The Origin of Jianghan Canal

There are many rivers and huge water systems in Hubei, but because there is a watershed between the water systems, in order to make up for this deficiency, Hubei dug canals very early. According to historical records, the earliest artificial canal dug in ancient China was a canal dug between two branches of the Huaihe River, quicksand water and Rushui, by Cai Guo of Chen Guohe in the Spring and Autumn Period (early 6th century BC) to "connect Chen and Cai". However, because the canal was very small, it was soon abandoned and there was no trace in history. Later, Chu also dug a waterway from the capital Ying (now Jingzhou, Hubei) to the Hanshui Shayang area in Jianghan Plain, which was the earliest canal project in China.

The Spring and Autumn Period was called "the thoroughfare of Yunmeng".

There is no clear record in the history books on the time and route of digging the "Yunmeng thoroughfare", but it is recorded in Historical Records that "in Chu, the canal connects with Hanshui River and Yunmeng Field in the west, and the Hanshui River connects with the Yangtze River and Huaihe River in the east ... This canal can be used for boating, and the surplus can be used for irrigation and soaking, which is beneficial to the people." According to Tan Qixiang's textual research in The Changes of the Yellow River and the Canal: "A canal in the west should be Shui Yang, which is an artificial canal connecting the Yangtze River and Hanshui River. The key point of this project is to intercept Qushui and Zhangshui near Du Ying, and make it reach the Yangtze River in the south and Hanshui River in the northeast. The place it passed through was the so-called Yunmengze at that time, probably from Shashi in Jingzhou to Shayang in Jingmen. This canal was dug by the working people at the beginning of 6th century BC under the auspices of Sun Bin, the prime minister of Chu State. It can be seen that this canal was dug around 60 1 year BC, and its purpose is to make up for the shortage of the Khanyang River in Tongjiang.

During the reign of Taikang in the Western Jin Dynasty, it was called "Yang Xia Waterway" in history.

According to the biography of Du Yu in the Book of Jin, "The old waterway is only a few hundred miles away from Handa Jiangling, and there is no access to the north ... that is, the kai yang mouth is ahead of schedule, and the summer water reaches Baling for more than a thousand miles". It can be seen that Du Yu's purpose of digging Yang Xia Waterway is still to solve the direct water traffic between Jianghan waters. Du Yukai's "Yangkou" should be the present Shayang area. After the opening of Yangkou port, it became the main throat of north-south traffic in Jin Dynasty. In addition, there are records of repairing and chiseling in Yang Xia waterway. Once in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties (3 17-323), "Wang Chuzhong (Wang Dun) was the secretariat of Jingzhou, digging Caohe River to the north and south of Jianghan (Ji Sheng in the middle). One was "Song and Yuan Jiazhong (424-453), crossing the White Lake, pledging to transport Cao extensively" (Note). "This shows that the Yang Xia Waterway was still an important waterway in Jingzhou until the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, it was called "Jingxiang Caohe" in history.

The Song government organized two excavations of Jingxiang River and Han Xiang Caohe River. First of all, in the third year of Taiping Xingguo (978), Song Taizong adopted Cheng Neng's suggestion and dug a hundred-mile-long canal from Nanyang to Yexian. However, due to the recent flash floods, the stone weir and some channels were destroyed, which made the project fall by the wayside. The second time was in the year of Duanad (988), and the project consisted of two parts, one was the first excavated waterway connecting Hanshui and Rushui, and the other was the Jianghan Caohe River excavated from Jingzhou to Hanshui. Regarding the route of Jingxiang Caohe River, it is verified that the Jingxiang Caohe River in the Northern Song Dynasty generally runs from the southwest of Jingmen to Jingzhou City, and enters the Han River through Shayang and Shizikou (now Zekou, Qianjiang). Unfortunately, because the two excavations were not successfully navigable, it became a "half-pull" project at that time, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was later built, and the canal was soon abandoned.