京杭大运河南起余杭（今杭州），北到涿郡（今北京），是世界上跨度最大、里程最长、使用时间最久的人工运河，堪称“活着的文化遗产走廊”。大运河历史上是贯通中国南北的大动脉，皇帝乘船巡视，民众靠河谋生，河岸景点密布，极大促进了中国南北经济文化发展与交流。2022年4月28日，京杭大运河迎来一个世纪以来首次全线通水。古运现新貌，千年文脉奔流不息，谱写出运河故事的崭新篇章。
“黄河是败家子，运粮河是养家的聚宝盆。”据说这曾是民间流行的谚语。黄河是天然河流，数千年来孕育着中国的文化，却又出现过无数次的泛滥。京杭大运河则是明清两朝开凿的人工河流，承载着当年的大一统盛世。
隋朝是中国第一个
大规模兴建运河的王朝
中国政治分久必合，但在缺乏现代科技的古代，要管理一个庞大的帝国谈何容易。于是，隋朝皇帝将超过十万的军队常驻位于关中地区的首都大兴（今西安），君主明白，只要京师稳定，帝国便有重心，也可以随时调遣可靠的军队处理地方的叛乱。问题是，这居住在京畿一带的军人、官员和皇族的粮食从何而来？大兴位处陕西，本地粮食生产绝不可能解决这个问题。
隋朝政府想到一个办法，就是利用人工河流把大兴与农业富饶的江南连接起来，那么便可将从江南征收得来的谷物源源不绝地输送到首都，这亦是历史学者所说的“以东南财富，养西北甲兵”的由来。这种从地方运输到中央的粮食，被称为“漕粮”。
不过，开凿运河是庞大工程，除了挖掘河道，还要建筑引水道，把天然河道的水引入运河。由于工程浩大，隋朝政府只能一段一段兴建，由开国君主隋文帝开始，到第二任君主隋炀帝才完成。这条从余杭（今杭州）到大兴的运河，贯穿了长江和淮河，到达了黄河南岸的洛阳和大兴。运河建成后，隋炀帝非常高兴，据说他曾三次乘坐龙船，从大兴出游至江都（今扬州）。隋炀帝也利用运河，运输军队和物资去支持他的战争。公元608年（大业四年），他为了远征高丽，建筑了往北伸展的永济渠，穿越了黄河，到达北方的涿郡。
隋朝是中国第一个大规模兴建运河的王朝。虽然隋炀帝常被后人批评劳民伤财，甚至认为那是促成隋朝速亡的原因，但他却向后世君主示范了如何利用运河作为维持大一统政权的工具。
图为京杭大运河示意图（图：中国国家地理）
元朝改借近海海运由南至北运送漕粮
1279年（祥兴二年），蒙古人灭南宋，以大都（今北京）作为首都，北京首次成为统一中国的政治中心。忽必烈这个蒙古君主虽来自游牧民族，但定都北京，同样要解决庞大驻军的粮食问题。
开凿运河太劳民伤财了，忽必烈决定利用海洋将江南粮食运送到北京。这在当时是一个大胆的尝试，须知道，中国沿海的近岸捕鱼可能在史前时代已经开始，但是南北两地的长程沿海船运在元初仍是绝无仅有的。1282年（至元十九年），元朝政府找来了朱清和张瑄试办海运。朱张二人曾是活跃于江浙沿海的海盗首领，宋末时归降元朝。显然元朝政府是希望利用二人的丰富航海经验来找出北运漕粮的最快捷航路。当年八月，朱清和张瑄进行了首次试航，利用平底沙船六十艘，共装载着46,000担白米，自太仓州的刘家港出发，沿岸摸索北进。但这首次的由南至北航行并不顺利。特别是当船队到达山东半岛时，正值寒冬，海面结冰，船只受阻，直至春天到临，船队才能继续航行。1283年（至元二十年）三月，船队终于驶达天津海面，但又发现天津内河过于浅窄，船队只好在天津卸下漕粮，仓促南归。这次北航共花了约七个月的时间，经过这一次的试航，江南的水手们掌握了北中国水路的风向和地形。自此，海运成为元代漕运的主流，终元一朝，每年都有超过三百万担来自江浙的漕粮经过海道运到首都北京。
明朝打通运河
奠定中国南北主要交通路线
在1368年（洪武元年）建立明朝的朱元璋，把首都建立在应天府（今南京）内。虽然他要大费周章去营建南京城，却避开了修筑运河的辛劳。南京位于长江下游，定都南京，无疑是将政治中心和经济中心合二为一。
明清大运河的开始，是来自明太祖死后的靖难之变。1398年（洪武三十一年），71岁的朱元璋驾崩，翌年，太孙朱允炆继位，改元建文。建文帝即位的时候，所面临的政治问题是负责镇守北方的诸位皇叔的潜在威胁，建文帝为巩固政权，下令削藩，因而激发了镇守北平的燕王朱棣的谋反，朱棣打着“清君侧、靖国难”的口号，率部队南下，1402年（建文四年）攻入南京，建文帝不知所终，史称“靖难之变”。
靖难之变的结果，是驻守北平的燕王朱棣成为了明朝的新皇帝。他先将首都由南京迁到北平，并将北平府改名顺天府，建立了北京城。又多次以边境不靖为由，向朝臣表示须巡幸北境。1406年（永乐四年），朝廷命令征调北方各省的民夫，前往北平，在前元的大都附近，修建与南京同一规格的北京宫殿，以备皇帝将来巡幸时作为居住之所。1409年（永乐七年），永乐皇帝朱棣第一次北巡，他车驾至北京新建的宫殿内接见朝臣，同年返回南京。1413年（永乐十一年），永乐皇帝进行第二次北巡，这次在北京住了三年，直到1416年（永乐十四年）才回南京，迁都的意图已经非常明显。永乐皇帝迟迟不迁都，原因除了要重修元朝留下来的宫殿，更加重要的是要兴建一条由杭州至北京的南北大运河。
永乐皇帝是继隋炀帝之后，再次大修运河以改善首都对外交通的君主。他放弃了元朝海运漕粮的办法，日本历史学家星斌夫怀疑此举是避免漕运受到当时沿海海盗的袭击。此说不无道理，从行政的角度来看，监管一条运河，总比监管一望无际的海洋来得容易。不过，修筑运河，并引水灌注，政府所花的成本却远比海上运输高。
