the mouth of the garden in Zhengzhou to block the Japanese army with floods.
For a time, the flood overflowed, and the victims were everywhere. It was not until 1947 that the Yellow River returned to the north and entered the sea from Kenli County, Shandong. Later, under the planning principle of "storing water in a steady stream and holding back mud in sections", a large number of water conservancy projects were built, and the flood and sediment have been effectively controlled, and the amount of sediment and flood flow have been greatly reduced.
▲ The Xiaolangdi Reservoir has given a strong scouring of the downstream riverbed, the silt flood level has dropped significantly, and the flood capacity of the river channel has increased rapidly. Photo/Visual China
Of course, the water conservancy projects built on the Yellow River were not always successful, and the Sanmenxia Dam raised the water level and lowered the flow rate, accelerating the siltation of the upper reaches, which exacerbated the flooding in the upper Weihe area.
In the process of constantly "fighting" with the mother river, there is even a situation where "the sediment discharge of the Yellow River has dropped to less than 100 million tons, and 80% of the river section has become completely clear, is this really a good thing?" There is also no shortage of voices such as "Hukou Waterfall is the waterfall with the largest sand content in the world, why is it going to become Qingshui Waterfall......
▲ Hukou Waterfall. Photography / Pigeon
Perhaps, the communication between the sons and daughters of China and the mother river, the Yellow River, has always been like this - mutual temptation, mutual running-in, sometimes gentle, sometimes tyrannical.
But no matter what happens, the Yellow River is our mother river. Whether she gives us glory or disaster, we are trying to find the best way to get along with her.
▲ When you return to the source area of the Yellow River and see the sea of stars dotted with lakes, will people remember the original appearance of the Yellow River? Photography / Deng Dayong (source: book "Discovering Qinghai")