Volume 65 Treatises 18: Rivers and Canals 2

河渠二○黃河

Rivers and Canals 2 — The Yellow River

黃河之水，其源遠而高，其流大而疾，其為患於中國者莫甚焉，前史載河決之患詳矣。

The Yellow River rises far upstream and runs high; its current is vast and swift. No scourge has afflicted China more grievously, and earlier histories already set down the calamities of its breaches at length.

世祖至元九年七月，衛輝路新鄉縣廣盈倉南河北岸決五十餘步。八月，又崩一百八十三步，其勢未已，去倉止三十步。於是委都水監丞馬良弼與本路官同詣相視，差丁夫並力修完之。二十五年，汴梁路陽武縣諸處河決二十二所，漂蕩麥禾房舍，委宣慰司督本路差夫修治。

In the seventh month of the ninth year of the Zhiyuan era (1272), the north bank of the river south of Guangying Granary in Xinxiang County, Weihui Circuit, burst open for more than fifty paces. In the eighth month another stretch of one hundred eighty-three paces gave way; the flood had not yet spent itself, and only thirty paces now stood between the river and the granary. The court then dispatched Ma Liangbi, deputy director of the Directorate of Waterways, together with circuit officials to survey the damage, and corvée laborers were levied to complete the repairs in concert. In the twenty-fifth year (1288), the river broke through at twenty-two places in Yangwu County and elsewhere along Bianliang Circuit, sweeping away grain and dwellings. The Pacification Commission was charged to oversee corvée repairs throughout the circuit.

成宗大德三年五月，河南省言：「河決蒲口兒等處，浸歸德府數郡，百姓被災，差官修築計料，合修七堤二十五處，共長三萬九千九十二步，總用葦四十萬四千束，徑尺樁二萬四千七百二十株，役夫七千九百二人。」

In the fifth month of the third year of the Dade era (1299), Henan Province reported that breaches at Pukou'er and elsewhere had flooded several districts of Guide Prefecture and brought disaster on the populace. Officials were sent to estimate repairs: seven dikes at twenty-five sites, 39,092 paces in all, requiring 404,000 bundles of reeds, 24,720 piles a foot thick, and 7,902 laborers.

武宗至大三年十一月，河北河南道廉訪司言：

In the eleventh month of the third year of the Zhida era (1310), the Surveillance Commission of the Hebei-Henan Circuit memorialized:

黃河決溢，千里蒙害，浸城郭，漂室廬壞禾稼，百姓已罹其毒。然後訪求修治之方，而且眾議紛紜，互陳利害，當事者疑惑不決，必須上請朝省，比至議定，其害滋大，所謂不預已然之弊。大抵黃河伏槽之時，水勢似緩，觀之不足為害，一遇霖潦，湍浪迅猛。自孟津以東，土性疏薄，兼帶沙滷，又失導泄之方，崩潰決溢，可翅足而待。

When the Yellow River bursts its banks, harm spreads for a thousand li—walled towns are soaked, dwellings swept away, crops destroyed, and the common people already bear the full brunt of the disaster. Only afterward do officials cast about for remedies, while debate swirls and rival camps argue costs and benefits. Those responsible waver, policy must be referred upward, and by the time the court decides, the damage has only deepened—the classic failure to prepare before calamity strikes. For the most part, when the Yellow River rests in its bed the current seems gentle and hardly looks dangerous—yet once the rains of a wet season arrive, the torrent turns violent in an instant. East of Mengjin the banks are loose and thin, laced with sand and salt, and with no proper channels to guide the flood off—breach and overflow can be expected almost at a glance.

近歲亳、潁之民，幸河北徙，有司不能遠慮，失於規畫，使陂濼悉為陸地。東至杞縣三汊口，播河為三，分殺其勢，蓋亦有年。往歲歸德、大康建言，相次湮塞南北二汊，遂使三河之水合而為一，下流既不通暢，自然上溢為災。由是觀之，是自奪分泄之利，故其上下決溢，至今莫除。即今水勢趨下，有復鉅野、梁山之意，蓋河性遷徙無常，茍不為遠計預防，不出數年，曹、濮、濟、鄆蒙害必矣。

In recent years the people of Bo and Ying were spared only because the river shifted north of the Yellow River plain, yet officials lacked foresight in their planning and allowed ponds and marshes to be turned entirely into farmland. As far east as the triple fork at Qi County, the river had long been divided into three channels to split and tame its force. In earlier years officials of Guide and Dakang petitioned to block the northern and southern branches one after another, merging the three streams into a single course. With the lower reach no longer free to drain, the river naturally backed up and brought disaster. Seen in this light, the authorities had stripped away the very channels that relieved the flood; small wonder that breaches and overflows up and down the course remain unremedied to this day. Even now the current is pressing southward with signs of returning toward Juye and Liangshan. The river's nature is to wander without fixed course; unless far-sighted precautions are taken, within a few years Cao, Pu, Ji, and Yun will inevitably be stricken.

今之所謂治水者，徒爾議論紛紜，咸無良策，水監之官，既非精選，知河之利害者百無一二。雖每年累驛而至，名為巡河，徒應故事，問地形之高下，則懵不知；訪水勢之利病，則非所習。既無實才，又不經練。乃或妄興事端，勞民動眾，阻逆水性，翻為後患。為今之計，莫若於汴梁置都水分監，妙選廉幹、深知水利之人，專職其任，量存員數，頻為巡視，謹其防護，可疏者疏之，可堙者堙之，可防者防之。職掌既專，則事功可立。較之河已決溢，民已被害，然後鹵莽修治以勞民者，烏可同日而語哉？

Today's so-called river controllers do nothing but argue in circles, none with a sound plan. The Directorate's officers are not carefully chosen, and scarcely one in a hundred truly understands what the Yellow River can do for good or ill. Though they ride the post roads each year on so-called river inspections, they merely go through the motions. Ask them about the lay of the land and they are utterly at a loss; inquire into the strengths and weaknesses of the current, and that lies outside their training altogether. They possess neither genuine ability nor seasoned experience. Some even stir up ill-conceived projects, exhausting the people and obstructing the river's natural course—only to create fresh disasters downstream. The best policy now is to establish a metropolitan water sub-directorate at Bianliang, appointing only upright, capable men who truly understand hydraulics to dedicated posts, maintaining an adequate staff for frequent inspection and vigilant defense—dredging where dredging is needed, blocking where blocking is needed, reinforcing where reinforcement is needed. Once responsibilities are clearly assigned, real results can be achieved. How can that be compared with waiting until the river has already burst, the people already ruined, and then rushing through hasty repairs that only exhaust them further?

於是省令都水監議，檢照大德十年正月省臣奏準，昨都水監升正三品，添官二員，鑄分監印，巡視御河，修缺潰，疏淺澀，禁民船越次亂行者，今擬就令分巡提點修治。本監議：「黃河泛漲，止是一事，難與會通河有壩闡漕運分監守治為比。先為御河添官降印，兼提點黃河，若使專一，分監在彼，則有妨御河公事。況黃河已有拘該有司正官提調，自今莫若分監官吏以十月往，與各處官司巡視缺破，會計工物督治，比年終完，來春分監新官至，則一一交割，然後代還，庶不相誤。」

The province then ordered the Directorate of Waterways to deliberate, citing the approved memorial of the first month of the tenth year of Dade (1306), when the Directorate was raised to the third rank, two posts added, and a sub-directorate seal cast to patrol the Imperial Canal, repair breaches, dredge shallows, and curb disorderly boat traffic. The proposal was now to charge that sub-directorate with touring the river and supervising repairs. The Directorate replied: "Yellow River flooding is a distinct problem and cannot be equated with the grain-transport sub-directorate that maintains the Huizong Canal with its dams and sluice gates. Officials and a seal were first added for the Imperial Canal with concurrent oversight of the Yellow River; if the sub-directorate were stationed there exclusively, duties on the Imperial Canal would suffer. Besides, the Yellow River already has its own responsible officials in charge. Henceforth sub-directorate officers should depart in the tenth month, tour with local authorities to inspect breaches, tally materials, and supervise repairs to completion by year's end. When the new sub-directorate chief arrives the following spring, duties can be handed over one by one before the outgoing officers return, so that neither river is neglected."

工部照大德九年黃河決徙，逼近汴梁，幾至浸沒。本處官司權宜開闢董盆口，分入巴河，以殺其勢，遂使正河水緩，並趨支流。緣巴河舊隘不足吞伏，明年急遣蕭都水等閉塞，而其勢愈大，卒無成功，致連年為害，南至歸德諸處，北至濟寧地分，至今不息。本部議：「黃河為害，難同余水，欲為經遠之計，非用通知古今水利之人專任其事，終無補益。河南憲司所言詳悉，今都水監別無他見，止依舊例議擬未當。如量設官，精選廉幹奉公、深知地形水勢者，專任河防之職，往來巡視，以時疏塞，庶可除害。」省準令都水分監官專治河患，任滿交代。

The Ministry of Works observed that in the ninth year of Dade (1305) the Yellow River had breached and shifted course, pressing close to Bianliang and nearly submerging the city. Local authorities as an expedient opened the Dongpen outlet and diverted water into the Ba River to reduce the main current's force, slowing the channel and drawing the flood toward subsidiary streams. The old Ba River channel was too narrow to absorb the flow. The next year Xiao of the Directorate of Waterways and others were urgently dispatched to seal the outlet, yet the flood only grew fiercer and the effort failed utterly. Harm has recurred year after year from Guide in the south to the Jining region in the north, and has not ceased to this day. This ministry concluded: "The Yellow River cannot be managed like ordinary waterways. Without appointing men who truly understand hydraulics past and present to dedicated charge of the work, no lasting remedy will ever be achieved. The Henan Surveillance Commission's analysis is thorough and sound. The Directorate of Waterways has no better proposal, and to rely merely on old precedent is inadequate. If an appropriate corps of officials is established, selecting only upright, dedicated men who thoroughly understand terrain and current, charged exclusively with river defense and touring the course to dredge or block in due season, the scourge may finally be lifted." The province approved and ordered metropolitan water sub-directorate officers to specialize in river disasters, with orderly handover at the end of each term.

