 In the southwestern Chinese city of Dujiangyan, this kind of sacrificial ceremony is held on Qingming every year. People pray at this god for his protection. The god was called Li Bing, a local governor during the Warring States Period.
In 272 BC, Li Bing, a 30-year-old citizen of the Qin Dynasty, was appointed governor of the prefecture of Shu. This young governor's primary task was to make Shu a strategic base area of the State of Qin. At the time, a war was imminent between the states of Qin and Chu. The new governor was to divert the Min River to Chengdu so that it would serve as a military supply line. After assuming office, Li Bing conducted a survey of the Min River.
Li Bing racked his mind on how to make the Min River flow continuously and steadily across Chengdu. He also wanted to build a flood control project on the river to help protect the cities on the Chengdu Plain.
Three years later in 270 BC, a great plan was worked out. If a fairway was to be established in Chengdu, a water-control project must be built on the Min River. The war supply line depended on the success of the project. The plan was approved by King Zhao Wang of the State of Qin. The Qin allocated 100,000 taels of silver for the project with Li Bing in charge. Originating in the snow-capped mountains on the borders of Gansu and Sichuan, the Min River is the largest and longest tributary of the Yangtze River. It flew swiftly in all directions after it got through the mountains into the Chengdu Plain. It didn't have a fixed course. Then where was the best location for the proposed project? After investigations, Li Bing decided to build the Dujiangyan Weirs where the hills and the Chengdu Plain meet. This was designed to harness the Min River.
In 268 BC, Li Bing led dozens of thousands of workers in starting construction on the Min River banks. The workers made bamboo cages and threw cages of rocks into the middle of the river. It took them four years to complete a water-diversion levee resembling a fish mouth. When the water reaches the 'fish mouth,' it is naturally diverted into the inner and outer flows. The inner flow is a diversion channel that leads to Chengdu.
At the time, Li Bing had a thorny problem. Mount Jian stood in the way of diverting the water from the Min River into the Chengdu Plain. The mount was a natural barrier to efforts to lead the diversion channel into the Chengdu Plain. The Min River water must go through Mount Jian. But how?
Li Bing decided to cut the mount to let the water go through it. However, they didn't have gunpowder during the Warring States Period. And they didn't have any advanced construction tools either. To cut the mount, they mainly had drill rods and stone hammers. That would take them 30 years to cut the mount through. The State of Qin, however, couldn't wait to have a fairway built to help it conquer other states and reunify China. Li Bing was intelligent and had a wonderful method. He ordered his workers to burn the stones to the burning point and then pour cold water on them. This helped break apart and loosen the stones. As a result, the work was made easier, and the cutting was completed much sooner than expected.
It took eight years to cut through the mount. The 20-meter-wide cut allows the water to flow into the Chengdu Plain. The key part of the project was the diversion gate called Baopingkou that resembles a bottleneck. Through this bottleneck, the water of the Min River permanently irrigates the Chengdu Plain. Thanks to 14 years of hard work, construction of the Dujiangyan Weirs was completed in 256 BC. Ever since then, this irrigation project has been in use on the Chengdu Plain.
Soon after the project was completed, the fairway was full of boats. Timber in the upper reaches of the Min River was carried on the water down to Chengdu to build warships. Soldiers and weapons were gathered in Chengdu. The ordinary people made best use of the new water source on the Chengdu Plain. They dug ditches to irrigate their fields. This gave rise to a fan-like irrigation system. The system brought about great changes in the plain in the nearby hills. The farmland in the Sichuan basin increased considerably in a short period of time.
Beginning in 230 BC, 100,000 people from the northern part of the State of Qin moved to the Prefecture of Shu. They joined the local residents in developing the vast plain. Consequently, the prefecture became one of the largest grain granaries in the world. The national strength of the State of Qin increased rapidly, and the state was the strongest in China. In 223 BC, Qin troops sailed from Chengdu on the Min River into the Yangtze. They sailed on downstream to defeat the State of Chu. Two years later, they reunified China and established Qin, China's first imperialist dynasty with centralization.
