1
河渠一
Rivers and Canals I
2
水為中國患，尚矣。 知其所以為患，則知其所以為利，因其患之不可測而能先事而為之備，或後事而有其功，斯可謂善治水而能通其利者也。 昔者禹堙洪水，疏九河，陂九澤，以開萬世之利，而《周禮·地官》之屬，所載瀦防溝遂之法甚詳。 當是之時，天下蓋無適而非水利也。 自先王疆理井田之制壞，而後水利之說興。 魏史起鑿漳河，秦鄭國引涇水，漢鄭當時、王安世輩或獻議穿漕渠，或建策防水決，是數君子者，皆嘗試其術而卒有成功，太史公《河渠》一書猶可考。 自時厥後，凡好事喜功之徒，率多為興利之言，而其患顧有不可勝言者矣。 夫潤下，水之性也，而欲為之防，以殺其怒，遏其沖，不亦甚難矣哉。 惟能因其勢而導之，可蓄則儲水以備旱暵之災，可泄則瀉水以防水潦之溢，則水之患息，而於是蓋有無窮之利焉。
Water has been a scourge for China since antiquity. Understand why water harms, and you understand how it can help; since floods cannot be predicted, those who prepare in advance, or act after the fact yet still succeed, may truly be said to govern water well and turn its power to lasting gain. Long ago Yu controlled the Great Flood, cleared the Nine Rivers, and banked the Nine Marshes to secure benefits for ages to come; the Earth Office chapters of the Zhou Rituals preserve remarkably detailed regulations for reservoirs, embankments, trenches, and canals. In that era, virtually nowhere in the empire lay outside the scope of hydraulic management. Once the ancient royal land-allotment and well-field systems had broken down, hydraulic projects came to be discussed as a separate field of policy. Shi Qi of Wei opened the Zhang River, Zheng Guo of Qin brought in the Jing, and in Han times Zheng Dangshi, Wang Anshi, and others alike proposed canal cuts or flood-control measures. Each of these men put his plan to the test and ultimately succeeded; their achievements remain traceable in Sima Qian's Treatise on Rivers and Canals. After them, men eager for novelty and credit mostly talked of "creating benefits," while the disasters they caused could scarcely be reckoned. Water by nature flows downward and spreads; to pen it in, blunt its force, and check its rush is a task of extraordinary difficulty. Only by yielding to its current and channeling it—storing where one can to guard against drought, releasing where one must to shed flood—does the harm subside and immeasurable good follow.
3
元有天下，內立都水監，外設各處河渠司，以興舉水利、修理河堤為務。 決雙塔、白浮諸水為通惠河，以濟漕運，而京師無轉餉之勞； 導渾河，疏灤水，而武清、平灤無墊溺之虞； 浚冶河，障滹沱，而真定免決嚙之患。 開會通河於臨清，以通南北之貨； 疏陜西之三白，以溉關中之田； 泄江湖之淫潦，立捍海之橫塘，而浙右之民得免於水患。 當時之善言水利，如太史郭守敬等，蓋亦未嘗無其人焉。 一代之事功，所以為不可泯也。 今故著其開修之歲月，工役之次第，歷敘其事而分紀之，作《河渠志》。
Once the Yuan ruled the empire, they established a central Directorate of Waterways and regional river-and-canal commissions, charged with promoting irrigation and maintaining embankments. They tapped the Shuangta and Baifu springs into the Tonghui Canal to feed the grain route, freeing the capital from overland grain haulage; they redirected the Hun and cleared the Luan, so Wuqing and Pingluan no longer feared silting and inundation; they dredged the Ye and dammed the Hutuo, sparing Zhending from breach and erosion. They cut the Huitong Canal at Linqing to link north and south by water; opened Shaanxi's Three White canals to water the fields of Guanzhong; and drained surplus from rivers and lakes, built sea walls along the coast, so that the people of western Zhejiang were spared inundation. Men of real hydraulic expertise, foremost among them Guo Shoujing, were never altogether lacking in that age. Such were the works of that dynasty—achievements that cannot be effaced from memory. I therefore set down the dates of each project and the order of its labor, recounting each undertaking in turn in this Treatise on Rivers and Canals.
4
通惠河
The Tonghui Canal
5
通惠河，其源出於白浮、甕山諸泉水也。 世祖至元二十八年，都水監郭守敬奉詔興舉水利，因建言：「疏鑿通州至大都河，改引渾水溉田，於舊閘河蹤跡導清水，上自昌平縣白浮村引神山泉，西折南轉，過雙塔、榆河、一畝、玉泉諸水，至西水門入都城，南匯為積水潭，東南出文明門，東至通州高麗莊入白河，總長一百六十四里一百四步。 塞清水口一十二處，共長三百一十步。 壩閘一十處，共二十座，節水以通漕運，誠為便益。」 從之。 首事於至元二十九年之春，告成於三十年之秋，賜名曰通惠。 凡役軍一萬九千一百二十九，工匠五百四十二，水手三百一十九，沒官囚隸百七十二，計二百八十五萬工，用楮幣百五十二萬錠，糧三萬八千七百石，木石等物稱是。 役興之日，命丞相以下皆親操畚鍤為之倡。 置閘之處，往往於地中得舊時磚木，時人為之感服。 船既通行，公私兩便。 先時通州至大都五十里，陸挽官糧，歲若干萬，民不勝其悴，至是皆罷之。
The Tonghui Canal takes its source from the springs of Baifu, Wengshan, and the surrounding hills. In the twenty-eighth year of the Zhiyuan era (1291), Guo Shoujing of the Directorate of Waterways, commissioned to advance hydraulic works, proposed: "Cut a canal from Tongzhou to Dadu; where the old sluice route allows, lead clear water while using the muddy stream for irrigation. From Baifu village in Changping, take the Spirit Mountain spring, bend west and south through the Shuangta, Yu, Yimu, and Yuquan streams, enter the capital at the West Water Gate, pool southward at Jishuitan, issue southeast through Wenhua Gate, and run east to Gaolizhuang in Tongzhou to join the Bai River—a total of 164 li and 104 paces. Twelve clear-water outlets were to be sealed, spanning 310 paces in all. Ten dam-and-lock sites, twenty structures altogether, would regulate the flow for grain transport—a clear and lasting benefit." The court approved the plan. Work began in the spring of 1292 and was declared finished in the autumn of 1293; the canal was given the name Tonghui, Universal Benefit. The project mobilized 19,129 soldiers, 542 artisans, 319 boatmen, and 172 convict laborers, for 2,850,000 work-days; it consumed 1.52 million ingots of paper money, 38,700 shi of grain, and timber, stone, and other materials in proportion. When construction began, the chancellor and all officials below him were ordered to take up basket and spade and lead the laborers by example. Where the new locks were built, workers often unearthed bricks and timbers from earlier works, to the wonder of all who saw them. Once shipping was open, both state and private interests benefited. Before this, official grain for the fifty li between Tongzhou and Dadu had been hauled overland by the tens of thousands of shi each year, a burden the people could scarcely endure; that practice was now abolished entirely.
6
其壩閘之名曰：廣源閘； 西城閘二，上閘在和義門外西北一里，下閘在和義水門西三步； 海子閘，在都城內； 文明閘二，上閘在麗正門外水門東南，下閘在文明門西南一里； 魏村閘二，上閘在文明門東南一里，下閘西至上閘一里； 籍東閘二，在都城東南王家莊； 郊亭閘二，在都城東南二十五里銀王莊； 通州閘二，上閘在通州西門外，下閘在通州南門外； 楊尹閘二，在都城東南三十里； 朝宗閘二，上閘在萬億庫南百步，下閘去上閘百步。
The dams and locks were named as follows: Guangyuan Lock; two Xicheng locks—the upper one li northwest of Heyi Gate, the lower three paces west of the Heyi water gate; the Haizi lock, inside the capital; two Wenhua locks—the upper southeast of the Lizheng water gate, the lower one li southwest of Wenhua Gate; two Weicun locks—the upper one li southeast of Wenhua Gate, the lower one li west of it; two Jidong locks at Wangjiazhuang, southeast of the capital; two Jiaoting locks at Yinwangzhuang, twenty-five li southeast of the capital; two Tongzhou locks—the upper outside the west gate, the lower outside the south gate; two Yangyin locks, thirty li southeast of the capital; and two Chaozong locks—the upper a hundred paces south of the Wanyi granary, the lower a hundred paces below it.
7
成宗元貞元年四月，中書省臣言：「新開運河閘，宜用軍一千五百，以守護兼巡防往來船內奸宄之人。」 從之。 七月，工部言：「通惠河創造閘壩，所費不貲，雖已成功，全藉主守之人，上下照略修治。 今擬設提領三員，管領人夫，專一巡護，降印給俸。 其西城閘改名會川，海子閘改名澄清，文明閘仍用舊名，魏村閘改名惠和，籍東閘改名慶豐，郊亭閘改名平津，通州閘改名通流，河門閘改名廣利，楊尹閘改名溥濟。」
In the fourth month of 1294, ministers of the Central Secretariat proposed: "The locks on the newly opened transport canal should be garrisoned by 1,500 troops to guard them and to patrol passing vessels for wrongdoers aboard." The proposal was approved. In the seventh month the Ministry of Works reported: "The locks and dams on the Tonghui Canal cost a vast sum; though the project succeeded, its upkeep depends entirely on dedicated overseers who inspect and repair them regularly. We propose appointing three superintendents to command the work crews, patrol the line exclusively, and receive official seals and salaries. The Xicheng lock is to be renamed Huichuan, the Haizi lock Chengqing, the Wenhua lock to keep its old name, the Weicun lock Huihe, the Jidong lock Qingfeng, the Jiaoting lock Pingjin, the Tongzhou lock Tongliu, the Hemen lock Guangli, and the Yangyin lock Puji."
8
武宗至大四年六月，省臣言：「通州至大都運糧河閘，始務速成，故皆用木，歲久木朽，一旦俱敗，然後致力，將見不勝其勞。 今為永固計，宜用磚石，以次修治。」 從之。 後至泰定四年，始修完焉。
In the sixth month of 1311, provincial ministers reported: "The locks on the grain canal from Tongzhou to Dadu were first built in haste, entirely of timber; after years the wood rotted and failed all at once, forcing repairs under emergency—labor that cannot be sustained. For a permanent solution, brick and stone should be used, with repairs carried out in orderly stages." The court approved. Repairs were not finished until the fourth year of the Taiding era (1327).
9
文宗天歷三年三月，中書省臣言：「世祖時，開挑通惠河，安置閘座，全藉上源白浮、一畝等泉之水以通漕運。 今各枝及諸寺觀權勢，私決堤堰，澆灌稻田、水碾、園圃，致河淺妨漕事，乞禁之。」 奉旨：白浮、甕山直抵大都運糧河堤堰泉水，諸人毋挾勢偷決，大司農司、都水監可嚴禁之。
In the third month of 1332, Central Secretariat ministers reported: "When the Tonghui Canal was cut under Emperor Shizu, its locks depended entirely on the headwaters from Baifu, Yimu, and the other springs to sustain grain transport. Now branch streams and powerful monasteries illegally breach the dikes to irrigate paddies, run water mills, and water gardens, shallowing the canal and hindering transport—we ask that this be forbidden." An edict followed, ordering that from Baifu and Wengshan to the Dadu grain canal, no one was to use influence to breach dikes or divert springs, and that the Grand Secretariat for Agriculture and the Directorate of Waterways were to enforce the ban strictly.
10
壩河，亦名阜通七壩。 成宗大德六年三月，京畿漕運司言：「歲漕米百萬，全藉船壩夫力。 自冰開發運至河凍時止，計二百四十日，日運糧四千六百餘石，所轄船夫一千三百餘人，壩夫七百三十，占役俱盡，晝夜不息。 今歲水漲，沖決壩堤六十餘處，雖已修畢，恐霖雨沖圮，走泄運水，以此點視河堤淺澀低薄去處，請加修理。」 自五月四日入役，六月十二日畢，深溝壩九處，計一萬五千一百五十三工。 王村壩二處，計七百十三工； 鄭村壩一處，計一千一百二十五工； 西陽壩三處，計一千二百六十二工； 郭村壩三處，計一千九百八十七工。 千斯壩下一處，計一萬工； 總用工三萬二百四十。
The Dam River, also called the Seven Futong Dams In the third month of 1302, the Capital Region Grain Transport Office reported: "A million shi of tribute grain each year depends entirely on the boatmen and dam workers. From the ice break until the river froze—240 days—they moved more than 4,600 shi daily, with 1,300 boatmen and 730 dam workers under command, every man on duty and working day and night without pause. This year's flood breached more than sixty dam sections; though repairs are done, heavy rains may wash them out and drain the canal. We have surveyed weak, shallow, and low stretches of the embankment and request further work." Work ran from the fourth day of the fifth month to the twelfth of the sixth: nine Shen'gou dams, 15,153 work-days in all. Two Wangcun dams, 713 work-days; one Zhengcun dam, 1,125 work-days; three Xiyang dams, 1,262 work-days; and three Guocun dams, 1,987 work-days. One lower Qiansi dam, 10,000 work-days; for a grand total of 30,240 work-days.
11
金水河，其源出於宛平縣玉泉山，流至和義門南水門入京城，故得金水之名。
The Golden Water River rises on Yuquan Mountain in Wanping county and enters the capital through the south water gate of Heyi Gate—hence its name.
12
至元二十九年二月，中書右丞馬速忽等言：「金水河所經運石大河及高良河、西河俱有跨河跳槽，今已損壞，請新之。」 是年六月興工，明年二月工畢。
In the second month of the twenty-ninth year of Zhiyuan (1292), Right Vice-Chancellor Masuhu and others reported: "The Jinshui River crosses the Yunshi Great River, the Gaoliang, and the Xi by trestle flumes, all now damaged—we ask that they be rebuilt." Work began that June and was finished the following February.
