Ji Huang

Ji Huang

Ji Huang (1711-1794) was born in Wuxi County (now Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province). Qing Dynasty water conservancy expert. Ji Zengyun's son, father and son are good at river management. In the eighth year of Yongzheng reign, he was a Jinshi. He was the governor of Nanhe and Donghe rivers during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. He was also the Minister of the Ministry of industry. In his later years, he was the chief master of shangshufang. He was famous for his meritorious service in river management.

Life experience

In the eighth year of Yongzheng (1724), Ji Huang was promoted to be a scholar, and his official career was smooth. He successively served as an official of daily life, a scholar of Imperial Academy, a deputy envoy of General Administration, and a censor of duchayuan.

Ji Huang, like his father, was also interested in the affairs of the world. He was very concerned about the serious disasters caused by the frequent breakwaters and floods of the Yellow River and Huaihe River. Since the Yellow river changed its course in the Northern Song Dynasty, the lower reaches moved southward, and seized the Huaihe River into the sea, floods occurred in Eastern Henan, Northern Anhui, and Jiangsu provinces. In the early Qing Dynasty, the river bed became higher and higher due to the large amount of sediment deposition, and the flood became more and more serious. In the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties of the Qing Dynasty, under the efforts of Jin Fu and Chen Huang, the disaster situation was temporarily alleviated. In the early years of Qianlong, due to the disrepair of water conservancy projects, the disasters were frequent, which seriously affected the canal transportation.

In 1744, Ji Huang inspected the water regime in Hebei, Henan, Shandong and other places. In his book "river works dredging and construction matters", he put forward some water control strategies, such as opening the river for drainage, distributing and releasing the flood water. In view of the fact that the workers in Zhili (now Hebei Province) were often taken over by criminals, which made the project not solid, so it is strictly forbidden to take part in the construction by supporting the head. It is suggested that the unemployed should be directly recruited to participate in the construction, and the construction should be done as casual workers The price is paid. These two memorials were adopted and implemented. In the 13th year of Qianlong (1748), he was granted the Deputy censor of duchayuan in April, and in June, he was promoted to the right Minister of the Ministry of industry.

In the autumn of 1753, the Yellow River burst at zhangjiama road in Yangwu (now shisanbao, Yuanyang County, Henan Province) and Tongshan (now Tongshan County, Jiangsu Province) in September. The Huaihe River also flooded Gaoyou in July of the same year, destroying cheluoba and Shao Bocheng. Ji Huang was in a hurry to write a book called Xuanfang Bashi. The main idea is as follows: first, the Yellow River below Tongshan and above Qingkou has serious siltation, so it should be dredged as soon as possible; second, the stone dykes at Gaoyan (now in Huaiyin county) are leaking, so they should be repaired and reinforced one by one in winter and spring; third, the dykes at Guiren (now in Sihong County) cut off the waters of suihu lake, and the old three elucidations should be set up, and the camera should be opened and closed according to the water situation, so they should be repaired in time for defense; fourth, the river flows from the river From Shandong Province to Jiangsu Province, it is wide and narrow, but these old projects are decadent for a long time, so they should be repaired as far as possible; 5. The river body above Qingkou is very shallow, so it is better to use the method of Liu Tianhe in Ming Dynasty to make a flat bottom ark, and set a 200 Jin five toothed iron harrow on the boat to drag the Hu along the stream, so that the sediment can not be deposited; 6. The lower reaches always belong to Huaiyang Road (today's Huaiyang, Yanyang area), which is difficult to be used at the same time Seven, the most dangerous part of the Yellow River in Jiangsu Province lies in the five halls in the upper reaches. When the flood season comes, only the embankments made of sorghum poles and willows mixed with the soil can resist it. Therefore, we should pay close attention to the transportation and storage of such materials in winter. Eight, river workers should not dig the roots of the embankments near, but should take the soil far away to strengthen the embankments. At the same time, the way of water control should be combined with discharge and dike. This memorial was adopted by the imperial court. At this time, the imperial envoy shuhede and others asked to appoint senior officials familiar with river affairs to supervise these projects. Therefore, Ji Huang was ordered to go with the Minister of the Ministry of industry, Demin, to supervise the repair. In October of the same year, Ji Huang inspected the Gaoyan project and found that the dam was built of brick and stone, and that the new dam and the old dam were mixed, so he ordered to build a stone dam inside and a brick earth dam outside. Because the water depth was one or two feet, it was not easy to repair the dike. So it was decided to adopt the dike slotting method and add wooden piles in time to prevent the stone from collapsing. When masonry, first use stone to build two courses, and then brick to build one course. Because the brick and soil can not be consolidated, so add lime soil 3 feet after the brick to resist scouring. When more than half of the new works are completed, the old stones will be removed gradually. Later, it turned out that his methods were very effective.

In the first month of the 19th year of Qianlong (1754), Ji Huang and Liu Tongxun played a joint concert. Gaoyan and Gaojian (now Hongze County, Jiangsu Province) are located in shentangdouwan. They are located in an important area. The grass dams other than the former stone construction projects have been abandoned. They should be repaired as soon as possible. In March, he also played with delmin and others. It was very difficult to transport the stone materials needed by YanXu, so the collapsed old stones should be used together with the new ones. At the same time, for those stone embankments whose roots are firm but whose upper part is only loose and collapsed, only the upper part needs to be built. In this way, a lot of stone can be used less and a lot of cost can be saved. Two months later, the construction of Nanhe dike was completed. Emperor Qianlong praised this. In September, Ji Huang was appointed as the official examiner of the martial arts examination; in October, he was transferred to the right servant of the Ministry of officials.

