Jūjì yīdé 居濟一得
A Single Insight from Living-at-Jì by 張伯行 (Zhāng Bóxíng, 1652–1725) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
An 8-juan early-Qīng monograph on the Shāndōng-canal hydraulic system, composed by Zhāng Bóxíng during his Kāng-xī-era tenure as Zǒngdū hédào (Director-General of River-Works) at Jìníng 濟寧 — the title alludes to his residence at Jì. The first 7 juan set out proposals on the Shāndōng-province canal sluices, dykes, and the methods of construction, dredging, storage-and-discharge, and gate-opening; the appended 1-juan Hécáo lèizuǎn gathers a synoptic treatment of canal-grain transport policy. The work crystallizes Zhāng’s principal technical thesis: that the Yellow River downstream of Sùqiān 宿遷 is broad and rapid (and should be allowed free flow), while upstream of Sùqiān it is narrow and slow (and should be constrained); the XúPī (Xúzhōu / Pīzhōu) reach has a bed elevated above the embankments, requiring downward dyke-construction; while the Hénán reach has a bed depressed below the embankments, requiring upward dyke-construction.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: this is the work of Zhāng Bóxíng 張伯行 of our dynasty. Bóxíng has the Dàotǒng lù, already catalogued. This compilation was made when Bóxíng was Director-General of River-Works: surveying the topography, recording it for reference. The first 7 juan set forth Shāndōng canal-dyke and sluice-gate proposals, and the methods of construction, dredging, storage-and-discharge, and gate-opening — for the various waters’ merits and demerits, divided and analyzed in the most detailed proofs.
Appended afterward is the Hécáo lèizuǎn in 1 juan, which gives only the general outline — for Bóxíng directed only the river-works, hence is sketchy on canal-grain administration.
The main thesis: the Yellow River from Sùqiān downward — the river is broad, the flow rapid; the method is to release it. From Sùqiān upward — the river is narrow, the flow slack; the method is again to constrain it. XúPī: the water is high and the bank flat; the danger of overflow is at the top — one should construct dykes to control the top. Hénán: the water is flat and the bank high; the danger of scouring is at the bottom — one should roll-and-throw matting bundles to control the bottom.
Further there are the conditions of Three Forbiddens, Three Constraints, Four Defenses, and Eight Reliances — all gained from experience, not merely paper-talk. Of Bóxíng’s lifetime writings, only this book is closely tied to practical application. Now after sixty or seventy years, although repeatedly there has been dredging and the topography has changed somewhat, by relying on what is recorded to investigate the rationale of innovation and inheritance, even so it has not lacked benefit.
Abstract
The Jūjì yīdé is the principal early-Qīng monograph on the Shāndōng-canal segment of the Grand Canal — the Yangtze-to-Tianjin sub-system most challenging to operate due to the elevation crossing of the Wènshuǐ 汶水 watershed at Nánwàng 南旺. Its author Zhāng Bóxíng (1652–1725, zì Xiàoxiān 孝先, jìnshì 1685; CBDB id) was one of the principal early-Qīng Confucian conservative officials and a major SòngMíng lǐxué commentator; his Kāng-xī-era tenure as Director-General of River-Works at Jìníng coincided with significant Yellow River engineering campaigns and provided the field experience for the present work. The Sìkù tíyào explicitly notes that the work is the only one of Zhāng’s many writings that bears directly on practical hydraulic engineering — his lifetime corpus is dominated by Sòng-lǐxué and Confucian moral-philosophy compilations.
The work’s principal technical theses — the XúPī / Hénán contrast in dyke-construction principle, the Three Forbiddens, Three Constraints, Four Defenses, Eight Reliances — represent a regional refinement of Pān Jìxùn’s shùshuǐ gōngshā doctrine adapted to the specific conditions of the upper-Hú-Hé and WènHé watersheds. The text is preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 579.4); it remained a standard reference work in Qīng-era Hédōng River administration into the 19th century.
Translations and research
No English translation. Cited in: Randall A. Dodgen, Controlling the Dragon (Hawaii, 2001); Hoshi Ayao, Min-Shin daiundō no kenkyū (Tokyo, 1971). On Zhāng Bóxíng’s Confucian career see Lawrence D. Kessler, K’ang-hsi and the Consolidation of Ch’ing Rule, 1661–1684 (Chicago, 1976); ECCP s.v. Chang Po-hsing. Chinese standard: Yáo Hàn-yuán, Zhōngguó shuǐlì shǐ (1987).
Other points of interest
The work’s title — “Yīdé” (a single insight gained) — alludes to a Lúnyǔ phrase (“一得之愚”) and characteristically of Zhāng Bóxíng’s style frames a substantial technical monograph in the modest rhetorical idiom of the lǐxué tradition.