A map of Yanzhou (labelled as "Yen"), one of the Nine Provinces of Ancient China, c. 1110 BC. Yanzhou was bounded by the Ji River ("Chi R.") to the south, the Yellow River ("Ho") to the north, and the Bohai Sea to the east (the dotted line indicates the modern coastline).
The Ji River was a former river in north-eastern China which gave its name to the towns of Jiyuan and Jinan. In one of the massive Yellow River floods of 1852,the Yellow River shifted its course from below the Shandong Peninsula to north of it,taking over what was then the Ji River's main channel below Dongping Lake.
A map of China depicting the Yellow River's path between the floods of 1494 and those of the early 1850s
An 1808 map of Shandong depicts the Daqing and Xiaoqing Rivers. Both the Daqing and Xiaoqing channels were historically used by the Ji River. The Yellow River today follows the course of the Daqing River.
Imperial Complete Map of All under Heaven (皇朝一統輿地全圖),Li Zhaoluo,1832,also depicting the Daqing and Xiaoqing Rivers
The Ji River changed its precise course several times over the historical period before its disappearance.[3] Generally,it traced its course from an origin near Jiyuan[7] in what is now Henan Province through Shandong to the Bohai Sea.[8]
At some point,its flooding shifted the lower course of the Yellow River into a separate channel,while the Ji continued to occupy its earlier path. The two rivers ran parallel to one another under the Zhou,[10]Qin,and Han.[11]
Sima Qian lists the Ji among the rivers connected by the Honggou Canal ( t鴻溝,s鸿沟,Hónggōu,"Canal of the Wild Geese"),[16] whose remote antiquity caused him to place it next after the works of the legendary figure Yu the Great.[17] In fact,the Heshui Canal ( t荷水運河,s荷水运河,HéshuǐYùnhé) connecting the Ji to the Si was completed by soldiers under the command of King Fuchai of Wu in 483 and 482BC in order to improve their supply lines while at war with the northern states of Qi and Jin.[10] From the Si,the Ji River then had access to the Huai River,which connected to the new course of the Yellow River through the Hongguo Canal and with the Yangtze River through the Hangou Canal just completed by Fuchai's men in 486BC.[10]
Under the Zhou,the state of Qi was centered on the broad floodplain of the Ji.[8] It also used the "clear Ji" along with the "muddy Yellow River" as part of its borders with and defenses against the states of Yan and Zhao.[18] During antiquity,the river was a center of salt production.[3]
The river went dry during the Wei and Jin period (3rd–4th centuryAD).[7]
Through the Qing dynasty,the channel of the Ji River below Dongping Lake remained fed by its longtime tributary the Dawen River,and was known as the Daqing River.[19] During one of the massive Yellow River floods of 1852,[20] the Yellow River shifted its course from below the Shandong Peninsula to north of it. In the process,it assumed the course of the Daqing River.[19]
Legacy
The Ji River was the namesake of Jiyuan ("Source of the Ji") and Jinan ("South of the Ji").[7]
Lin Chuanjia (1920), 《大中华山东地理志》 [Dà Zhōnghuà Shāndōng Dìlǐ Zhì, Great Record of the Geography of Shandong, China], Beijing: Wuxue Shuguan. (in Chinese)
Miao Zhe, ed. (May 2013), "Jishui wenhua pian" 济水文化篇[Ji River Culture], Wenhua Jiyuan《文化济源》[Culture of Jiyuan], Government of Jiyuan City. (in Chinese)
Zhengzhang Shangfang (2003), 《上古音系》 [Shànggǔ Yīnxì, Old Chinese Phonology], Shanghai: Shanghai Educational Publishing. (in Chinese)
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