仁宗延祐元年八月，河南等處行中書省言：「黃河涸露舊水泊汙池，多為勢家所據，忽遇泛溢，水無所歸，遂致為害。由此觀之，非河犯人，人自犯之。擬差知水利都水監官，與行省廉訪司同相視，可以疏辟堤障，比至泛溢，先加修治，用力少而成功多。又汴梁路睢州諸處，決破河口數十，內開封縣小黃村計會月堤一道，都水分監修築障水堤堰，所擬不一。宜委請行省官與本道憲司、汴梁路都水分監官及州縣正官，親歷按驗，從長講議。」由是委太常丞郭奉政、前都水監丞邊承務、都水監卿朵兒只、河南行省石右丞、本道廉訪副使站木赤、汴梁判官張承直，上自河陰，下至陳州，與拘該州縣官一同沿河相視。開封縣小黃村河口，測量比舊淺減六尺。陳留、通許、太康舊有蒲葦之地，後因閉塞西河、塔河諸水口，以便種蒔，故他處連年潰決。各官公議：「治水之道，惟當順其性之自然。嘗聞大河自陽武、胙城由白馬河間東北入海，歷年既久，遷徙不常。每歲泛溢兩岸，時有沖決，強為閉塞，正及農忙，科樁梢，發丁夫，動至數萬，所費不可勝紀，其弊多端，郡縣嗷嗷，民不聊生。蓋黃河善遷徙，惟宜順下疏泄。今相視上自河陰，下抵歸德，經夏水漲，甚於常年，以小黃口分泄之故，並無沖決，此其明驗也。詳視陳州，最為低窪，瀕河之地，今歲麥禾不收，民饑特甚，欲為拯救，奈下流無可疏之處。若將小黃村河口閉塞，必移患鄰郡；決上流南岸，則汴梁被害；決下流北岸，則山東可憂。事難兩全，當遺小就大。如免陳村差稅，賑其饑民，陳留、通許、太康縣被災之家，依例取勘賑恤，其小黃村河口仍舊通流外，據修築月堤，並障水堤，閉河口，別難擬議。」於是凡汴梁所轄州縣河堤，或已修治，及當疏通與補築者，條列具備。

In the eighth month of the first year of the Yanyou era (1314), the Henan Branch Secretariat reported: "When the Yellow River falls low it exposes old ponds and marshes, many of which powerful families have seized. When sudden flooding comes, the water has nowhere to spread and disaster follows. Seen in this light, it is not the river that offends mankind—mankind brings the offense upon itself. We propose dispatching a Directorate officer versed in hydraulics together with the provincial Surveillance Commission to survey the course, opening dikes and barriers where possible and repairing them before the flood season—less labor for greater effect. Moreover, at Sui Prefecture and elsewhere along Bianliang Circuit, several dozen river mouths had burst open. At Xiaohuang Village in Kaifeng County one plan called for a crescent dike, while the metropolitan water sub-directorate proposed flood-barrier dikes and weirs—the schemes did not agree. Provincial officials should be commissioned together with the circuit Surveillance Commission, Bianliang's metropolitan water sub-directorate, and the regular prefectural and county authorities to inspect on site and adopt the soundest plan." Accordingly Guo Fengzheng of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, the former deputy director Bian Chengwu, director Duo'erzhi of the Directorate of Waterways, Right Counselor Shi of the Henan Branch Secretariat, Deputy Surveillance Commissioner Zhamuhe, and Bianliang Administrative Assistant Zhang Chengzhi were dispatched from Heyin down to Chen Prefecture, together with the responsible local officials, to survey the river course. At the Xiaohuang Village outlet in Kaifeng County, measurements showed the channel six feet shallower than before. Chenliu, Tongxu, and Taikang once had extensive reed marshes, but after the western river, Ta River, and other outlets were blocked for farming, breaches recurred year after year elsewhere along the course. The officials jointly concluded: "The art of managing water lies solely in following its natural course. It is said that long ago the great river ran from Yangwu and Zuocheng through Baima and Hejian northeast to the sea, shifting its course endlessly over the years. Every year it floods both banks and sometimes bursts through. Forcible blocking always coincides with the peak of farming season, with piles and fascines levied and corvée laborers mobilized by the tens of thousands at costs beyond reckoning. Prefectures and counties are in uproar and the people can scarcely survive. The Yellow River is ever prone to wander; the only sound policy is to guide it downstream and let it drain freely. On this inspection from Heyin down to Guide, the summer flood stood higher than in an ordinary year, yet thanks to diversion at the Xiaohuang outlet there were no breaches at all—clear proof of the policy's merit. Chen Prefecture proved the lowest and most vulnerable stretch along the river. This year wheat and grain failed entirely and famine was severe. Though rescue was urgently needed, there was nowhere downstream that could be opened to receive the flood. If the Xiaohuang Village outlet were sealed, disaster would simply shift to neighboring prefectures; if the upper course were breached on the south bank, Bianliang would be stricken; if the lower north bank were breached, Shandong would be at grave risk. Both courses cannot be fully secured; the lesser harm must be accepted to avert the greater. Chen Village's corvée and taxes should be remitted and its starving people relieved; disaster households in Chenliu, Tongxu, and Taikang should be surveyed and aided according to precedent. Beyond keeping the Xiaohuang outlet open as before, proposals to build crescent dikes, flood barriers, or seal the mouth altogether are difficult to endorse." A full inventory was then drawn up of every dike under Bianliang's jurisdiction, whether already repaired or still requiring dredging and reinforcement.

至五年正月，河北河南道廉訪副使奧屯言：「近年河決杞縣小黃村口，滔滔南流，莫能禦遏，陳、潁瀕河膏腴之地浸沒，百姓流散。今水迫汴城，遠無數里，儻值霖雨水溢，倉卒何以防禦！方今農隙，宜為講究，使水歸故道，達於江、淮，不惟陳、潁之民得遂其生，竊恐將來浸灌汴城，其害匪輕。」於是大司農司下都水監移文汴梁分監修治，自六年二月十一日興工，至三月九日工畢，總計北至槐疙疸兩舊堤，南至窯務汴堤，通長二十里二百四十三步。創修護城堤一道，長七千四百四十三步，下地修堤，下廣十六步，上廣四步，高一丈，六十尺為一工。堤東二十步外取土，內河溝七處，深淺高下闊狹不一，計工二十五萬三千六百八十，用夫八千四百五十三，除風雨妨工，三十日畢。內流水河溝，南北闊二十步，水深五尺。河內修堤，底闊二十四步，上廣八步，高一丈五尺，積十二萬尺，取土稍遠，四十尺為一工，計三萬工，用夫百人。每步用大樁二，計四十，各長一丈二尺，徑四寸。每步雜草千束，計二萬。每步簽樁四，計八十，各長八尺，徑三寸。水手二十，木匠二，大船二艘，梯一副，繩索畢備。

In the first month of the fifth year (1318), Deputy Surveillance Commissioner Aotun of the Hebei-Henan Circuit reported: "In recent years the river has burst at the Xiaohuang Village mouth in Qi County and poured south in an unchecked torrent, inundating the fertile lands along the Chen and Ying rivers and driving the people into exile. The flood now presses within a few li of Bian City. Should the rains of a wet season swell the river, what defense could be mounted in time! Now, during the farming lull, the matter should be studied so that the river may be returned to its old course and reach the Yangtze and Huai—not only to restore life to the people of Chen and Ying, but because I fear that Bian City itself may one day be inundated, with harm beyond measure." The Grand Secretariat for Agriculture then directed the Directorate of Waterways to order the Bianliang sub-directorate to undertake repairs. Work began on the eleventh day of the second month of the sixth year (1319) and was finished on the ninth day of the third month, running from the two old dikes at Huai Geda in the north to the Bian dike at Yaowu in the south—a total length of twenty li and 243 paces. A new city-protection dike was constructed, 7,443 paces in length, with a base sixteen paces wide, a crown four paces wide, and a height of one zhang; labor was reckoned at one work unit per sixty feet. Earth was taken from twenty paces east of the dike. Seven inner channels of varying depth and width required 253,680 work units and 8,453 laborers; allowing for days lost to wind and rain, the work was finished in thirty days. The inner drainage channel ran twenty paces wide from north to south with a depth of five feet. Dikes within the river channel were rebuilt with a base twenty-four paces wide, a crown eight paces wide, and a height of one zhang five feet, totaling 120,000 cubic feet of fill. Earth was drawn from somewhat farther away, reckoned at one work unit per forty feet, 30,000 units in all, with one hundred laborers employed. Two large piles per pace were used, forty in all, each one zhang two feet long and four inches thick. One thousand bundles of fascine grass per pace were required, twenty thousand in all. Four securing stakes per pace were driven, eighty in all, each eight feet long and three inches thick. Twenty sailors, two carpenters, two large boats, one set of gangways, and ropes in full supply were deployed.

七年七月，汴梁路言：「滎澤縣六月十一日河決塔海莊東堤十步余，橫堤兩重，又缺數處。二十三日夜，開封縣蘇村及七里寺復決二處。」本省平章站馬赤親率本路及都水監官，並工修築，於至治元年正月興工，修堤岸四十六處，該役一百二十五萬六千四百九十四工，凡用夫三萬一千四百一十三人。

In the seventh month of the seventh year (1320), Bianliang Circuit reported that on the eleventh day of the sixth month the river had breached the east dike at Tahai Village in Xingyang County for more than ten paces, and that two layers of cross-dikes had several gaps as well. On the night of the twenty-third, two fresh breaches opened at Su Village and Qilisi in Kaifeng County. Pacification Commissioner Zhamuhe of the province personally led circuit and Directorate officials in joint repairs. Work began in the first month of the first year of Zhizhi (1321), restoring dikes at forty-six sites for 1,256,494 work units and 31,413 laborers in all.

文宗至順元年六月，曹州濟陰縣河防官本縣尹郝承務言：「六月五日，魏家道口黃河舊堤將決，不可修築，以此差募民夫，創修護水月堤，東西長三百九步，下闊六步，高一丈。又緣水勢瀚漫，復於近北築月堤，東西長一千餘步，下廣九步，其功未竟。至二十一日，水忽泛溢，新舊三堤一時咸決，明日外堤復壞，急率民閉塞，而湍流迅猛，有蛇時出沒於中，所下樁土，一掃無遺。又舊堤歲久，多有缺壞，差夫並工築成二十餘步。其魏家道口缺堤，東西五百餘步，深二丈餘，外堤缺口，東西長四百餘步。又磨子口護水堤，低薄不足禦水，東西長一千五百步。魏家道口卒未易修，先差夫補築。磨子口七月十六日興工，二十八日工畢。二十二日，按視至朱從馬頭西，舊堤缺壞，東西長一百七十餘步，計料堤外貼築五步，增高一丈二尺，與舊堤等，上廣二步。於磨子口修堤夫內，摘差三百一十人，於是月二十三日入役，至閏七月四日工畢。」郝承務又言：「魏家道口磚堌等村，缺破堤堰，累下樁土，沖洗不存，若復閉築，緣缺堤周回皆泥淖，人不可居，兼無取土之處。又沛郡安樂等保，去歲旱災，今復水澇，漂禾稼，壞室廬，民皆缺食，難於差倩。其不經水害村保民人，先已遍差補築黃家橋、磨子口諸處堤堰，似難重役。如候秋涼水退，倩夫修理，庶蘇民力。今沖破新舊堤七處，共長一萬二千二百二十八步，下廣十二步，上廣四步，高一丈二尺，計用夫六千三百四人，樁九百九十，葦箔一千三百二十，草一萬六千五束。六十尺為一工，無風雨妨工，度五十日可畢。」本縣準言，至八月三十日差夫二千四百二十，關請郝承務督役。郝承務又言：「九月三日興工修築，至十八日大風，十九日雨，二十四日復雨，緣此辛馬頭、孫家道口障水堤堰又壞，計工役倍於元數，移文本縣，添差二千人同築。二十六日，元與成武定、陶二縣分築魏家道口八百二十步修完。十月二日，至辛馬頭、孫家道口，從實又量元缺堤，南北闊一百四十步，內水地五十步，深者至二丈，淺者不下八九尺，依元料用樁箔補築，至七日完。又於本處創築月堤一道，西北東南斜長一千六百二十七步，內成武、定陶分築一百五十步，實築一千四百七十七步，外有元料堌頭魏家道口外堤未築。即欲興工，緣冬寒土凍，擬候來春，並工修理，官民兩便。

