| Since 1546,the diversion of the lower Yellow River caused the Yellow River to silt up and gradually became a single course into the Huaihe River,but the Yellow River's flood continued.By 1578,Pan Jixun had perfected the scheme of “clearing sands with converging flow” by constructing the wisp dike and remote dike,which consolidated the single-stranded entry of the Yellow River into the Huaihe River.However,the main purpose of the river control was to protect the grain transporting.As a result,the riparian zones of Henan Province along the Yellow River was under a passive protection,that is,the “protected edge”.The long-term turbulence or flooding of the Yellow River in the lower reaches had resulted in the formation of a landscape along the Yellow River in Henan Province,which can be called “sandland under the Yellow River”.From the perspective of soil science,the technology of “channeling the Yellow River to provide silt irrigation” is an effective measure to solve the problem,and this measure existed as early as the Western Han Dynasty and declined gradually after the Song Dynasty.The moulding of the “protected edge” accompanied by the construction of dykes meant the real interruption of the technology of “channeling the Yellow River to provide silt irrigation”.As for the western Henan area,although it was developed very early,it was restricted by the loess environment for a long time since it is located on the southeastern margin of the Loess Plateau.The area of “the margin of loess” in the late Ming Dynasty showed an emphasis on civil welfare,,focusing on local construction and restoration of water conservancy facilities.These were all affected by the peasant war in the late Ming Dynasty,which began in 1628,and made the livelihood of the Ming government and the local people in a difficult situation.During the Qing Dynasty,dykes continued to be constructed in the northeastern area along the Yellow River in Henan Province for the purpose of “clearing sands with converging flow”,while the western area continued to adapt to the Loess environment.The contradiction between human and land became more prominent.The northeastern area of Henan Province was on the riverside but dare not to divert water.The westerm area was also on the riverside but was not able to divert water.In addition to the surging of regional population,the whole region along the Yellow River in Henan Province was still a “water-scarce society” to some extent when facing land problems.Specifically,for the northeast of Henan Province,the flooding of the Yellow River in the Qing Dynasty continued to bring a lot of sediment to both sides,and continued to shape the landscape of “sandland under the Yellow River” from the face(region)and the point(settlement),which also led to the discussion of the Yellow River sediment in the mid-Qing Dynasty.Although the contradiction between man and land became more and more conflicting with the increase of population in Qing Dynasty and the poor soil of sandland,people in the riverside area of northeastern Henan in Qing Dynasty were afraid to use the water of the Yellow River to silt up the sandland because of the need of controlling the Yellow River and protecting the grain transporting and the limitation of the technology of the Yellow River management.However,in the early and mid-Qing Dynasty,the water affairs in the area of“sandland under the Yellow River” in northeast Henan Province were maintained by local efforts,and became the key to change the livelihood of the region.At the same time,by investigating the central and northern parts of Henan Fu and Shanzhou in the early and mid-Qing Dynasty,it was found that different modes of agricultural water intake were adopted according to different topography in this area.Canals and ponds were mainly built in Hilly areas,while canals and wells were mainly built in plain areas.However,the water diversion projects along the Yellow River in Henan Province were particularly vulnerable to the impact of their environment(loess or sand land)and were destroyed gradually.In 1855,the Yellow River diverted to the north in Tongwaxiang,which became a major turning point to change the environment of the eastern region along the Yellow River in Henan Province.Lankao areas were the most affected.Since then,because of the existence of the common landscape of “sand land under the Yellow River”,Lanyi,Yifeng and Kaocheng counties had gradually become a whole in the ecological environment,which has promoted the continuous integration of the three administrative areas and finally formed the administrative system of Lankao county.In fact,the area of Weihui Fu was deeply affected by the Yellow River,such as its foundation of the municipal district in the Qing Dynasty,and the establishment and the abolishment of its provincial authority as the capital city of Pingyuan Province in the early days of the founding of New China.The trend of fragmentation or integration of Henan Province's administrative systems largely depends on the regional changes and governance of the Yellow River.At the same time,the introduction of western learning since the opening of modern ports also brought a technological turning point to the region along the Yellow River in Henan Province.For the whole region along the Yellow River in Henan Province,although the political unrest continued and the livelihood of the people was very difficult,a new technology of “channeling the Yellow River to provide silt irrigation”emerged in the Republic of China,that is,to use machinery to implement the measure of “channeling the Yellow River” for land management or irrigation along the Yellow River.However,during the period of the Republic of China,the way of syphonage was the main method,which did not really change the existing of “riverside but dare not divert water” before the Republic of China,but only an improvement of the technology of diverting water from the Yellow River.At the same time,these measures were eventually interrupted by the heavy turmoil at the end of the Republic of China,especially after the Huayuankou Incident in 1938.After the founding of the People's Republic of China,the harnessing model with“reservoir construction” began to be a core along the Yellow River in western Henan Province,which ensured the water use in the region to a certain extent,also led to a large increase in the area of regional irrigation,and reduced the regional soil erosion in the process.In the Jiahetan area of the Yiluo River,the times of flood had been reduced after the completion of the regional reservoir system,especially in the Jiahetan area of the Yiluo River,which had also formed a high-yield wheat planting area.However,the Sanmenxia Reservoir built on the Yellow River in the western Henan region had created favorable conditions for flood reduction in the lower reaches.The area below the dam could channel the Yellow river more daringly,that is,by opening dykes to build diversion gates,excavating culvert diversion to divert the Yellow River,or building plain reservoirs to divert the Yellow River.So far,it has really changed the long-standing situation of “riverside but dare not divert water” in the region along the Yellow River in Henan Province before the Republic of China,and “silt irrigation”has gradually become possible,which also promotes the close integration of the regions along the Yellow River in Henan Province.Although the problem of secondary salinization and alkalization occurred in the Yellow River region along the northeastern Henan Province around the end of 1960 s,such as in Yuanyang and Lankao,when the Yellow River region along the northeastern Henan Province was harnessed by “channeling the Yellow River to provide silt irrigation”,soon the concept of “channeling the Yellow River”changed again.By improving the regional drainage system and other measures,more fertile land appears.Therefore,the large-scale implementation of the “channeling the Yellow River to provide silt irrigation” was actually a change in the production technology for the local people after the founding of New China,and to some extent,it is a return to the technology of “channeling the Yellow River to provide silt irrigation” that existed before the Western Han Dynasty to the Tang and Song Dynasties.The emergence of this situation was also the result of the interaction between the western and northeastern Henan Yellow River regions. |
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