Sima Qian and the etymology of "water conservancy"

Source: People's Daily - People's Daily

China's water control activities have a long history, and water control activities are often summarized in the name of "water conservancy". The word "water conservancy" can be found in Sima Qian's Records of History.

In 132 BC, the Yellow River, which had been plagued since the Warring States Period, broke its banks at Urzi (southwest of present-day Puyang, Henan). 23 years later, Emperor Wu of han personally visited the scene of the breach and commanded the civil and military officials below the general to carry engineering materials to block, including Sima Qian, who sometimes held the position of Langzhong. This special experience directly prompted him to open a chapter of the "Book of River Canals" in the "Records of History", combing through the magnificent history of the Chinese ancestors in preventing floods and developing and utilizing water resources from the era of Dayu to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and using the term "water conservancy".

As we all know, many industry and discipline names in modern China are translated or borrowed from foreign words. Even if its etymology comes from ancient Chinese, the meanings of ancient and modern times are mostly very different, such as economics, physics, etc. However, the word "water conservancy" is quite consistent with the meaning of Sima Qian in the Book of History and Canals. The "History of the River Canal Book" focuses on a series of water control activities of the Western Han Dynasty, especially since the succession of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, including the blocking of the urn, the canal project from Chang'an to Tongguan, the construction concept of mountain canals connecting the Hanshui and Weishui river basins, and the construction of irrigation channels in the southwest of present-day Shanxi and the eastern part of the Guanzhong Plain. Sima Qian introduced the background of the decision and the actual benefits after completion in more detail: "Since the success of the plug in the urn), the user has argued about water conservancy. The "water conservancy" that the "operators" of the "Sima Qian era" argue about actually contains three important contents, namely, flood control represented along the main stream of the Yellow River, river improvement with canal construction as the mainstay, and irrigation undertakings with canal system construction as the core. To this day, flood control, river (waterway) management and irrigation are still the main contents of modern water conservancy undertakings.

As early as before Sima Qian, written records on flood control, river (waterway) management, and irrigation activities were found in various literature. In terms of flood control, the "Zuo Chuan" written in the late Spring and Autumn Period records that the State of Qi had "guarded the gate and defended it" when resisting the attack of the Jin State, and scholars believe that the "defense" here is the flood control embankment on the south bank of the Jishui River. In terms of river (navigation) road governance, it is generally believed that it was written in the "Book of Shang" in the Warring States Period, and in the "Yu Gong" article, it records the dredging and excavation of rivers in various places by Dayu. In terms of irrigation, the "Baihua" in the "Shijing Xiaoya" has a sentence of "Luchi flows north, soaking in the rice field", which is likely to mean artificial channels. Documentary records can be corroborated with the sites and relics of China's early water control achievements that are constantly revealed in archaeological discoveries. In Sima Qian's pen, flood control, river (waterway) management and irrigation, the three are unified under the name of "water conservancy", and thus give the word "water conservancy" a clear connotation, so the modern Chinese water conservancy industry has long taken the "History of the River Canal Book" as the source of the word "water conservancy".

After Sima Qian, the use of the term "water conservancy" changed, and in many cases referred specifically to irrigation. For example, in the "General Code" compiled by Du You in the Tang Dynasty, there is a "Water Conservancy Field" under the "Food And Goods Codex", which specially introduces the construction of channels and irrigation areas in previous dynasties. When the Northern Song Dynasty King An Shi changed the law, he specially promulgated the "Farmland Water Conservancy Law", where "water conservancy" also refers specifically to irrigation. In fact, flood control, river (waterway) management and irrigation are often an inseparable whole, and Sima Qian has a clear understanding of this, so he unifies the three under the name of "water conservancy". This is very similar to the relevant understanding of the modern water conservancy industry. Today's water conservancy undertakings and water conservancy disciplines in a broad sense have increased the content of watershed management, soil and water conservation, water resources protection, water environment governance, and water landscape construction, and the cross-integration between the various branches of content has become increasingly deep. It can be seen that Sima Qian in the Western Han Dynasty had already paid attention to the richness of the connotation of the water control cause when writing, and even more aware of its inherent unity.

The scale of flood control, river management and irrigation projects in the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty has far exceeded the early water conservancy projects such as Qianpi, Dujiangyan, Zhengguo Canal and Lingqu, and the consumption of civil and material resources has naturally become huge. Sima Qian realized that water conservancy can bring huge benefits to the people and the country, and it is necessary to pay a certain amount of manpower and material resources for this purpose; but on the other hand, we must also pay attention to the relationship between cost and efficiency. In his view, the "benefit" of water refers to the "benefit" of water as a resource, and more importantly, the "benefit" brought to the country and the people by water control activities.

Today, China's water conservancy industry has made remarkable achievements, which is a logical continuation and development of China's water control history. It is meaningful to revisit the profound connotations of Sima Qian's term "water conservancy."

(The author is a researcher at the School of History and Culture, Lanzhou University)

People's Daily (2021-05-13 20th edition)