In the sixth month of the first year of the Zhishun era (1330), Hao Chengwu, river-defense officer and magistrate of Jiyin County in Cao Prefecture, reported that on the fifth day of the sixth month the old Yellow River dike at Weijiadao was on the verge of collapse and could not be patched in place. Corvée laborers were therefore mobilized to build a new flood-protection crescent dike 309 paces long east to west, six paces wide at the base, and one zhang high. As the flood spread still wider, a second crescent dike was begun to the north, more than a thousand paces long and nine paces wide at the base, but the work was not yet complete. On the twenty-first day the river suddenly surged. All three dikes, old and new, gave way at once; the next day the outer dike collapsed again. Laborers were rushed to the breach, but the torrent was fierce—snakes were seen writhing in the current—and every stake and load of earth was swept away without a trace. The old dike, worn by years of service, had many gaps; laborers were assigned to rebuild more than twenty paces of it in concert. At Weijiadao the breach in the dike ran more than five hundred paces east to west and over two zhang deep; the outer dike's gap extended more than four hundred paces. The flood-protection dike at Mozikou was likewise low and thin, inadequate to hold the water, and ran 1,500 paces east to west. Weijiadao could not quickly be restored; laborers were first assigned to patch the more manageable sections. At Mozikou work began on the sixteenth day of the seventh month and was completed on the twenty-eighth. On the twenty-second day the inspection reached west of Zhucong Matou, where the old dike had failed for more than 170 paces. Materials were calculated to face the dike outward by five paces, raising its height by one zhang two feet to match the old level, with a crown two paces wide. From the laborers at Mozikou, 310 were detailed for this task. They entered service on the twenty-third day of that month and finished on the fourth day of the intercalary seventh month. Hao Chengwu added: "At Weijiadao, Zhuan'gu, and neighboring villages the dikes lie in ruins. Stakes and earth have been cast in again and again only to be washed away. Any attempt to seal the breach is futile—the ground roundabout is nothing but mud and mire, uninhabitable, with nowhere left to draw fill. In Pei Prefecture the Anle district and others suffered drought last year and flood again this year—crops swept away, dwellings destroyed, the people without food. Corvée labor is scarcely to be had. Villages that escaped the flood have already been levied wholesale to repair dikes at Huangjiaqiao, Mozikou, and elsewhere; a second round of corvée seems impossible. If repairs wait until autumn, when the waters fall and the weather cools, hired labor may restore the people's strength. Seven breaches in old and new dikes now total 12,228 paces in length, with a base twelve paces wide, a crown four paces wide, and a height of one zhang two feet. The estimate calls for 6,304 laborers, 990 piles, 1,320 reed mats, and 16,500 bundles of fascine grass. Labor is reckoned at one unit per sixty feet; barring days lost to wind and rain, the work should be finished in fifty days." The county approved the plan, and by the thirtieth day of the eighth month 2,420 laborers were levied under Hao Chengwu's supervision. Hao Chengwu reported further: "Repairs began on the third day of the ninth month. On the eighteenth came a great gale, on the nineteenth rain, and on the twenty-fourth rain again. The flood barriers at Xinmatou and Sunjiadao collapsed anew, doubling the labor required. He petitioned the county for two thousand additional workers. On the twenty-sixth day, Yuan together with Ding of Chengwu and Tao counties completed 820 paces of repairs at Weijiadao by divided labor. On the second day of the tenth month work reached Xinmatou and Sunjiadao. The breach was remeasured at 140 paces north to south, with fifty paces under water—two zhang deep in places, no less than eight or nine feet in the shallows. Repairs with piles and mats according to the original estimate were completed by the seventh day. A new crescent dike was also built on site, 1,627 paces long on a northwest-southeast diagonal. Chengwu and Dingtao contributed 150 paces by divided labor, leaving 1,477 paces built here; the outer dike head at Weijiadao, included in the original estimate, remained unfinished. Work was to begin at once, but winter cold had frozen the ground; repairs are planned for the coming spring, when joint labor will serve both the state and the people.

濟州河

The Jizhou Canal

濟州河者，新開以通漕運也。世祖至元十七年七月，耿參政、阿裏尚書奏：「為姚演言開河事，令阿合馬與耆舊臣集議，以鈔萬錠為傭直，仍給糧食。」世祖從之。十八年九月，中書丞相火魯火孫等奏：「姚總管等言，請免益都、淄萊、寧海三州一歲賦，入折傭直，以為開河之用。平章阿合馬與諸老臣議，以為一歲民賦雖多，較之官給傭直，行之甚便。」遂從之。十月，火魯火孫等奏：「阿八失所開河，經濟州，而其地又有一河，傍有民田，開之甚便。臣等議，若開此河，阿八失所管一方屯田，宜移之他處，不阻水勢。」世祖令移之。十二月，差奧魯赤、劉都水及精算數者一人，給宣差印，往濟州，定開河夫役，令大名、衛州新附軍亦往助工。

The Jizhou Canal was newly excavated to link the grain-transport network. In the seventh month of the seventeenth year of the Zhiyuan era (1280), Participating Counselor Geng and Minister Ali memorialized that, regarding Yao Yan's proposal to open the canal, Ahmad should convene senior ministers to deliberate, with ten thousand ingots of paper money set aside as wages and grain rations provided as well. The Emperor approved. In the ninth month of the eighteenth year (1281), Chief Counselor Huoluohusun and others of the Central Secretariat reported that Director-General Yao and his colleagues asked that one year's tax from Yidu, Zilai, and Ninghai be remitted and converted into wages for opening the canal. Pacification Commissioner Ahmad and the senior ministers concluded that although a year's tax levy was substantial, converting it to wages was far more convenient than disbursement from the treasury. The proposal was approved. In the tenth month Huoluohusun and others reported that the canal Abahsi had opened ran through Jizhou, where another stream lay beside farmland and could conveniently be opened as well. We propose that if this channel is opened, the garrison farms under Abahsi's jurisdiction in that area should be relocated so as not to obstruct the current. The Emperor ordered the relocation. In the twelfth month Oruji, Liu of the Directorate of Waterways, and a skilled calculator were dispatched with an imperial commissioner seal to Jizhou to fix corvée quotas for the excavation, and the newly submitted armies of Daming and Weizhou were ordered to assist.

三十一年，御史臺言：「膠、萊海道淺澀，不能行舟。」臺官玉速帖木兒奏：「阿八失所開河，省遣牙亦速失來，謂漕船泛河則失少，泛海則損多。」既而漕臣囊加<角┦>、萬戶孫偉又言：「漕海舟疾且便。」右丞麥術丁又奏：「斡奴兀奴<角┦>凡三移文，言阿八失所開河，益少損多，不便轉漕。水手軍人二萬，舟千艘，見閑不用，如得之，可歲漕百萬石。昨奉旨，候忙古<角┦>來共議，海道便，則阿八失河可廢。今忙古<角┦>已自海道運糧回，有一二南人自願運糧萬石，已許之。」囊加<角┦>、孫萬戶復請用軍驗試海運，省院官暨眾議：「阿八失河揚用水手五千、軍五千、船千艘，畀揚州省教習漕運。今擬以此水手軍人，就用平灤船，從利津海漕運。」世祖從之。阿八失所開河遂廢。

In the thirty-first year the Censorate reported that the Jiao-Lai sea route had silted up and could no longer carry shipping. Censor Yisutiemuer added that the province had sent Yiyasushi, who argued that grain transport by river incurred fewer losses than by sea. Grain officials Nangajia Lu and Commander Sun Wei then argued that sea transport was both swift and convenient. Right Counselor Maishuding reported that Wanuwunu Lu had thrice written that Abahsi's canal brought little gain and much loss and was ill suited to grain transport. Twenty thousand sailor-soldiers and a thousand vessels now lie idle; properly deployed, they could move a million shi of grain each year. An earlier edict had awaited Manggu Lu's arrival for joint deliberation: if the sea route proved satisfactory, Abahsi's canal could be abandoned. Manggu Lu had already returned from a successful sea transport, and one or two southerners had volunteered to move ten thousand shi of grain, which permission was granted. Nangajia Lu and Commander Sun petitioned again to test sea transport with troops. Provincial and court officials jointly concluded that Abahsi's canal had employed five thousand sailors, five thousand soldiers, and a thousand boats, which Yangzhou Province had used to train grain transport crews. It was now proposed to redeploy these sailor-soldiers with Pingluan vessels for sea transport from Lijin. The Emperor approved. Abahsi's canal was accordingly abandoned.

滏河滏河者，引滏水以通洺州城濠者也。

The Fu Canal — a channel drawing water from the Fu River to supply the moat of Ming Prefecture.

至元五年十月，洺磁路言：「洺州城中，井泉鹹苦，居民食用，多作疾，且死者眾。請疏滌舊渠，置壩閘，引滏水分灌洺州城濠，以濟民用。計會河渠東西長九百步，闊六尺，深三尺，二尺為工，役工四百七十五，民自備用器，歲二次放閘，且不妨漕事。」中書省準其言。

In the tenth month of the fifth year of Zhiyuan, Mingci Circuit reported that the wells of Ming Prefecture were brackish and bitter, that residents who drank from them fell ill in great numbers, and that deaths were frequent. They asked that the old channel be dredged, dams and sluices installed, and Fu River water led into the prefectural moat to supply the people's needs. The canal was estimated at nine hundred paces east to west, six feet wide and three feet deep, with labor reckoned at one unit per two feet for 475 units total. Civilians were to supply their own tools; the sluices would be opened twice yearly without hindering grain transport. The Central Secretariat approved.