Li Bing had the Dujiangyan Weirs built where the Min River makes a turn. The river water is diverted into the main structure of the Dujiangyan project at the turn of the river. This project consists of three main parts, namely, the Yuzui levee, the Baopingkou gate and the Feisha Weir at the end of the Yuzui levee. The Yuzui levee divides the river into the inner flow and the outer flow. At normal times, 60% of the river water is diverted into the inner flow to facilitate navigation and irrigation on the Chengdu Plain. In rainy seasons, more than 60% of the river water is diverted into the outer flow that eventually empties into the Yangtze River. This helps guard the Chengdu Plain from floods. In addition, Baopingkou, the gate of the inner flow, keeps excessive water from entering the Chengdu Plain. The excessive water is diverted into the outer flow by way of the Feisha Weir. Moreover, the Dujiangyan project has a wonderful way of washing away sand and stone. At the Yuzui levee, the inner flow is in the concave area while the outer flow is in the convex area. At this turn of the river, the water on the surface flows into the concave area, and the water at the bottom flows into the convex area. Therefore, most of the sand and stone are brought into the outer flow by the water at the bottom. Some of the sand and stone do reach the inner flow, but they are washed away when the water falls directly on the underwater escarpment. The more the water is, the easier to wash away sand and stone. Sometimes 98% of the sand and stone are brought away. These three parts of the Dujiangyan project coordinate with each other in controlling floods and washing away sand and stone.
After the completion of the Dujiangyan Weirs, Li Bing introduced the system of dredging waterways at regular intervals. In the dry season every year, the government organized workers to dredge the riverbed. But to what extent should the riverbed be dredged? Li Bing had the answer. He buried stone horses in the riverbed at Baopingkou. The dredging would be over as long as the horses were reached.
If it were dredged excessively, too much water would enter the inner flow to flood the irrigated area. If it wasn't dredged enough, the inner flow wouldn't have much water so that the irrigated area would suffer from drought.
In the Ming Dynasty, the stone horses were replaced by iron subjects. In addition, the height of the Feisha Weir was adjusted to ensure that the weir both washed away sand and stone and discharged floodwater. The method of dredging the riverbed deep and having a low weir is still in use today. Several thousand years later, the Dujiangyan Weirs have not become historical ruins. On the contrary, it is becoming increasingly important. It is irrigating over 10 million mu of land now, compared to more than 1 million mu in the Qin and Han dynasties. The Dujiangyan Weirs are based on natural ideas on water control and is tainted with Eastern philosophic flavor. Consequently, it has been integrated with nature.
Li Er
In the ancient times, Da Yu led the Chinese people in curbing floods. The people know it's better to regulate water instead of stopping it forcefully, paying attention to the natural character of water. Li Er, the founder of Taoism in the Warring States Period, advocated the philosophical thinking of basing principles on nature. Li Bing put this thinking into practice when he built weirs to control water. The thinking became the highest standard and guiding principle for water control. Unlike the modern Western idea for water conservancy, Li Bing's method was to use flexible bamboo cages of rocks. He didn't use sluices and dams to stop water forcefully. In addition, he used the natural force of the turn and the escarpment to control the quantity of the water and the direction of flow. He built the project in complete accordance with natural law.
The project was not built once and for all with superior materials. The yearly maintenance continuously upgrades the Dujiangyan Weirs. All this reflects the Eastern ideas of making the best use of the situation and being simple and unaffected.
It was because simple materials were used that some people proposed that they be replaced with better materials. For example, Ji Dangpu, governor of the Prefecture of Shu in the Yuan Dynasty, had an 8,000-kilogram iron tortoise placed at the Yuzui levee. A local official named Shi Qianxiang in the Ming Dynasty placed an iron buffalo there. But both the tortoise and buffalo were washed away. When the Ming minister Lu Yi paid an inspection tour in Sichuan, he confirmed that Li Bing's method of using bamboo cases of rocks was based on the natural law.
Panorama of the Chengdu Plain
in the Qing Dynasty
It is worth mentioning that in the Dujiangyan irrigation system, all water is divided automatically. There are only inlets, but no sluices, in the entire system from the Yuzui levee to the irrigation networks throughout the Chengdu Plain.
Through the Baopingkou diversion gate, water flows into the Chengdu Plain steadily. The irrigation brought about bumper harvests. In addition to using the water to grow grain, local people used it to raise fish and produce power to drive waterwheels and millstones for processing agricultural products.
Constant agricultural development made it possible for handicraft industry to flourish. Farmers in the Prefecture of Shu had a tradition of raising silkworms. Their silkworms had been famous since the Han Dynasty. The farmers had their own silkworm processing factories. Sichuan produced exquisite lacquerware and gold and silver vessels. These products sold well in China and were also exported to India and to countries around the Mediterranean Sea via the southern Silk Road.
Foundation bricks of the Han Dynasty
The completion of the Dujiangyan Weirs made it possible for Chengdu to reach other parts of the country by water. Resources in southwest China and other areas were transported to Chengdu. The bricks of the Han Dynasty show that Chengdu was busy and flourishing at the time. The Fu and Nan rivers, whose water comes from the Min River, were full of passing boats.