13
至大四年七月，奉旨引金水河水註之光天殿西花園石山前舊池，置閘四以節水。 閏七月興工，九月成，凡役夫匠二十九，為工二千七百二十三，除妨工，實役六十五日。
In the seventh month of 1311, by imperial order the Golden Water was diverted into the old pool before the rockery in the west garden of the Guangtian Hall, with four sluice gates to regulate the flow. Construction began in the intercalary seventh month and was finished in the ninth; twenty-nine workers logged 2,723 work-days, or sixty-five days of actual labor after delays.
14
隆福宮前河
The River before Longfu Palace
15
隆福宮前河，其水與太液池通。 英宗至治二年五月，奉敕云：「昔在世祖時，金水河濯手有禁，今則洗馬者有之。 比至秋疏滌，禁諸人毋得汙穢。」 於是會計修浚，三年四月興工，五月工畢，凡役軍八百，為工五千六百三十五。
The river before Longfu Palace shares its water with the Taiye Pool. In the fifth month of 1322, an edict declared: "Under Emperor Shizu, washing one's hands in the Golden Water was forbidden; now men wash their horses there. When autumn comes, dredge and cleanse it, and forbid anyone to defile the water." Accounts were drawn up for dredging; work began in the fourth month of the third year and was finished in the fifth, with 800 soldiers and 5,635 work-days in all.
16
海子岸，上接龍王堂，以石甃其四周。 海子一名積水潭，聚西北諸泉之水，流行入都城而匯於此，汪洋如海，都人因名焉。
The Haizi shore, adjoining Longwang Hall above, was faced with stone on all sides. The Haizi, also called Jishuitan, collects the northwestern springs, flows into the capital, and pools here in a sheet wide as the sea—whence the people of the capital gave it its name.
17
仁宗延祐六年二月，都水監計會前後，興元修舊石岸相接，凡用石三百五，各長四尺，闊二尺五寸，厚一尺，石灰三千斤，該三百五工，丁夫五十，石工十，九月五日興工，十一日工畢。
In the second month of 1319 the Directorate of Waterways planned repairs to join the old stone revetments: 305 blocks, each four feet long, two and a half feet wide, and one foot thick, with 3,000 jin of lime—305 work-days, fifty corvée laborers, and ten masons; work began on the fifth day of the ninth month and was finished on the eleventh.
18
至治三年三月，大都河道提舉司言：「海子南岸東西道路，當兩城要沖，金水河浸潤於其上，海子風浪沖嚙於其下，且道狹，不時潰陷泥濘，車馬艱於往來，如以石砌之，實永久之計也。」
In the third month of 1323 the Dadu River Intendant Office reported: "The east-west road along the south shore of the Haizi lies at a vital junction between the two cities; the Golden Water seeps above while wind and waves from the Haizi erode below. The road is narrow and often collapses into mud, making travel difficult—paving it with stone would be a lasting remedy."
19
泰定元年四月，工部應副工物，七月興工，八月工畢，凡用夫匠二百八十七人。 雙塔河
In the fourth month of 1324 the Ministry of Works supplied materials; work began in the seventh month and was finished in the eighth, employing 287 workers in all. The Shuangta River
20
雙塔河，源出昌平縣孟村一畝泉，經雙塔店而東，至豐善村，入榆河。 至元三年四月六日，巡河官言：「雙塔河時將泛溢，不早為備，恐至潰決，臨期卒難措手。 乃計會閉水口工物，開申都水監，創開雙塔河，未及堅久。 今已及水漲之時，倘或決壞，走泄水勢，誤運船不便。」 省準制國用司給所需，都水監差夫修治焉。 凡合閉水口五處，用工二千一百五十五。
The Shuangta River rises at the Yimu Spring in Mengcun, Changping county, runs east past Shuangta post-station to Fengshan village, and joins the Yu River. On the sixth day of the fourth month of 1266, the river patrol officer reported: "The Shuangta River is about to flood; unless we prepare now, it may breach—and at the last moment nothing can be done. He tallied materials to seal the outlets and petitioned the Directorate of Waterways, noting that the newly cut Shuangta channel was not yet firmly established. The flood season is upon us; if the works fail, the released current will disrupt grain transport." The Secretariat approved; the State Revenue Office furnished supplies; and the Directorate of Waterways sent workers to make repairs. Five outlets were sealed in all, at a cost of 2,155 work-days.
21
盧溝河
The Lugou River
22
盧溝河，其源出於代地，名曰小黃河，以流濁故也。 自奉聖州界流入宛平縣境，至都城四十里東麻谷，分為二派。
The Lugou River rises in the Dai region and is called the Little Yellow River for its muddy current. It enters Wanping county from Fengsheng prefecture and, forty li from the capital at Dongmagu, splits into two branches.
23
太宗七年歲乙未八月敕：「近劉沖祿言：『率水工二百餘人，已依期築閉盧溝河元破牙梳口，若不修堤固護，恐不時漲水沖壞，或貪利之人盜決溉灌，請令禁之。』 劉沖祿可就主領，毋致沖塌盜決，犯者以違制論，徒二年，決杖七十。 如遇修築時，所用丁夫器具，應差處調發之。 其舊有水手人夫內，五十人差官存留不妨。 已委管領，常切巡視體究，歲一交番，所司有不應副者罪之。」
In the eighth month of 1235, an edict declared: "Liu Chonglu recently reported: 'With more than two hundred water workers I have closed the breached comb-gap on the Lugou River on schedule; unless the dikes are strengthened, sudden floods may destroy the work, or profiteers may breach it for irrigation—we ask that this be forbidden.' Liu Chonglu is to take charge and prevent breach or illegal diversion; offenders shall be punished under the statute on violations of imperial orders—two years' penal servitude and seventy strokes of the cane. When repairs are needed, laborers and tools shall be requisitioned from the appropriate offices. Of the former boatmen and workers, fifty may remain under an appointed officer. He is entrusted with command, to patrol constantly and investigate thoroughly, with an annual rotation of duty; any office that fails to comply shall be punished."
24
白浮甕山
Baifu and Wengshan
25
白浮甕山，即通惠河上源之所出也。 白浮泉水在昌平縣界，西折而南，經甕山泊，自西水門入都城焉。
Baifu and Wengshan are the source of the Tonghui Canal's headwaters. The Baifu spring lies in Changping county, bends west and south through Wengshan marsh, and enters the capital by the West Water Gate.
26
成宗大德七年六月，甕山等處看閘提領言：「自閏五月二十九日始，晝夜雨不止，六月九日夜半，山水暴漲，漫流堤上，沖決水口。」 於是都水監委官督軍夫，自九月二十一日入役，至是月終輟工，實役軍夫九百九十三人。 十一年三月，都水監言：「巡視白浮甕山河堤，崩三十餘里，宜編荊笆為水口，以泄水勢。」 計修笆口十一處，四月興工，十月工畢。
In the sixth month of the seventh year of Dade under Emperor Chengzong, the lock overseer at Wengshan and other places reported: "Beginning from the twenty-ninth day of the intercalary fifth month, rain fell day and night without cease. At midnight on the ninth day of the sixth month, mountain water rose suddenly, flowed over the dikes, and breached the water outlet." The Directorate of Waterworks then sent officials to oversee military laborers. Work began on the twenty-first day of the ninth month and stopped at month's end, with 993 soldiers actually put to the task. In the third month of the eleventh year, the Directorate of Waterworks reported: "On inspection, the dikes along the Baifu and Wengshan rivers had collapsed for more than thirty li. Brushwood wattles should be woven at the water outlets to release the force of the water." Eleven wattle outlets were slated for repair. Construction began in the fourth month and finished in the tenth.
27
仁宗皇慶元年正月，都水監言：「白浮甕山堤，多低薄崩陷處，宜修治。」 來春二月入役，八月修完，總修長三十七里二百十五步，計七萬三千七百七十三工。 延祐元年四月，都水監言：「自白浮甕山下至廣源閘堤堰，多淤澱淺塞，源泉微細，不能通流，擬疏滌。」 由是會計工程，差軍千人疏治。
In the first month of the first year of Huangqing under Emperor Renzong, the Directorate of Waterworks reported: "The Baifu and Wengshan dikes have many places that are low, thin, collapsed, or sunken. They should be repaired." The following spring, labor began in the second month and was completed in the eighth. The work covered thirty-seven li and 215 paces in all, at a cost of 73,773 work-days. In the fourth month of the first year of Yanyou, the Directorate of Waterworks reported: "From below Baifu Wengshan to the dikes and weirs at Guangyuan Lock, there is much silt deposit and shallow blockage. The springs are slight and cannot flow freely. We propose dredging." The project was costed accordingly, and a thousand soldiers were assigned to dredge and clear the channel.
28
泰定四年八月，都水監言：「八月三日至六日，霖雨不止，山水泛溢，沖壞甕山諸處笆口，浸沒民田。」 計料工物，移交工部關支修治。 自八月二十六日興工，九月十二日工畢，役軍夫二千名，實役九萬工，四十五日。
In the eighth month of the fourth year of Taiding, the Directorate of Waterworks reported: "From the third to the sixth day of the eighth month, steady rain fell without cease. Mountain water overflowed, destroying the wattle outlets at Wengshan and other places and inundating private fields." Materials and labor were estimated, and the case was referred to the Ministry of Works for funds and repairs. Work began on the twenty-sixth day of the eighth month and ended on the twelfth day of the ninth. Two thousand military laborers were deployed, consuming 90,000 work-days over forty-five days.
29
渾河，本盧溝水，從大興縣流至東安州、武清縣，入漷州界。 至大二年十月，渾河水決左都威衛營西大堤，泛溢南流，沒左右二翊及後衛屯田麥，由是左都威衛言：「十月五日，水決武清縣王甫村堤，闊五十餘步，深五尺許，水西南漫平地流，環圓營倉局，水不沒者無幾。 恐來春冰消，夏雨水作，沖決成渠，軍民被害，或遷置營司，或多差軍民修塞，庶免墊溺。」 三年二月十二日，省準下左右翊及後衛、大都路委官督工修治，至五月二十日工畢。
The Hun River is essentially the Lugou River. It runs from Daxing County through Dong'an Prefecture and Wuqing County into Huozhou. In the tenth month of the second year of Zhida, the Hun River breached the great dike west of the Left Capital Guard camp. It overflowed southward and submerged the wheat fields of the Left and Right Assistants and the Rear Guard garrison farms. Thereupon the Left Capital Guard reported: "On the fifth day of the tenth month, the river breached the dike at Wangfu Village in Wuqing County, a gap more than fifty paces wide and about five chi deep. The water spread southwest across level ground, encircling the round camp granary offices; scarcely anything remained above water. We fear that when the ice melts next spring and summer rains come, the breach may be cut into a channel, harming soldiers and civilians. Either the camp offices should be relocated, or more soldiers and civilians should be assigned to repair and block it, so that inundation may be avoided." On the twelfth day of the second month of the third year, the provincial office approved the plan and ordered the Left and Right Assistants, the Rear Guard, and Dadu Circuit to send officials to oversee the work, which was finished on the twentieth day of the fifth month.
30
皇慶元年二月十七日，東安州言：「渾河水溢，決黃堝堤一十七所。」 都水監計工物移文工部。 二十七日，樞密知院塔失帖木兒奏：「左衛言渾河決堤口二處，屯田浸不耕種，已發軍五百修治。 臣等議，治水有司職耳，宜令中書戒所屬用心修治。」 從之。 七月，省委工部員外郎張彬言：「巡視渾河，六月三十日霖雨，水漲及丈餘，決堤口二百餘步，漂民廬，沒禾稼，乞委官修治，發民丁刈雜草興築。」
On the seventeenth day of the second month of the first year of Huangqing, Dong'an Prefecture reported, "The Hun River overflowed and broke the dikes at Huangguo in seventeen places." The Directorate of Waterworks calculated the labor and materials and sent the documents to the Ministry of Works. On the twenty-seventh day, Tash Temür, administrator of the Bureau of Military Affairs, memorialized, "The Left Guard reports that the Hun River has breached the dike in two places, inundating garrison fields so they cannot be cultivated. Five hundred soldiers have already been dispatched to repair them. Your servants have deliberated: water control is the duty of the responsible offices. The Secretariat should be ordered to admonish its subordinates to carry out the repairs attentively." This was approved. In the seventh month, Zhang Bin, vice director in the Ministry of Works commissioned by the Secretariat, reported, "I inspected the Hun River. On the thirtieth day of the sixth month, continuous rain raised the water by more than a zhang; the dike broke for more than two hundred paces, sweeping away commoners' houses and submerging grain crops. I request that officials be assigned to repair it and that civilian laborers be mobilized to cut weeds and begin construction."