廣濟渠

The Guangji Canal

廣濟渠在懷孟路，引沁水以達於河。世祖中統二年，提舉王允中、大使楊端仁奉詔開河渠，凡募夫千六百五十一人，內有相合為夫者，通計使水之家六千七百餘戶，一百三十餘日工畢。所修石堰，長一百餘步，闊三十餘步，高一丈三尺。石斗門橋，高二丈，長十步，闊六步。渠四道，長闊不一，計六百七十七里，經濟源、河內、河陽、溫、武陟五縣，村坊計四百六十三處，渠成甚益於民，名曰廣濟。三年八月，中書省臣忽魯不花等奏：「廣濟渠司言，沁水渠成，今已驗工分水，恐久遠權豪侵奪。」乃下詔依本司所定水分，已後諸人毋得侵奪。

The Guangji Canal in Huaimeng Circuit drew Qin River water down to the Yellow River. In the second year of the Zhongtong era, Commissioner Wang Yunzhong and Envoy Yang Duanren received orders to open the canal, recruiting 1,651 laborers in all from more than 6,700 water-using households; the work was finished in just over 130 days. The stone weir built was over one hundred paces long, over thirty paces wide, and one zhang three feet high. The stone sluice bridge stood two zhang high, ten paces long, and six paces wide. Four channels of varying dimensions totaled 677 li, passing through Jiyuan, Henei, Heyang, Wen, and Wuzhi and serving 463 villages. When completed the work greatly benefited the people and was named Guangji, "Broad Relief." In the eighth month of the third year, Minister Hulubuhua and others reported that the Guangji Canal Office feared powerful families would in time seize the water shares now allotted after the Qin River canal's completion. An edict was issued confirming the water allotments fixed by the office and forbidding anyone thereafter to encroach upon them.

至文宗天歷三年三月，懷慶路同知阿合馬言：「天久亢旱，夏麥枯槁，秋谷種不入土，民匱於食。近因訪問耆老，咸稱丹水澆溉近山田土，居民深得其利，有沁水亦可溉田，中統間王學土亦為天旱，奉詔開此渠，募自願人戶，於太行山下沁口古跡，置分水渠口，開浚大河四道，歷溫、陟入黃河，約五百餘里，渠成名曰廣濟。設官提調，遇旱則官為斟酌，驗工多寡，分水澆溉，濟源、河內、河陽、溫、武陟五縣民田三千餘頃咸受其賜。二十餘年後，因豪家截河起堰，立碾磨，壅遏水勢，又經霖雨，渠口淤塞，堤堰頹圮。河渠司尋亦革罷，有司不為整治，因致廢壞。今五十餘年，分水渠口及舊渠跡，俱有可考，若蒙依前浚治，引水溉田，於民大便。可令河陽、河內、濟源、溫、武陟五縣，使水人戶自備工力，疏通分水渠口，立閘起堰，仍委諳知水利之人，多方區畫。遇旱，視水緩急，撤閘通流，驗工分水以灌溉；若霖雨泛漲，閉閘退還正流。禁治不得截水置碾磨，栽種稻田。如此，則澇旱有備，民樂趨利。請移文孟州、河內、武陟縣委官講議。」尋據孟州等處申，親詣沁口，咨詢耆老，言舊日沁水正河內築土堰，遮水入廣濟渠，岸北雖有減水河道，不能吞伏，後值霖雨，蕩沒田禾，以此堵閉。今若枋口上連土岸，及於沁水正河置立石堰，與枋口相平，如遇水溢，閉塞閘口，使水漫流石堰，復還本河，又從減水河分殺其勢，如此庶不為害。約會河陽、武陟縣尹與耆老等議，若將舊廣濟渠依前開浚，減水河亦增開深闊，禁安磨碾，設立閘堰，自下使水，遇旱放閘澆田，值澇閉閘退水，公私便益。懷慶路備申工部牒，都水監回文本路，委官相視施行。

In the third month of the third year of the Tianli era, Associate Administrator Ahmad of Huaqing Circuit reported that prolonged drought had withered the summer wheat, autumn seed could not be sown, and the people were starving. On consulting local elders, all praised the Dan River for irrigating hillside fields. The Qin River could serve likewise. In the Zhongtong era Academician Wang, facing similar drought, had opened this canal at the ancient Qin outlet below the Taihang range, excavating four great channels through Wen and Wuzhi to the Yellow River, some five hundred li in all, and naming it Guangji. Officials were appointed to supervise; in drought they weighed water shares by labor rendered, and more than 3,000 qing of farmland in five counties benefited. Within twenty years powerful families had dammed the stream for mills, choking the current; heavy rains then silted the mouth and dikes collapsed. The Canal Office was soon abolished, local authorities undertook no repairs, and the works fell into ruin. After more than fifty years the diversion mouth and old channel can still be traced. If dredged and restored as before to irrigate the fields, the people would benefit greatly. The five counties of Heyang, Henei, Jiyuan, Wen, and Wuzhi should be ordered to supply labor from water-using households to clear the diversion, install sluices and weirs, and commission men versed in hydraulics to plan the work. In drought, sluices should be opened according to the water's pace, shares allotted by labor, and fields irrigated; when heavy rains swell the river, sluices should be closed and the main current restored. It should be forbidden to dam the water for mills or rice paddies. Thus flood and drought would both be provided for, and the people would prosper. Documents should be sent to Mengzhou, Henei, and Wuzhi to commission officials for deliberation. Reports from Mengzhou followed. On inspecting the Qin outlet and consulting elders, they learned that an earthen weir had once diverted the main stream into the Guangji Canal; the northern relief channel could not absorb the flood, and after heavy rains destroyed the crops the outlet had been sealed. If earthen banks are joined above Fangkou and a stone weir set in the main Qin level with it, overflow can be directed over the weir back into the main channel while the relief stream splits the force—harm might thus be avoided. Heyang and Wuzhi magistrates met with elders and concluded that reopening the old Guangji Canal, widening the relief channel, forbidding mills, and installing sluices would allow irrigation in drought and safe drainage in flood, to the benefit of all. Huaqing Circuit reported to the Ministry of Works; the Directorate of Waterways replied directing the circuit to commission officials to inspect and carry out the work.

三白渠

The Sanbai Canals

京兆舊有三白渠，自元伐金以來，渠堰缺壞，土地荒蕪。陜西之人雖欲種蒔，不獲水利，賦稅不足，軍興乏用。太宗之十二年，梁泰奏：「請差撥人戶牛具一切種蒔等物，修成渠堰，比之旱地，其收數倍，所得糧米，可以供軍。」太宗準奏，就令梁泰佩元降金牌，充宣差規措三白渠使，郭時中副之，直隸朝廷，置司於雲陽縣；所用種田戶及牛畜，別降旨，付塔海紺不於軍前應副。是月，敕喻塔海紺不：「近梁泰奏修三白渠事，可於汝軍前所獲有妻少壯新民，量撥二千戶，及木工二十人，官牛內選肥腯齒小者一千頭，內乳牛三百，以畀梁泰等。如不敷，於各千戶、百戶內貼補，限今歲十一月內交付數足，趁十二月入工。其耕種之人，所收之米，正為接濟軍糧。如發遣人戶之時，或闕少衣裝，於各千戶、百戶內約量支給，差軍護送出境，沿途經過之處，亦為防送，毋致在逃走逸，驗路程給以行糧，大口一升，小者半之。」

Jingzhao once had the Sanbai Canals, but since the Yuan conquest of Jin the works had fallen into ruin and the land lay waste. Though the people of Shaanxi wished to farm, they lacked irrigation; tax revenue fell short and military campaigns went underfunded. In the twelfth year of Emperor Taizong, Liang Tai proposed assigning households, cattle, tools, and seed to restore the canals and weirs, promising several times the yield of dry land and grain enough to supply the army. Taizong approved and appointed Liang Tai, bearing the imperial gold plaque, as commissioner for the Sanbai Canals with Guo Shizhong as deputy, reporting directly to the court from an office in Yunyang County. The farming households and livestock required were by separate edict entrusted to Tachai Gunbu at the army front for supply. That month an edict instructed Tachai Gunbu to assign about two thousand households of captured subjects with families, twenty carpenters, and a thousand government cattle including three hundred dairy cows to Liang Tai for the Sanbai Canal project. Any shortfall was to be made up from the chiliarchs and centurions, with full delivery by the eleventh month and work to begin in the twelfth. The grain harvested was to go directly to army rations. If households lacked clothing when dispatched, chiliarchs and centurions were to supply it proportionally. Soldiers were to escort them beyond the border and along the route to prevent flight. Travel rations were set at one sheng for adults and half for children according to distance.

洪口渠洪口渠在奉元路。英宗至治元年十月，陜西屯田府言：

The Hongkou Canal — located in Fengyuan Circuit. In the tenth month of the first year of the Zhizhi era, the Shaanxi Garrison Fields Office reported:

自秦、漢至唐、宋，年例八月差使水戶，自涇陽縣西仲山下截河築洪堰，改涇水入白渠，下至涇陽縣北白公斗門，分為三限，並平石限，蓋五縣分水之要所。北限入三原、櫟陽、雲陽，中限入高陵，南限入涇陽，澆溉官民田七萬餘畝。近至大三年，陜西行臺御史王承德言，涇陽洪口展修石渠，為萬世之利。由是會集奉元路三原、涇陽、臨潼、高陵諸縣，洎涇陽、渭南、櫟陽諸屯官及耆老議，如準所言，展修石渠八十五步，計四百二十五尺，深二丈，廣一丈五尺，計用石十二萬七千五百尺，人日采石積方一尺，工價二兩五錢，石工二百，丁夫三百，金火匠二，用火焚水淬，日可鑿石五百尺，二百五十五日工畢。官給其糧食用具，丁夫就役使水之家，顧匠傭直使水戶均出。陜西省議，計所用錢糧，不及二年之費，可謂一勞永逸，準所言便。都省準委屯田府達魯花赤只裏赤督工，自延祐元年二月十日發夫匠入役，至六月十九日委官言，石性堅厚，鑿僅一丈，水泉湧出，近前續展一十七步，石積二萬五千五百尺，添夫匠百人，日鑿六百尺，二百四十二日可畢。

From Qin and Han through Tang and Song, each August water households were dispatched to cut the river below Zhongshan west of Jingyang, build the Hong weir, and divert the Jing into the Bai Canal down to Baigong sluice north of Jingyang, where three divisions and a level stone gate apportioned water among five counties. The northern branch supplied Sanyuan, Liyang, and Yunyang; the middle branch Gaoling; the southern branch Jingyang—irrigating more than 70,000 mu in all. Recently in the third year of Zhida, Censor Wang Chengde of the Shaanxi Branch Secretariat argued that expanding the stone channel at Jingyang Hongkou would benefit generations to come. Officials from Sanyuan, Jingyang, Lintong, and Gaoling and garrison officers and elders of Jingyang, Weinan, and Liyang were assembled to deliberate. As approved, the stone channel was expanded eighty-five paces—425 feet long, two zhang deep, one zhang five feet wide—requiring 127,500 cubic feet of stone. Two hundred stonemasons, three hundred laborers, and two smiths using fire and water could cut five hundred feet daily; the work was to finish in 255 days. The government supplied grain and tools; corvée laborers were drawn from water-using households, and craftsmen's wages were shared equally among them. Shaanxi Province calculated that the cost would not equal two years' expense—a true case of labor once, benefit forever—and approved the plan. The metropolitan government commissioned Garrison Fields darughachi Zhilichi to supervise. Work began on the tenth day of the second month of the first year of Yanyou. By the nineteenth day of the sixth month officials reported that the stone was so hard that only one zhang could be cut before springs burst forth. Seventeen additional paces were ordered, requiring 25,500 more cubic feet; with one hundred added workers cutting six hundred feet daily, completion was estimated in 242 days.