永乐年间的运河兴建工程大概可以分为三个部分。第一是尽量利用现有河道，于是由西往东流的黄河成为了中段重要的河道。第二是在山东修建运河，当时负责工程的官员是工部尚书宋礼，他征集民夫30万人，在徐州（黄河）与北方的临清之间挖了一条深一丈三尺、底宽三丈二尺的人工河道，命名“会通河”。工程在1412年（永乐十年）左右完成。第三是在淮安修建清江浦运河。1415年（永乐十三年），永乐皇帝命平江伯陈瑄往湖广（湖南湖北）、江西等处造舟三千艘，试载三百万担大米，由长江运输到北京。不过，陈瑄很快便发现当船只到达淮安后，要走一小段旱路，才可到达黄河。当时的做法是在此段旱路横放树干，再利用人力和畜力将漕船拉到黄河。显然，这个运输方法不单劳累，而且缓慢。陈瑄为改善这段的运输，命人建清江浦运河，以代替这段旱路。
当会通河和清江浦修成后，运漕粮的船队终于可以由杭州，一直向北航行，直至天津。明朝政府在天津建筑许多粮仓，接收长江下游运来的大米，并安排车辆，将粮食源源不绝输入北平。1417年（永乐十五年），永乐皇帝再度北巡，这次他索性留在北京，不再南返了。到1420年（永乐十八年），北京宫殿的修建也告完成，永乐皇帝召皇太子由南京到北京。1421年（永乐十九年）元旦，永乐皇帝正式宣布改北京为京师。
永乐皇帝此举奠定了明清两朝中国南北的主要交通路线。相对于陆路运输，船运更便宜，因此便利了江南和华北的经济和文化交流。虽然修建大运河的初衷是政治原因，但每年七千艘以上的漕船在春夏之间驶过这条大运河，商人也乘机搭载商品，这对沿岸城市的商品经济产生巨大的效益。
清朝得益于运河造就了康雍乾盛世
永乐之后，南北大运河改善工程的主要方针就是避开黄河。当时用作运道的黄河是清口（清江浦北面终点）至徐州（会通河南面起点）约三百里的一段，那是黄河的主流。黄河从西流下，水势极大，近徐州一带河床有许多尖石，造成漩涡。漕船在此段黄河逆水行舟，经常有覆舟之难。于是，从明代到清代，政府一直增建运河，包括了1567年（隆庆元年）的南阳新河、1605年（万历三十三年）的泇河、1623年（天启三年）的通济新河和1686年（康熙二十五年）的中河。
经过接近三个世纪的努力，跨越五个省份的全长1,700公里南北大运河终于完成。除了清口这个黄河和运河的交接点之外，南北大运河已经大致上摆脱了黄河的影响，将南方数以百万担的漕粮源源不绝运送到北京，造就了清朝康雍乾盛世，以及江南的经济繁荣。但是黄河对运河的威胁仍然存在，1855年（咸丰五年）黄河决口改道，冲毁多处大运河的堤坝，再将大量的泥沙带入大运河，大运河这个“聚宝盆”遭到破坏。19世纪中叶以后，中国面临严重内忧外患，京杭大运河这条曾经的“南北大动脉”损毁严重直至被废弃，曾经承载的功能逐渐消失。近年来，大运河重新得到重视与保护。2022年4月28日，京杭大运河全线通水，这是百年来京杭大运河首次全线贯通，多处曾断流几十年的河段恢复了往日生机，再次润泽了两岸百姓。
（张瑞威，香港中文大学历史系系主任、教授）
The Grand Canal: carrying the Chinese culture for thousands of years
The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal starts from Yuhang (now Hangzhou) in the south and ends at Zhuojun (now Beijing) in the north. It is the longest canal in the world. It can be called a "living corridor of cultural heritage". Historically, the Grand Canal was the main artery connecting the north and south of China. Emperors inspected provinces by boats and commoners depended on the Canal for their livelihoods. Densely populated with scenic spots, the Great Canal made an enormous impact on the economic and cultural development and exchanges between the north and south of China. On 28 April 2022, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was navigable once again in a century. Having carried the Chinese culture for thousands of years, this ancient canal starts a new chapter of its history.
According to a Chinese proverb that was once popular, “the Yellow River is a prodigal son, the Grand Canal is an inexhaustible box of jewels to support the family". The Yellow River is a natural river. For thousands of years, it was the birthplace of Chinese civilization but also responsible for countless floods. The Grand Canal was a man-made river in the Ming and Qing dynasties. It supported the “golden age” of late imperial China.