31
延祐元年六月十七日，左衛言：「六月十四日，渾河決武清縣劉家莊堤口，差軍七百與東安州民夫協力同修之。」 三年三月，省議：「渾河決堤堰，沒田禾，軍民蒙害，既已奏聞。 差官相視，上自石徑山金口，下至武清縣界舊堤，長計三百四十八里，中間因舊修築者大小四十七處，漲水所害合修補者一十九處，無堤創修者八處，宜疏通者二處，計工三十八萬一百，役軍夫三萬五千，九十六日可畢。 如通築則役大難成，就令分作三年為之，省院差官先發軍民夫匠萬人，興工以修其要處。」 是月二十日，樞府奏撥軍三千，委中衛僉事督修治之。 七年五月，營田提舉司言：「去歲十二月二十一日，屯戶巡視廣賦屯北渾河堤二百餘步將崩，恐春首土解水漲，浸沒為患，乞修治。」 都水監委濠寨，會營田提舉司官、武清縣官，督夫修完廣武屯北陷薄堤一處，計二千五百工； 永興屯北堤低薄一處，計四千一百六十六工； 落褵村西沖圮一處，計三千七百三十三工； 永興屯北崩圮一處，計六千五百十八工； 北王村莊西河東岸至白墳兒，南至韓村西道口，計六千九十三工； 劉邢莊西河東岸北至寶僧百戶屯，南至白墳兒，計三萬七百十二工。 總用工五萬三千七百二十二。
On the seventeenth day of the sixth month of the first year of Yanyou, the Left Guard reported: "On the fourteenth day of the sixth month, the Hun River breached the dike at Liujiazhuang in Wuqing County. Seven hundred soldiers were assigned, together with laborers from Dong'an Prefecture, to repair it jointly." In the third month of the third year, the provincial office deliberated: "The Hun River has burst dikes and weirs, drowning crops and harming soldiers and civilians. The matter has already been reported to the throne. Inspectors were sent out. From Shijing Mountain at Jinkou upstream to the old dikes on the Wuqing County border, the line measured 348 li in all. Of this, forty-seven large and small sections could be rebuilt on old foundations; nineteen flood-damaged spots needed patching; eight stretches lacked dikes and required new construction; and two needed dredging. The estimate was 380,100 work-days, 35,000 military laborers, and ninety-six days to finish. A single continuous build would demand too much labor to succeed. The work should be spread over three years. The provincial office and Censorate should send officials and first mobilize ten thousand soldiers, civilians, laborers, and craftsmen to tackle the most critical sections." On the twentieth day of that month, the Bureau of Military Affairs memorialized allocating three thousand soldiers under a vice commissioner of the Central Guard to supervise the repairs. In the fifth month of the seventh year, the Garrison Farm Intendant reported: "On the twenty-first day of the twelfth month of last year, garrison households on patrol found that a stretch of more than 200 paces of the Hun River dike north of Guangfu Garrison was about to collapse. We fear that when the soil thaws at the start of spring and the water rises, it will inundate and cause harm. We request repairs." The Directorate of Waterworks assigned the moat garrison, together with officials from the Garrison Farm Intendant and Wuqing County, to supervise repairs on one thin, sunken stretch of dike north of Guangwu Garrison—2,500 work-days; one low, thin section north of Yongxing Garrison—4,166 work-days; one washed-out section west of Luoli Village—3,733 work-days; one collapsed section north of Yongxing Garrison—6,518 work-days; from the east bank west of Beiwang Village to Baifener, south to the west crossing at Hancun Village—6,093 work-days; from the east bank west of Liuxingzhuang north to the Baoseng Centurion garrison, south to Baifener—30,712 work-days. In all, the work required 53,722 work-days.
32
泰定四年四月，省議：「三年六月內霖雨，山水暴漲，泛沒大興縣諸鄉桑棗田園，移文樞府，於七衛屯田及見有軍內，差三千人修治。」 白河
In the fourth month of the fourth year of Taiding, the provincial office deliberated: "In the sixth month of the third year, steady rains caused mountain water to rise suddenly and flood the mulberry, jujube, fields, and gardens of various townships in Daxing County. A dispatch was sent to the Bureau of Military Affairs to assign three thousand men from the seven guard garrison farms and available troops to repair the damage." The Bai River
33
白河，在漷州東四里，北出通州潞縣，南入於通州境，又東南至香河縣界，又流入於武清縣境，達於靜海縣界。
The Bai River lies four li east of Huozhou. It rises north from Lu County in Tongzhou, runs south into Tongzhou, turns southeast to the Xianghe County border, then flows east through Wuqing County to the Jinghai County line.
34
至元三十年九月，漕司言：「通州運糧河全仰白、榆、渾三河之水，合流名曰潞河，舟楫之行有年矣。 今歲新開閘河，分引渾、榆二河上源之水，故自李二寺至通州三十餘里，河道淺澀。 今春夏天旱，有止深二尺處，糧船不通，改用小料船搬載，淹延歲月，致虧糧數。 先是，都水監相視白河，自東岸吳家莊前，就大河西南，斜開小河二里許，引榆河合流至深溝壩下，以通漕舟。 今丈量，自深溝、榆河上灣，至吳家莊龍王廟前白河，西南至壩河八百步。 及巡視，知榆河上源築閉，其水盡趨通惠河，止有白佛、靈溝、一子母三小河水入榆河，泉脈微，不能勝舟。 擬自吳家莊就龍王廟前閉白河，於西南開小渠，引水自壩河上灣入榆河，庶可漕運。 又深溝樂歲五倉，積貯新舊糧七十餘萬石，站車挽運艱緩，由是訪視通州城北通惠河積水，至深溝村西水渠，去樂歲、廣儲等倉甚近，擬自積水處由舊渠北開四百步，至樂歲倉西北，以小料船運載甚便。」 都省准焉。 通惠河自通州城北，至樂歲西北，水陸共長五百步，計役八萬六百五十工。
In the ninth month of the thirtieth year of Zhiyuan, the Grain Transport Office reported: "The grain transport river at Tongzhou relies entirely on the waters of the Bai, Yu, and Hun rivers, which join and are called the Lu River. Ships have traveled it for many years. That year the newly opened lock canal had diverted the upper reaches of the Hun and Yu rivers, leaving the thirty-odd li from Li'er Temple to Tongzhou shallow and sluggish. Spring and summer brought drought; in places the depth fell to only two chi. Grain barges could not pass and had to transfer cargo to smaller boats, delaying transport for months and costing grain. Earlier the Directorate of Waterworks had surveyed the Bai River and, from the east bank below Wujiazhuang, cut a diagonal channel southwest for about two li along the main stream to bring Yu River water below Shenggou Dam and keep transport boats moving. New measurements showed that from the upper bend at Shenggou and the Yu River to the Bai River in front of Longwang Temple at Wujiazhuang, and southwest to the dam channel, the distance was 800 paces. Inspection showed that the upper Yu had been dammed shut, its water entirely diverted to the Tonghui River. Only the three minor streams—Baifo, Linggou, and Yizimu—still fed the Yu, and their flow was too slight to carry boats. They proposed closing the Bai River at Longwang Temple below Wujiazhuang, opening a small canal to the southwest, and drawing water from the upper bend of the dam channel into the Yu so grain transport could resume. Also, at Leyear's five granaries at Shenggou, more than 700,000 shi of old and new grain were stored. Cart transport by relay stations was slow and difficult. Therefore they surveyed the pooled water of the Tonghui River north of Tongzhou city, reaching the water channel west of Shengou Village, very near the Leyear, Guangchu, and other granaries. It was proposed to open 400 paces north from the pooled water along the old channel to the northwest of Leyear Granary, so that transport by small craft would be very convenient." The Metropolitan Secretariat approved the plan. From north of Tongzhou on the Tonghui River to the northwest of Leyear Granary, the combined water-and-land route measured 500 paces and required 80,650 work-days.
35
大德二年五月，中書省劄付都水監：運糧河堤自楊村至河西務三十五處，用葦一萬九千一百四十束，軍夫二千六百四十九名，度三十日畢。 於是本監分官率濠寨至楊村歷視壞堤，督巡河夫修理，以霖雨水溢，故工役倍元料，自寺洵口北至蔡村、清口、孫家務、辛莊、河西務堤，就用元料葦草，修補卑薄，創築月堤，頗有成功。 其楊村兩岸相對出水河口四處，葦草不敷，就令軍夫采刈，至九月住役。 楊村河上接通惠諸河，下通滹沱入江淮，使官民舟楫直達都邑，利國便民。 奈楊村堤岸隨修隨圮，蓋為用力不固，徒煩工役，其未修者，候來春水涸土幹，調軍夫修治。
In the fifth month of the second year of Dade, the Central Secretariat directed the Directorate of Waterworks to repair thirty-five sections of grain-canal dike from Yangcun to Hexiwu, budgeting 19,140 bundles of reeds, 2,649 military laborers, and thirty days. The Directorate then split its staff, sending moat-garrison officers to Yangcun to inspect damaged dikes in turn and supervise river patrol laborers. Heavy rains swelled the water and doubled the work beyond the original estimate. From Siyunkou north through the dikes at Caicun, Qingkou, Sunjiawu, Xinzhuang, and Hexiwu, they used the allotted reeds and grass to patch weak sections and build new crescent dikes with considerable success. At four outlet points on opposite banks at Yangcun, reeds ran short, so soldiers were sent to cut and gather more. Work stopped in the ninth month. The Yangcun River links upstream to the Tonghui and other waterways and downstream to the Hutuo and on toward the Yangtze and Huai, letting official and private craft reach the capital directly to the benefit of state and people alike. Yet Yangcun's dikes failed as fast as they were rebuilt—the work had not been done solidly, and labor was wasted. Unfinished sections should wait until the following spring, when the water fell and the soil dried, before soldiers were sent back to finish.
36
延祐六年十月，省臣言：「漕運糧儲及南來諸物商賈舟楫，皆由直沽達通惠河。 今岸崩泥淺，不早疏浚，有礙舟行，必致物價翔湧。 都水監職專水利，宜分官一員，以時巡視，遇有頹圮淺澀，隨宜修築，如功力不敷，有司差夫助役，怠事者究治。」 從之。
In the tenth month of the sixth year of Yanyou, provincial officials reported: "Grain transport, stored provisions, and merchant vessels carrying goods from the south all reach the Tonghui River by way of Zhigu. The banks were crumbling and the channel silting shallow. Without prompt dredging, boats would be blocked and prices would surely spike. The Directorate of Waterworks is charged solely with water control. One official should be assigned to inspect on schedule. Wherever banks collapse or channels shoal, repairs should be made as needed. If labor is insufficient, the responsible office should assign laborers to assist. Negligence should be investigated and punished." The court approved.
37
至治元年正月十一日，漕司言：「夏運海糧一百八十九萬餘石，轉漕往返，全藉河道通便，今小直沽汊河口潮汐往來，淤泥壅積七十餘處，漕運不能通行，宜移文都水監疏滌。」 工部議：「時農作方興，兼民多艱食，若不差軍助役，民力有所不逮。」 樞密院言：「軍人不敷。」 省議：「若差民丁，方今東作之時，恐妨歲事。 其令大都募民夫三千，日給傭鈔一兩、糙粳米一升，委正官提調，驗日支給，令都水監暨漕司官同督其事。」 四月十一日入役，五月十日工畢。
On the eleventh day of the first month of the first year of Zhizhi, the Grain Transport Office reported: "The summer transport of 1,890,000-odd shi of sea grain, with round-trip transfer, depends entirely on an unobstructed river channel. Now at the Xiaozhigu branch mouth, where tides ebb and flow, silt has accumulated at more than seventy places and grain transport cannot pass. A dispatch should be sent to the Directorate of Waterworks to dredge." The Ministry of Works deliberated: "Farm work is now underway, and many people lack food. If soldiers are not assigned to assist, civilian strength will be insufficient." The Bureau of Military Affairs reported: "Soldiers are insufficient." The provincial office deliberated: "If civilian laborers are assigned, it is now the season for eastern fieldwork, and we fear harm to the year's harvest. Let Dadu recruit three thousand civilian laborers, giving each one tael of hired-labor cash and one sheng of coarse husked rice per day. A responsible official should be appointed to manage distribution, verified and paid daily. Officials of the Directorate of Waterworks and the Grain Transport Office should jointly supervise the work." Work began on the eleventh day of the fourth month and finished on the tenth day of the fifth.
38
泰定元年二月，樞府臣奏：「臨清萬戶府言，至治元年霖雨，決壞運糧河岸，宜差軍修築。 臣等議，誠利益事，令本府差軍三百執役。」 從之。 三年三月，都水監言：「河西務菜市灣水勢衝嚙，與倉相近，將來為患，宜於劉二總管營相對河東岸，截河築堤，改水道與舊河合，可杜後患。」 四年正月，省臣奏准，樞府差軍五千，大都路募夫五千人，日支糙米五升、中統鈔一兩，本監工部委官與前衛董指揮同監役，是年三月十八日興工，六月十一日工畢。
In the second month of the first year of Taiding, ministers of the Bureau of Military Affairs memorialized, "The Linqing Ten-thousand Households Office reports that continuous rains in Zhizhi 1 broke and damaged the grain-transport riverbank, and soldiers should be assigned to repair it. Your servants have deliberated that this is truly a beneficial matter. Let that office assign three hundred soldiers to the work." This was approved. In the third month of the third year, the Directorate of Waterworks reported, "At Caishi Bend in Hexiwu the current is scouring the bank close to the granary and will become a future danger. On the east bank opposite Liu Er's commander camp, the river should be cut off and a dike built, changing the watercourse to join the old river; this can prevent later trouble." In the first month of the fourth year, Secretariat ministers memorialized approval: the Bureau of Military Affairs would assign five thousand soldiers, and Dadu Circuit would hire five thousand laborers, each receiving five sheng of coarse rice and one liang of Zhongtong notes per day. The Directorate and Ministry of Works assigned officials, together with Commander Dong of the Forward Guard, to supervise the labor. Work began on the eighteenth day of the third month that year and was completed on the eleventh day of the sixth month.