文宗天歷二年三月，屯田總管兼管河渠司事郭嘉議言：「去歲六月三日驟雨，涇水泛漲，無修洪堰及小龍口盡圮，水歸涇，白渠內水淺，為此計用十四萬九千五百十一工，役丁夫一千六百，度九十三日畢。於使水戶內差撥，每夫就持麻一斤，鐵一斤，系囤取泥索各一，長四十尺，草苫一，長七尺，厚二寸。」陜西省準屯田府照，洪口自秦至宋一百二十激，經由三限，自涇陽下至臨潼五縣，分流澆溉民田七萬餘頃，驗田出夫千六百人，自八月一日修堰，至十月放水溉田，以為年例。近因奉元亢旱，五載失稔，人皆相食，流移疫死者十七八。今差夫又令就出用物，實不能辦集。竊詳涇陽水利，雖分三限引水溉田，緣三原等縣地理遙遠，不能依時周遍，涇陽北近，俱在上限，並南限中限，用水最便。今次修堰，除見在戶依例差役，其逃亡之家合出夫數，宜令涇陽縣近限水利戶添差一人，官日給米一升，並工修治。省準出鈔八百錠，委耀州同知李承事，洎本府總管郭嘉議及各處正官，計工役照時直糴米給散。李承事督夫修築，至十一月十六日畢。

In the third month of the second year of the Tianli era, Garrison Fields Commissioner Guo Jiayi, who also oversaw canal affairs, reported that sudden rain on the third day of the sixth month last year had flooded the Jing, destroyed the Hong weir and Xiaolongkou, and left the Bai Canal shallow. Repairs would require 149,511 work units and 1,600 laborers over ninety-three days. Labor was levied from water households, each man to bring one jin of hemp, one jin of iron, a forty-foot rope for mud baskets, and a straw mat seven feet by two inches thick. Shaanxi Province approved the Garrison Fields report. From Qin through Song, Hongkou's 120 rapids and three divisions supplied five counties from Jingyang to Lintong, irrigating more than 70,000 qing. Fields supplied 1,600 laborers yearly to repair the weir from the first of the eighth month and release water in the tenth month. Fengyuan had lately suffered five years of drought; people resorted to cannibalism, and seven or eight in ten of those who fled died of plague. To levy laborers and require them to supply their own materials is beyond their means. Jingyang's irrigation, though divided into three branches, cannot reach distant counties like Sanyuan in season. Jingyang lies nearest the headworks on the upper, southern, and middle branches and enjoys the readiest access to water. For this repair, present households should serve as usual, but the quota of fled households should be met by assigning one extra man from nearby Jingyang water households, the government providing one sheng of grain daily. The province approved eight hundred ingots of paper money and commissioned Associate Administrator Li Chenshi of Yaozhou, Commissioner Guo Jiayi, and local officials to purchase grain at current prices for the workers. Li Chenshi supervised the repairs, which were completed on the sixteenth day of the eleventh month.

揚州運河

The Yangzhou Canal

運河在揚州之北，宋時嘗設軍疏滌，世祖取宋之後，河漸壅塞。至元末年，江淮行省嘗以為言，雖有旨浚治，有司奉行，未見實效。

The canal lay north of Yangzhou. Under the Song troops had once been assigned to dredge it, but after the conquest it gradually silted up. Near the end of the Zhiyuan era the Jiang-Huai Branch Secretariat had raised the issue, and though dredging was ordered, responsible offices complied without visible result.

仁宗延祐四年十一月，兩淮運司言：「鹽課甚重，運河淺澀無源，止仰天雨，請加修治。」明年二月，中書移文河南省，選官洎運司有司官相視，會計工程費用。於是河南行省委都事張奉政及淮東道宣慰司官、運司官，會州縣倉場官，遍歷巡視，集議：河長二千三百五十里，有司差瀕河有田之家，顧倩丁夫，開修一千八百六十九里；倉場鹽司不妨辦課，協濟有司，開修四百八十二里。運司言：「近歲課額增多，而船竈戶日益貧苦，宜令有司通行修治，省減官錢。」省臣奏準：諸色戶內顧募丁夫萬人，日支鹽糧錢二兩，計用鈔二萬錠，於運司鹽課及減駁船錢內支用。差官與都水監、河南行省、淮東宣慰司官專董其事，廉訪司體察，樞密院遣官鎮遏，乘農隙並工疏治。

In the eleventh month of the fourth year of the Yanyou era, the Liang-Huai Transport Office reported that the salt levy was heavy, the canal shallow and sourceless, dependent solely on rainfall, and requested repairs. The following February the Central Secretariat directed Henan Province to select officials together with transport and local authorities to inspect the canal and estimate costs. Henan Branch Secretariat Officer Zhang Fengzheng, Huaidong Pacification Commission and transport officials, and local granary officers toured the full length and concluded that of 2,350 li, local authorities should assign riverside landowners to hire labor for 1,869 li; granary and salt offices, without hindering tax collection, would assist in repairing the remaining 482 li. The Transport Office added that tax quotas had risen while boat and salt households grew poorer, and urged comprehensive repairs with reduced official expenditure. Provincial ministers approved hiring ten thousand laborers at two liang daily, totaling twenty thousand ingots drawn from salt revenues and reduced boat fees. Officials of the Directorate of Waterways, Henan Branch Secretariat, and Huaidong Pacification Commission were assigned to supervise, the Surveillance Commission to inspect, and the Privy Council to maintain order, with dredging to proceed jointly during the farming lull.

練湖在鎮江。元有江南之後，豪勢之家於湖中築堤圍田耕種，侵占既廣，不足受水，遂致泛溢。世祖末年，參政暗都剌奏請依宋例，委人提調疏治，其侵占者驗畝加賦。

Lian Lake lies at Zhenjiang. After the Yuan took the south, powerful families had diked the lake for farmland until it could no longer hold water and began to overflow. Near the end of Shizu's reign, Participating Counselor Andulaci petitioned to restore Song-era supervision of dredging and to levy tax by the mu on encroached land.

至治三年十二月，省臣奏：「江浙行省言，鎮江運河全藉練湖之水為上源，官司漕運，供億京師，及商賈販載，農民來往，其舟楫莫不由此。宋時專設人夫，以時修浚。練湖瀦蓄潦水，若運河淺阻，開放湖水一寸，則可添河水一尺。近年淤淺，舟楫不通，凡有官物，差民運遞，甚為不便。委官相視，疏治運河，自鎮江路至呂城壩，長百三十一里，計役夫萬五百十三人，六十日可畢。又用三千餘人浚滌練湖，九十日可完，人日支糧三升、中統鈔一兩。行省、行臺分官監督。所用船物，今歲預備，來春興工。合行事宜，依江浙行省所擬。」既得旨，都省移文江浙行省，委參政董中奉率合屬正官親臨督役。於是董中奉言：「所委前都水少監崇明州知州任奉政、鎮江路總管毛中議等議：練湖、運河此非一事，宜依假山諸湖農民取泥之法，用船千艘，船三人，用竹褷撈取淤泥，日可三載，月計九萬載，三月之間，通取二十七萬載，就用所取泥增築湖岸。自鎮江在城程公壩，至常州武進縣呂城壩，河長百三十一里一百四十六步，擬開河面闊五丈，底闊三丈，深四尺，與見有水二尺，可積深六尺。所役夫於平江、鎮江、常州、江陰州及建康路所轄溧陽州田多上戶內差倩。若浚湖開河，二役並興，卒難辦集。宜趁農隙，先開運河，工畢就浚練湖。」省準所言，與都事王徵事等於泰定元年正月至鎮江丹陽縣，洎各監工官沿湖相視，上湖沙岡黃土，下湖茭根叢雜，泥亦堅硬，不可褷取。又議兩役並興，相離三百餘里，往來監督，供給為難，願以所督夫一萬三千五百十二人，先開運河，期四十七日畢，次浚練湖，二十日可完。繼有江南行臺侍御史及浙西廉訪司副使俱至，乃議首事運河，備文咨稟，遂於是月十七日入役。

In the twelfth month of the third year of Zhizhi, provincial ministers reported that the Jiang-Zhe Branch Secretariat had stated that the Zhenjiang canal depended entirely on Lian Lake as its source—for official grain transport to the capital, merchant traffic, and farmers alike, all boats passed this way. Under the Song laborers had been assigned to dredge it in season. Lian Lake stored floodwater; releasing one inch of lake water could raise the canal by a foot when it ran shallow. In recent years silting had blocked shipping, forcing official goods to be hauled by civilians at great inconvenience. Officials were to dredge the canal from Zhenjiang to Lücheng Dam, 131 li in length, requiring 10,513 laborers over sixty days. More than three thousand additional workers would dredge Lian Lake in ninety days, each receiving three sheng of grain and one liang of Zhongtong paper money daily. Branch Secretariat and Censorate officials were to supervise separately. Boats and materials were to be prepared this year and work begun the following spring. The plan was approved as proposed by the Jiang-Zhe Branch Secretariat. Once approved, the metropolitan government directed the Jiang-Zhe Branch Secretariat to commission Participating Counselor Dong Zhongfeng to supervise the work in person with all responsible officials. Dong Zhongfeng reported that Ren Fengzheng, former deputy director of waterways and magistrate of Chongming, Mao Zhongyi, commissioner of Zhenjiang, and others had concluded that lake and canal were separate tasks. Following the Jiaoshan method, one thousand boats with three men each using bamboo scoops could dredge three loads daily—270,000 loads in three months—to raise the lake banks with the silt removed. From Chenggong Dam in Zhenjiang city to Lücheng Dam in Wujin County, Changzhou, the canal ran 131 li and 146 paces. The plan called for a surface five zhang wide, a bottom three zhang wide, and four feet of new depth added to the existing two feet for six feet total. Labor was to be levied from major landholding households in Pingjiang, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Jiangyin, and Liyang under Jiankang Circuit. To dredge the lake and open the canal simultaneously would be beyond immediate capacity. During the farming lull the canal should be opened first, and Lian Lake dredged only after that work was finished. The provincial court approved the report, and Wang Zhengshi of the Bureau of General Affairs and others went to Danyang County, Zhenjiang, in the first month of Zhiding 1 to inspect the lake with the supervising officials. They found sandy ridges and yellow soil in the upper lake and dense rush roots in the lower lake—the mud was too hard to scoop. They also argued that running both projects at once would be impractical—the sites were more than three hundred li apart, making supervision and supplies difficult. They proposed using their 13,512 laborers to open the canal first within forty-seven days, then dredge Lian Lake in twenty. The Jiangnan Branch Secretariat censor and the Zhexi Surveillance vice commissioner then arrived, agreed to start with the canal, prepared the necessary reports, and put laborers to work on the seventeenth of that month.