The Sui as the first dynasty to build canals on a large scale
The administration of the large empire of China was not easy in a period without modern technology. The emperor understood that so long as the capital was stable, the empire would have a centre from which he could send reliable soldiers to handle local rebellions at any time. As such, the emperors of the Sui dynasty (581-619) stationed over 100,000 soldiers permanently in the capital, Daxing (Xi’an). However, this created a question of how these soldiers stationed at the capital and its surrounding areas (in addition to officials and imperial families) could be fed. Daxing was in Shaanxi where food production was low and would not be sufficient to feed the soldiers.
The Sui Dynasty government decided on a solution. They would use manual labour to create a river to connect the capital, Daxing, to the agriculturally fertile Jiangnan (regions south of the Yangtze River). They could then extract a steady stream of grain tax from Jiangnan to the capital. This was also what historians called “using Southeastern wealth to feed the Northwestern troops”. This grain shipped from the local areas to the capital became known as grain tribute.
However, constructing the canal was an enormous project. Apart from digging the course of the river, the government still had to build a separate channel to allow natural river water flow into the canal. Due to the huge scale of the project, the Sui Dynasty government could only build the canal in stages. Beginning the project from the beginning of the reign of the first Sui emperor (Emperor Wen of Sui, r. 581-604), it was only finished during the reign of the second Sui emperor (Emperor Yang of Sui, r. 604-618). This canal from Yuhang (Hangzhou) to Daxing ran through the Yangtze River and Huai River and arrived at Luoyang and Daxing on the Yellow River’s southern banks. Once the canal was built, Emperor Yang was extremely pleased. He reportedly declared that he had already toured the route from Daxing to Jiangdu (Yangzhou) on a dragon boat three times. Emperor Yang also used the canal to carry soldiers and supplies to support his wars. In 608, to support a military expedition to the Goryeo dynasty, he built another canal. This was the Yongji canal which passed through the Yellow River and flowed northwards to reach the North China Plain.