39
致和元年六月六日，臨清御河萬戶府言：「泰定四年八月二日，河溢，壞營北門堤約五十步，漂舊樁木百餘，崩圮猶未已。」 工部議：「河岸崩摧，理宜修治，既都水監會計工物，各處支給，其役夫三千人，若擬差民，方春恐妨農務，宜移文樞密院撥軍。」 省準修舊堤岸，展闊新河口東岸，計工五萬九千九百三十七，用軍三千、木匠十人。
On the sixth day of the sixth month of the first year of Zhihe, the Linqing Imperial River Ten-thousand Households Office reported: "On the second day of the eighth month of the fourth year of Taiding, the river overflowed and destroyed about fifty paces of the dike at the camp's north gate. More than a hundred old piles were washed away, and collapse had not yet ceased." The Ministry of Works deliberated: "When river banks collapse, repair is proper. Since the Directorate of Waterworks has already calculated materials and labor and supplies are being issued from various places, three thousand laborers are needed. If civilians are drafted, spring fieldwork may be harmed. A dispatch should be sent to the Bureau of Military Affairs to allocate soldiers." The provincial office approved repairs to the old dikes and widening of the east bank at the new river mouth—59,937 work-days, three thousand soldiers, and ten carpenters.
40
天歷二年三月，漕司言：「元開劉二總管營相對河，比舊河運糧迂遠，乞委官相視，復開舊河便。」 四月九日，奏準，差軍七千，委兵部員外郎鄧衡、都水監丞阿裏、漕使太不花等督工修浚。 後以冬寒，候凍解興役。 三年，工部移文大都，於近甸募民夫三千，日支糙粳米三升、中統鈔一兩，兵部改委辛侍郎暨元委官修辟。
In the third month of the second year of Tianli, the Grain Transport Office reported: "The river opened by Administrator Liu the Second opposite his camp is more circuitous for grain transport than the old river. Officials should be assigned to inspect and reopen the old river, which would be more convenient." On the ninth day of the fourth month the memorial was approved. Seven thousand soldiers were assigned under Vice Minister of War Deng Heng, Vice Director Ali of the Directorate of Waterworks, and Grain Transport Commissioner Taibuhua to dredge and reopen the channel. Winter cold intervened, and work waited until the ice broke up. In the third year the Ministry of Works ordered Dadu to recruit three thousand laborers from the nearby countryside, paying three sheng of coarse rice and one tael of Zhongtong cash daily. The Ministry of War reassigned Vice Minister Xin, together with the original commissioners, to dredge and reopen the channel.
41
至順元年六月，都水監言：「二十三日夜，白河水驟漲丈餘，觀音寺新修護倉堤，已督有司差夫救護，今水落尺餘，宜候伏槽興作。」 御河
In the sixth month of the first year of Zhishun, the Directorate of Waterworks reported: "On the night of the twenty-third, the Bai River rose suddenly by more than one zhang. The newly repaired protective granary dike at Guanyin Temple had already been placed under local officials with laborers assigned for emergency rescue. The water has now fallen by more than one chi. Work should wait until the low-water season of summer." The Imperial River
42
御河，自大名路魏縣界經元城縣泉源鄉於村度，南北約十里，東北流至包家渡，下接館陶縣界三口。 御河上從交河縣，下入清池縣界。 又永濟河在清池縣西三十里，自南皮縣來，入清州，今呼為御河也。
The Imperial River enters from Wei County on the Daming Circuit border, runs about ten li north and south through Quanyuan Township at Yucun in Yuancheng County, flows northeast to Baojia Ford, and descends to three mouths on the Guantao County line. Upstream it comes from Jiaohe County and runs down into Qingchi County. The Yongji River, thirty li west of Qingchi County, rises in Nanpi County, enters Qing Prefecture, and is now also called the Imperial River.
43
至元三年七月六日，都水監言：「運河二千餘里，漕公私物貨，為利甚大。 自兵興以來，失於修治，清州之南，景州以北，頹闕岸口三十餘處，淤塞河流十五里。 至癸巳年，朝廷役夫四千，修築浚滌，乃復行舟。 今又三十餘年，無官主領。 滄州地分，水面高於平地，全藉堤堰防護。 其園圃之家掘堤作井，深至丈餘，或二丈，引水以溉蔬花。 復有瀕河人民就堤取土，漸至闕破，走泄水勢，不惟澀行舟，妨運糧，或致漂民居，沒禾稼。 其長蘆以北，索家馬頭之南，水內暗藏樁橛，破舟船，壞糧物。」 部議以濱河州縣佐貳之官兼河防事，於各地分巡視，如有闕破，即率眾修治，拔去樁橛，仍禁園圃之家毋穿堤作井，栽樹取土。 都省準議。 七年，省臣言：「御河水泛武清縣，計疏浚役夫一十，工八十日可畢。」 從之。
On the sixth day of the seventh month of the third year of Zhiyuan, the Directorate of Waterworks reported: "The transport canal of more than 2,000 li carries public and private goods by grain transport; its benefit is very great. Since the wars began it had gone unrepaired. South of Qing Prefecture and north of Jing Prefecture, more than thirty breaches had opened in the banks and fifteen li of channel were silted shut. In the guisi year the court sent four thousand laborers to build dikes and dredge, and boats could pass again. Another thirty-odd years had since passed with no one officially in charge. In the Cangzhou region the river stood higher than the surrounding land and depended entirely on dikes and weirs for protection. Garden owners dug through the dikes to sink wells—sometimes more than one zhang deep, even two—to draw water for vegetables and flowers. Riverfront residents also stripped earth from the dikes, slowly opening breaches that released the current. Boats ran aground and grain transport stalled; homes were swept away and crops drowned. North of Changlu and south of Suojia Matou, piles and stakes were hidden beneath the water, breaking boats and ruining grain cargo." The ministry proposed that deputy officials in riverine prefectures and counties also oversee river defense—patrolling their districts, leading repairs at any breach, pulling hidden stakes, and forbidding garden owners to pierce dikes for wells, plant trees, or strip earth. The Metropolitan Secretariat approved. In the seventh year, provincial officials reported: "The Imperial River has overflowed into Wuqing County. Dredging is estimated to require ten laborers and eighty days to complete." The court approved.
44
至大元年六月二十九日，左翼屯田萬戶府呈：「五月十八日申時，水決會川縣孫家口岸約二十餘步，南流灌本管屯田，已移文河間路、武清縣、清州有司，多發丁夫，管領修治。」 由是樞密院檄河間路、左翊屯田萬戶府，差軍併工築塞。 十月，大名路濬州言：「七月十一日連雨至十七日，清、石二河水溢李家道，東南橫流。 詢社長高良輩，稱水源自衛輝路汲縣東北，連本州淇門西舊黑蕩泊，溢流出岸，漫黃河古堤，東北流入本州齊賈泊，復入御河，漂及門民舍。 竊計今歲水勢逆行，及下流漳水漲溢，遏絕不能通，以致若此，實非人力可勝。 又西關水手佐聚稱，七月十二日卯時，御河水驟漲三尺，十八日復添四尺，其水逆流，明是下流漲水壅逆，擬差官巡治。」
On the twenty-ninth day of the sixth month of the first year of Zhida, the Left Wing Garrison Farm Ten-thousand Households Office reported, "At the shen hour on the eighteenth day of the fifth month, the water breached about twenty paces of bank at Sunjiakou in Huichuan County, flowing south and flooding the garrison fields under this office. We have already sent documents to the authorities of Hejian Circuit, Wuqing County, and Qingzhou to mobilize many laborers and supervise repairs." Thereupon the Bureau of Military Affairs sent orders to Hejian Circuit and the Left Assistant Garrison Farm Ten-thousand Households Office to assign soldiers and combine labor to build and plug the breach. In the tenth month, Xunzhou in Daming Circuit reported, "From the eleventh to the seventeenth day of the seventh month, continuous rain caused the Qing and Shi rivers to overflow at Lijiadao and run crosswise to the southeast. We questioned community head Gao Liang and others, who said the water source comes from northeast of Ji County in Weihui Circuit, connects with the old Heidang Marsh west of Qimen in this prefecture, overflows the banks, spreads across the old Yellow River dike, flows northeast into Qijia Marsh in this prefecture, then reenters the Imperial River and washes into the houses at Jimen. We privately calculate that this year the water's force has run backward, and with the Zhang River downstream swollen and overflowing, blocked off and unable to pass, matters have come to this; it is truly beyond human strength to overcome. Also, waterman assistant Zuoju of the west barrier states that at the mao hour on the twelfth day of the seventh month, the Imperial River suddenly rose three chi, and on the eighteenth day rose another four chi. Since the water is flowing backward, this is clearly downstream floodwater damming it in reverse; we propose sending officials to inspect and manage it."
45
延祐三年七月，滄州言：「清池縣民告，往年景州吳橋縣諸處御河水溢，沖決堤岸，萬戶千奴為恐傷其屯田，差軍築塞舊泄水郎兒口，故水無所泄，浸民廬及已熟田數萬頃，乞遣官疏辟，引水入海。 及七月四日，決吳橋縣柳斜口東岸三十餘步，千戶移僧又遣軍閉塞郎兒口，水壅不得泄，必致漂蕩張管、許河、孟村三十餘村黍谷廬舍，故本州摘官相視，移文約會開闢，不從。」 四年五月，都水監遣官與河間路官相視元塞郎兒口，東西長二十五步，南北闊二十尺，及堤南高一丈四尺，北高二丈餘，復按視郎兒口下流故河，至滄州約三十餘里，上下古跡寬闊，及減水故道，名曰盤河。 今為開闢郎兒口，增浚故河，決積水，由滄州城北達滹沱河，以入於海。
In the seventh month of the third year of Yanyou, Cangzhou reported: "Commoners of Qingchi County petitioned that in former years when the Imperial River overflowed at various places in Jing Prefecture's Wuqiao County, the breach destroyed dikes. The ten-thousand-household commander Qiannu, fearing harm to his garrison fields, assigned soldiers to block the old outlet called Lang'er Mouth, so the water had nowhere to drain. It inundated private dwellings and tens of thousands of qing of ripe fields. They request officials be sent to dredge and open a channel to lead the water to the sea. Also, on the fourth day of the seventh month, the east bank at Liuxiekou in Wuqiao County was breached for more than thirty paces. Centurion Yiseng again sent soldiers to block Lang'er Mouth. The water, dammed and unable to drain, would surely wash away the millet, grain, dwellings, and houses of more than thirty villages including Zhangguan, Xuhe, and Mengcun. This prefecture therefore sent officials to inspect and wrote coordinating dispatches to open the channel, but they were not obeyed." In the fifth month of the fourth year, the Directorate sent officials with Hejian Circuit officers to survey the sealed Lang'er Mouth—twenty-five paces east to west, twenty chi north to south, the south bank one zhang four chi high, the north more than two zhang. They also traced the old channel below Lang'er Mouth to Cangzhou, some thirty-odd li, where ancient traces ran wide, including the old flood-relief route called Pan River. The plan was to reopen Lang'er Mouth, deepen the old channel, cut through the pooled water, and run north of Cangzhou city to the Hutuo River and the sea.
46
泰定元年九月，都水監遣官督丁夫五千八百九十八人，是月二十八日興工，十月二日工畢。 灤河
In the ninth month of the first year of Taiding (1324), the Directorate supervised 5,898 laborers. Work began on the twenty-eighth day of that month and finished on the second day of the tenth. The Luan River
47
灤河，源出金蓮川中，由松亭北，經遷安東、平州西，瀕灤州入海也。 王曾《北行錄》云：「自偏槍嶺四十里，過烏灤河，東有灤州，因河為名。」
The Luan River rises in Jinlianchuan, passes north of Songting, runs east of Qian'an and west of Ping Prefecture, and reaches the sea at Luan Prefecture. Wang Zeng's Record of a Journey North notes: "Forty li from Pianqiang Ridge one crosses the Wuluan River; Luan Prefecture lies to the east, named for the river."
48
至元二十八年八月，省臣奏：「姚演言，奉敕疏浚灤河，漕運上都，乞應副沿河蓋露囷工匠什物，仍預備來歲所用漕船五百艘，水手一萬，牽船夫二萬四千。 臣等集議，近歲東南荒歉，民力雕弊，造舟調夫，其事非輕，一時並行，必致重困。 請先造舟十艘，量撥水手試行之，如果便，續增益。」 制可其奏，先以五十艘行之，仍選能人同事。
In the eighth month of the twenty-eighth year of Zhiyuan, provincial officials memorialized: "Yao Yan reports that by imperial order he is dredging the Luan River for grain transport to the Upper Capital. He requests support along the river for exposed granary craftsmen and equipment, and advance preparation for next year's need of five hundred transport boats, ten thousand boatmen, and twenty-four thousand tow-path laborers. They deliberated together: the southeast had suffered famine in recent years and the people were exhausted. Building boats and drafting laborers was no small burden; doing both at once would crush the region. We request that ten boats be built first and boatmen assigned proportionally for a trial run. If it proves convenient, additions may follow." The emperor approved the memorial but ordered fifty boats into service first, with capable men chosen to manage the effort jointly.
49
大德五年八月十三日，平灤路言：「六月九日霖雨，至十五日夜，灤河與淝、洳三河並溢，沖圮城東西二處舊護城堤、東西南三面城墻，橫流入城，漂郭外三關瀕河及在城官民屋廬糧物，沒田苗，溺人畜，死者甚眾，而雨猶不止。 至二十四日夜，灤、漆、淝、洳諸河水復漲入城，余屋漂蕩殆盡。」 乃委吏部馬員外同都水監官修之，東西二堤，計用工三十一萬一千五十，鈔八千八十七錠十五兩，糙粳米三千一百一十石五斗，樁木等價鈔二百七十四錠二十六兩四錢。
On the thirteenth day of the eighth month of the fifth year of Dade, the Pingluan Circuit reported: "From the ninth day of the sixth month steady rain fell until the night of the fifteenth, when the Luan River together with the Fei and Ru rivers all overflowed. They destroyed the old protective dikes east and west of the city and the city walls on the east, south, and west sides. Water poured crosswise into the city, washing away the three outer passes along the river and official and private buildings and grain inside the city, submerging crops, drowning livestock, and killing many people—and the rain still did not stop. By the night of the twenty-fourth, the Luan, Qi, Fei, and Ru rivers rose again and entered the city; the remaining buildings were nearly all washed away." Vice Director Ma of the Ministry of Personnel was then assigned, with Directorate officials, to rebuild the east and west dikes—311,050 work-days, 8,087 ingots and fifteen liang of cash, 3,110 shi and five dou of coarse rice, and piles and timber worth 274 ingots, twenty-six liang, and four qian.
