Yellow River's Record of Calling to Heaven

Author: Jing Min
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-02-01
Features: It has been argued since ancient times that "controlling the Yellow River is controlling the country." The Yellow River has been a persistent headache for rulers throughout history. From the pre-Qin period to the founding of the People's Republic of China, over 2,000 years, the Yellow River burst its banks more than 1,500 times, underwent 26 major course changes, and its floodwaters affected an area of over 250,000 square kilometers. Each breach and shift meant countless people perished or were displaced. As a result, the Yellow River became known as the "river of disaster" worldwide. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong personally advocated for the of the Yellow River, which largely reversed the "three gaps every two years" disaster situation. However, ecological imbalance had become deeply entrenched. In 1972, the Yellow River experienced its first drought, and in 1997, it suffered a flood season drought. The drought meant a loss of 10 million yuan per kilometer, and only in Shandong Province, the losses amounted to 13.5 billion yuan. A great river that nurtured Chinese civilization seemed to be nearing the end of its life. Based on years of interviews and field investigations along the river, the author has obtained firsthand materials, boldly exposing the missteps in the historical efforts to control the Yellow River. From the perspective of cultural history, the author questions the state of Chinese civilization, raising a warning and call for action regarding China's current ecological situation.