In February of 1755, Ji Huang's mother was very old and ill, so he begged to return home for final support. In December, when his mother's illness intensified, the Emperor allowed him to return to the province. In the 22nd year of Qianlong reign (1757), there was a flood in Huaihe, Xuzhou and Yangtse in Northern Jiangsu. Ji Huang asked for wheat to be purchased and transported to the disaster area in Wuxi, and sold it at a low price to help the victims. In the first month of 1758, Qianlong's mother recovered slightly. He was ordered to go to Jiangpu (now Huaiyin City, Jiangsu Province) to serve as deputy general manager of Nanhe River and cooperate with Baizhong mountain to manage River affairs. In June, Ji Huang put forward the plan of releasing water from the lakes and rivers. He thought that the water flowing from the Yellow River and Huaihe River into the canal and gaobao lakes had a long and winding way to return to the sea, and a short and straight way to return to the river. Therefore, we must dredge the way to return to the sea, such as Xinyang port, Doulong port, Chuanchang River, Sheyang River, and so on. At the same time, we should pay more attention to the water diversion, move far away from the nearby, dredge the Huaihe and Yanghe canals, and open the Mangdao River Sluice (in today's Jiangdu county) at the mouth of the Yangtze River all the year round, so as to lead most of the water into the Changjiang River. In this way, it is not only conducive to farmland irrigation in Lixiahe area of Northern Jiangsu, but also can ensure that the water will not be flooded when it rises. Emperor Qianlong praised this plan, and immediately ordered Yin Jishan, Bai Zhongshan, Pu Fu, etc. to join Ji Huang in carrying out the proposed plan. In August, the autumn flood surged, and the lake and river were safe and sound. Ji Huang was promoted to the Ministry of rites in September.

In the April of 1759, Ji Huang returned to his mother in Xi Province, and later begged to be raised at home. In August 1760, he went to Beijing to celebrate the emperor's birthday. When I returned to Wuxi in October and passed qingjiangpu, I found that there were still some projects to be built on the way to return the river. For example, the entrance of Jinwan gunba on the East dyke of Yunhe river is 40 Zhang wide, but the tail still belongs to the six gates. The river regime is suitable for siltation. It is necessary to excavate the approach River under the Jinwan dam, and dredge the shallow silted part of dongjiagou to smooth the river way. Another example is the three dams of liaojiagou, shiyanggou and dongjiagou, which should be lowered by three feet to level with the mangdaoxi sluice, so that the flow into the river will be more smooth. To this end, he asked the court to prepare. It was ordered to be handed over to Yin Jishan and others.

From December 1764, the 29th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong, Ji Huang was worried about tin. Three years later, he returned to the Ministry of rites. In July 1768, he was appointed governor of Donghe River (in Jining, Shandong Province). In August, the Yangqiao dam was the first key project in Henan Province. It was originally blocked with Shugan and other materials mixed with soil, and there was leakage from time to time. The North Bank of the river was straight, so it was impossible to dig and divert the river, and because of the flying sand, it was impossible to build the dike. The only way to protect the dam is to thicken the inner berm. In addition, the overflow area before the Yangqiao levee was originally built with sand walls, so it is difficult to ensure that it is safe. Silt should be selected to build the inner berm. These programs are also valuable insights, which have been gradually implemented.

In the 33rd year of Qianlong (1768) in May, Jining and other places carried grain ships through Tianjin, and they helped one or two to four or five days. Emperor Qianlong was dissatisfied. Ji Huang finds out the cause and plays back from the reality. Ji Huang admitted that the officials did not handle affairs properly and urged the governor to do so. Ji Huang was also transferred from the post of governor of Donghe River to be the Minister of the Ministry of industry. In the first month of the 34th Middle School of Qianlong (1769), another person reported that Ji Huang failed to identify his subordinates during his term as governor of donghejiaohe. The imperial censor was demoted to three levels to make up the left Deputy censor of the capital Chayuan. In May, he held a joint trial with the Ministry of criminal justice. The Ministry of criminal justice wrongly convicted Ji Huang. Without careful investigation, Ji Huang signed a promise and was demoted to stay in office. In the 36th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign (1771), he moved to the right Minister of the Ministry of labor. In May 1773, he was promoted to minister of the Ministry of industry; in August, he was transferred to minister of the Ministry of war. The next year, he was the president of Sikuquanshu. 、

In April 1775, Emperor Qianlong entered Xiangshan palace. Ji Huang was demoted to three levels because he didn't go to the palace. In December, he was transferred to minister of the Ministry of industry. In December 1770, he was also the head of the Hanlin academy, and later he was the Secretary of the Ministry of officials and the assistant of the University. Qianlong 45 (1780), the first grade of jingchaxujia, in June, he taught the rare and auspicious scholars; in September, he was granted the bachelor degree of wenyuange and the president of the National Museum of history.

In the summer of 1781, the qinglonggang section of the Yellow River burst, and its flood water flowed from the Zhaowang River to the Daqing River (now the lower reaches of the Yellow River). After investigation, Ji Huang proposed to make the Yellow River flow northward and return to the old road of Shandong. This proposal shocked the court. It is generally believed that the lower reaches of the Yellow River have been in existence for hundreds of years since they moved to the south in the Northern Song Dynasty. A GUI, the great scholar, also agreed with the emperor's wishes and wrote against it. They all said that the terrain of Shandong is higher than that of the south of the Yangtze River (referring to the northern part of Jiangsu Province today). Only two tenths of the water overflowed from the qinglonggang breach flowed into the sea of people through the Zhaowang River and the north of the Qing Dynasty, while eight tenths flowed southward from the lakes of Nanyang and Shaoyang. Therefore, it is unreasonable to return to the old way of Shandong. After reading these memorials, Emperor Qianlong thought that Ji Huang was an old minister who knew about the river affairs and would not rashly put forward the idea of "making the river flow northward"

Chinese PinYin : Ji Huang