In the 400 years following the completion of the Dujiangyan Weirs, the Prefecture of Shu enjoyed unprecedented prosperity. The people had adequate food and clothing, and the basin was a land of plenty. Since then, Chinese dynasties had regarded the Chengdu Plain as an important strategic and grain base.
Zhuge Liang & Ma Chao
In 207, the 27-year-old Zhuge Liang made a famous statement to the visiting General Liu Bei. He enthusiastically briefed Liu on Sichuan, a land of plenty and urged him to make Chengdu his capital city. Realizing that Dujiangyan Weirs were a source of prosperity in Sichuan, Zhuge Liang ordered General Ma Chao to lead over 1,200 men in maintaining the weirs. In addition, Zhuge Liang put special officials in charge of the Dujiangyan Weirs. It was since the days of Zhuge Liang that a system had been in place for appointing officials for the weirs.
The two rivers from the Dujiangyan Weirs provided moisture for local areas and promoted economic development. Economic growth gave rise to endless wealth that brought about brilliant civilization. This was illustrated by Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei with their great talent and bold vision, by Li Bai and Du Fu with their artistic accomplishment, and by Su Dongpo and Sima Xiangru with their poems. The culture of Shu and water complemented each other.
In 143, that is, 400 years after the completion of the Dujiangyan Weirs, a centenarian traveled a long distance to the foot of the Mount Qingcheng southwest of the weirs. In the quiet environment there, the elderly man began his reflections. There he created Taoism, the only religion by the Chinese.
This elderly man, who is believed to have ascended to heaven and become immortal, was named Zhang Ling, the founder of Taoism.
Later on, Taoism spread from here to all other parts of China. Many Taoist structures can be found on the Mount Qingcheng where Zhang Ling had cultivated himself in Taoism. The structures were adapted to the natural environment and overlapped each other in an orderly way.
The structures are full of paintings and relief decorations to reflect the Taoist idea in favor of quietude and inaction, good health and longevity.
In the Tianshi Cave where Zhang Ling cultivated himself hangs a taiji symbol that shows Taoism advocates the integration of man and nature. Zhang Ling disseminated quickly in Sichuan Lao Zi's thinking on the love for nature. As the birthplace of Taoism, the Mount Qingcheng is visited by endless streams of scholars and other Taoist followers. It has become the holy mountain for these followers. Taoism stresses the importance of self-cultivation for prolonged life. In search of elixir of life, Taoist priests often burnt medicinal herbs in order to make pills of immortality. In the middle of the 8th century, a Taoist priest named Qing Xuzi used sulfur, charcoal and niter as fuel when he tried to make those pills. He had an accidental explosion. This explosion made the Chinese invent gunpowder over 1,000 years earlier than Westerners.
The Mount Qingcheng is rich in plants. Not only the holy mountain of Taoism but also 730 plants and precious medicinal herbs on the mountain attracted many Taoist followers. Sun Simiao, a Taoist priest during the reign of the Tang Emperor Tai Zong, collected large numbers of medicinal herbs. He included in his findings about the herbs in his medical book Priceless Vital Prescriptions.
As this book is still a must for students majoring in traditional Chinese medicine, its author is called the King of Drugs.
Taoist culture takes advantage of Sichuan culture and integrates with it. Sichuan culture is based on water, and Taoist culture worships water too. Different from other religions in the world, Taoism stresses the need both to conform to nature and to transform it.
The Dujiangyan Weirs were built under the philosophical thinking of overcoming roughness with tenderness. This thinking and the scientific spirit are found identical with Taoism. Therefore, Li Bing enjoyed a high place in Taoism. This is a perfect integration of religion and science. The Erwang Temple was erected on Mount Jian in honor of Li Bing.
Zhang Kongshan cultivated himself in Taoism at the Erwang Temple during the reign of Qing Emperor Xian Feng.
He lived by the Min River and next to the Dujiangyan Weirs, listening to the varied sounds of water. On the basis of his research on the seven-stringed plucked instrument, he composed the Taoist music 'Running Water.' The world regards this piece of music as the outstanding representative of Eastern music.
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Beginning in 230 BC, 100,000 people from the northern part of the State of Qin moved to the Prefecture of Shu. They joined the local residents in developing the vast plain. Consequently, the prefecture became one of the largest grain granaries in the world. The national strength of the State of Qin increased rapidly, and the state was the strongest in China. In 223 BC, Qin troops sailed from Chengdu on the Min River into the Yangtze. They sailed on downstream to defeat the State of Chu. Two years later, they reunified China and established Qin, China's first imperialist dynasty with centralization.