50
延祐四年六月十六日，上都留守司言：「正月一日，城南御河西北岸為水沖嚙，漸至頹圮，若不修治，恐來春水泛漲，漂沒民居。 又開平縣言，四月二十六日霖雨，至二十八日夜，東關灤河水漲，沖損北岸，宜擬修築。 本司議，即目仲夏霖雨，其水復溢，必大為害，乃委官督夫匠興役。 開平發民夫，幼小不任役，請調軍供作，庶可速成。」 五月二十一日，留守司言：「灤河水漲決堤，計修築用軍六百，宜令樞密院差調，官給其食。」 制曰：「今維其時，移文樞密院發軍速為之。」 虎賁司發軍三百治焉。
On the sixteenth day of the sixth month of the fourth year of Yanyou, the Upper Capital Retention Office reported: "On the first day of the first month, the northwest bank of the Imperial River south of the city was eroded by water, gradually collapsing. If not repaired, we fear that when spring waters rise next year, private dwellings will be washed away. Kaiping County also reported that from the twenty-sixth day of the fourth month rain had fallen until the night of the twenty-eighth, when the Luan at the east gate rose and damaged the north bank. They proposed repairs. The Retention Office judged that midsummer rains would send the river over its banks again with serious damage. Officials were dispatched at once to supervise laborers and craftsmen. Kaiping mobilized civilian laborers, but the young and weak could not bear the work. They requested soldiers be assigned instead so the work might be completed quickly." On the twenty-first day of the fifth month, the Retention Office reported: "The Luan River has risen and breached the dikes. Repairs will require six hundred soldiers. The Bureau of Military Affairs should be ordered to assign them, with rations supplied by the state." A decree stated: "The time is now — send a dispatch to the Bureau of Military Affairs to mobilize troops and carry this out at once." The Tiger Guard Command dispatched three hundred soldiers to do the work.
51
泰定二年三月十三日，永平路屯田總管府言：「國家經費咸出於民，民之所生，無過農作。 本屯辟田收糧，以供億內府之用，不為不重。 訪馬城東北五里許張家莊龍灣頭，在昔有司差夫築堤，以防灤水，西南連清水河，至公安橋，皆本屯地分。 去歲霖雨，水溢，沖蕩皆盡，浸死屯民田苗，終歲無收。 方今農隙，若不預修，必致為害。」 工部移文都水監，差濠寨泊本屯官及灤州官新詣相視，督令有司差夫補築。 三年五月十日，上都留守司及本路總管府言：「巡視大西關南馬市口灤河遞北堤，侵嚙漸崩，不預治，恐夏霖雨水泛，貽害居民。」 於是送都城所丈量，計用物修治，工部移文上都分部施行。 七月二日，右丞相塔失帖木兒等奏：「斡耳朵思住冬營盤，為灤河走淩河水沖壞，將築護水堤，宜令樞密院發軍千二百人以供役。」 從之。 樞密院請遣軍千二百人。
On the thirteenth day of the third month of the second year of Taiding, the Yongping Circuit Garrison Farm Directorate reported: "All state revenue comes from the people, and among what the people produce nothing surpasses farming. This garrison cleared land and collected grain for the inner capital granaries — a weighty responsibility. At Longwan Head in Zhangjia Village, some five li northeast of Fangma City, officials had once assigned laborers to build dikes against the Luan. The line ran southwest to the Qingshui River and Gongan Bridge, all within the garrison's lands. Last year's rains had sent the river over the dikes and scoured everything away, drowning the garrison farmers' crops and leaving them with no harvest for the year. Now, in the farming interval, if repairs are not made in advance, harm is sure to follow." The Ministry of Works wrote the Directorate of Waterworks, which sent garrison waterworks officers and Luan Prefecture officials to inspect the site and have local offices assign laborers to rebuild the dikes. On the tenth day of the fifth month of the third year, the Upper Capital Retention Office and this circuit's chief directorate reported: "On inspection, the dike north of the Luan River at Mashikou, south of the Great West Gate, is being eaten away and slowly collapsing. If not repaired beforehand, we fear summer rains will flood and harm the residents." The Capital Construction Office was sent to survey and estimate materials; the Ministry of Works then ordered the Upper Capital branch to proceed. On the second day of the seventh month, the Right Chancellor Taishi Temür and others memorialized: "The ordo's winter encampment has been damaged by ice-run on the Luan River. Protective dikes are to be built, and it is appropriate to order the Bureau of Military Affairs to send twelve hundred soldiers for the labor." The request was approved. The Bureau of Military Affairs applied to send twelve hundred soldiers.
52
河間河
The Hejian River
53
河間河，在河間路界。 泰定三年三月，都水監言：「河間路水患，古儉河，自北門外始，依舊疏通，至大成縣界，以泄上源水勢，引入鹽河，古陳玉帶河，自軍司口浚治，至雄州歸信縣界，以導澱濼積潦，註之易河。 黃龍港，自鎖井口開鑿，至文安縣玳瑁口，以通濼水，經火燒澱，轉流入海。 計河宜疏者三十處，總役夫三萬，三十日可畢。」 是月省臣奏準，遣斷事官定住同元委都水孫監丞洎本處有司官，於旁近州縣發丁夫三萬，日給鈔一兩、米一升，先詣古陳玉帶河。 尋以歲旱民饑，役興人勞罷，候年登為之。
The Hejian River lay within Hejian Circuit. In the third month of the third year of Taiding, the Directorate of Waterworks reported: "Hejian Circuit suffers from flooding. The ancient Jian River, starting outside the north gate, should be dredged as before to the border of Dacheng County to release upstream water and channel it into the Salt River. The ancient Chen Yudai River should be cleared from Junsikou to the border of Guixin County in Xiong Prefecture to drain accumulated marsh water into the Yi River. Huanglong Harbor should be cut from Suojingkou to Daiyaokou in Wen'an County to link the marsh waters, pass through Huoshao Marsh, and discharge into the sea. In all, thirty places along the rivers should be dredged, requiring thirty thousand laborers and completable in thirty days." That month the province approved the plan and sent investigating officials with the assigned Directorate Vice Director Sun and local officers to raise thirty thousand corvée laborers from nearby counties, each paid one liang of cash and one sheng of rice per day, starting on the ancient Chen Yudai River. Drought and famine soon forced a halt to spare the people; the project would wait for a good harvest year.
54
冶河，在真定路平山縣西門外，經井陘縣流來本縣東北十里，入滹沱河。
The Ye River ran outside the west gate of Pingshan County in Zhending Circuit. It came from Jingxing County, passed ten li northeast of the county seat, and joined the Hutuo River.
55
元貞元年正月十八日，丞相完澤等言：「往年先帝嘗命開真定冶河，已發丁夫人役，適值先帝升遐，以聚眾罷之。 今請遵舊制，俾卒其事。」 從之。
On the eighteenth day of the first month of the first year of Yuanzhen, Chancellor Wanze and others reported: "In former years the late emperor ordered the Ye River in Zhending opened; corvée laborers had already been mobilized when the late emperor passed away, and the project was halted because of the assembled crowd. We now ask to follow the former regulations and finish the task." The request was approved.
56
皇慶元年七月二日，真定路言：「龍花、判官莊諸處壞堤，計工物，申請省委都水監及本路官，自平山縣西北，歷視滹沱、冶河合流，急註真定西南關，由是再議，照冶河故道，自平山縣西北河內，改修滾水石堤，下修龍塘堤，東南至水碾村，改引河道一里，蒲吾橋西，改辟河道一里。 上至平山縣西北，下至寧晉縣，疏其淤澱，築堤分其上源入舊河，以殺其勢。 復有程同、程章二石橋阻咽水勢，擬開減水月河二道，可久且便。 下相欒城縣，南視趙州寧晉縣，諸河北之下源，地形低下，恐水泛，經欒城、趙州，壞石橋，阻河流為害。 由是議於欒城縣北，聖母堂東冶河東岸，開減水河，可去真定之患。」 省準，於二年二月都水監委官與本路及廉訪司官，同詣平山縣相視，會計修治，總計冶河，始自平山縣北關西龍神廟北獨石，通長五千八百六步，共役夫五千，為工十八萬八百七，無風雨妨工，三十六日可畢。
On the second day of the seventh month of the first year of Huangqing, Zhending Circuit reported: "Broken dikes at Longhua, Panguan Village, and other places — after calculating labor and materials, provincial officials, the Directorate of Waterworks, and circuit officers were requested to inspect from northwest Pingshan County along the confluence of the Hutuo and Ye rivers and the urgent outlet at Zhending's southwest gate. On further deliberation, following the Ye River's old course from northwest Pingshan County, an overflow stone dike was to be rebuilt in the river; the Longtang dike was to be repaired downstream; one li of channel was to be opened southeast to Shuinian Village; and one li of channel was to be cut west of Puwu Bridge. From northwest Pingshan upstream to Ningjin downstream, silt would be dredged and dikes built to split the upper flow back into the old channel and tame its force. The Cheng Tong and Cheng Zhang stone bridges also blocked the flow; two flood-relief channels were proposed as a durable, practical fix. Farther downstream, from Luancheng south toward Ningjin in Zhao Prefecture, the northern rivers' lower reaches were low-lying. Floods through Luancheng and Zhao Prefecture could wreck stone bridges and choke the channel. Therefore it was proposed to open a flood-relief channel north of Luancheng County, east of Shengmu Hall on the Ye River's east bank, which could remove the threat to Zhending." The province approved. In the second month of the following year Directorate officials inspected the site with circuit and surveillance officers. The Ye River work, from the lone stone north of the Dragon Spirit Temple at Pingshan's north gate, ran five thousand eight hundred and six paces; five thousand laborers would log one million eight hundred and seven work-days and could finish in thirty-six fair-weather days.
57
滹沱河
The Hutuo River
58
滹沱河，源出於西山，在真定路真定縣南一里，經槁城縣北一里，經平山縣北十里，《寰宇記》載經靈壽縣西南二十里。 此河連貫真定諸郡，經流去處，皆曰滹沱水也。
The Hutuo rose in the western hills. It ran one li south of Zhending County, one li north of Gaocheng County, and ten li north of Pingshan County; the Universal Gazetteer places it twenty li southwest of Lingshou County. The river linked the Zhending prefectures; everywhere it ran it was known as Hutuo water.
