| Upstream from Mengjin, Yellow River is surrounded by mountains, while downstream from Xingyang, Henan province, the river runs into the North China plain, which composed by flat topography and loose soil. Therefore, the river is inclined to overflow or break when it suffers sudden rise. During the Qing period, prefecture of Kaifeng, Guide and Chenzhou lie between Yellow River and Huai River, Jialu, Huiji and other rivers run along the eastern Ilenan as well. The climate of eastern Henan is affected by the monsoon, so the seasonal precipitation distributes unevenly, result in arid spring and flooded autumn. Suffer from Yellow River floods, Jialu and Huiji river frequently silt and bring floods to farmland and residence alongside them. Besides, daily lives of peasants in eastern Henan are troubled by arid as well as floods.During the Qing dynasty, river works related to water transport closely, which the central government considered as significant affair. The Qing government set Donghe governor to manage river works of Henan and Shandong province. However, people emphasized on increasing the height of dike while neglecting other ways to manage Yellow River, following the rise of riverbed and more serious overflow and break. Meanwhile, the policy of river defense limited the development of farmland irrigation as well. With flat topography, rivers flew down slowly and silted easily. Dredging the riverbed is an effective way to deal with these problems. On the other hand, croplands of eastern Henan are almost dry fields with little surface water. To avoid menace of arid spring and flooded autumn, there is no doubt that ditches are valuable for the improvement of farmland irrigation. Although people of the Qing period have pointed out this problem, the impuissant government could not set persistent institution, and local elites of Henan were so powerless that they could not afford to deal with river affairs, what worse was that local peasants won't pay at the hard beginning but enjoy success only. Occasionally, some irrigation ditches were done; however, most of them were silted several years later. Over times, the agriculture of Henan province was trapped by the dilemma.As one of the three significant governors during the Yong Zheng period, Tian Wenjing won the favorite of Yong Zheng Emperor. During his governance of Henan, nominating river works official, remediating river soldiers and workers, Tian had contributed a lot to the local river management. While wining the appreciation of central government, he also brought negative affect on local peasants. On the one hand, peasants were involved in the tired works of river defense, on the other hand, under the emphasizing agriculture policy, peasants of Henan knew little about other ways to earn their livings but agriculture, resulting in "equilibrium trap". Besides the flourish of commodity economy of Jiangnan area, it provides another view to rethink about the prosperity during Emperor Kangxi and Qianlong. Finally, the agriculture of Henan suffered arid springs and flooded autumns constantly, until the 20th century, with the decadence of regime and the rise of bandits, peasants of Henan unfortunately degenerated into "the barbarian of central China"... |
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