二月十八日，省臣奏：「開浚運河、練湖，重役也，宜依行省所議，仍令便宜從事。」後各監工官言：「已分運河作三壩，依元料深闊丈尺開浚，至三月四日工畢。數內平江昆山、嘉定二州，實役二十六日，常熟、吳江二州，長洲、吳縣，實役二十八日，餘皆役三十日，已於三月七日積水行舟。」又監修練湖官言：「任奉議指劃元料，增築堤堰及舊有土基，共增闊一丈二尺，平面至高底灘腳，增築共量斜高二丈五尺。依中堰西石達東舊堤臥羊灘修築，如舊堤高闊已及所料之上者，遇有崩缺，修築令完。中堰西石達至五百婆堤西上增高土一尺，有缺亦補之。五百婆堤至馬林橋堤水勢稍緩，不須修治，其堤底間有滲漏者，窒塞之。三月六日破土，九日入役，至十一日工畢，實役三日。歸勘任少監元料，開運河夫萬五百十三人，六十日畢，浚練湖夫三千人，九十日畢，人日支鈔一兩、米三升，共該鈔萬八千一十四錠二十兩，米二萬七千二十一石六斗，實征夫萬三千五百十二人，共役三十三日，支鈔八千六百七十九錠三十六兩，糧萬三千十九石五斗八升。比附元料，省鈔九千三百三十四錠三十四兩，糧萬四千二石二升。其練湖未畢，相視地形水勢再議。」

On the eighteenth of the second month, provincial officials memorialized that opening the canal and dredging Lian Lake was major work and should proceed as the branch secretariat had proposed, with officials authorized to act as circumstances required. The supervising officials later reported that the canal had been divided into three sections and dredged to the original depth and width specifications, with work finished on the fourth of the third month. Within the totals, Kunshan and Jiading in Pingjiang actually worked twenty-six days; Changshu, Wujiang, Changzhou, and Wu worked twenty-eight; all others worked thirty. By the seventh of the third month enough water had accumulated for boats to pass. The Lian Lake supervisors reported that, following Councillor Ren's original plan, dikes and existing foundations were raised and widened by one zhang and two feet, with a total sloped height of two zhang and five feet from the flat crest to the lower beach toe. Work proceeded along the old dike from the stone dam west of the middle weir east to Woyang Beach. Where existing dikes already met or exceeded the planned height and width, any breaches were repaired. From the stone dam west of the middle weir to Wubai Po Dike, one foot of earth was added on the west side, and any gaps were filled. From Wubai Po Dike to Malin Bridge Dike the current was mild enough that no major repairs were needed; seepage at the dike base was plugged where it occurred. Ground was broken on the sixth of the third month, labor began on the ninth, and work was finished on the eleventh—three days of actual service. Cross-checked against Deputy Director Ren's original estimates—10,513 men for sixty days on the canal and 3,000 men for ninety days on Lian Lake, at one liang of paper money and three sheng of rice per person per day—the projected cost was 18,014 ingots 20 liang and 27,021 shi 6 dou of rice. In fact 13,512 men served thirty-three days at a cost of 8,679 ingots 36 liang and 13,019 shi 5 dou 8 sheng of grain. Compared with the original estimates, the project saved 9,334 ingots 34 liang in paper money and 14,002 shi 2 sheng of grain. Because Lian Lake work was not yet complete, they inspected the terrain and water conditions for further deliberation."

參政董中奉又言：「練湖舊有湖兵四十三人，添補五十七名，共百人，於本路州縣苗糧三石之下、二石之上差充，專任修築湖岸，設提領二員、壕寨二人、司吏三人，於有出身人內選用。」工部議：「練湖所設提領人等印信，即同湖兵，宜咨本省遍行議擬。」又鎮江路言：「河、練湖今已開浚，若不設法關防，徒勞民力。除關本路達魯花赤兀魯失海牙總治其事，同知哈散、知事程郇專管啟閉斗門。」行省從之。

Participating Minister Dong Zhongfeng also proposed staffing Lian Lake with one hundred lake soldiers—forty-three existing plus fifty-seven new recruits drawn from households paying between two and three shi in grain tax. They would be dedicated to repairing the lake banks, with two supervisors, two trench wardens, and three clerks chosen from men of official background. The Ministry of Works replied that the seals issued to Lian Lake supervisors should be treated like those of lake soldiers, and the provincial office should be consulted for a province-wide plan. Zhenjiang Circuit also warned that with the canal and Lian Lake now dredged, failure to establish safeguards would waste all the labor already expended. The circuit darughachi Urus Haiya was to oversee the work overall, while Deputy Commissioner Hasan and Bureau Chief Cheng Xun were assigned specifically to operate the sluice gates. The branch secretariat approved.

吳松江

Wusong River

浙西諸山之水受之太湖，下為吳松江，東匯澱山湖以入海，而潮汐來往，逆湧濁沙，上涇河口，是以宋時設置撩洗軍人，專掌修治。元既平宋，軍士罷散，有司不以為務，勢豪租占為蕩為田，州縣不得其人，輒行許準，以致湮塞不通，公私俱失其利久矣。

The waters of western Zhejiang's mountains flow into Tai Lake and down the Wusong River, gathering at Dianshan Lake before reaching the sea. Tidal action constantly drives muddy sand back up the river mouth, which is why the Song had established dredging troops to maintain the channel. After the Yuan conquered the Song, the dredging troops were disbanded and officials neglected the river. Powerful families leased and reclaimed the marshes as farmland, and local governments, lacking qualified staff, approved the encroachments anyway. The channel silted shut, and public and private interests alike suffered for years.

至治三年，江浙省臣方以為言，就委嘉興路治中高朝列、湖州路知事丁將仕同本處正官，體究舊曾疏浚通海故道，及新生沙漲礙水處所，商度開滌圖呈。據丁知事等官按視講究，合開浚河道五十五處。內常熟州九處，十三段，該工百三十二萬一千五百六十二，昆山州十一處，九十五里，用工二萬七千四百，役夫四百五十六，宜於本州有田一頃之上戶內，驗田多寡，算量裏步均派，自備糧赴功疏浚。正月上旬興工，限六十日工畢，二年一次舉行。嘉定州三十五處，五百三十八里，該工百二十六萬七千五十九，日支糧一升，計米萬二千六百七十石五斗九升，日役夫二萬一千一百一十七，六十日畢。工程浩大，米糧數多，乞依年例，勸率附河有田用水之家，自備口糧，佃戶傭力開浚。奈本州連年被災，今歲尤甚，力有不逮，宜從上司區處。高治中會集松江府各州縣官按視，議合浚河渠，華亭縣九處，計五百二十八里，該工九百六十八萬四千八百八十二，役夫十六萬一千四百一十四，人日支糧二升，計米十九萬三千六百九十七石六斗四升。上海縣十四處，計四百七十一里，該工千二百三十六萬八千五十二，日役夫二萬六千一百三十四，人日支糧二升，計二十四萬七千三百六十一石四升，六十日工畢。官給之糧，傭民疏治。如下年豐稔，勸率有田之家，五十畝出夫一人，十畝之上驗數合出，止於本保開浚。其權勢之家，置立魚斷並沙塗栽葦者，依上出夫。

In Zhizhi 3, Zhejiang officials raised the issue and commissioned Gao Chaolie, chief administrator of Jiaxing, and Ding Jiangshi, bureau chief of Huzhou, together with local officials, to survey the old sea outlet channels and new sand bars blocking the flow, plan dredging work, and submit a map. On inspection, Magistrate Ding and his colleagues determined that fifty-five stretches of channel needed dredging. Changshu had nine sites in thirteen segments requiring 1,321,562 units of work. Kunshan had eleven sites over ninety-five li, needing 27,400 labor units and 456 corvée workers. Households in each prefecture holding at least one qing of land should be assessed by acreage, assigned work proportionally, and supply their own rations for dredging. Work was to start in early first month, finish within sixty days, and repeat every two years. Jiading had thirty-five sites over five hundred thirty-eight li, requiring 1,267,059 units of work. At one sheng of grain per person per day—12,670 shi 5 dou 9 sheng of rice in all—and 21,117 daily laborers, the project could be finished in sixty days. Because the project was enormous and the grain requirement heavy, they asked to follow the usual practice of urging riverside landowners who depended on the water to supply their own rations while tenants provided the labor for dredging. But Jiading had suffered disasters year after year, and this year was worse than ever; local capacity was insufficient, and higher authorities would need to arrange relief. Chief Administrator Gao gathered Songjiang officials for inspection and agreed to dredge the channels. Huating County alone had nine sites over five hundred twenty-eight li, requiring 9,684,882 units of work, 161,414 laborers at two sheng of grain per person per day—193,697 shi 6 dou 4 sheng of rice in all. Shanghai County had fourteen sites over four hundred seventy-one li, requiring 12,368,052 units of work. With 26,134 daily laborers at two sheng of grain each—247,361 shi 4 sheng in all—the work could be finished in sixty days. The government would supply grain and hire common laborers to do the dredging. If the next year brought a good harvest, landowners would be urged to contribute one laborer per fifty mu of land, with proportional assignments above ten mu, limited to dredging within their own ward. Powerful families who maintained fish weirs or planted reeds on tidal flats would be subject to the same labor obligations.

其上海、嘉定連年旱澇，皆緣河口湮塞，旱則無以灌溉，澇則不能疏泄，累致凶歉，官民俱病。至元三十年以後，兩經疏辟，稍得豐稔。比年又復壅閉，勢家愈加租占，雖得征賦，實失大利。上海縣歲收官糧一十七萬石，民糧三萬餘石，略舉似延祐七年災傷五萬八千七百餘石，至治元年災傷四萬九千餘石，二年十萬七千餘石，水旱連年，殆無虛歲，不惟虧欠官糧，復有賑貸之費。近委官相視地形，講議疏浚，其通海大江，未易遽治；舊有河港聯絡官民田土之間、藉以灌溉者，今皆填塞，必須疏通，以利耕種。欲令有田人戶自為開浚，而工役浩繁，民力不能獨成。由是議，上海、嘉定河港，宜令本處所管軍民站竈僧道諸色有田者，以多寡出夫，自備糧修治，州縣正官督役。其豪勢租占蕩田、妨水利者，並與除辟。本處民田稅糧全免一年，官租減半。今秋收成，下年農隙舉行，行省、行臺、廉訪司官巡鎮。外據華亭、昆山、常熟州河港，比上海、嘉定緩急不同，難為一體，從各處勸農正官督有田之家，備糧並工修治。若遽興工，陰陽家言癸亥年動土有忌，預為咨稟可否。

Shanghai and Jiading had suffered drought and flood year after year because the river mouth was blocked. In drought they could not irrigate; in flood they could not drain. Famine followed repeatedly, harming officials and commoners alike. After Zhiyuan 30 the channels were dredged twice, and harvests improved somewhat. In recent years the channels had silted shut again as powerful families encroached further. Tax revenue continued, but the region's larger economic gains were lost. Shanghai County collected 170,000 shi in official grain and over 30,000 shi in civilian grain annually. Disaster losses alone totaled more than 58,700 shi in Yanyou 7, nearly 49,000 shi in Zhizhi 1, and over 107,000 shi in Zhizhi 2. Drought and flood struck almost every year, leaving official grain short and forcing costly relief efforts. Officials had recently been sent to survey the terrain and discuss dredging, but the main river to the sea could not be remedied quickly; the old irrigation channels linking public and private farmland were now filled in and would have to be cleared to restore farming. They wanted landowners to dredge the channels themselves, but the work was too extensive for local communities to manage alone. They therefore proposed that Shanghai and Jiading channels be repaired by all local landholders—soldiers, civilians, postal workers, salt producers, monks, and Taoists alike—contributing labor in proportion to their holdings, supplying their own rations, under supervision by prefecture and county officials. Encroachments by powerful families on marshland that blocked water flow were to be cleared as well. Local civilian land tax would be fully waived for one year, and official rent cut by half. Work would begin after the autumn harvest during the next year's farming lull, with branch secretariat, censorate, and surveillance officials overseeing it. Huating, Kunshan, and Changshu presented a different level of urgency from Shanghai and Jiading and could not be handled uniformly. In each place, agriculture officials would supervise landowners supplying grain and labor for repairs. If work began too soon, geomancers warned that breaking ground in a guihai year was inauspicious, and asked whether advance approval could be sought.

