Zhangjian’s Idea And Practice Of Communication Of Songhua River And Liao River

Zhang Jian (1853-1926) is a famous modern industrialist, educator and politicianin China. In addition, Zhang Jian contributed a lot in modern China waterconservancy; he devoted40years of his life to fulfill water conservancy. People usedto study Zhang Jian in the aspect of water conservancy practice, and focuses on ZhangJian’s contributions of controlled the flood of Huai River, governance the YellowRiver and protected the townships. In fact, people have ignored a great idea of waterconservancy in Zhang Jian’s heart which is to communicate Songhua river and Liaoriver.Communicating Songhua river and Liao river means to choose theappropriate location to dig the canal between Songhua River and Liao River. Theopportunity for the idea to come up is that Zhang Jian plans to develop the North-eastwith the cooperation of the US, which made Zhang Jian go to the North-east forinspection. This idea mainly came from the influence of Xiong Xiling. In the earlyRepublic of China, Zhang Jian was the northern government minister of agricultureand commerce, and then he became as the president of National Water ConservancyBureau. During this time, his idea of connecting Songhua river and Liao river becameplans. Zhang Jian thought that this plan included two stages: first to dredge Liao river;second to built canal of Song-Liao. And the political and economical benefitsgenerated by it would be quite favorable: one is to be alert about Japan and Russia andto defend sovereignty; the second is to develop shipping for convenient traffic; thethird is to open up the solid edge for the development of the northeast. These provedthat ZhanJian’s idea of connecting Song-Liao canal still have its significance today.For a long period, Zhang Jian stressed and advocated communicating Songhua riverand Liao river, and was very concerned about the route of the canal. Because Russianand Japanese had ambition of invading the North-easterrn China for long, the projecthad been planed in secret. It was only the advance works of the project,dredaing Liaoriver, that was known to the outside word. Zhang Jian is not the first person topropose the concept of communication Songhua river and Liao river, but he is the one who has complete and systematical description on the significance ofthe communication Songhua river and Liao river, who continually practise his idea tomake it come ture. After Zhang Jian has resigned the president of National Bureau ofwater conservancy, he still occasionally mentioned on communication of the tworivers.Zhang Jian’s idea about the communication of Songhua river and Liaoriver didn’t come true, it was influenced by political instability, lacking of funds, thedeparture of Zhang Jian, the complexity of that project, the climaticconditions and other limiting factors. After the founding of PRC, The governmentonce made the plan of the Song-Liao canal. After the reform and opening up,communicate Songhua river and Liao river reflected on the project of “North-to-SouthWater Diversion”. These proved that Zhang Jian’s idea of connecting Songhua riverand Liao river still have its significance today. We should learn and advance ZhangJian’s idea and practice of communication of Songhua river and Liao river, and if thecase of conditions permits, promote the opening of the canal which aims atrevitalize economic of the northeast river, promoting faster and better development ofthe northeast.