59
延祐七年十一月，真定路言：「真定縣城南滹沱河，北決堤，浸近城，每歲修築。 聞其源本微，與冶河不相通，後二水合，其勢遂猛，屢壞金大堤為患。 本路達魯花赤哈散於至元三十年言，準引辟冶河自作一流，滹沱河水十退三四。 至大元年七月，水漂南關百餘家，淤塞冶河口，其水復滹河。 自後歲有潰決之患，略舉大德十年至皇慶元年，節次修堤，用卷掃葦草二百餘萬，官給夫糧備傭直百餘萬錠。 及延祐元年三月至五月，修堤二百七十餘步，其明堂、判官、勉村三處，就用橋木為樁，征夫五百餘人，執役月餘不能畢。 近年米價翔貴，民匱於食，有丁者正身應役，單丁者必須募人，人日傭直不下三五貫，前工未畢，後役叠至。 至七月八日，又沖塌李玉飛等莊及木方、胡營等村三處堤，長一千二百四十步，申請委官相視，差夫築月堤。 延祐二年，本路前總管馬思忽嘗辟冶河，已復湮塞。 今歲霖雨，水溢北岸數處，浸沒田禾。 其河元經康家莊村南流，不記歲月，徙於村北。 數年修築，皆於堤北取土，故南高北低，水愈就下侵嚙。 西至木方村，東至護城堤，數約二千餘步，比來春，必須修治。 用樁梢築土堤，亦非永久之計。 若浚木方村南舊湮枯河，引水南流，閘閉北岸河口，於南岸取土築堤，下至合頭村北與本河合，如此去城稍遠，庶可無患。」 都水監差官相視，截河築堤，闊千餘步，新開古岸，止闊六十步，恐不能制禦千步之勢。 若於北岸闕破低薄處，比元料，增夫力，葦草卷掃補築，便計葦草丁夫，若令責辦民間，緣今歲旱澇相仍，民食匱乏，擬均料各州縣上中戶，價錢及食米於官錢內支給。 限二月二十日興工，役夫五千，為工十六萬七百一十九，度三十二日可畢。 總計補築滹沱河北岸防水堤十處，長一千九百一十步，高闊不一，計三百四十萬七千七百五十尺，用推掃梯二十五，每梯用大檁三、小檁三，計大小檁一百五十，草三十五萬八百束，葦二十八萬六百四十束，梢柴七千二百束。
In the eleventh month of the seventh year of Yanyou, Zhending Circuit reported: "South of Zhending County city the Hutuo River's north bank dike has broken, flooding near the city; dikes are rebuilt every year. Its source had once been modest and separate from the Ye; after the two rivers merged the current grew fierce and repeatedly broke the great Jin-era dike. In the thirtieth year of Zhiyuan (1293), Circuit Darughachi Hasan had proposed opening the Ye as a separate channel, which cut Hutuo flow by three or four tenths. In the seventh month of the first year of Zhida (1308), floods swept away more than a hundred households at the south gate and silted the Ye's mouth, sending its water back into the Hutuo. Breaches followed year after year. From the tenth year of Dade through the first year of Huangqing, repairs consumed more than two million fascine bundles of reeds and grass and more than a million ingots in corvée grain and hire wages. From the third to the fifth month of the first year of Yanyou, two hundred and seventy-odd paces of dike were rebuilt. At Mingtang, Panguan, and Miancun, bridge timber served as piles; more than five hundred conscripts labored over a month without finishing. Grain prices had soared and food was scarce. Able-bodied men served in person; single-son households had to hire substitutes at three to five strings a day. One job barely ended before the next corvée began. On the eighth day of the seventh month, one thousand two hundred and forty paces of dike at Li Yufei's village and the villages of Mufang and Huying collapsed. The circuit asked for inspectors and laborers to build crescent dikes. In the second year of Yanyou, former circuit chief Masihu had opened the Ye, but it had silted shut again. This year's rains had overflowed the north bank in several places and drowned the crops. The river had once run south of Kangjia Village; at some unrecorded time it shifted to the north. Years of taking fill from the north side of the dike had left the south high and the north low, so the current pressed downward and ate away the bank. From Mufang Village west to the city-protecting dike east, more than two thousand paces in all would have to be repaired by spring. Earthen dikes of piles and brush were no lasting solution either. If the old silted and dry channel south of Mufang Village is dredged to draw water south, the north-bank mouth is closed with a gate, earth for dikes is taken from the south bank, and dikes are built down to Hetou Village north to rejoin the main river, the city would stand somewhat farther from the water and might be kept safe." Directorate inspectors found a thousand-pace cut-off dike planned against an old bank only sixty paces wide — too narrow, they feared, to hold a thousand-pace flood. They proposed instead to strengthen broken, thin stretches on the north bank with extra labor and fascine revetments. Because drought and flood had left the people short of food, upper and middle households in each county would be assessed equally, with wages and rice paid from official funds. Work would start on the twentieth day of the second month: five thousand laborers, one million six hundred and seven thousand one hundred and nineteen work-days, thirty-two days to finish. Ten north-bank flood dikes totaling one thousand nine hundred and ten paces — three million four hundred and seven thousand seven hundred and fifty cubic chi, of varying height and width — would need twenty-five revetment frames (one hundred and fifty beams), three hundred fifty thousand eight hundred bundles of grass, two hundred eighty thousand six hundred forty bundles of reeds, and seven thousand two hundred bundles of brushwood.
60
至治元年三月，真定路言：「真定縣滹沱河，每遇水泛，沖堤岸，浸沒民田，已差募丁夫修築，與廉訪司官相視講究，如將木方村南舊堙河道疏辟，導水東南行，閘閉北岸，卻於河南取土，修築至合頭村，合入本河，似望可以民安。」 都水監與真定路官相視議：「夫治水者，行其所無事，蓋以順其性也。 閘閉滹沱河口，截河築堤一千餘步，開掘故河老岸，闊六十步，長三十餘里，改水東南行流，霖雨之時，水拍兩岸，截河堤堰，阻逆水性，新開故河，止闊六十步，焉能吞授千步之勢？ 上咽下滯，必致潰決，徒糜官錢，空勞民力。 若順其自然，將河北岸舊堤比之元料，增添工物，如法卷掃，堅固修築，誠為官民便益。」 省準補築滹沱河北岸縷水堤一十處，通長一千九百一十步，役夫五百名，計一十六萬七百三十九工。
In the third month of the first year of Zhizhi, Zhending Circuit reported: "Whenever the Hutuo at Zhending County floods, it breaks dikes and drowns private fields. Corvée laborers have been assigned to repair while surveillance officers inspect and deliberate. If the old silted channel south of Mufang Village is dredged to guide water southeast, the north bank is gated shut, and dikes are built from earth taken south of the river down to Hetou Village to rejoin the main stream, the people may perhaps be kept safe." Directorate and Zhending officials inspected and deliberated: "In managing water, one acts where there is no obstruction — this is to follow its nature. Gating the Hutuo, cutting a thousand-pace dike, and opening a sixty-pace old channel for thirty li to turn the flow southeast would make rain-season floods beat both banks while the cut-off dam fought the river's nature. A sixty-pace channel could not absorb a thousand-pace flood. Water would choke upstream and stall downstream until the dikes burst — wasting state funds and civilian labor for nothing. If one follows its natural course, adding labor and materials to the old north-bank dike beyond the original estimate and building solid fascine revetments by rule, this would truly benefit officials and people alike." The province approved ten north-bank spillwater dikes totaling one thousand nine hundred and ten paces — five hundred laborers and one million six hundred and seven thousand three hundred and thirty-nine work-days.
61
泰定四年八月七日，省臣奏：「真定路言，滹沱河水連年泛溢為害，都水監、廉訪司、真定路及瀕河州縣官洎耆老會議，其源自五臺諸山來，至平山縣王母村山口下，與平定州娘子廟石泉冶河合。 夏秋霖雨水漲，彌漫城郭，每年勞民築堤，莫能除害，宜自王子村、辛安村鑿河，長四里餘，接魯家灣舊澗，復開二百餘步，合入冶河，以分殺其勢。 又木方村滹沱河南岸故道，疏滌三十里，北岸下樁卷掃，築堤捍水，令東流。 今歲儲材，九月興役，期十一月功成。 所用石鐵石灰諸物，夫匠工糧，官為供給，力省功多，可永無害。 工部議，若從所請，二河並治，役大民勞，擬先開冶河，其真定路征民夫，如不敷，可於鄰郡順德路差募人夫，日給中統鈔一兩五錢，如侵礙民田，官酬其直。 中書省都水監差官，率知水利濠寨，督本路及當該州縣用工，廉訪司添力咸就，滹河近後再議。」 從之。 九月，委都水監官洎本道廉訪司真定路同監督有司並工修治。 後真定路言：「閏九月五日為始興工間，據趙州臨城諸縣申，天寒地凍，難於用工，候春暖開闢便，已於十月七日放散人民。」 部議，人夫既散，宜準所擬。 凡已給夫鈔二萬六千八百三十二錠，地價錢六百三十錠。
On the seventh day of the eighth month of the fourth year of Taiding, provincial officials memorialized: "Zhending Circuit reports that the Hutuo has flooded year after year. The Directorate of Waterworks, the surveillance commission, Zhending Circuit, officials of riparian prefectures and counties, and elders conferred. Its source comes from the Wutai mountains; below Wangmu Village pass in Pingshan County it joins the Ye River from the Niangzi Temple spring at Pingding Prefecture. Summer and autumn rains sent it spreading through the towns. Annual dike work exhausted the people without ending the floods. They proposed cutting a channel from Wangzi and Xin'an villages, more than four li long, into the old gully at Lujiawan and opening two hundred paces farther to join the Ye and split the current. They also proposed dredging thirty li of the old south-bank course at Mufang and building north-bank pile-and-fascine dikes to hold the river eastward. Materials would be gathered this year, work would start in the ninth month, and the project would finish in the eleventh. Stone, iron, lime, craftsmen's wages, and rations would come from the state — more work for less toil, they argued, and lasting safety. The Ministry of Works replied that doing both rivers at once would overtax the people. Open the Ye first, they said; if Zhending's corvée fell short, hire labor from neighboring Shunde Circuit at one liang five qian of Zhongtong cash a day and compensate any farmland taken. Directorate officials would lead waterworks garrison officers who know hydraulics to supervise labor in this circuit and the relevant prefectures and counties; the surveillance commission would add its strength until all was done; the Hutuo would be reconsidered afterward." The plan was approved. In the ninth month Directorate officials, the surveillance commission, and Zhending Circuit were ordered to supervise local offices in the joint repair. Later Zhending Circuit reported: "Work began on the fifth day of the intercalary ninth month, but Zhao Prefecture, Lincheng, and other counties reported that cold and frozen ground made labor difficult; when spring warmth came opening would be easier. Laborers were dismissed on the seventh day of the tenth month." The ministry agreed that with the laborers gone, the spring delay should stand. Corvée cash already paid totaled twenty-six thousand eight hundred and thirty-two ingots; land compensation, six hundred and thirty.
62
會通河
The Huitong River
63
會通河，起東昌路須城縣安山之西南，由壽張西北至東昌，又西北至於臨清，以逾於御河。
The Huitong River began southwest of Anshan in Xucheng County, Dongchang Circuit, ran northwest through Shouzhang and Dongchang to Linqing, and crossed into the Imperial River.
64
至元二十六年，壽張縣尹韓仲暉、太史院令史邊源相繼建言，開河置閘，引汶水達舟於御河，以便公私漕販。 省遣漕副馬之貞與源等按視地勢，商度工用，於是圖上可開之狀。 詔出楮幣一百五十萬緡、米四萬石、鹽五萬斤，以為傭直，備器用，征旁郡丁夫三萬，驛遣斷事官忙速兒、禮部尚書張孔孫、兵部尚書李處巽等董其役。 首事於是年正月己亥，起於須城安山之西南，止於臨清之御河，其長二百五十餘里，中建閘三十有一，度高低，分遠邇，以節蓄泄。 六月辛亥成，凡役工二百五十一萬七百四十有八，賜名曰會通河。
In the twenty-sixth year of Zhiyuan (1289), Shouzhang magistrate Han Zhonghui and Astrological Commission clerk Bian Yuan proposed in turn a canal with locks to bring Wen River water to the Imperial River for public and private shipping. The province sent Transport Vice Commissioner Ma Zhizhen with Yuan and others to survey the ground, estimate costs, and map a workable route. The court allocated one million five hundred thousand strings of paper cash, forty thousand shi of rice, and fifty thousand jin of salt for wages and tools, conscripted thirty thousand corvée laborers from neighboring circuits, and posted investigating officials Masu'er, Minister of Rites Zhang Kongsun, and Minister of War Li Chuxun to direct the project. Work began on the jihai day of the first month that year, from southwest of Anshan in Xucheng to the Imperial River at Linqing — more than two hundred and fifty li — with thirty-one locks spaced by height and distance to hold and release water. It was finished on the xinhai day of the sixth month after two million five hundred ten thousand seven hundred and forty-eight work-days. The canal was named the Huitong River.
65
二十七年，省以馬之貞言霖雨岸崩，河道淤淺，宜加修浚，奏撥放罷輸運站戶三千，專供其役，仍俾采伐木石等以充用。 是後，歲委都水監官一員，佩分監印，率令史、奏差、濠寨官往職巡視，且督工，易閘以石，而視所損緩急為後先。 至泰定二年，始克畢事。
In the twenty-seventh year, after Ma Zhizhen reported rain-wrecked banks and a silted channel, the province ordered dredging and repair. Three thousand grain-transport station households marked for release were kept on the project and allowed to cut timber and quarry stone. Each year afterward a sealed Directorate deputy led clerks, couriers, and garrison officers on patrol to supervise repairs, swap wooden locks for stone, and tackle the worst damage first. The work was not fully finished until the second year of Taiding (1325).
66
會通鎮閘三、土壩二，在臨清縣北。 頭閘長一百尺，闊八十尺，兩直身各長四十尺，兩雁翅各斜長三十尺，高二尺，閘空闊二丈，自至元三十年正月一日興工，凡役夫匠六百六十名，至十月二十九日工畢。 中閘南至隘船閘三里，元貞二年七月二十三日興工，至大德二年三月十三日工畢，夫匠四百四十三，長廣與上閘同。 隘船閘南至李海務閘一百五十二里，延祐元年八月十五日興工，九月二十五日工畢，夫匠五百，閘空闊九尺，長廣同上。 土壩二。
Huitong Town had three locks and two earthen dams north of Linqing County. The head lock measured one hundred by eighty chi, with forty-chi straight flanks and thirty-chi sloping wings, two chi high and two zhang wide at the opening. Work began on the first day of the first month of the thirtieth year of Zhiyuan (1293); six hundred and sixty workers finished on the twenty-ninth day of the tenth month. The middle lock stood three li north of the Narrow-Boat Lock. Work ran from the twenty-third day of the seventh month of the second year of Yuanzhen (1296) to the thirteenth day of the third month of the second year of Dade (1298) with four hundred and forty-three workers; dimensions matched the upper lock. The Narrow-Boat Lock lay one hundred and fifty-two li north of the Lihaiwu Lock. Built from the fifteenth day of the eighth month to the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month of the first year of Yanyou (1314) by five hundred workers, it had a nine-chi opening and the same length and width as above. There were two earthen dams.
67
李海務閘南至周家店閘一十二里，元貞二年二月二日興工，五月二十日工畢，夫匠五百二十七名，長廣與會通鎮閘同。
The Lihaiwu Lock stood twelve li north of the Zhoujiadian Lock. Work ran from the second day of the second month to the twentieth day of the fifth month of the second year of Yuanzhen with five hundred and twenty-seven workers; dimensions matched the Huitong Town locks.
68
周家店閘南至七級閘一十二里，大德四年正月二十一日興工，八月二十日工畢，夫匠四百四十二，長廣與上同。
Zhoujiadian stood twelve li north of the Seven-Stage Lock. Built from the twenty-first day of the first month to the twentieth day of the eighth month of the fourth year of Dade (1300) by four hundred and forty-two workers; dimensions as above.