至泰定元年十月十九日，右丞相旭邁傑等奏：「江浙省言，吳松江等處河道壅塞，宜為疏滌，仍立閘以節水勢。計用四萬餘人，今歲十二月為始，至正月終，六十日可畢，用二萬餘人，二年可畢。其丁夫於旁郡諸色戶內均差，依練湖例，給傭直糧食，行省、行臺、廉訪司並有司官同提調。臣等議，此事官民兩便，宜從其請。若丁夫有餘，止令一年畢。命脫歡答剌罕諸臣同提調，專委左丞朵兒只班及前都水任少監董役。」得旨，移文行省，準擬疏治。江浙省下各路發夫入役，至二年閏正月四日工畢。

On the nineteenth of the tenth month of Zhiding 1, Right Chancellor Xu Maijie and others reported that Zhejiang officials had stated the Wusong River and other channels were blocked and should be dredged, with sluice gates built to control the flow. The project would require more than forty thousand men. Starting in the twelfth month and finishing by the end of the first month, it could be done in sixty days; with more than twenty thousand men, it would take two years. Corvée labor would be levied evenly from various household categories in neighboring prefectures, with wages and grain paid as at Lian Lake, under joint supervision by branch secretariat, censorate, surveillance, and local officials. We concluded that the proposal served both government and people and should be approved. If enough laborers were available, the work could be finished in a single year. Toqan Taghai and other ministers were ordered to supervise the project jointly, with Left Chancellor Duorzhiban and former Deputy Director of Waterways Ren placed in direct charge. The emperor approved, and orders were sent to the branch secretariat to proceed with dredging. The Zhejiang branch secretariat mobilized labor from every circuit, and work was finished on the fourth of the intercalary first month in the second year.

澱山湖

Dianshan Lake

太湖為浙西巨浸，上受杭、湖諸山之水，瀦蓄之余，分匯為澱山湖，東流入海。

Tai Lake was western Zhejiang's great reservoir, fed by the mountains of Hangzhou and Huzhou. Its overflow gathered in Dianshan Lake before flowing east to the sea.

世祖末年，參政暗都剌言：「此湖在宋時委官差軍守之，湖旁余地，不許侵占，常疏其壅塞，以泄水勢。今既無人管領，遂為勢豪絕水築堤，繞湖為田，湖狹不足瀦蓄，每遇霖潦，泛溢為害。昨本省官忙古<角┦>等興言疏治，因受曹總管金而止。張參議、潘應武等相繼建言，識者咸以為便。臣等議，此事可行無疑。然雖軍民相參，選委廉幹官提督，行省山住子、行院董八都見子、行臺哈剌<角┦>令親詣相視，會計合用軍夫擬稟。」世祖曰：「利益美事，舉行已晚，其行之。」既而平章鐵哥言：「委官相視，計用夫十二萬，百日可畢。昨奏軍民共役，今民丁數多，不須調軍。」世祖曰：「有損有益，咸令均齊，毋自疑惑，其均科之。」

Near the end of Kublai's reign, Participating Minister Andula reported that in Song times officials and troops had guarded the lake, encroachment on its margins was forbidden, and blockages were cleared regularly to release floodwater. With no one in charge, powerful families had dammed the outflow and reclaimed land around the lake. The lake grew too narrow to hold floodwater, and heavy rains now caused widespread overflow. Provincial officials including Mangulu had proposed dredging, but the effort stopped after Commissioner Cao paid them off. Participating Councillor Zhang, Pan Yingwu, and others memorialized in turn, and informed opinion agreed the project was worthwhile. We concluded there was no doubt the project should proceed. Military and civilian labor would be combined under capable supervisors. Shan Zhuzi of the branch secretariat, Dong Badujianzi of the branch court, and Haralu of the branch censorate were ordered to inspect the site in person, calculate the labor required, and submit a plan. Kublai replied, "This is a worthy project, and we have waited too long already. Carry it out." Pacifying Minister Tiege then reported that officials had inspected the site and estimated 120,000 laborers could finish the work in one hundred days. We had previously proposed combined military and civilian service, but civilian labor was now sufficient and troops need not be mobilized. Kublai replied, "Share both burdens and benefits equally. Do not hesitate—levy the labor evenly."

至元三十一年，世祖崩，成宗即位。平章鐵哥奏：「太湖、澱山湖昨嘗奏過先帝，差倩民夫二十萬疏掘已畢。今諸河日受兩潮，漸致沙漲，若不依舊宋例，令軍屯守，必致坐隳成功。臣等議，常時工役撥軍，樞府猶且吝惜，屯守河道用軍八千，必辭不遣。澱山湖圍田賦糧二萬石，就以募民夫四千，調軍士四千與同屯守。立都水防田使司，職掌收捕海賊，修治河渠圍田。」命伯顏察兒暨樞密院議畢聞奏。於是樞府言：「嘗奏澱山湖在宋時設軍屯守，範殿帥、朱、張輩必知其故，擬與省官集議定稟奏，有旨從之。乃集樞府官及範殿帥等共議，朱、張言：『宋時屯守河道，用手號軍，大處千人，小處不下三四百，隸巡檢司管領。』範殿帥言：『差夫四千，非動搖四十萬戶不可，若令五千軍屯守，就委萬戶一員提調，事或可行。』臣等亦以為然，與都水巡防萬戶府職名，俾隸行院。」樞府官又言：「若與知源委之人詢其詳，候至都定議。」從之。

In Zhiyuan 31 Kublai died and Temür succeeded him as Chengzong. Pacifying Minister Tiege reported that Tai Lake and Dianshan Lake had been dredged by 200,000 civilian laborers as previously approved by the late emperor. The rivers now receive tidal flow twice daily and are silting up again. Unless troops are garrisoned as under the Song, the earlier work will be wasted. We noted that the Privy Council already resisted assigning troops for routine labor and would surely refuse to garrison eight thousand men on the river channels. The enclosed fields around Dianshan Lake yielded 20,000 shi in tax grain. That revenue could fund four thousand civilian laborers and four thousand soldiers for joint garrison duty. They proposed establishing a Metropolitan Water and Field Defense Commissionerate to capture sea pirates and maintain the channels and enclosed fields. Bayancha'er and the Privy Council were ordered to deliberate and report back. The Privy Council replied that Dianshan Lake had been garrisoned in Song times and that Fan Diandai, Zhu, Zhang, and others would know the details. They proposed conferring with provincial officials before submitting a final plan, and the emperor approved. Privy Council officials met with Fan Diandai and others. Zhu and Zhang explained that in Song times the channels had been garrisoned by registered troops—about one thousand at major posts and no fewer than three or four hundred at smaller ones—under patrol offices. Fan Diandai argued that assigning four thousand corvée laborers would burden four hundred thousand households, but five thousand garrison troops under a wanhu commander might be workable. We agreed and proposed creating a Metropolitan Water Patrol Wanhu Office subordinate to the branch military court. Privy Council officials added that knowledgeable officials should be consulted in detail and a final decision deferred until the capital. This was approved.

鹽官州海塘

Yanguan Prefecture Seawall

鹽官州去海岸三十里，舊有捍海塘二，後又添築咸塘，在宋時亦嘗崩陷。成宗大德三年，塘岸崩，都省委禮部郎中遊中順，洎本省官相視，虛沙復漲，難於施力。至仁宗延祐己未、庚申間，海汛失度，累壞民居，陷地三十餘里。其時省憲官共議，宜於州後北門添築土塘，然後築石塘，東西長四十三里，後以潮汐沙漲而止。

Yanguan Prefecture lay thirty li from the coast. It had originally had two sea dikes, with a salt dike added later; even in Song times these had sometimes failed. In Chengzong's Dade 3 the dike collapsed. The central government sent Ministry of Rites Langzhong You Zhongshun with provincial officials to inspect the site, but loose sand had refilled the breach and made repairs difficult. During Renzong's Yanyou jiwei and gengshen years, abnormal tides repeatedly destroyed homes and submerged more than thirty li of land. Provincial and surveillance officials then agreed to build an earthen dike north of the prefecture's rear gate, followed by a stone dike forty-three li long east to west. Work later halted as tidal sand continued to accumulate.

至泰定即位之四年二月間，風潮大作，沖捍海小塘，壞州郭四里。杭州路言：「與都水庸田司議，欲於北地築塘四十餘里，而工費浩大，莫若先修咸塘，增其高闊，填塞溝港，且浚深近北備塘濠塹，用樁密釘，庶可護禦。」江浙省準下本路修治。都水庸田司又言：「宜速差丁夫，當水入沖堵閉，其不敷工役，於仁和、錢塘及嘉興附近州縣諸色人戶內斟酌差倩，即目淪沒不已，旦夕誠為可慮。」工部議：「海岸崩摧重事也，宜移文江浙行省，督催庸田使司、鹽運司及有司發丁夫修治，毋致侵犯城郭，貽害居民。」五月五日，平章禿滿叠兒、茶乃、史參政等奏：「江浙省四月內，潮水沖破鹽官州海岸，令庸田司官征夫修堵，又令僧人誦經，復差人令天師致祭。臣等集議，世祖時海岸嘗崩，遣使命天師祈祀，潮即退，今可令直省舍人伯顏奉御香，令天師依前例祈祀。」制曰：「可。」既而杭州路又言：「八月以來，秋潮洶湧，水勢愈大，見築沙地塘岸，東西八十餘步，造木櫃石囤以塞其要處。本省左丞相脫歡等議，安置石囤四千九百六十，抵禦鎪嚙，以救其急，擬比浙江立石塘，可為久遠。計工物，用鈔七十九萬四千餘錠，糧四萬六千三百餘石，接續興修。」