The Sui dynasty was the first in China to build a large-scale canal. Even though the Emperor Yang of Sui was always criticized by his contemporaries for causing the collapse of the Sui dynasty by wasting resources and labour, he had effectively demonstrated to later emperors on how canals could be used to support the unification of China.
Sea transportation of grain tribute in the Yuan dynasty
In 1279, Mongols wiped out the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279). Under the rule of Kublai Khan, the founding emperor of the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), Beijing became the capital of a unified China for the first time. Though the Mongols were nomadic tribes, like the Sui dynasty, Khan too had to resolve the same problem of how to feed his garrisoned troops at his capital.
Building a canal necessitated an enormous amount of manpower and resources. As an alternative, Kublai Khan decided to use coastal routes instead to bring rice from Jiangnan to Beijing. This was a brave pioneering attempt for the time. Though fishing along the Chinese coast began in the prehistoric era, the long coastal journey between the north and south was untraveled and unique. In 1282, the Yuan dynasty government recruited two active and experienced pirate captains in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang coastal regions, Zhu Qing and Zhang Xuan, to try shipping grain along the coastal route. The Yuan dynasty hoped to rely on their strong sailing experience to find the fastest grain transport route to the north. In the eighth lunar month that year, Zhu Qing and Zhang Xuan began their first trial voyage using sixty flat bottomed sand boats carrying a total of 46,000 piculs of white rice. They started from Liujia port in the Yangtze River delta and sailed northwards along the coast. But this first voyage from the south to the north was not smooth. When the crew arrived at the Shandong peninsula, it was winter and the surface of the sea began to freeze. The fleet could not continue until spring arrived and the ice thawed. In 1283, the fleet finally arrived at Tianjin’s coast. But, they discovered that the rivers in Tianjin were too shallow for their ships. The fleet would need to unload the grain at Tianjin and return south. This whole Northern expedition took around seven months. However, this pioneer journey allowed the sailors of the Yangtze delta to understand Northern Chinese coastal winds, and terrain. From then on, the coastal route became the main grain shipping route for the Yuan dynasty. By the end of the Yuan dynasty, over 3,000,000 piculs of grain were shipped each year from the Yangtze delta to the capital of Beijing using the coastal route.
Constructing a waterway between southern and northern China in the Ming
In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang who founded the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) established the capital in Yingtian prefecture (Nanjing). Though he went to a lot of trouble to build the city of Nanjing, he avoided the trouble of building a canal. Nanjing is located in the lower valley of the Yangtze river and was therefore a location combining the political and agricultural centres into one.
The beginning of the Grand Canal in late imperial China originated from the death of the founding Ming emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang died in 1398, his grandson Zhu Yunwen succeeded to the throne as the second Ming emperor, the Jianwen Emperor. He was immediately confronted by political problems, namely the threat of his uncles in charge of guarding the north. To consolidate his regime, the Jianwen Emperor ordered a removal of their positions, which led Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan based in Beiping (now Beijing), to rebel. Zhu Di declared that the Jianwen Emperor had been affected by evil counsellors, and rebelled. In 1402, Zhu Di conquered the capital of Nanjing. The reign of the Jianwen Emperor was over.
In 1402 Zhu Di became the new emperor of the Ming dynasty. He formally renamed Beiping as Beijing, literally meaning capital of the north, and repeatedly emphasized to his court councillors that the northern borders were unstable and needed him to safeguard. In 1406, he ordered the conscription of the labourers for renovating and enlarging the former capital of the Yuan dynasty. In 1409, the Yongle Emperor went on an imperial tour to the northern capital for the first time. In the same year, he returned to Nanjing. In 1413, the Yongle Emperor made his second northern tour. This time, he stayed in Beijing for three years and did not return to Nanjing until 1416. His intention to move the capital to Beijing was very clear. The Yongle Emperor did not move the capital for a long time because apart from rebuilding the palaces left by the Yuan dynasty, he also wanted to focus on building a Hangzhou to Beijing Grand Canal.
The Yongle Emperor, following Emperor Yang of the Sui, once again built a large-scale canal to improve transport between the capital and the rest of the China empire. He abandoned the Yuan Dynasty’s method of shipping grain by the coastal route. Japanese historian Hoshi Ayao suspected that this was to prevent the water transport from being attacked by pirates along the coast at the time. The reason for this was that from an administrative point of view, it was easier to supervise a canal than to supervise an ocean. However, the cost of building the canal and diverting water to fill it was far higher than the cost of shipping by sea.