69
七級閘二：北閘南至南閘三里，大德元年五月一日興工，十月六日工畢，夫匠四百四十三名，長廣如周家店閘。 南閘南至阿城閘一十二里，元貞二年正月二十日興工，十月五日工畢，夫匠四百五十名，長廣同北閘。
The Seven-Stage Lock came in two parts three li apart. The north section was built from the first day of the fifth month to the sixth day of the tenth month of the first year of Dade (1297) by four hundred and forty-three workers; dimensions matched Zhoujiadian. The south section stood twelve li north of the Acheng Lock. Built from the twentieth day of the first month to the fifth day of the tenth month of the second year of Yuanzhen by four hundred and fifty workers; dimensions matched the north lock.
70
阿城閘二：北閘南至南閘三里，大德三年三月五日興工，七月二十八日工畢，夫匠四百四十一名，長廣上同。 南閘南至荊門北閘一十里，大德二年正月二十五日興工，十月一日工畢，夫匠四百四十六名，長廣上同。
The Acheng Lock also had north and south sections three li apart. Built from the fifth day of the third month to the twenty-eighth day of the seventh month of the third year of Dade (1299) by four hundred and forty-one workers; dimensions as above. The south section stood ten li north of Jingmen's north lock. Built from the twenty-fifth day of the first month to the first day of the tenth month of the second year of Dade by four hundred and forty-six workers; dimensions as above.
71
荊門閘二：北閘南至荊門南閘二里半，大德三年六月初一日興工，至十月二十五日工畢，役夫三百一十名，長廣同。 南閘南至壽張閘六十三里，大德六年正月二十三日興工，六月二十九日工畢，長廣同北閘。
Jingmen's north and south locks lay two and a half li apart. Built from the first day of the sixth month to the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month of the third year of Dade by three hundred and ten workers; same dimensions. The south lock stood sixty-three li north of the Shouzhang Lock. Built from the twenty-third day of the first month to the twenty-ninth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of Dade; dimensions matched the north lock.
72
壽張閘南至安山閘八里，至元三十一年正月一日興工，五月二十日工畢。 安山閘南至開河閘八十五里，至元二十六年建。 開河閘南至濟州閘一百二十四里。
Shouzhang stood eight li north of the Anshan Lock. Work ran from the first day of the first month to the twentieth day of the fifth month of the thirty-first year of Zhiyuan (1294). Anshan stood eighty-five li north of the Canal-Opening Lock, built in the twenty-sixth year of Zhiyuan (1289). The Canal-Opening Lock stood one hundred and twenty-four li north of the Jizhou Lock.
73
濟州閘三：上閘南至中閘三里，大德元年三月十二日興工，七月二十八日工畢。 中閘南至下閘二里，至治元年三月一日興工，六月六日工畢。 下閘南至趙村閘六里，大德七年二月十三日興工，五月二十一日工畢。
The Jizhou Lock had three sections; the upper stood three li north of the middle. Built from the twelfth day of the third month to the twenty-eighth day of the seventh month of the first year of Dade. The middle lock stood two li north of the lower. Built from the first day of the third month to the sixth day of the sixth month of the first year of Zhizhi (1321). The lower lock stood six li north of the Zhaocun Lock. Built from the thirteenth day of the second month to the twenty-first day of the fifth month of the seventh year of Dade (1303).
74
趙村閘南至石佛閘七里，泰定四年二月十八日興工，五月二十日工畢。
Zhaocun stood seven li north of the Shifo Lock. Built from the eighteenth day of the second month to the twentieth day of the fifth month of the fourth year of Taiding (1327).
75
石佛閘南至辛店閘一十三里，延祐六年二月十日興工，四月二十九日工畢。
Shifo stood thirteen li north of the Xindian Lock. Built from the tenth day of the second month to the twenty-ninth day of the fourth month of the sixth year of Yanyou (1319).
76
辛店閘南至師家店閘二十四里，大德元年正月二十七日興工，四月一日工畢。
Xindian stood twenty-four li north of the Shijiadian Lock. Built from the twenty-seventh day of the first month to the first day of the fourth month of the first year of Dade (1297).
77
師家店閘南至棗林閘一十五里，大德二年二月三日興工，五月二十三日工畢。
Shijiadian stood fifteen li north of the Zaolin Lock. Built from the third day of the second month to the twenty-third day of the fifth month of the second year of Dade (1298).
78
棗林閘南至孟陽泊閘九十五里，延祐五年二月四日興工，五月二十二日工畢。
Zaolin stood ninety-five li north of the Mengyangbo Lock. Built from the fourth day of the second month to the twenty-second day of the fifth month of the fifth year of Yanyou (1318).
79
孟陽泊閘南至金溝閘九十里，大德八年正月四日興工，五月十七日工畢。
Mengyangbo stood ninety li north of the Jingou Lock. Built from the fourth day of the first month to the seventeenth day of the fifth month of the eighth year of Dade (1304).
80
金溝閘南至隘船閘一十二里，大德十年閏正月二十五日興工，四月二十三日工畢。
Jingou stood twelve li north of the Narrow-Boat Lock. Built from the twenty-fifth day of the intercalary first month to the twenty-third day of the fourth month of the tenth year of Dade (1306).
81
沽頭閘二：北隘船閘南至下閘二里，延祐二年二月六日興工，五月十五日工畢。 南閘南至徐州一百二十里，大德十一年二月興工，五月十四日工畢。
The Gutou Lock had two sections: the north Narrow-Boat Lock stood two li north of the lower lock. Built from the sixth day of the second month to the fifteenth day of the fifth month of the second year of Yanyou (1315). The south lock stood one hundred and twenty li north of Xuzhou. Work began in the second month and finished on the fourteenth day of the fifth month of the eleventh year of Dade (1307).
82
三汊口閘入鹽河，南至土山閘一十八里，泰定二年正月十九日興工，四月十三日工畢。 土山閘南至三汊口閘二十五里，入鹽河。 兗州閘。
The Sanchakou Lock connected to the Salt River, standing eighteen li north of the Tushan Lock. Built from the nineteenth day of the first month to the thirteenth day of the fourth month of the second year of Taiding (1325). Tushan stood twenty-five li north of the Sanchakou Lock and connected to the Salt River. There was the Yanzhou Lock.
83
堈城閘。
There was the Gangcheng Lock.
84
延祐元年二月二十日，省臣言：「江南行省起運諸物，皆由會通河以達於都，為其河淺澀，大船充塞於其中，阻礙余船不得來往。 每歲省臺差人巡視，其所差官言，始開河時，止許行百五十料船，近年權勢之人，並富商大賈，貪嗜貨利，造三四百料或五百料船，於此河行駕，以致阻滯官民舟楫，如於沽頭置小石閘一，止許行百五十料船便。 臣等議，宜依所言，中書及都水監差官於沽頭置小閘一，及於臨清相視宜置閘處，亦置小閘一，禁約二百料之上船，不許入河行運。」 從之。
On the twentieth day of the second month of the first year of Yanyou, provincial officials reported: "The Jiangnan Branch Secretariat ships all tribute goods via the Huitong Canal to the capital. Because the river is shallow and sluggish, large vessels choke it and block other boats from passing. Each year the provincial and central secretariats sent inspectors. Those officials reported that when the canal was first opened, only boats of one hundred and fifty materials were allowed. In recent years powerful men and wealthy merchants, greedy for profit, had built boats of three or four hundred materials, even five hundred, to sail this river, blocking official and private traffic alike. A small stone lock at Gutou, limiting passage to one-hundred-and-fifty-material boats, would solve the problem. We propose adopting this advice: let the Central Secretariat and the Directorate of Waterways dispatch officials to place a small lock at Gutou, and after inspecting suitable sites at Linqing, place another small lock there as well, forbidding boats of more than two hundred materials from entering the river for transport." The proposal was approved.
85
至治三年四月十日，都水分監言：「會通河沛縣東金溝、沽頭諸處，地形高峻，旱則水淺舟澀，省部已準置二滾水堰。 近延祐二年，沽頭閘上增置隘閘一，以限巨舟，每經霖雨，則三閘月河、截河土堰，盡為沖決。 自秋摘夫刈薪，至冬水落，或來歲春首修治，工夫浩大，動用丁夫千百，束薪十萬之余，數月方完，勞費萬倍。 又況延祐六年雨多水溢，月河、土堰及石閘雁翅日被沖嚙，土石相離，深及數丈，其工倍多，至今未完。 今若運金溝、沽頭並隘閘三處見有石，於沽頭月河內修堰閘一所，更將隘閘移置金溝閘月河、或沽頭閘月河內，水大則大閘俱開，使水得通流，小則閉金溝大閘，上開隘閘，沽頭則閉隘閘，而啟正閘行舟。 如此歲省修治之費，亦可免丁夫冬寒入水之苦，誠為一勞永逸。」 移文工部，令委官與有司同議。 於是差濠寨約會濟寧路官相視，就問金溝閘提領周德興，言每歲夏秋霖雨，沖失閘堤，必候水落，役夫采薪修治，不下三兩月方畢，冬寒水作，苦不勝言。 會驗監察御史言：「延祐初，元省臣亦嘗請置隘閘以限巨舟，臣等議，其言當，請從之。」 於是議：梭板等船乃御河、江、淮可行之物，宜遣出任其所之，於金溝、沽頭兩閘中置隘閘二，各闊一丈，以限大船。 若欲於通惠、會通河行運者，止許一百五十料，違者罪之，仍沒其船。 其大都、江南權勢紅頭花船，一體不許來往，準擬拆移沽頭隘閘，置於金溝大閘之南，仍作運環閘，其間空地北作滾水石堰，水漲即開大小三閘，水落即鎖閉大閘，止於隘閘通舟。 果有小料船及官用巨物，許申稟上司，權開大閘，仍添金溝閘板積水，以便行舟。 其沽頭截河土堰，依例改修石堰，盡除舊有土堰三道。 金溝閘月河內創建滾水石堰，長一百七十尺，高一丈，闊一丈。 沽頭閘自河內修截河堰，長一百八十尺，高一丈一尺，底闊二丈，上闊一丈。
On the tenth day of the fourth month of the third year of Zhizhi, the Branch Directorate of Waterways reported: "At Jingou, Gutou, and other places east of Pei County on the Huitong Canal, the terrain is high and steep; in drought the water runs shallow and boats stall. The provincial authorities have already approved two overflow weirs. Recently, in the second year of Yanyou (1315), a restrictive lock had been added above the Gutou Lock to limit large boats. Whenever heavy rains came, the bypass channels of all three locks and the cross-river earthen dams were washed away. From autumn corvée laborers were requisitioned to cut firewood; by winter when the water fell, or at the start of the following spring, repairs began. The work was enormous—thousands of laborers and more than a hundred thousand bundles of firewood—and took months to finish, at ten thousand times the usual labor and expense. Moreover, in the sixth year of Yanyou (1319) heavy rains caused flooding; bypass channels, earthen dams, and the stone wings of the locks were eroded day by day until earth and stone parted to depths of several zhang. The repairs needed were twice as great and remained unfinished to this day. If the stone already on hand at Jingou, Gutou, and the restrictive lock were now used to build one dam-lock in the Gutou bypass channel, and the restrictive lock were moved to the bypass channel of either the Jingou or Gutou lock: when water was high, all main locks could open so water flowed freely; when it was low, the main Jingou lock would close, the restrictive lock above it would open, and at Gutou the restrictive lock would close while the main lock opened for boats. In this way annual repair costs would be saved and corvée laborers spared the misery of working in freezing water—a true case of one effort bringing lasting ease." A dispatch was sent to the Ministry of Works ordering delegated officials to consult with local authorities. Officials were then dispatched from the river garrison to meet with Jining Circuit officers for inspection. They questioned Zhou Dexing, chief of the Jingou Lock, who reported that every summer and autumn the lock embankments were washed away in the rains. Repairs had to wait for the water to fall, then laborers gathered firewood for the work—a process taking at least two or three months, with misery beyond words when icy water rose in winter. Upon review the censor reported: "At the beginning of Yanyou the former provincial officials also requested a restrictive lock to limit large boats. We find their proposal correct and ask that it be adopted." It was then resolved that shuttle-board boats and the like were fit for the Imperial Canal and the Yangtze-Huai routes and should be sent wherever they belonged. Two restrictive locks would be placed between the Jingou and Gutou locks, each one zhang wide, to limit large boats. Boats wishing to transport on the Tonghui and Huitong canals would be limited to one hundred and fifty materials; violators would be punished and their vessels confiscated. Powerful pleasure boats from the capital and Jiangnan with red prows and floral decoration would likewise be barred. The plan was to dismantle and move the Gutou restrictive lock south of the Jingou main lock, making a transit ring-lock. On the empty ground to the north a stone overflow weir would be built: when water rose, all three locks large and small would open; when it fell, the main lock would be sealed and boats would pass only through the restrictive lock. If small-material boats or official heavy cargo truly needed passage, they could petition superiors for temporary opening of the main lock and additional lock boards at Jingou to store water for navigation. The cross-river earthen dam at Gutou would be rebuilt as a stone dam per precedent, and all three former earthen dams removed. A stone overflow weir was newly built in the Jingou Lock bypass channel: one hundred and seventy chi long, one zhang high, and one zhang wide. At the Gutou Lock, a cross-river dam was built from within the river: one hundred and eighty chi long, one zhang one chi high, two zhang wide at the base and one zhang at the top.