In the second month of the fourth year of Taiding's reign, a violent storm tide breached the smaller sea dike and destroyed four li of the prefecture walls. Hangzhou Circuit reported that, consulting the Metropolitan Field and Water Commissionerate, it had considered building more than forty li of dike to the north but found the cost prohibitive. It proposed instead repairing the salt dike, raising and widening it, filling channels, deepening the northern reserve moat, and driving piles densely in place to hold the line. The Zhejiang branch secretariat approved the plan and ordered the circuit to proceed with repairs. The Field and Water Commissionerate urged immediate mobilization of corvée labor to block breaches as water rushed in, with additional workers drawn as needed from Renhe, Qiantang, and nearby Jiaxing counties. Land was still being lost daily, and the situation was urgent. The Ministry of Works ruled that coastal collapse was a grave matter and ordered the Zhejiang branch secretariat to press the Field Commissionerate, Salt Transport Commissionerate, and local officials to mobilize labor for repairs before the walls were breached and residents harmed. On the fifth of the fifth month, Pacifying Ministers Tummandian'er and Chainai and Participating Minister Shi reported that in April the tide had breached Yanguan Prefecture's coast. Field officials had been ordered to conscript labor for repairs, monks to chant sutras, and envoys sent to the Celestial Master to perform rites. We recalled that when the coast had collapsed under Kublai, envoys had the Celestial Master perform rites and the tide receded. Bayan, attendant of the Direct Metropolitan Household, should now be sent with imperial incense for the Celestial Master to perform the rite as before. The emperor replied, "So ordered." Hangzhou Circuit then reported that since August the autumn tide had grown fiercer. An earthen dike more than eighty paces long was under construction, with wooden cages and stone cribs placed at the critical breach points. Left Chancellor Tuogan and others proposed deploying 4,960 stone cribs to resist tidal erosion as an emergency measure, modeled on Zhejiang's stone dike construction for a more lasting solution. The projected cost was more than 794,000 ingots of paper money and over 46,300 shi of grain, with construction to continue."

致和元年三月，省臣奏：「江浙省並庸田司官修築海塘，作竹蘧篨，內實以石，鱗次壘疊以禦潮勢，今又淪陷入海，見圖修治，倘得堅久之策，移文具報。臣等集議，此重事也，旦夕駕幸上都，分官扈從，不得圓議。今差戶部尚書李家奴、工部尚書李嘉賓、樞密院屬衛指揮青山、副使洪灝、宣政僉院南哥班與行省左丞相脫歡及行臺、行宣政院、庸田使司諸臣，會議修治之方。合用軍夫，除戍守州縣關津外，酌量差撥，從便添支口糧。合役丁力，附近有田之民，及僧、道、也裏可溫、答失蠻等戶內點倩。凡工役之時，諸人毋或沮壞，違者罪之。合行事務，提調官移文稟奏施行。」有旨從之。四月二十八日，朝廷所委官，洎行省臺院及庸田司等官議：「大德、延祐欲建石塘未就。泰定四年春，潮水異常，增築土塘，不能抵禦，議置板塘，以水湧難施工，遂作蘧篨木櫃，間有漂沈，欲踵前議，疊石塘以圖久遠。為地脈虛浮，比定海、浙江、海鹽地形水勢不同，由是造石囤於其壞處疊之，以救目前之急。已置石囤二十九里餘，不曾崩陷，略見成效。」庸田司與各路官同議，東西接壘石囤十里，其六十里塘下舊河，就取土築塘，鑿東山之石以備崩損。

In the third month of Zhihe 1, provincial officials reported that Zhejiang and Field Commissionerate officials had built the sea dike with bamboo revetments packed with stone in layered rows to resist the tide, but it had submerged again. They submitted a repair plan and asked for a durable long-term solution. We agreed this was a grave matter, but the emperor was soon departing for the Upper Capital and officials were being assigned to the escort, leaving no time for a full council. Households Minister Li Jianu, Works Minister Li Jiabin, guard commander Qingshan of the Privy Council, deputy Hong Hao, and Xuanzheng Commission officer Nan Geban were therefore dispatched to confer with Left Chancellor Tuogan and officials of the branch censorate, branch Xuanzheng Commission, and Field Commissionerate on repair methods. The labor required, apart from troops already garrisoning prefectures and passes, would be assigned as appropriate, with supplementary rations provided as needed. Corvée was to be levied from nearby landowners and from monks, Taoists, Christians, Muslims, and other registered households. During the work no one was to obstruct or sabotage the project; offenders would be punished. All related business was to be reported upward by the supervising officials for approval and execution. The proposal was approved by edict. On the twenty-eighth day of the fourth month, court commissioners met with branch secretariat, censorate, surveillance, and Garrison Fields officials and noted that stone seawalls planned in the Dade and Yanyou eras had never been completed. In the spring of the fourth year of Zhiding abnormal tides overwhelmed heightened earthen dikes. Plank walls were considered but the surge made work impossible, so rush-mat timber cribs were tried, though some washed away. Officials returned to the earlier plan of a stacked stone seawall for a lasting defense. Because the ground here was loose and unstable, unlike Dinghai, Zhejiang, or Haiyan, stone cribs were stacked at the breaches as an emergency measure. More than twenty-nine li of stone cribs had been set without collapse, showing modest success. The Garrison Fields Office and circuit officials agreed to link the stone cribs for ten li east and west, build the sixty-li dike with earth from the old channel beneath it, and quarry Dongshan stone against future collapse.

文宗天歷元年十一月，都水庸田司言：「八月十日至十九日，正當大汛，潮勢不高，風平水穩。十四日，祈請天妃入廟，自本州嶽廟東海北護岸鱗鱗相接。十五日至十九日，海岸沙漲，東西長七里餘，南北廣或三十步，或數十百步，漸見南北相接。西至石囤，已及五都，修築捍海塘與鹽塘相連，直抵巖門，障禦石囤。東至十一都六十里塘，東至東大尖山嘉興、平湖三路所修處海口。自八月一日至二日，探海二丈五尺；至十九日、二十日探之，先二丈者今一丈五尺，先一丈五尺者今一丈。西自六都仁和縣界赭山、雷山為首，添漲沙塗，已過五都四都，鹽官州廊東西二都，沙土流行，水勢俱淺。二十日，復巡視自東至西岸腳漲沙，比之八月十七日漸增高闊。二十七日至九月四日大汛，本州嶽廟東西，水勢俱淺，漲沙東過錢家橋海岸，元下石囤木植，並無頹圮，水息民安。」於是改鹽官州曰海寧州。

In the eleventh month of the first year of the Tianli era, the Directorate of Waterways and Garrison Fields reported that during the great tide from the tenth to the nineteenth day of the eighth month, the surge was moderate and the sea calm. On the fourteenth day the goddess of the sea was invited into her temple; from the prefectural shrine eastward along the coast the northern protective banks lay in continuous line. From the fifteenth through the nineteenth day the shoreline accreted sand for more than seven li east to west, varying from thirty paces to hundreds of paces wide, until north and south gradually met. Westward to the stone cribs the work reached the fifth ward, linking the sea-defense and salt dikes straight to Yanmen to shield the cribs. Eastward it ran to the sixty-li dike of the eleventh ward and the estuary at Dongdajianshan repaired by the three circuits of Jiaxing and Pinghu. On the first and second days of the eighth month the sea was sounded at two zhang five feet; by the nineteenth and twentieth it had shallowed to one zhang five feet where it had been two zhang, and to one zhang where it had been one zhang five feet. Westward from the sixth ward at Renhe County's Zhe and Lei mountains, new silt had spread through the fifth and fourth wards and both wards of Yanguan Prefecture, leaving the water everywhere shallow. On the twentieth day a fresh inspection from east to west showed the accreted sand higher and broader than on the seventeenth. From the twenty-seventh day of the eighth month through the fourth day of the ninth, during the great tide, waters east and west of the prefectural shrine remained shallow. Sand built east beyond Qianjiaqiao, and the stone cribs and timber already in place held firm. The waters fell and the people were secure. Yanguan Prefecture was accordingly renamed Haining Prefecture, "Pacified by the Sea."

龍山河道

The Longshan River Channel

龍山河在杭州城外，歲久淤塞。武宗至大元年，江浙省令史裴堅言：「杭州錢塘江，近年以來為沙塗壅漲，潮水遠去，離北岸十五里，舟楫不能到岸。商旅往來，募夫搬運十七八里，使諸物翔湧，生民失所，遞運官物，甚為煩擾。訪問宋時並江岸有南北古河一道，名龍山河，今浙江亭南至龍山閘約一十五里，糞壞填塞，兩岸居民間有侵占。跡其形勢，宜改修運河，開掘沙土，封閘搬載，直抵浙江，轉入兩處市河，免擔負之勞，生民獲惠。」省下杭州路相視，錢塘縣城南上隅龍山河至橫河橋，委系舊河，居民侵占，起建房屋，若疏通以接運河，公私大便。計工十五萬七千五百六十六，日役夫五千二百五十二，度可三十日畢。所役夫於本路錄事司、仁和、錢塘縣富實之家差倩，就持筐檐鍬應役。人日支官糧二升，該米三千一百五十一石三斗二升。河長九里三百六十二步，造石橋八，立上下二閘，計用鈔一百六十三錠二十三兩四錢七分七厘。省準咨請丞相脫脫總治其事，於仁宗延祐三年三月七日興工，至四月十八日工畢。

The Longshan River outside Hangzhou's walls had long been choked with silt. In the first year of the Zhida era, clerk Pei Jian of the Jiang-Zhe Branch Secretariat reported that the Qiantang River near Hangzhou had silted up in recent years, leaving the tide fifteen li from the north bank and preventing vessels from reaching shore. Traveling merchants had to hire porters for seventeen or eighteen li, goods were hoisted and hauled at great cost, the people were displaced, and official relay transport became a serious burden. Inquiry revealed that in Song times an ancient north-south channel called the Longshan River had run along the bank. From Zhejiang Pavilion south to Longshan Sluice, some fifteen li, it was now filled with refuse, with encroachments by residents on both banks. Given the terrain, the transport canal should be restored, sand excavated, sluices opened for loading, and traffic led straight to Zhejiang and into the two market channels, sparing porterage and benefiting the populace. The province ordered Hangzhou Circuit to inspect the stretch from the upper south corner of Qiantang County city along the Longshan River to Henghe Bridge. It was the old channel, now built over by residents; if cleared and linked to the transport canal, the benefit to public and private interests would be great. The project was estimated at 157,566 work units and 5,252 daily laborers, to be finished in thirty days. Labor was levied from wealthy households in the circuit record office and in Renhe and Qiantang counties, each man bringing baskets, poles, hoes, and shovels. Each laborer received two sheng of official grain daily, totaling 3,151 shi 3 dou 2 sheng of rice. The channel ran nine li and 362 paces, with eight stone bridges and upper and lower sluices, at a cost of 163 ingots 23 liang 4 qian 7 fen 7 li in paper money. The province approved placing Chief Counselor Toto in overall charge. Work began on the seventh day of the third month of the third year of the Yanyou era and was completed on the eighteenth day of the fourth month.

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