Zhìhé zòujì shū 治河奏績書
Record of the Achievement of Yellow River Management by 靳輔 (Jìn Fǔ, 1633–1692) — zhuàn 撰 with appended Héfáng shùyán 河防述言 (1 juan) by 陳潢 (Chén Huáng, 1637–1688) — yuánlùn 原論; redacted by 張靄生 (Zhāng Ǎishēng) — biānshù 編述
About the work
A 4-juan early-Qīng monograph on Yellow River management, by the Kāng-xī-era Zǒnghé (Director-General of the Yellow River) Jìn Fǔ, who held the post three times (1677–1681, 1684–1688, 1691–1692) — a longer tenure than any other Qīng Zǒnghé before 1700 — and is the principal early-Qīng successor of the Pān Jìxùn shùshuǐ gōngshā tradition. Juan 1: Chuānzé kǎo (Rivers and Marshes), Cáoyùn kǎo (Canal Transport), Héjué kǎo (Yellow River Breaches), Hédào kǎo (Yellow River Channels). Juan 2: Zhíguān kǎo (Officials), Dīhé kǎo (Dykes and Rivers), with maintenance and inspection sections. Juan 3: Jìn’s submitted memorials and the Court’s deliberation. Juan 4: dredging affairs of the various rivers, with priority order. The appended Héfáng shùyán in 12 chapters is the engineering doctrine of Jìn’s principal technical advisor Chén Huáng (zì Tiānyī 天一, hào Xǐngzhāi 省齋, of Qiántáng) — the most original engineering thought of the early-Qīng Yellow River administration.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: this is the work of Jìn Fǔ 靳輔 of our dynasty. Fǔ has the Zòushū, already catalogued. Juan 1 contains Chuānzé kǎo, Cáoyùn kǎo, Héjué kǎo, Hédào kǎo. Juan 2 contains Zhíguān kǎo, Dīhé kǎo, and the maintenance-and-inspection-area-river-measure-and-conventions, sluice-gate maintenance-conventions, boat-rate work-rate of the boats — all appended.
Juan 3 contains the memorials Fǔ submitted and the Court deliberations. Juan 4 contains the dredging affairs of the various rivers, and the urgent and slow priority order of construction. The Chuānzé kǎo sets out: from the Lóngmén of the Yellow River downward to the HuáiXú entry to the sea — each branch and confluence flow examined ancient and verified present, exhausting in detail. The waters that enter the river, and the various waters reservoired and stored to the river — these too are set out in close-and-detailed listing. The Cáoyùn kǎo is also so. The Hédào kǎo lists the strategic places along the river, and the distance from the river — the categories and ordering more detailed than the gazetteers. As to the affairs of dyke-engineering construction — these are all what Fǔ verified personally, set out as conventions.
Fǔ from Kāngxī 16 (1677) to 31 (1692) — three times bore the office of Zǒnghé. Hence his memorials and discussions are uniquely numerous. His sole policy of taking the management of the upper river as the strategy of management of the lower river — although based on what was seen at the time, and the topography afterward differed somewhat — yet what is recorded of construction matters still has things sufficient for selection. Together with Zhāng Bóxíng’s Jūjì yīdé (KR2k0075), they are still not works of empty paper-talk.
Further the Héfáng shùyán in 1 juan — composed by Zhāng Ǎishēng 張靄生, all retracing the discussions of his friend Chén Huáng 陳潢 — therefore named shùyán (related-words). Huáng, zì Tiānyī, hào Xǐngzhāi, of Qiántáng. He was a guest in Fǔ’s mù (private secretariat); Fǔ in his river-management much depended on his planning. In Kāngxī jiǎzǐ (1684), the Sage-Sovereign’s southern tour, Fǔ communicated Huáng’s merit to the throne; the emperor specially conferred upon him the title of Cānzàn héwù ànchásī qiānshì (Examiner of River-Affairs, Provincial Surveillance Commissioner Subordinate). The book has 12 chapters: 1) Héxìng (the river’s nature), holding to going-with and guiding it; 2) Shěnshì (examining the situation), saying that wherever there is calamity, one must trace why it has reached this point; 3) Gūjì (estimation), saying that to skimp on labor and materials, the destruction must come quickly, and what is wasted is greater than what is saved; 4) Rènrén (employment of men), holding to careful selection and clear reward-and-punishment, and grounded in self-rectification to lead inferiors; 5) Yuánliú (source-and-flow), saying the Yellow River’s water is originally clear, and the silt-deposition arises from carrying along the central plain’s waters; 6) Dīfáng (dykes), holding to Pān Jìxùn’s “dyke-binding water, water-scouring silt” doctrine, with the jiǎnshuǐbà (water-reducing dam) as the principal task; 7) Shūjùn (dredging), holding to first stabilizing both flanks of the breach to keep it from daily expanding, then restoring the old course, with auxiliary diversion-canals to flow into it; 8) Gōngliào (works and materials), works grounded in actual checking, materials in advance preparation; 9) Yīngé (innovation and inheritance), saying that today and yesterday’s topography is not the same; 10) Shànshǒu (good guarding), saying the Yellow River has no eternal-rest plan, only constant care of the small and minute, with weight on the river-officials’ long tenure; 11) Zázhì (miscellaneous), recounting the windings of river-management; 12) Biànhuò (refutation of confusion), refuting the heterodox views of the time. Its words often hit the rationale, and with Jìn Fǔ’s book mutually elaborating. Now we record it appended at the end of Fǔ’s book, as material for reference.