The construction of the canal during the Yongle period can be divided into three parts. The first was building the middle section of the canal using the existing river channels, especially the Yellow River. In the second part, the Ministry of Works minister, Song Li, in Shandong conscripted 300,000 people to build a canal between Xuzhou (city beside the Yellow River) and Linqing in the north. It was named the Huitong Canal. The construction was completed in around 1412. In the third phase, at Huai’an, the Qingjiangpu Canal was built.
In 1415, the Yongle Emperor ordered Duke Chen Xuan to build 3,000 boats in Huguang (Hunan, Hubei), Jiangxi and other places, and bring a trial load of 3 million piculs of rice from the Yangtze delta to Beijing. However, Chen Xuan soon discovered when the ship reached Huai’an, they needed to travel by foot on a short road on land before they could reach the Yellow River. The ships were placed on rollers made of tree trunks and men and animals were used to move the ships along the road to the Yellow River. This method of transportation was obviously arduous, slow and costly. In response to this transportation problem, Chen Xuan ordered the construction of a short canal from Huai’an city to Qingkou, where it joined the Yellow River. This canal was called the Qingjiangpu Canal.
When the Huitong Canal and the Qingjiangpu Canal were completed, grain shipping fleets could finally sail from Hangzhou northwards to Tianjin. The Ming government built many granaries in Tianjin to receive rice from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and arranged vehicles to continuously transport the grain to Beijing. In 1417, the emperor once again toured the north. This time, he simply stayed in Beijing and did not return to the south. In 1420, the construction of the Beijing Palace was completed and the Yongle Emperor ordered the crown prince to move from Nanjing to Beijing. On Chinese New Year’s Day in 1421, the Yongle Emperor officially announced that Beijing would be the new principal capital (and Nanjing became the secondary capital).
The Yongle Emperor established the main waterway between the north and south of China for the Ming and Qing dynasties. Compared with land transportation, the shipping route was cheaper and could facilitate economic and cultural exchange between Jiangnan and Northern China. Though the Grand Canal was constructed for a political reason, over 7,000 junk ships sailed through the Grand Canal every year from spring to fall. Merchants also took the opportunity to transport goods. This provided a gigantic stimulus to the market development of coastal cities.
Grand Canal and the emergence of golden age in the Qing
After Yongle’s period, the policy of future improvements to the Grand Canal was mainly to keep it away from the Yellow River. At that time, the main part of the canal which used the Yellow River was the 300 Chinese mile section between Qingkou (the northern end of Qingjiangpu) to Xuzhou (the starting point of Huitong Canal’s south side). The Yellow River flowed down from the west, and the current was very strong. Near Xuzhou, the riverbed had many sharp rocks, creating whirlpools. Junk ships at this section of the Yellow River had to sail against the current and often capsized. As such, during the Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, the Chinese government had continuously to build canals, including New Nanyang Canal (1567), Jia Canal (1605), New Tongji Canal (1623) and the Zhong Canal (1686).
After almost three centuries of hard work, the 1,700-kilometre-long Grand Canal which spanned five provinces was finally completed. Apart from Qingkou, which was the junction between the Yellow River and the canal, the Grand Canal was completely free from the influence of the Yellow River. It sent millions of piculs of grain from the Yangtze provinces continuously to Beijing. This created a period of abundance and economic prosperity for the Yangtze delta and canal cities.
In 1855, the Yellow River burst and changed its course, which destroyed the dykes and dams of the Grand Canal and brought huge amounts of silt into it. The "inexhaustible box of jewels" was severely damaged. After the middle of the 19th century, while China faced serious internal and external pressures, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which used to be the “North-South Artery”, was damaged beyond repair and was abandoned. The Canal since then ceased to function and the Qing dynasty began to decline. In recent years, the Grand Canal has received attention and protection. On 28 April 2022, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was navigable again after having been abandoned for more than a century. Many sections which had been un-used for decades have regained their former vitality. The Grand Canal, once again, benefits the people living on both sides of the riverbanks.
（Author: Prof. Sui-Wai Cheung, Chair and Professor, Department of History, The Chinese University of Hong Kong）
来源：紫荆
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制作 曹宇
编校 延晨 徐蓉
一审 桂艳 张莉
二审 肖东 董明
三审 晖军正规股票配资平台
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