86
泰定四年四月，御史臺臣言：「巡視河道，自通州至真、揚，會集都水分監及瀕河州縣官民，詢考利病，不出兩端，一曰壅決，二曰經行。 卑職參詳，自古立國，引漕皆有成式。 自世祖屈群策，濟萬民，疏河渠，引清、濟、汶、泗，立閘節水，以通燕薊、江淮，舟楫萬里，振古所無。 後人篤守成規，茍能舉其廢墜而已，實萬世無窮之利也。 蓋水性流變不常，久廢不修，舊規漸壞，雖有智者，不能善後。 以故詳歷考視，酌古準今，參會眾議，輒有管見，倘蒙采錄，責任水監，謹守勿失，能事畢矣。 不窮利病之源，頻歲差人，具文巡視，徒為煩擾，無益於事。 都水監元立南北隘閘，各闊九尺，二百料下船梁頭八尺五寸，可以入閘。 愚民嗜利無厭，為隘閘所限，改造減舷添倉長船至八九十尺，甚至百尺，皆五六百料，入至閘內，不能回轉，動輒淺閣，阻礙余舟，蓋緣隘閘之法，不能限其長短。 今卑職至真州，問得造船作頭，稱過閘船梁八尺五寸船，該長六丈五尺，計二百料。 由是參詳，宜於隘閘下岸立石則，遇船入閘，必須驗量，長不過則，然後放入，違者罪之。 閘內舊有長船，立限遣出。」 省下都水監，委濠寨官約會濟寧路委官同歷視議擬，隘閘下約八十步河北立二石則，中間相離六十五尺，如舟至彼，驗量如式，方許入閘，有長者罪遣退之。 又與東昌路官親詣議擬，於元立隘閘西約一里，依已定丈尺，置石則驗量行舟，有不依元料者罪之。
In the fourth month of the fourth year of Taiding, censorate officials reported: "Inspecting the canal from Tongzhou to Zhen and Yang, convening the Branch Directorate and officials and people of riverine prefectures and counties, we found the benefits and harms reduce to two points: blockage and breach, and passage. Your humble servant has reviewed the matter: since antiquity every state that established itself had fixed norms for drawing grain transport. Since Emperor Shizu gathered counsel from all sides to aid the myriad people, dredged rivers and canals, drew in the Qing, Ji, Wen, and Si, and erected locks to regulate water, he linked Yanji and the Jiang-Huai in a thousand-li waterway unmatched since antiquity. If later generations faithfully kept the established rules and merely restored what fell into ruin, that alone would be a benefit without end for ten thousand ages. Water's nature is changeable and never constant; long neglect lets old norms decay, and even the wise cannot set things right afterward. For this reason, after detailed inspection, weighing past against present and joining everyone's counsel, I venture a few views. If they are adopted, charge the Directorate of Waterways to guard them carefully without lapse—that will suffice. Without getting to the root of benefits and harms, sending inspectors year after year with formal reports only harasses people and helps nothing. The Directorate's original north and south restrictive locks were each nine chi wide; boats of up to two hundred materials with a beam of eight chi five cun could pass. The ignorant public, insatiable for profit, hemmed in by the restrictive locks, refitted boats with lowered sides and lengthened holds—eighty or ninety chi, even one hundred chi, all five or six hundred materials. Once inside a lock they could not turn; they ran aground and blocked other boats, because the restrictive-lock rule limited width but not length. Your servant went to Zhenzhou and questioned a master shipwright, who said a lock-passing boat with an eight-chi-five-cun beam should be six zhang five chi long, reckoned at two hundred materials. On this basis I propose erecting a stone gauge on the bank below the restrictive lock: any boat entering must be measured, and none longer than the gauge may pass; violators shall be punished. Long boats already inside the lock should be given a deadline to leave." The Secretariat sent this down to the Directorate of Waterways, which delegated garrison officials to meet Jining Circuit officers for joint inspection. Below the restrictive lock, about eighty paces north of the river, two stone gauges were to be placed sixty-five chi apart; boats arriving there must be measured accordingly before entering the lock, and any too long would be punished and turned back. They also met in person with Dongchang Circuit officials and planned, about one li west of the originally established restrictive lock, to set stone gauges at the prescribed dimensions to measure passing boats; those not meeting the original material standard would be punished.
87
天歷三年三月，詔諭中外：「都水監言：世祖費國家財用，開闢會通河，以通漕運。 往來使臣、下番百姓及隨從使臣、各枝斡脫權勢之人，到閘不候水則，恃勢捶撻看閘人等，頻頻啟放。 又漕運糧船，凡遇水淺，於河內築土壩，積水以漸行舟，以故壞閘。 乞禁治事。 命後諸王駙馬各枝往來使臣及幹脫權勢之人、下番使臣等，並運官糧船，如到閘，依舊定例啟閉。 若似前不候水則，恃勢捶拷守閘人等，勒令啟閘，及河內用土築壩壞閘之人，治其罪。 如守閘之人，恃有聖旨，合啟閘時，故意遲延，阻滯使臣客旅，欺要錢物，乃不畏常憲也。」 仍令監察御史、廉訪司常加體察。
In the third month of the third year of Tianli, an edict announced to court and country: "The Directorate of Waterways reports: Emperor Shizu spent state funds to open the Huitong Canal for grain transport. Envoys in transit, commoners returning from overseas service, their attendants, and powerful persons from every branch and ortoq arrived at locks without waiting for the proper water level, relied on their influence to beat the lock keepers, and demanded frequent openings. Grain transport boats, whenever the water ran shallow, built earthen dams in the river to store water for gradual passage—and thus damaged the locks. We ask that this be forbidden. Henceforth imperial princes, imperial sons-in-law, envoys of every branch, powerful ortoq persons, and envoys returning from overseas service, together with official grain boats, must open and close locks according to the established rules when they arrive. Those who as before ignored the water level, relied on influence to beat and torture lock keepers and force openings, or built earthen dams in the river and damaged locks, would be punished. If lock keepers, relying on this edict, deliberately delay when locks should open, obstruct envoys and travelers, and extort money and goods—that is contempt for ordinary law." Censorial investigators and the surveillance commissions were also ordered to monitor this constantly.
88
兗州閘已見前。 至元二十七年四月，都漕運副使馬之貞言：
The Yanzhou Lock has already been described above. In the fourth month of the twenty-seventh year of Zhiyuan (1290), Vice Director Ma Zhizhen of the Directorate of Grain Transport reported:
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準山東東西道宣慰使司牒文，相視兗州閘堰事。 先於至元十二年蒙丞相伯顏訪問自江淮達大都河道，之貞乃言，宋、金以來，汶、泗相通河道，郭都水按視，可以通漕。 於二十年中書省奏準，委兵部李尚書等開鑿，擬修石閘十四。 二十一年，省委之貞與尚監察等同相視，擬修石閘八、石堰二，除已修畢外，有石閘一、石堰一、堽城石堰一，至今未修。 據濟州以南，徐、邳沿河纖道橋梁，二十三年添立邳州水站，移文沿河州縣，修治已完。 二十三年調之貞充漕運副使，委管閘接放綱船。 沿河纖道，元無崩損去處，在前年例，當麻麥盛時，差官修理閘道，督責地主割刈麻麥，並滕州開決稻堰，泗源磨堰，差人於呂梁百步等祇，及濟州閘監督江淮綱運船只，過祇出閘，不令阻滯客旅，茍取錢物。 據新開會通並濟州汶、泗相通河，非自然長流河道，於兗州立閘堰，約泗水西流，堽城立閘堰，分汶水入河，南會於濟州，以六閘撙節水勢，啟閉通放舟楫，南通淮、泗，以入新開會通河，至於通州。 近去歲四月，江淮都漕運使司言，本司糧運，經濟河至東阿交割，前者濟州運司，不時移文瀕河官司，修治纖道，若有緩急處所，正官取招呈省，路經歷、縣達魯花赤以下就便斷罪。 今濟州漕司革罷，其河道撥屬都漕運司管領，本司糧運未到東阿，凡有阻滯，並是本司遲慢。 迤南河道，從此無人管領，不時水勢泛溢，堤岸摧塌，澀滯河道。 又濟州閘，前濟州運司正官親臨監視，其押綱船戶不敢分爭。 即目各處官司差人管領，與綱官船戶各無統攝，爭要水勢，及攙越過閘，互相毆打，以致損壞船只，浸沒官糧。 擬將東阿河道撥付江淮都漕運司提調管領，庶幾不誤糧運，都省準焉。 又準江淮都漕運司副使言，除委官看管閘堰外，據汶、泗、堽城二閘一堰、泗河兗州閘堰、濟州城南閘，乃會通河上源之喉衿，去歲流水沖壞堽城汶河土堰、兗州泗河土堰，必須移文兗州、泰安州差夫修閉。 又被漲水沖破梁山一帶堤堰，走泄水勢，通入舊河，以致新河水小，澀糧船，乞移文斷事等官，轉下東平路修閉，上流撥屬江淮漕運司，下流屬之貞管領。 若已後新河水小，直下濟州監閘官，並泰安、兗州、東平修理。 據兗州石閘一所、石堰一道，堽城石閘一道，合用材物已行措置完備，必須修理，雖初經之貞相視會計，即令不隸管領，乞移文江淮漕司修治。 其泰安州堽城安、梁山一帶堤岸，濟州閘等處，雖是撥屬江淮漕司，今後倘若水漲，沖壞堤堰，亦乞照會東平、濟寧、泰安，如承文字，亦仰奉行。 又東阿、須城界安山閘，為糧船不由舊河來往，江淮所委監閘官已去，目今無人看管，必須之貞修理，以此權委人守焉。
Per a dispatch from the Shanxi-East and -West Circuit Pacification Commission, he inspected the Yanzhou lock and weir. Earlier, in the twelfth year of Zhiyuan (1275), Chancellor Bayan had inquired about the water route from the Jiang-Huai to the capital. Zhizhen replied that since Song and Jin times the connecting channel between the Wen and Si had been surveyed by Director Guo and could serve grain transport. In the twentieth year (1283) the Central Secretariat memorialized for approval and entrusted Minister Li of the Ministry of War and others to excavate it, planning fourteen stone locks. In the twenty-first year (1284) the province sent Zhizhen with Censor Shang and others to inspect jointly; they planned eight stone locks and two stone weirs. Aside from what was already finished, one stone lock, one stone weir, and the Gangcheng stone weir remained unrepaired to this day. South of Jizhou, towpaths and bridges along Xu and Pi had been repaired after a water station was added at Pizhou in the twenty-third year (1286) and orders sent to riverine prefectures and counties. In the twenty-third year Zhizhen was appointed Vice Director of Grain Transport and charged with managing locks and releasing convoy boats. Along the towpaths there had been no collapses. Under the yearly custom, when hemp and wheat were flourishing, officials were sent to repair lock paths and supervise landowners in cutting the crops. Rice weirs were opened at Tengzhou, the Moyan weir at Siyuan; men were posted at Lüliang, Baibu, and other stations; and at the Jizhou lock Jiang-Huai convoy boats were supervised so they passed posts and left locks without blocking travelers or extorting money. The newly opened Huitong Canal together with the Jizhou connecting channel between Wen and Si was not a naturally flowing river. At Yanzhou a lock and weir restrained the Si flowing west; at Gangcheng a lock and weir divided Wen water into the canal, which joined at Jizhou. Six locks regulated the water, opening and closing to pass boats south to the Huai and Si and into the new Huitong Canal as far as Tongzhou. Last year in the fourth month the Jiang-Huai Directorate of Grain Transport reported that its grain convoys were handed over at Dong'e after passing the Ji River. Formerly the Jizhou transport office repeatedly sent orders to riverine authorities to repair towpaths; for urgent problems responsible officials would be interrogated and reported to the province, and circuit intendants and county darughachi and below could be sentenced on the spot. Now the Jizhou transport office had been abolished and its river section assigned to the Directorate of Grain Transport; if grain had not reached Dong'e, any delay was this directorate's fault. The river stretch to the south now had no overseer; floods often burst embankments and choked the channel. At the Jizhou lock, the chief officer of the former Jizhou transport office had personally supervised, so convoy guards and boatmen dared not quarrel. Now officials dispatched from various offices and convoy guards and boatmen had no unified command; they fought over water levels, cut ahead at locks, beat one another, damaged boats, and sank official grain. It was proposed to assign the Dong'e river section to the Jiang-Huai Directorate for overall supervision so grain transport would not suffer; the Metropolitan Secretariat approved. The Jiang-Huai Vice Director also reported that besides posting officials to guard locks and weirs, the two locks and one weir at Wen-Si-Gangcheng, the Yanzhou lock and weir on the Si River, and the south Jizhou lock were the throat of the Huitong Canal's upper reaches. Last year floodwater had destroyed the Gangcheng Wen River earthen weir and the Yanzhou Si River earthen weir; orders must go to Yanzhou and Tai'an to dispatch labor for repairs. Floodwater had also breached embankments around Mount Liang, draining water into the old river so the new channel ran low and grain boats stalled. They asked investigating officials to relay orders to Dongping Circuit for repairs—the upper reach assigned to the Jiang-Huai transport directorate, the lower reach to Zhizhen. If afterward the new river ran low, the Jizhou lock supervisors and Tai'an, Yanzhou, and Dongping would handle repairs directly. Materials for one Yanzhou stone lock, one stone weir, and one Gangcheng stone lock had been fully prepared and must be built. Although Zhizhen had inspected and accounted for them, they were no longer under his jurisdiction; he asked that the Jiang-Huai transport office be ordered to repair them. For embankments around Gangcheng'an and Mount Liang in Tai'an, the Jizhou lock, and other sites—though assigned to the Jiang-Huai transport office—if future floods destroyed dikes, he also asked that Dongping, Jining, and Tai'an be notified and obey any orders received. At the Anshan lock on the border of Dong'e and Xucheng, grain boats no longer used the old river; the lock supervisor dispatched by Jiang-Huai had departed and no one was watching the lock. Zhizhen had to repair it and temporarily appoint a keeper.