scholarly journals The collapse of the North Song dynasty and the AD 1048–1128 Yellow River floods: Geoarchaeological evidence from northern Henan Province, China

The Holocene ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 1759-1770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J Storozum ◽  
Qin Zhen ◽  
Ren Xiaolin ◽  
Li Haiming ◽  
Cui Yifu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
North China Plain ◽  
North China ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Henan Province ◽  
River Flooding ◽  
The North ◽  
Northern Song Dynasty ◽  
Northern Song ◽  
River Floods

From AD 1048 to 1128, Yellow River flooding killed over a million people, left many more homeless and destitute, and turned parts of the once fertile North China Plain into a silted-up agricultural wasteland. Brought on in part by climate change and the Northern Song dynasty’s (AD 960–1127) mismanagement of the environment, the Yellow River floods likely hastened the collapse of the Northern Song dynasty. Despite the magnitude of this flood event, no sedimentary deposits have yet been linked to these historically recorded floods. In this research paper, we provide archaeological, sedimentary, and radiocarbon evidence of the AD 1048–1128 Yellow River floods at the Dazhanglongcun, Xidacheng, and Daguxiancun sites in Neihuang County, Henan Province. Based on our data, we argue that the AD 1048–1128 Yellow River floods deposited over 5 m of alluvium on villages in the North China Plain, radically changing both the physical and political landscape of Northern Song dynasty China.

scholarly journals Rise and Fall of the Grand Canal in the Ancient Kaifeng City of China: Role of the Grand Canal and Water Supply in Urban and Regional Development

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 1932
Author(s):  
Wenji Huang ◽  
Mingwang Xi ◽  
Shibao Lu ◽  
Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
The Political ◽  
The South ◽  
Central Plains ◽  
Grand Canal ◽  
The North ◽  
Northern Song Dynasty ◽  
Political Center ◽  
Northern Song ◽  
The Grand Canal

In the long history of the feudal society of China, Kaifeng played a vital role. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng became a worldwide metropolis. The important reason was that the Grand Canal, which was excavated during the Sui Dynasty, became the main transportation artery for the political and military center of the north and the economic center of the south. Furthermore, Kaifeng was located at the center of the Grand Canal, which made it the capital of the later Northern Song Dynasty. The Northern Song Dynasty was called “the canal-centered era.” The development of the canal caused a series of major changes in the society of the Northern Song Dynasty that were different from the previous ones, which directly led to the transportation revolution, and in turn, promoted the commercial revolution and the urbanization of Kaifeng. The development of commerce contributed to the agricultural and money revolutions. After the Northern Song Dynasty, the political center moved to the south. During the Yuan Dynasty, the excavation of the Grand Canal made it so that water transport did not have to pass through the Central Plains. The relocation of the political center and the change in the canal route made Kaifeng lose the value of connecting the north and south, resulting in the long-time fall of the Bianhe River. Kaifeng, which had prospered for more than 100 years, declined gradually, and by the end of the Qing Dynasty, it became a common town in the Central Plains. In ancient China, the rise and fall of cities and regions were closely related to the canal, and the relationship between Kaifeng and the Grand Canal was typical. The history may provide some inspiration for the increasingly severe urban and regional sustainable development issues in contemporary times.

On the Water Environment of Kaifeng City of the Northern Song Dynasty

2013 ◽  
Vol 790 ◽  
pp. 437-440
Author(s):  
He Qun Li ◽  
Zhi Yi Song
Keyword(s):  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Water Environment ◽  
The Public ◽  
The North ◽  
Northern Song Dynasty ◽  
Northern Song ◽  
North Water ◽  
Kaifeng City ◽  
Bodies Of Water ◽  
The City

In the Northern Song Dynasty Dongjing city of Kaifeng, there were many rivers, ponds and other bodies of water, which had a certain relationship one another and relative independence. These waters had important influence on the layout of the city, urban economy, the public life and environment. Under its influence, now Kaifeng city has still many lakes, called "the North Water City"

The Yellow River, the Chinese State, and the Ecology of North China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Pietz
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
North China Plain ◽  
North China ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Hybrid Approach ◽  
The Yellow River ◽  
The North ◽  
The North China Plain

