Zhílì héqú zhì 直隸河渠志
Treatise on the Rivers and Canals of Zhí-lì by 陳儀 (Chén Yí, 1670–1742) — zhuàn 撰
About the work
A 1-juan early-Qīng treatise on the river-and-canal system of Zhílì (modern Héběi and parts of Tiānjīn, Liáoníng) — compiled by Chén Yí during his Yōngzhèng-era tenure as Bàzhōu děngchù yíngtián guāncháshǐ (Inspector for Military-Agricultural Reclamation in Bàzhōu et al.). The work covers 25 major watercourses of the Zhílì coastal-plain network: the Hǎihé, Wèihé, Báihé, Diànhé, Dōngdiàn, Yǒngdìnghé, Qīnghé, Huìtónghé, Zhōngdìnghé, Xīdiàn, Zhàoběikǒu, Zǐyáhé, Qiānlǐ chángdī, Hūtuóhé, Fǔyánghé, Níngjìnpō, Dàlùzé, Fènghé, Mǎngniúhé, Wōtóuhé, Bàoqiūhé, Jìhé, Huánxiānghé, Tāhédiàn, Qīlǐhǎi — all major flow-and-overflow systems of the Héběi plain.
Tiyao
We respectfully note: this is the work of Chén Yí 陳儀 of our dynasty. Yí, zì Zǐhuì 子翽, hào Yīwú 一吾, of Wénān; jìnshì of Kāngxī yǐwèi (1715), rose to Hànlínyuàn shìjiǎng xuéshì and concurrent Bàzhōu děngchù yíngtián guāncháshǐ (Inspector for Military-Agricultural Reclamation in Bàzhōu et al.). This compilation is the work composed during his administration of the yíngtián (military-agricultural lands).
What is listed: the Hǎihé (Sea River), Wèihé, Báihé, Diànhé (Reservoir-pond River), Dōngdiàn, Yǒngdìnghé, Qīnghé, Huìtónghé, Zhōngdìnghé, Xīdiàn, Zhàoběikǒu, Zǐyáhé, Qiānlǐ chángdī (Thousand-Lǐ Long Embankment), Hūtuóhé, Fǔyánghé, Níngjìnpō (Níngjìn Marsh), Dàlùzé, Fènghé, Mǎngniúhé, Wōtóuhé, Bàoqiūhé, Jìhé, Huánxiānghé, Tāhédiàn, Qīlǐhǎi — twenty-five waters, all great flows and great floods.
Although the narrative is in plain matter-of-fact style — only recording the topography of the day, not detailing antiquarian sites — and although in the past several decades the Sage Sovereign has repeatedly considered the people’s reliance on engineering, dredging, and management — long providing the celebration of “stilling the surge” — compared with the day on which Yí composed this book, the openings and barriers, divisions and combinations, of the watercourses have already differed slightly. Yet Yí is originally a native of the place, and personally took part in the various hydraulic affairs; on all matters of water-nature and topography, his knowledge is comparatively detailed. Hence the discussions of merits and demerits are many, and the writings of evidentiary verification of historical successions are few. We record him to preserve, sufficient also for reference of the general outline.
Abstract
The Zhílì héqú zhì is the principal early-Qīng monograph on the river-and-canal system of the Héběi plain. Its author Chén Yí (1670–1742; CBDB id 58821), zì Zǐhuì 子翽, hào Yīwú 一吾, of Wénān 文安, was a Kāngxī 54 (1715) jìnshì who rose to Hànlínyuàn shìjiǎng xuéshì and was appointed by the Yōngzhèng emperor in Yōngzhèng 4 (1726) as the principal guāncháshǐ directing the early-Yōngzhèng yíngtián (military-agricultural reclamation) program in Bàzhōu, Tiānjīnwèi, and other Zhílì coastal counties. The Yōngzhèng yíngtián program — directed in administrative terms by the Yīqīnwáng Yǔnxiáng 怡親王允祥 — was the most ambitious early-Qīng campaign of agricultural land-reclamation through hydraulic engineering, and the present work is the principal documentary monument of its hydraulic dimension.
The Sìkù tíyào notes the work’s empirical bias: heavy on contemporary topographical and hydrological observation, light on antiquarian and historical-philological matter. The 25 waters covered comprise the principal flow systems of the Yán-shān-foothill / Hé-běi-plain / Tiānjīn-coast hydrological network — including the Yǒngdìnghé and Hūtuóhé, the most flood-prone rivers of the Héběi system. The text is preserved in the Wényuāngé Sìkù quánshū (vol. 579.6).
Translations and search
No English translation. Cited in: David A. Bello, Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain (Cambridge, 2016), §3 on the Yōngzhèng yíng-tián program; Pierre-Étienne Will, Bureaucracy and Famine (Stanford, 1990); Pierre-Étienne Will and R. Bin Wong, Nourish the People (Michigan, 1991). For the Yī-qīn-wáng’s hydraulic-administrative role see Madeleine Zelin, The Magistrate’s Tael (UC Press, 1984); ECCP s.v. Yi-yün-hsiang. Standard Chinese reference: Yáo Hàn-yuán, Zhōngguó shuǐlì shǐ (1987).
Other points of interest
The Yōngzhèng yíngtián program documented in this work was a major experiment in state-directed agricultural reclamation through hydraulic engineering — anticipating the better-known Qiánlóng-era reclamation campaigns by a generation. The program achieved temporary success but was largely abandoned in the early Qiánlóng era due to the fiscal demands of the Western Mongol campaigns.