The book is prefaced by the Huánghé quántú (Comprehensive Map of the Yellow River), drawn by Ǎishēng himself. Although it is not as clear as the Imperially Ordered Héyuán jìlüè, it greatly surpasses Dūshí et al.’s. Further there is one memorial of Jìn Fǔ — although composed specifically on Huáng’s behalf, it well shows the beginning-and-end of the river-management of the day; we now also together preserve it.
Abstract
The Zhìhé zòujì shū (with the appended Héfáng shùyán) is the principal early-Qīng documentary monument of Yellow River management. Its author Jìn Fǔ (1633–1692, zì Zǐyán 紫垣, of Liáoyáng), held the post of Zǒnghé through three Kāng-xī-era tenures totaling 14 years — directing the principal early-Qīng campaign of dyke-restoration following the catastrophic 1670s breach cycle. He was supported throughout by his mùbīn (private-secretariat) advisor Chén Huáng (1637–1688, zì Tiānyī 天一, hào Xǐngzhāi 省齋, of Qiántáng — CBDB id 81482), the principal early-Qīng theoretician of Yellow River engineering and the most original successor of the Pān Jìxùn doctrine. The Kāngxī emperor, on his Southern Tour of jiǎzǐ (1684), specially appointed Chén Huáng Cānzàn héwù ànchásī qiānshì in recognition of his contribution.
The 12-chapter Héfáng shùyán — redacted by Chén’s friend Zhāng Ǎishēng (清, dates unrecorded) — is the most concentrated theoretical statement of early-Qīng Yellow River engineering. Its principal innovations beyond the Pān Jìxùn doctrine: the jiǎnshuǐbà (water-reducing dam) raised to first place in flood-mitigation; the cyclical “natural” character of river-and-silt management, requiring continuous adjustment rather than once-for-all engineering; the explicit rejection of “eternal-rest” engineering doctrine in favor of “constant care of the small and minute.” The Héfáng shùyán is one of the few early-Qīng technical monographs to develop a coherent theory of river engineering as adaptive management.
The text is preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 579.5). The Zhāng Ǎishēng map of the Yellow River prefacing the work — the Sìkù tíyào notes — is more accurate than any pre-Sìkù imperial cartographic representation but is superseded by the Héyuán jìlüè (KR2k0072).
Translations and research
No English translation. The standard English-language study is Randall A. Dodgen, Controlling the Dragon (Hawaii, 2001), with substantial coverage of Jìn Fǔ and Chén Huáng. See also: Charles Greer, Water Management in the Yellow River Basin of China (Texas, 1979); Pierre-Étienne Will, “State Intervention in the Administration of a Hydraulic Infrastructure,” in The Scope of State Power in China (Hong Kong, 1985). For Chén Huáng’s biography see ECCP s.v. Ch’en Huang. Chinese standard: Yáo Hàn-yuán, Zhōngguó shuǐlì shǐ (1987).
Other points of interest
The Chén Huáng / Jìn Fǔ partnership was the most consequential mùbīn–Zǒnghé pairing in Qīng hydraulic engineering history; the Kāngxī emperor’s special appointment of the mùbīn Chén Huáng to imperial rank for his hydraulic engineering achievement was an unprecedented honor for a non-examination-credentialed advisor.
Links
- Zinbun digital Sìkù tíyào
- Wikidata
- ECCP s.v. Ch’en Huang