- Ximen Bao
Ximen Bao (西門豹) was an
ancient Chinese government minister and court advisor toMarquis Wen of Wei (文侯) (445 BC -396 BC ) during theWarring States (481 BC -221 BC ) period ofChina . He was known as an earlyrationalist , who had the State of Wei abolish by law the inhumane practice of sacrificing people to river deities.Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 271.] Although the earlier statesmanSunshu Ao is credited as China's firsthydraulic engineer (damming a river to create a largeirrigation reservoir ), Ximen Bao is nonetheless credited as the first engineer in China to create a largecanal irrigation system.Hydraulic engineering
Ximen Bao became well known in his lifetime and posthumously for his grandiose works in
hydraulic engineering during the 5th century BC. He organized a massive diversion of theZhang River (漳河), which had formerly flowed into theHuang He River atAnyang . The new course that the river took under his diversion project brought the river to meet the Huang He further down its course at a bend near modern-dayTianjin . The Zhang River rises in the mountains ofShanxi province, flowing southeastwards, and at the time added to the burden of overflow for the Huang He. Ultimately though, the purpose of this enormous project of engineering was to irrigate a largeagricultural region of Henei (in the left lower Huang He basin) by providing it with a natural contour canal.Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 371.]Work on the canal system began sometime between 403 BC and 387 BC, when Marquis Wen and his successor Marquis Wu reigned over the State of Wei. Due to several setbacks (including some temporary local resistance to
corvee labor service) it was not fully completed until a century later, during the time of Wen's grandson, King Xiang (襄王) (319 BC -296 BC ). It was during this time that the Wei engineerShi Chi completed the work of Ximen Bao.In honor of the Zhang River diversion project, the local populace made a popular song about it, as recorded in the historical work of the later
Han Dynasty historianBan Gu .ee also
*
Li Kui (legalism)
*Hydraulics
*Dykes
*Dams
*Canals Notes
References
*Needham, Joseph (1986). "Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Part 3". Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
External links
* [http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_26349.htm Ximen Bao at Chinaculture.org]
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