The historic Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, along with the Great Wall and the Karez, is one of China's three great projects. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, China began to build a number of canals, mostly for military purposes, to quickly transport grain, grass and soldiers to the front line.
For example, in order to conquer Lingnan, Qin Shi Huang built the Ling Canal, one of the oldest canals in the world. After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, the chaotic period since the Western Jin Dynasty was ended and the whole country was unified.
However, due to the long-term separation of the south from the north, local separatism was very rampant, and Emperor Yang of Sui decided to build a canal to communicate the north and south in order to better rule the south.
This canal not only allowed the southern taxes, money and grain to be transported to the north, but also allowed the suppressive army to arrive immediately in the event of a rebellion in the south. It is worth noting that the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was constructed in sections.
In 603 AD, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty ordered the excavation of the "Yongji Canal", which was about 1,000 kilometers long from Luoyang through Linqing in Shandong to Zhuojun in Hebei Province (southwest of present-day Beijing), connecting the Haihe River with the Yellow River.
In 605 AD, he ordered the excavation of the "Tongji Canal" about 1,000 kilometers long from Luoyang to Qingjiang (now Huai'an City) in Jiangsu Province to directly communicate the traffic between the Yellow River and the Huai River, and to renovate the ditch and Jiangnan Canal built by Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period; In 608 A.D., the Yongji Canal was dug again, and Zhuo County was dug in the north, together with the Guangtong Canal dug in 584 A.D., to form a multi-branch canal system.
Then in 610 A.D., the "Jiangnan Canal" with a length of about 400 kilometers from Zhenjiang in Jiangsu Province to Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province (then the first port of foreign countries) was dug in 610 AD. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal cost countless people, labor, took six years to build, a total length of 1,800 kilometers, fully demonstrated the ancient Chinese people's outstanding talent in infrastructure construction!
In order to show the imperial prestige and show the determination of national unification, Emperor Yang of Sui specially took the harem concubines to Yangzhou in a dragon boat after the completion of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The mighty team included hundreds of thousands of people, including civil and military officials, monks, nuns, and Taoists.
The grand celebration exhausted the strength of the whole country, just to please the emperor alone. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which was supposed to be a good governance, was regarded by later generations as a symbol of abuse of the people because of the defeat and killing of Emperor Yang of Sui.
However, what is ironic is that those dynasties who repeatedly scolded Emperor Yang of Sui were enjoying the convenience brought by the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. During the Tang Dynasty, the development of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal led to the prosperity of cities along the southern route, and Yangzhou became the most prosperous city in China, with a large population, a large number of business travelers, and many tourists.
Because of this scene, literati and writers also created famous sentences such as "fireworks go down to Yangzhou in March". The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has witnessed the vicissitudes of history and carried the traces of time.
Whether it was built at the beginning or used later, it has quietly contributed to the development of mankind.
The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, an ancient and great project, not only brought prosperity to China in ancient times, but also made great contributions to China's unification and stability today.
In the Song Dynasty, Kaifeng, located in the Central Plains and the middle of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, became a metropolis with a population of one million and a prosperous economy due to the influx of wealth from the south. Such a prosperous scene was recorded by the famous painter Zhang Zeduan in the "Qingming Riverside Map", and all this is inseparable from the Grand Canal.
After the Jin destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal temporarily lost its public use, but when the Yuan Dynasty was established, it became the economic hub of the north and the south, bringing wealth and soldiers to the Yuan Dynasty to support the foreign wars of the Mengyuan regime.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the transportation of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was elevated to the level of national strategy. Without the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the two dynasties would not have dared to build the capital of Beijing at all, because the decline of the northern economy could not meet the needs of the city.
The existence of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has greatly reduced the time between the north and south of China. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal not only connects the economy of the north and the south, but also maintains the unity of the country.
Since the establishment of the Grand Canal, there has been less and less time in the south and north of China. From the Yuan Dynasty to the present day, China has maintained unity for more than 600 years, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, as a link, makes China a whole and no longer separated.
The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is an important symbol in China's history and the cornerstone of China's prosperity and stability. It proves the power of human wisdom and demonstrates the courage and determination of the Chinese people.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty contributed a lot to this matter, although he made mistakes at the time, but its influence continues to this day, and history has a biased evaluation of him, and we should treat him with a more fair attitude.
With the development of shipping, the former canopy ships can no longer bear the heavy responsibility of the national economy, the role of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has been gradually replaced, many waterways have been silted, and the scene of the endless stream of merchant ships in the past no longer exists.
However, in some waterways, such as the Jiangnan River section, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal still plays a certain shipping function. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, with its gurgling water, tells us the thousand-year-old history with a gentle melody and shows us the greatness of the great nation.