Flowing through the North China Plain, one of China’s major agricultural regions, the Yellow River has long represented a challenge to Chinese governments to manage. Preventing floods has been an overriding concern for these states in order to maintain a semblance of ecological equilibrium on the North China Plain. This region’s environment is heavily influenced by seasonal fluctuations in precipitation, leading to a long history of famine, particularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when water management structures disintegrated with the deterioration of the imperial system. In the 20th century, new civil and hydraulic engineering techniques and technologies held the promise for enhanced management of the region’s waterways. After 1949, the new government of the People’s Republic used a hybrid approach consisting of the tenets of multipurpose water management combined with the tools of mass mobilization that were hallmarks of the Chinese Communist Party. The wide-ranging exploitation of surface and groundwater resources during the Maoist period left a long shadow for the post-Mao period that witnessed rapid consumption of water to fuel agricultural, industrial, and urban reforms. The challenge for the contemporary state in China is creating a system of water allocation through increased supply and demand management that can sustain the economic and social transformations of the era.

Early Pleistocene integration of the Yellow River I: Detrital-zircon evidence from the North China Plain

2020 ◽  
Vol 546 ◽  
pp. 109691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guoqiao Xiao ◽  
Yuqi Sun ◽  
Jilong Yang ◽  
Qiuzhen Yin ◽  
Guillaume Dupont-Nivet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Detrital Zircon ◽  
North China Plain ◽  
North China ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
The Yellow River ◽  
The North ◽  
The North China Plain

Lake Evolution during the Last 3000 Years in China and Its Implications for Environmental Change

1993 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin-Qi Fang
Keyword(s):  
North China Plain ◽  
North China ◽  
Land Reclamation ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Climatic Fluctuations ◽  
The Lower Yellow River ◽  
The North ◽  
Lake Evolution ◽  
The Ancient Chinese

AbstractTaking China as a whole, lake expansion occurred 500 B.C. (?)-0 A.D., 650-950 A.D., and 1250-1650 A.D. over the past 3000 yr. The expansions were mainly due to climatic fluctuations and correspond to frequent flood reports. Three regional characteristics of lake development have been recognized. (1) Fluctuations of near-coastal lakes, and those in other regions as well, were out of phase during 500 B.C.-500 A.D., which possibly resulted from out-of-phase fluctuations of climate and sea level on 10- to 100-yr time scale. (2) As the lower Yellow River channel migrated southward, the lakes in the south of the North China Plain formed and reached their largest sizes much later than those in the north. (3) For the lakes in the middle and lower Yangtze River valley, the higher a lake basin lies above a neighboring river and the further the lake is from the river's mouth, in general, the younger the lake is. Through land reclamation, the ancient Chinese have changed most of the lakes greatly. However, human activities were also constrained in certain ways by the natural changes of the lakes. Reclamation usually was banned and farmland was abandoned to repair reservoirs while lakes were expanding.

scholarly journals Specific Types and Adaptability Evaluation of Managed Aquifer Recharge for Irrigation in the North China Plain

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuai Liu ◽  
Weiping Wang ◽  
Shisong Qu ◽  
Yan Zheng ◽  
Wenliang Li
Keyword(s):  
North China Plain ◽  
North China ◽  
Yellow River ◽  
Managed Aquifer Recharge ◽  
Shandong Province ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Aquifer Recharge ◽  
Canal Irrigation ◽  
The North ◽  
The North China Plain

The North China Plain is the main grain production district in China, with a large area of well irrigation resulting in a large groundwater depression cone. In the 1970s and 1980s, small-scale managed aquifer recharge (MAR) projects were developed to recharge shallow groundwater, which played an important role in ensuring stable and high crop yields. MAR projects are divided into 10 types based on local water conservancy characteristics. The combined use of well–canal irrigation has been widespread in the Yellow River Irrigation District of Shandong Province for nearly 40 years, where canals play multiple roles of transporting and storing Yellow River water or local surface water, recharging groundwater and providing canal irrigation. Moreover, the newly developed open channel–underground perforated pipe–shaft–water saving irrigation system can further expand the scope and amount of groundwater recharge and prevent system clogging through three measures. Finally, an adaptability zoning evaluation system of water spreading has been established in Liaocheng City of Shandong Province based on the following five factors: groundwater depth, thickness of fine sand, specific yield, irrigation return flow, and groundwater extraction intensity. The results show that MAR is more adaptable to the western region than to the eastern and central regions.

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